ITP and Stanford work together to meet the needs of chronic disease patients, families and caregivers
Institute of Transpersonal Psychology and Stanford Medical School Combine Expertise
to Meet Needs of Chronic Disease Patients, Families and Caregivers
Palo Alto, CA -------- The Institute of Transpersonal Psychology and the Center for Education in Family and Community Medicine at Stanford University announce a collaborative project to provide counseling services to people affected by cystic fibrosis.
This collaboration has been made possible by a two-year grant from the Peter Judge Memorial Training Program. Its primary goals include developing a program that responds to the psychosocial and spiritual needs of cystic fibrosis patients, their families, and caregivers and engaging students from ITP and Stanford in opportunities to serve and learn from the cystic fibrosis community.
Patients will be referred for counseling by Stanford Medical staff, and Cystic Fibrosis Research, Inc, a Bay Area CF organization and national leader. Therapy sessions will be facilitated by graduate interns from the ITP Transpersonal Counseling Center.
ITP President Dr. Thomas Potterfield says, "We are proud to be a partner in this groundbreaking project in integral medicine. Understanding the psychosocial as well as physical dimensions of chronic disease is of utmost importance in caring for patients, their families and even long term caregivers. We look forward to this collaboration between ITP and Stanford as the beginning of an ongoing series of projects that combine the unique strengths of both institutions."
According to Art Johnson, Academic Research and Program Officer at Stanford and co-administrator of the Peter Judge Memorial Training Program, "The nature of cystic fibrosis is such that the person has a problem eliminating mucus from the body's systems. The lungs fill with mucus and it feels like one is trying to breathe through a straw. Almost all of the organs can be affected."
Johnson adds that since cystic fibrosis is hereditary, guilt is one of the psychosocial issues with which the ITP counselors will be working as they address the needs of the members of a patient's family.
He continues by stating that, "Cystic fibrosis can really isolate people. Patients need to deal with their anger, frustration, depression, and loneliness. Every time they experience a drop in functioning, there is yet another round of grief. This counseling program and other efforts will look for ways to bring the cystic fibrosis community members closer to one another. This is part of what we hope will be a bigger initiative with ITP, that will expand into specialized counseling for people impacted by other chronic diseases. A large part of dealing with chronic diseases is addressing the psychosocial issues and behavior change."
