Christian Worldview Concepts

Church Based Medicine

Service Delivery Model

The model of delivery is a framework that combines elements of established medical missions with traditional church outreach and body life efforts. We must attempt to understand and address needs holistically within the context of the biblical pattern for marriage and family, community involvement and the church's mission. Local churches cannot persist in attempting to impact a given community while operating apart from the on-going, daily lives of people living in that community.

In particular, Christian health care professionals, services and technology will be linked with the resources of the local church and empowered by the Holy Spirit through prayer and obedience in order to transform the lives of the individuals. The goal is not to be just another service provider among others, but to provide a distinctively God-honoring type of care. To accomplish this requires more than a commitment to perpetuating certain Christian platitudes. It requires a pursuit of excellence in all that is done. An integrated "holistic" system of congregational medicine should develop a continuum of care that will respond to a diversity of needs, including:

• Disease, injury and illness prevention
• Health education and wellness promotion
• Spiritual wellness
• Community-oriented, Christ-centered primary care, including family practice, prenatal and maternal health, pediatrics, women's health and geriatric care
• Chronic disease management
• Elder care
• Assisted living
• Respite and hospice care

The continuum of care incorporates the following components in the delivery model:

• Outreach education, wellness promotion and screening efforts
• Recruitment and specialized training of medical professionals for congregational ministry
• Commitment to creating accessible ambulatory care settings
• Ancillary services provided through outsourcing, e.g., laboratory diagnostics, x-ray.
• Social services and biblical counseling
• Acute care transfer agreements with local hospitals
• Home health care access
• Assisted living programs
• Local church-based hospice and respite assistance
• Long term care facilities (by referral)

In order to provide true access, services may be taken directly to the person, perhaps in the form of home health care. Many services can be provided within the existing facilities of a local church. The focus of the interdisciplinary team must be to maximize services to the recipients, eliminating duplication and coordinating care in a manner that treats the entire family. Case management focuses not only on the patient but on his or her family; not only on physical symptoms but spiritual, psychosocial and familial symptoms as well. This delivery model recognizes that families are usually the major caregivers, therefore providers must be skilled at mobilizing the patient's and family's resources when needs arise. This is both biblical and prudential.

Individuals and families must be moved from being passive recipients of services to active participants, even members of a collaborative team, in serving the needs of a particular individual or family. In this sense, this is a comprehensive, collaborative model for care that includes professional health professionals, social workers, biblical counselors, pastors, Christian laypeople and family members.

Since a growing body of medical literature affirms the link between religious faith and wellness, Christians are in a unique position to implement a delivery model that recognizes spirituality as an important component in holistic care. We must address not only the problems people experience, but we must also lead them to understand how one's relationship with God can have physical implications (1 Corinthians 11:27-32). Spirituality must be fully integrated into clinical practice, both for the health of caregivers as well as the persons receiving care. Spiritual despair or apathy is viewed as a contributing factor to disease. Root causes of illness and injury can and must be addressed from the platform of faith in Jesus Christ.