Time Magazine has rightfully named all of the men and women fighting Ebola as “Person of the Year.” In every battle, those underdogs who win are often the ones who have found a way, even amid insurmountable odds, to make the fight more fair. Ebola is no different. Amid the calls for a larger Western response that funds and sends medical staff, equipment, and drugs, it’s clear that something more is needed to level the battle field. Perhaps that something is mental, rather than physical. Continue Reading
Spiritual Care: Cracking Mental Health’s “Incurable” Barrier
The state of Virginia is mobilizing to improve the delivery of mental health services. At the same time, and much more quietly, a new model of treatment is emerging among the field's professional ranks—the model of spiritual care. Consider: Before the year 2000, spiritual care was not generally considered proven or scientific, though a few studies suggested some potential. Since 2000, a surge of major studies have concluded that some form of spiritual care is definitely an effective Continue Reading
Re-thinking Science?
We thought we knew what “science” meant. Until 2013, that is. Last year, “science” was the word with the greatest increase in lookups in Merriam-Webster.com—a 176% increase over 2012, in fact. And it remained a top lookup throughout 2013. It's not a new word, so why the sudden interest? Perhaps it's because, as Merriam-Webster's Editor-at-Large, Peter Sokolowski suggests, “A wide variety of discussions centered on science this year, from climate change to educational policy. We saw heated Continue Reading