Resources on Coping

"According to a national Gallup survey, nearly 80 percent of Americans say that the statement 'I receive a great deal of comfort and support from my religious beliefs' is completely or mostly true (especially persons over age sixty-five, 87% of whom give this response). A random survey of the U.S. population one week after the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001, published in the New England Journal of Medicine, found that 90 percent of Americans turned to religion in order to cope with the stress of these events. Likewise, in certain parts of the United States, over 90 percent of medical patients report that religious beliefs and practices are ways that they cope with and make sense of physical illness, and over 40 percent indicate that religion is the most important factor that keeps them going. Research shows that religious coping is widespread in patients with chronic illnesses such as heart disease, arthritis, kidney disease, cystic fibrosis, diabetes, cancer, gynecologic cancer, HIV/AIDS, chronic pain, and terminal illness, and in nursing home patients and dementia caregivers."

—From Spirituality in Patient Care, 2nd edition by Harold G. Koenig, M.D.

Questions

• What exactly is religious coping?

• How can health care providers address the spiritual needs of their patients suffering from chronic illnesses facing the prospect of living the rest of their lives in pain?

• In the aftermath of profound tragedies or disasters, how might religion help survivors?

• When a health care provider's spiritual life is shaken, how might it affect his/her patient interactions in a clinical setting?

• What are the responsibilities of a health care practitioner after the death of a patient?