Vedic /Hindu ChaplaincyMasters Program

Health care services according to Vedic/Hindu religious traditions

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Welcome to this presentation proposing an education plan to

deliver Vedic Traditions Model for

Global Universal Health Care Education- Services-Research.

(This is distinct and more than what Yoga- Ayurvedaschools are doing right now and are heading towards).

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Vedic Health care system /Education is

Deliverance of the health care- services as envisioned and practiced in Vedic Tradition.

Vedic/Hindu Chaplain is the End product.Health (Svaasthya,Arogya) is the common platform where

religion and medicine make their handshake.

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Vedic Chaplain is an Integration of

- Professional of Physical Health care in hospital /beyond (in nursing)

- Professional of Spiritual health care- Professional CounselorThis is a profession beyond the frame of a

Temple Priest. The Closest word that one can think of for

this is ‘Medicine Man’ from early societies.

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A Vedic /Hindu Chaplain is a Chaplain who meets the expectations of health care industry requirements from

Vedic/Hindu Traditions standards.

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Distinction between Vedic Ritualist – Vedic Therapist (Hindu Chaplin).

(Priest / Yogi /Guru) ( seen as the Medicine Man). Recognize the difference

TRAININGPurposeSCOPE Differs

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Educational Training needs of a Chaplain to address the needs of audience.

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Audience Addressed • Asian Indian Population in USA – (2,319,000 in 2005)

– American Community Survey of the U.S. Census Bureau .

• 41,000 Indian American Doctors – American Association of Physicians of Indian Origin/ The Indian American Centre for Political Awareness.

• Indian Americans who are a productive segment of the American population, with 72.3% participating in the U.S. work force, of which 57.7% are employed in managerial and professional specialties.

• Growing number of American society, seeking Yoga- Ayur-veda – Mediation based health care

• Aging seniors , Families ,Next Generation, Floating Indians, Diasporas.

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Goal of Medicine An ideal goal of medicine should be to maintain a healthy, happy and spiritual life, which leads to :•Prevention of diseases•Arrest of Progression•Cure•Enhancement of Quality of Life•Maintenance of a healthy body

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Do Hindus Know- how to articulate their health care needs according to their religious

and spiritual traditions?- how to integrate the spiritual care in

the atmosphere beyond modern hospital? In places like hospice?

School, Prison? • The answer is NOT at the current time!• While Other religions are having a good hand shake and exporting their

model of health care globally with roots in USA, Hindu traditions are just passive consumers of this service!

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Global Health Care Services Standards and Practices

Authenticated by Vedic Hindu Traditions• In the current scenario, Vedic Hindu traditions have done

well in presenting the spiritual care giving through temples, Ashram –Meditation models, beyond the hospital centered main stream system.

• This program addresses this vital area of handshake of modern health care and vedic Hindu health care systems, through educational programs and integrate the spiritual, pastoral, chaplaincy and medical care.

• The successful development of this model can find a primary market in India and at all places where Hindus are present.

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Why this course? • This is a Masters/ Doctoral degree Program in Hindu

studies.• Vedic health care –Religious Therapeutics theory

and Practical’s ( direct and through collaboration with temples /practicing priests, Affiliated institutions)

• Ayur-vedic Care and Recommendations need to be integrated.

• Yoga Care and Guidance needs to be integrated• Astrology Care and Consultancy need to be

integrated.• Alternate health care/CAM needs to be properly

understood and validated.

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Overall Program Design• The program is targeted to train the student to

deliver the ‘healing utility value of vedic traditions to the society and families at large, beyond ‘temple-ritual – academic philosophy’.

• The program is a handshake between Vedic health care system and Modern health care at hospitals + Pastoral care at hospitals/hospice + Nursing in pre and post operative care + Spiritual care.

• The program intends to integrate several dimensions of health care within the umbrella of Vedic Hindu traditions and revive the integrated approach in service.

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Issues- Areas of Care Covered by the Courses in the Master program

Vedic Traditions

Family Advise Pastoral / Religious

Spiritual Care

Physical Nursing

Health

This is standard Nursing program, which has a direct potential of employment. This is some times called Physician Assistant position also.

Chaplaincy Program component. Interdisciplinary, Multi faith approach, community interaction, various contexts like school, prison, drug correction, trauma Psychotherapy

Bio ethics

Para-legal issues

Other healing systems

Veda, Ayruveda, Yoga, Principles and Practices,

Religious language/Sanskrit

Meditation,

Medical Astrology

Spiritual Care And Ritual care

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Proposed Credits distribution in the program

Vedic Traditions

Family Advise Pastoral / Religious

Spiritual Care

Physical Nursing

Health

6 credits

7 credits

6 credits

5 credits

12 credits

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Academic Accreditation Agency

• STANDARDS FOR CHAPLAINCY DEPARTMENTS

The Commission on Accreditation of Pastoral Services (CCAPS) has established complete standards for the effective delivery of pastoral services in institutional settings. CCAPS provides national consultation, evaluation, and accreditation of institutions for their delivery of pastoral services. Review of these standards will help establish goals for new departments as well as help established departments learn where they might strengthen their service. Visit the CCAPS web site to learn about the process of accreditation as well as review the complete standards.

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Vedic Hindu Chaplaincy program Relevance of this program for US audience

Language of current Medical care-CAM approach

• Whole Medical Systems: • Mind-Body Medicines: • Biologically Based Practices:• Manipulative and Body Based Practices: • Energy Medicine:• Holistic Medicine / Integral Medicine

/Religious Therapeutics

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CAM = complementary alternative medicine• Whole Medical Systems: homeopathic medicine,

naturopathic medicine, traditional Chinese medicine, and Ayurveda.

