Alberto Gorayeb de Carvalho

Young people increasingly engage in Spirituality

 
In the present constant search for Spirituality, youth is also included with its yearnings. And there is something good about it: today, Health Care workers try to insert the spiritual component into their careers to provide answers to their desires and filling gaps in Health Care. Check out, on the subject, and look into the vision of the general practitioner Alberto Gorayeb de Carvalho, coordinator of the Academic Department of AME-Brazil.

How is youth’s relationship with Spirituality in the academic world? 

The scenario of ethical, social, relation and political transformations that we experience so intensely reflects in a special way the youth of today. As beings of our time, we seek speed, and solutions, as a means of maintaining and fulfilling life goals forgetting that, often, these strategies will keep us from the essence of our practices. With regard to our professional Education for Health, this scenario seems to be reinforced even more. In the meantime, I see Spirituality as an opportunity to rescue the sense, purpose and meaning of our essential performance as “caring beings”. Care implies full surrender and dedication, conditions that may contradict social rules and the prevailing Health models.

The academic environment that is sometimes illustrated by so many shades of gray has increasingly opened up to initiatives that embrace educational goals that consider Spirituality. They are academic leagues, programs of extension and research, nuclei of study, etc. The student's relation with these initiatives tends to be close and these strategies end up by going beyond the initial attempt to be a complementary training period, welcoming the student and his anguishes in a total way and stimulating - in addition to a remodeling of professional praxis - self-care practices and self-knowledge, thus equipping the student with ethical-humanistic competences for the full care of Human Health. 

Why is this relation important?

Scientific evidence offers us more and more reasons to devote ourselves to the study of the Health-Spiritual relation. They are studies with complex methodologies, with large contingents, and so on. I believe that my years of study in Health and Spirituality, reinforced by the changes in personal and professional attitudes and postures that I already see in me, make me have a more “complex” opinion about its importance. I try to give the following idea: on the one hand we need to stimulate Spirituality as a professional competence to be achieved (including it in multi-professional services and respecting it as a component of multidimensionality of people); and on the other hand we need to value Spirituality as a strategy of preparation and personal growth that will enable the student to meet his essence and, consequently, fulfill that primary goal of the “caregiver being” I referred to earlier. 

Do any of these courses prevail over the others in this search for Spiritualization in the Health area?

We still need surveys to clarify us on these numbers. We analyzed the higher numbers possible of academic initiatives accomplished by students of the medical courses, but most of the times they have a multi-professional attitude in their activities. Going beyond, I am aware of two projects of extension/complementary activities in the area and that were born in nursing universities, namely: the Academic League of Spiritual Health Care (LACES) of the Nursing Department of the Federal University of Ceara, Fortaleza, and the Study Group on Spirituality and Comprehensive Care, ASCES University, Caruaru (PE).

Regarding medical courses, the main study that aimed to analyze the Brazilian scenario on academic initiatives in Health and Spirituality was carried out in 2012, showing that an average of 40% of the total number of institutions analyzed already approached Spirituality in some way in their curricula (comparing with English and American values, where these numbers reach 70 and 80%). 

In the University, what is the teacher's vision regarding this quest for Spirituality?

I see an “evolution” among the University teaches when the matter is “Health and Spirituality”. At the beginning, there are looks of disbelief and doubt, and then curiosity and then they want to know what it is about, and it is up to the student body to conquer the teachers, tutors and managers of the courses.

I remember that the first activities of the Group of Studies in Health and Spirituality (GESESP) - a group that “made me” during my medical education in Recife between 2011 and 2016 - aroused a series of comments among the University tutors. It was as if they did not understand what we were doing there. Over the years as the initiative was consolidating, we always invited some tutors to be part of the activities of the group. Finally, we had the approval of a Transversal Module in Health and Spirituality by the collegiate student of the institution in 2015.

What about the students? Are they looking at Spirituality as a differentiator in professional qualification and humanization?

No doubt! More and more we have the students’ full attention and we can see a difference through their similar reactions. In general, they never crowd the classrooms; however, they participate more and more intensely. I always say is that it is necessary to adequate the educational proposals in Health and Spirituality to the demands of the students' lives and the advancement of Health Education; we need innovative, participatory and inclusive methodologies! There is no time now to be spent in the classrooms with endless exhibits and a transmitting education. Our youth wants to exchange, to teach, to act and to practice - this is the education that will transform the world. 

Has the Academic Department of AME Brazil encouraged this search? How?

The Academic Department of AME Brazil has always been a great partner in Health and Spirituality initiatives. Many of the people, who lead this movement in Brazil's universities, are also employees of the department. This exchange is fruitful for us all, and we are always in contact and sharing both the victories and the anguish, always seeking to share strategies and ideas. Some university initiatives end up by forming Assisted Groups of some Regional Academic Department, which makes this contact easier. 

What can the young academic be able to find in the DA activities that are happening in Brazil?

There are several activities! In general, each Academic Department (there are 18 ADs in Brazil, spread across the five regions) establishes its activities in parallel with the activities of the AME to which it is linked. They are groups of studies on the basic works of the Spiritist Doctrine, studies on important writers such as Andre Luiz and Bezerra de Menezes and even activities of Health Care and Charity, like the assistance given to an Elderly Home provided by the Academic Department of the AME in Rio de Janeiro (RJ).

All activities, as well as their agendas, are available at AME Brazil’s Register 2016 - 2017, on the AME Brazil website (www.amebrasil.org.br) 

What about the MEDNESP? What will DA bring to the public?

The Mednesp is always a great opportunity to expand our borders, and this time it will be no different! We prepared the second edition of the Symposium of DA AME Brazil - the first edition was held in Mednesp Goiania, in 2015 - that will take place during one of the shifts of the event. The novelty for this year is that the symposium proposes the study of the 10 facets of the Medical-Spiritist Decalogue, written by Dr. Bezerra de Menezes in 1968, and will be carried out by academic speakers from all over Brazil! We will also have the study of Scientific Works, a unique opportunity to exchange experiences with great nouns known for their work on ”Health and Spirituality” and that will attend the event. In addition, DA AME Brazil and DA AME of Rio de Janeiro are organizing lodging for the students -Student Accommodation - a way of making it easier for the students (more than 100 participants are expected to be accommodated) by reducing the cost of lodging in the city. The Student Accommodation of Mednesp 2017 can be obtained through the emailcomunicaca@pmail.com). We all look forward to what will be the greatest Health and Spirituality event on the planet!