title: Addressing spiritual concerns in family medicine: a team approach.
abstract: Spiritual conflicts and concerns often accompany serious illness, but many family physicians are slow to recognize these concerns or unsure how to address them. The case of a patient with spinal cord injury and who later developed an astrocytoma is used to illustrate a team approach that involved a family physician, a spiritual counselor, and a psychologist. Narrative writing exercises in which the patient was encouraged to tell his own story also played a role in treatment. The case report includes the patient's own description of his experience with spirituality and spiritual counseling, as well as the perspectives of the spiritual counselor.
authors.affiliation: Department of Family Practice, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI 48824, USA. brody@msu.edu
authors.forename: Howard
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Brody
authors.forename: Jeffrey L
authors.initials: JL
authors.lastname: Cardinal
authors.forename: John P
authors.initials: JP
authors.lastname: Foglio
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D003376:Counseling; D003866:Depressive Disorder / Q000523:psychology / Q000628:therapy*; D005194:Family Practice; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000523:psychology; D010327:Pastoral Care; D010348:Patient Care Team; D013119:Spinal Cord Injuries / Q000523:psychology; D029181:Spirituality