• Mind-Body Medicines: techniques designed to enhance mind’s capacity to affect bodily functions and symptoms, e.g., aromatherapy, cognitive therapy, dance, healing touch, hypnosis,meditation, music and art, prayer, relaxation, sleep promotion, support groups, visualization/imagery, and yoga etc.

• Biologically Based Practices: dietary supplements, herbal products, shark cartilage etc.

• Manipulative and Body Based Practices: acupressure, acupuncture, chiropractic, dance, exercise, massage, osteopathic manipulation.

• Energy Medicine: therapies that involve energy fields, e.g., Qi gong, Reiki, Therapeutic Touch, and unconventional magnetic fields, alternating-current or direct-current fields

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Contemporary use of CAMStudies Results

Ernst E1 ~50% (General population of developed countries)

NCCAM 2 ~36% (American used CAM in 12 months of 2002, including Yoga, meditation, herbal treatments and Atkins diet.)

~62% (if prayer is included in above modalities)

Astin3 ~40% (American used CAM)

British survey by BBC ~20% (1209 adults surveyed in 1998)

Eisenberg et al.4 ~33.8% (1990)

~42.1% (1997)

1. Ernst E. Obstacles to research in complementary and alternative medicine. Med J Australia. 179: 279-80, 2003.2. Barnes PM et al. complementary and Alternative Medicine Use Among Adults 2002”. National Center for Health Statistics,

2004.3. Astin JA. Why patients use alternative medicine: results of a national study. JAMA 279: 1548-1553, 1998.4. Eisenberg DM et al. Trends in alternative medicine use in the United States 1990-1997. JAMA280: 1569-1575, 1998.

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Economic Impact of CAM*

1990 1997

Visits to CAM Practitioners (in Millions) 427.1 628.8

Total expenditure on professional service

(Billions of Dollars) 14.6 21.2

Out-of-pocket expenditurs(Billions of Dollars) 9.4 17.2*These figures are estimates based on nationally representative random household surveys. Eisenberg et. al., JAMA 280:1569-1575, 1998

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Percent US Medical Schools that use some kind of CAM Education

85%585Nursing

95%19Osteopathy Schools

60 %125Medical Schools

% Institutes using CAM

Number of Institutes

Medical-education Institutes

Wetzel et al. JAMA 280: 784, 1998; Saxon et al. J Am Osteopath Assoc 9: 62, 2003; Fenton and Morris. Altern Ther Health Med 104: 121, 2004.

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Number of Citations on Different Databases (June 11, 2007)

5326392,052Y or M & Therapy122521,786Y or M & Complementary Med761081,794Y or M & Alternative Med349394Y or M & Cardiovascular Dis312739Y or M & HIV252637Y or M & AIDS

101100119Y or M & Cancer

1,6042,1722,104Y or M

9241,4031,336Meditation (M)

787959960Yoga (Y)CINHAL

OvidPubMedKey words

Google is a general databasePubMed and Ovid (MEDLINE) provide authoritative medical information on medicine, nursing, dentistry, veterinary medicine, the health care system, pre-clinical sciences, and much more. It was created by the National Library of Medicine and searches citations from over 4,800 current biomedical

journals. CINAHL provides indexing for 3,123 journals from the fields of nursing and allied health, with indexing back to 1937.

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Salient Features of Yoga and Meditation as Therapeutic tools-1

NON CHEMICAL HEALING SYSTEMS• Holistic in nature • They are cost effective.• Non-toxic, non-pervasive and non-

pharmacological and therefore can be used during pregnancy and lactation.

• They can be used for prevention, progression arrest and cure of diseases and for improving quality of life during and post treatment.

• They serve as an alternative and/or complementary to other modalities of treatments

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Citations in Medical Journals on Yoga and Meditation

658

165116

202

397

050

100150200250300350400450

1950-1959

1960-1969

1970-1979

1980-1989

1990-1999

2000-

Period

Num

ber o

f Cita

tions

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Third Eye - Pineal Gland Panacea for all diseases –Research ?? Meditation / Alpha waves et al

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Criticisms of CAM in General•CAM practitioners may not have an accredited

medical degree and license•Incompatibility with the known laws of physics- e.g.

homeopathy•Observers’ bias and poor study design•Lack of knowledge of mechanisms of action•Dubious therapies can cause death, serious injuries,

unnecessary suffering and disfigurement•Danger from undesired side effects•Some CAM interventions are not properly regulated

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V-H Chaplaincy program Addresses CAM Recommendations

• Specify the techniques and approach used and their rationale in a particular trial (in modern pharmacological terms- dose, formulation and method of

delivery depending on the age, physical condition and diseases and the need of the patient).

• Specify expected outcome.• Determine physiologically and biologically based mechanism for interventions’ effect.•Record the duration of the interaction effect.•The classes should be taught by educated yoga instructors who

have some knowledge of a particular disease and understand the unique need of this population.

• Educate the medical practitioners, patients and caregivers.• Produce trained teachers.• Work to introduce courses in medical schools’ curriculum.

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Areas of handshake -impact• Medical Nursing program component• Field survey-service support component• CPE issues - accreditation• Psychotherapy –field work • Hospice –Health care – Field work• Insurance - Formalities• Funding – community support, grants ?• Collaborations with other schools already

running similar programs• Special Courses for the Program

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• This presentation is still in its first phase and needs further inputs from all of you to go to the next step.

• All suggestions are welcome.

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ThanksDhanyavadah