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Introduction1
Many workshops held by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine’s (the National Academies’) Roundtable on Population Health Improvement have showcased examples of how faith-based organizations (particularly hospitals and health systems, but also faith-based community organizations) contribute to population health. The roundtable saw the need to hold a workshop focused on collaboration between the faith and health sectors, and to highlight the unique opportunities these collaborations offer to help improve population health outcomes. However, the roundtable did not set out to explore such aspects of the relationship between faith and health as the efficacy of prayer, or of congregation-based health interventions. Nor was the workshop on faith–health collaboration intended to examine the roles of faith-based hospitals and health systems (that are largely part of the health care sector), but rather the unique contributions of communities of spirit, such as congregations or faith-based networks.
The workshop was held on March 22, 2018, in Boyd Chapel on the campus of Shaw University in Raleigh, North Carolina. Johnny Hill, dean
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1 This workshop was organized by an independent planning committee whose role was limited to identification of topics and speakers. This proceedings was prepared by the rapporteur as a factual summary of the presentations and discussions that took place at the workshop. Statements, recommendations, and opinions expressed are those of individual presenters and participants and are not necessarily endorsed or verified by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine; the Health and Medicine Division; or the roundtable, and they should not be construed as reflecting any group consensus.
of the School of Divinity at Shaw, welcomed participants and highlighted Shaw’s proud heritage of seeking health and wholeness in both body and soul. He noted that Shaw’s medical school was the first in the nation to offer a 4-year medical curriculum. Paulette Dillard, interim president of Shaw University, expanded on the history of Shaw to set the backdrop for a discussion of collaboration between faith organizations and the health sector. She shared the story of how, after the end of the Civil War, Union soldier and Chaplain Henry Martin Tupper traveled to Raleigh and founded what is now Shaw University, with the intent of teaching formerly enslaved people to read and interpret the Bible. As the first historically Black university in the Southern United States, Shaw enrolled both men and women,2 and Dillard noted that women had access to the full curriculum, not just home economics. Formerly enslaved people in the South faced particular challenges accessing services such as medical care. To address this need, in 1880 Tupper established Leonard Medical School,3 which educated African American physicians for nearly 40 years. Shaw graduates went on to found other historically Black colleges and universities in the state of North Carolina, and carried on the work of championing “those who need someone to stand in the gap for them,” Dillard said. More recently, in 2009, Shaw’s Institute for Health, Social, and Community Research was awarded a grant from the National Institutes of Health to study health disparities in the state of North Carolina. Dillard pointed out that the university is geographically situated between areas of booming economic growth and the poorest zip code in Wake County. Shaw has an opportunity to stand in the gap not only for Raleigh, but for the nation, and to call to consciousness the needs of the community as a whole, she said, especially those who are disenfranchised.
WORKSHOP OBJECTIVES
To introduce the Roundtable on Population Health Improvement and its work, Sanne Magnan, senior fellow at HealthPartners Institute, stated that the group holds workshops for members, stakeholders, and the public to discuss issues of importance for improving the nation’s health. The roundtable’s vision is of a strong, healthful, and productive society that cultivates human capital and equal opportunity. This vision rests on the recognition that outcomes such as improved life expectancy, quality of life, and health for all are shaped by interdependent social, economic, environmental, genetic, behavioral, and health care factors, and that achiev-
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2 Shaw University was the first historically Black university in the South to enroll women.
3 Dr. Dillard later stated that Leonard Medical School was established in 1881 rather than 1880.
ing these outcomes will require robust national and community-based policies and dependable resources. The roundtable considers multisector partnership to be a vehicle by which to achieve this vision and improve population health.
Magnan observed that faith-based assets are often overlooked when identifying sectors to partner with in communities. Faith-based assets are often the roots in a community, she said, and roots are often invisible until they are made visible. The topic of faith–health is enormously broad, Magnan acknowledged, and there are many worthy subtopics that the roundtable could consider. This workshop was intended to explore collaboration between community faith entities and health sector entities, and to highlight effective practices that can improve population health. She clarified that the workshop was not intended to explore the relationship between individual spirituality and health, and it would also not consider how health care entities can undertake specific components of spiritual practice, or how religious congregations can take steps to improve the health status of their members.
The agenda for this workshop was developed by an independent planning committee that was chaired by Gary Gunderson and included Terry Allan, Muhammad Babar, Heidi Christensen, Barbara Holmes, Sanne Magnan, and Prabhjot Singh. (The planning committee’s Statement of Task is provided in Box 1-1.) The workshop was designed to meet the following objectives:
- Showcase examples of effective collaboration between faith-based (or religious) health assets,4 including organizations and social structures such as congregations and religious community service networks, and the health sector, such as governmental public health agencies, hospitals, and health systems;
- Explore opportunities and challenges in helping faith–health collaborations come together and thrive (e.g., building trust, creating a space where collaboration can occur when needed and appropriate);
- Discuss how faith–health collaboration can build common ground for public policy; and
- Highlight how “scientific wisdom” can work alongside or in concert with “faith wisdom” to achieve improved health outcomes and develop community capacity.
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4 For the purposes of this workshop, the planning committee used the term “faith-based health assets.” Note that in the international context, the term “religious health assets” is more frequently used. Other similar terms are used in the peer-reviewed and grey literature (e.g., organizations and interventions have been described as faith-based, faith-inspired, faith-oriented, faith-placed, and other variations).
ORGANIZATION OF THE WORKSHOP AND PROCEEDINGS
The first session of the workshop set the context for the discussions, with a keynote presentation by Prabhjot Singh offering his perspective on the foundations of faith–health collaboration (Chapter 2). This was followed by three panel sessions that considered the roles of faith–health collaboration in addressing the social determinants of health and improving community health (Chapter 3), in building common ground for public health policy (Chapter 4), and in addressing public health priorities (Chapter 5). During the lunch break, a moderated Twitter chat kept the conversation flowing.5 The workshop concluded with an interactive participant exercise designed to draw out important principles and lessons learned from the workshop discussions (Chapter 6 and Appendix B), followed by observations and reflections shared by the roundtable members, speakers, and participants (Chapter 6).
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5 The PopHealthRT Twitter discussion that took place on March 22, 2018, in association with the workshop can be viewed at https://twitter.com/hashtag/pophealthrt (accessed May 29, 2019).