abstract: Religion, Spirituality, and Cancer: The Question of Individual Empowerment

Religion, Spirituality, and Cancer: The Question of Individual Empowerment:

It has often been noted that people with a severe illness endeavor to deepen their religious and spiritual practice and knowledge. It is generally accepted that spiritual and religious factors help sick people confront their suffering. The authors conducted a qualitative research on the role of religious and spiritual practices and knowledge among 10 cancer patients in Québec, Canada. Individual interviews focused on their illness experience confirmed that religion and spirituality can be present and contribute to coping when life is threatened. More precisely, the analyses of the place and use of these resources during the patient’s illness showed that these resources contributed to an individual empowerment process that was undertaken in response to a biographic and existential disruption induced by the illness diagnosis. The sick people took advantage of religious and spiritual content in their quest for meaning and a cure, progressing from a stage of despair and powerlessness to a stage of hope, a critical analysis of the disease, and a better management and control of it and its evolution. This article describes how people suffering from cancer use and participate in religious and spiritual content. It demonstrates the contribution of this content to an individual empowerment process. The use of religion and spirituality constitutes a quest for self-mastery, an acquiring of power and control. We understand that religious and spiritual phenomena do not always prevent people from fighting against their suffering, limit their freedom, or systematically reduce people’s viewpoints and worldviews.

full free access: Preparing for a Consumer-Driven Genomic Age Health Policy and Reform

"Advances in genomic technologies permit the simultaneous analysis of millions of variants across the genome and may soon allow for meaningful estimation of one’s risks of developing cancer, diabetes, and other common diseases. These advances are converging with the movement toward consumer-driven health care and patient empowerment. Whereas in the past, medical testing was firmly under the control of medical practitioners, genomic information is now increasingly available outside traditional medical settings. Patients are no longer subordinate, passive recipients of physician-initiated genetic testing; rather, patients can instigate their own testing and often know more than their clinicians about particular genetic topics. Indeed, health care providers are increasingly bypassed altogether, as patients embrace direct-to-consumer (DTC) genetic tests and turn to social networks for help in interpreting their results. In the future, a primary role of health care professionals may be to interpret patients’ DTC genetic test results and advise them about appropriate follow-up. How can we maximize the benefits of these new developments and minimize the harms? How can we encourage patients’ involvement and autonomy yet establish appropriate safeguards while avoiding inappropriate paternalism? How do we promote the understanding that interpretations of genomic information may evolve as research unravels the meaning of gene–gene and gene–environment interactions and the roles of noncoding DNA sequences, copy-number variants, epigenetic mechanisms, and behavioral factors in health and disease?..."cont'd

Healthcare Events UK (London): Patient Involvement and Empowerment May 2010

Empowerment The relation between patient-centeredness and patient empowerment: A discussion on concepts