Impact of Spiritual Counseling for African American Young Adults with Sickle Cell Disease

This spiritual intervention addresses the often-unspoken concerns of African American, 18-28 years, with Sickle Cell Disease (SCD). Understanding spirituality, while managing the many facets of SCD, is vital for holistic health. These participants find themselves at critical junctures in their spiritual development - seeking, exploring, even questioning - how spirituality may play a role in their overall well-being. To that end, participants met 1:1 with a chaplain over six encounters to share resources, skills and tools for increasing everyday coping and self-efficacy. This pilot came to realize that to truly be effective, additional core encounters are needed for true impact. Abstract source