Commonweal The first program area is the support of a socially just and ecologically
sustainable future. Programs in this area include the Commonweal Sustainable
Futures Project founded in 1990 which supports the emergence of a global
network of NGO's working for a sustainable future and the Health Care
Without Harm Project which with Commonweal's support has organized a
worldwide response to the threat of dioxin pollution and endocrine disruptor
toxicity. The second of Commonweal's initiatives is the support of at-risk children
and young people and the professionals that serve them. Programs in this
area include: Commonweal's third initiative offers programs in healthcare innovation
and reform. These programs include: Institute for the Study
of Health and Illness The Healer's Art
Commonweal, founded in 1976, is a non-profit health and environmental
research institute located on a 60-acre piece of the California coast one
hour north of San Francisco. Commonweal has three major initiatives.
The Commonweal Children's Program which designs and implements innovative
services to children and youth who are experiencing learning or social difficulties
in their families, schools and communities;
The Commonweal Children's Program Training Institute which trains
professionals in these new techniques and approaches;
The Commonweal Juvenile Justice Program, a program of governmental
reform founded in 1980 in response to dismal conditions of young people
in the juvenile justice system.
The Commonweal Cancer Help Retreat, co-founded by Rachel Naomi Remen,
M.D. and featured in the 1993 groundbreaking Bill Moyers PBS series Healing
and the Mind. Since it's beginnings in 1985, this program has offered more
than 100 week-long residential retreats for people with cancer, their friends
and families;
The Institute for the Study of Health and Illness, Commonweal's medical
reform through education project founded by Rachel Naomi Remen, M.D. in
1991 The Institute's educational programs serve practicing physicians, medical
students and medical educators.
Since 1991, Institute For The Study Of Health And Illness (ISHI)
has been offering programs for physicians who wish to strengthen the sense
of compassionate service that originally called them to medicine and explore
in depth the meaning of their work. The Institute also runs The
Healer's Art, a winter quarter course for first-year medical students
at UCSF which has been replicated at medical schools throughout the country. The Institute's
new program, Finding Meaning Discussion Groups has established a widely disseminated network of
self-directed story-telling groups for health professionals wishing to explore the
core experiences and values of the practice of medicine and deepen their
commitment to service.
The Healer's Art is a highly innovative three month elective
course which enables service oriented medical students to preserve their
sense of meaning and calling and bring their full humanity to their work.
Like all of ISHI's programs The Healer's Art is a discovery model which
integrates small group discussion of personal and professional experience
with experiential learning, reflection contemplation and didactic teaching.
The course was featured in U.S News & World Report's special issue Best
Graduate Schools 2001 and for the past ten years has been one of the
most popular electives at the UCSF School of Medicine. ISHI has developed
ways to enable others to successfully replicate this elective at their medical
schools and welcomes inquiries from interested faculty and students.
Finding Meaning Discussion Groups
More and more, physicians and other health professionals are looking for ways to connect with one another and find their place of truth in the changing arena of medicine. To meet this need, ISHI has been helping clinicians initiate Finding Meaning groups - Finding Meaning in Medicine for Physicians, Finding Meaning in Nursing for Nurses, and Finding Meaning in Service for other Healthcare Professionals - throughout the country and around the world. These ongoing, no-cost monthly meetings are a place where colleagues enter into meaningful dialogue on a chosen topic related to the fundamental experience of doctoring, nursing and healthcare - topics such as grief, grace, healing, courage, mystery, intimacy, service and other similar subjects. Each person contributes a story on the topic drawn from their own healthcare practice - or reads a poem or a piece from world literature on the meeting topic.
These discussions are circles of exploration, discovery and sharing. Uncovering meaning is antecedent to finding deeper satisfaction in service work. Over time, the dialogue within a supportive community of colleagues can have the positive effect of deepening each person's heart connection to their day-to-day work and to their patients, as well as to their connection to the lineage of medicine and healing. Find more information on the ISHI website.
Remembering the Heart of Medicine
Creating a Worldwide Community of Doctors Who Bring Heart to Medicine: ISHI's new online community website for physicians, Remembering the Heart of Medicine arose out of an ongoing long-term conversation between the many doctors who have attended ISHI's programs over the past 20+ years. Physicians have shared with us their unmet needs, their dreams and hopes, their ongoing struggle to remain whole and committed to their work, their feeling of aloneness and their love of medicine. It is our hope that this website will offer any physician anywhere in the world an oasis of renewal where they can re-connect to their hearts and remember the deep meaning of their work, despite the stresses and pressures inherent in today's health care system. As reported by a physician in a recent survey, "I go to the site when I need support, when I have had a particularly difficult period at work, when I need to remember why I am doing this." Please visit the new Remembering the Heart of Medicine website.