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Updated: May 9, 2026

Using Visual and Narrative Methods to Achieve Fair Process in Clinical Care
Published on: February 16, 2011
Building a new life: a chaplain's theory based case study of chronic illness
1Bishop Anderson House, Chicago, Illinois 60612-3833, USA. james_l_risk@rush.edu
Abstract:
This article presents the case study of spiritual care for a patient suffering from Parkinson's disease who was referred to the chaplain in an out-patient depression research program. The chaplain's interventions were informed by an application of narrative theory, and the article demonstrates how this theory enabled the chaplain to help a patient develop new coping strategies for dealing with chronic disease. Using narrative theory, the chaplain assisted the patient to develop a new sense of identity as a spiritual, contingent self as the disease eroded his physical self and former life. The article includes a description of a patient's spiritual needs, chaplain interventions, and an outcomes measure of those interventions. The author argues that narrative theory provides chaplains with a language to identify and craft the unique intervention that spiritual care has in the life trajectory of this Parkinson's patient and other patients dealing with chronic illnesses.
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