Doctors eye expanding faith-based health initiatives

Some physicians hope federal funding will help existing faith- and community-based health programs or spur new ones.

By Gina Shaw, AMNews correspondent. March 12, 2001.

Washington -- When President Bush first announced his plan to eliminate regulatory barriers to government funding of service programs that are run by religious groups, he mentioned after-school programs for at-risk youths and pre-release prison services -- not health care.

But many physicians and other health care professionals say they think faith-based health care projects are a perfect fit for any federal money that would be freed up by the White House initiative.

The new White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives will work with parallel offices within several federal agencies, including the Dept. of Health and Human Services. If the president's plans move forward, where will health and medicine fit in?

"This is potentially an opportunity for faith-based groups who are now providing free health care to people and families with chronic illness to get some financial support," said Harold G. Koenig, MD, director of the Center for the Study of Religion/Spirituality and Health at Duke University School of Medicine, Durham, N.C. "Health has not been a specific area that the president has mentioned as being covered by this effort, but it does seem to be a natural."

The program is likely to face some challenges. It has generated opposition from groups as diverse as the American Civil Liberties Union and Pat Robertson's Christian Coalition. But that hasn't dampened some health officials' enthusiasm for the new initiative.

On March 4 and 5, Duke was scheduled to host "Faith in the Future," a national conference sponsored by the Templeton Foundation. The meeting was developed to focus on the role that faith-based organizations can play in health care for the nation's growing aging population. Among the scheduled speakers was John J. DiIulio Jr., PhD, named by Bush in January to head the Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives. [...]