176897 Spiritual Calling: Achieving Optimal Health through Faithful Action

Monday, October 27, 2008: 3:00 PM

C. Shannon Griffin-Blake, PhD , Division of Adult and Community Health, Centers for Disease Control & Prevention, Atlanta, GA
Amanda M. Navarro, DrPH, MPH , Division of Adult and Community Health, NCCDPHP, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, GA
Pattie Tucker, DrPH, RN , Division of Adult & Community Health, Centers for Disease Control & Prevention, Atlanta, GA
Faith-based institutions (FBIs) play a central role in defining belief systems and values associated with personal and lifestyle choices. FBIs (e.g., churches) are centerpieces of local communities and have provided stable, supportive environments where major social change has spawned. They serve as key venues for not only assessing and addressing individual behaviors and social norms but also translating and disseminating health messages. FBIs have been able to apply health promotion into their mission and related activities; however, little has been documented on strategies for intersecting health and spiritual messages to specifically address health disparities. This presentation will describe qualitative evaluation findings of a Racial and Ethnic Approaches to Community Health (REACH) 2010 program that utilized FBIs as salient outlets for translating health messages into spiritual callings as well as promoting optimal health through faithful action. By translating health messages into spiritual ones, these FBIs have achieved individual behavior and policy changes within their African American and Latino congregations to address disparities within diabetes.

Learning Objectives:
1. Describe faith-based institutions' unique role within local communities in defining belief systems and values associated with personal and lifestyle choices. 2. List three health messages faith-based institutions have incorporated into their spiritual callings. 3. Identify individual behaviors and policy changes that can be achieved within faith-based institutions.

Keywords: Faith Community, Community-Based Health Promotion

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Qualified on the content I am responsible for because: I provided technical assistance for this project as well as assisted with analysis of qualitative data.
Any relevant financial relationships? No

I agree to comply with the American Public Health Association Conflict of Interest and Commercial Support Guidelines, and to disclose to the participants any off-label or experimental uses of a commercial product or service discussed in my presentation.