Research in the Growth in Discipleship
In Spring 2024, Bishop Lawson Bryan, a Respite for All board member and founding pastor of the Respite Ministry at FUMC Montgomery, joined with Dr. John Bell, a Respite Ministry volunteer and retired educator, to conduct a research project on how volunteers grow in discipleship through their participation in Respite Ministry.
To do so, they led several long-time volunteers in the Montgomery ministry through a weekly study of UMC Bishop Ken Carder’s book, Ministry with the Forgotten, and asked about the impact serving as a volunteer has had on them. Among the takeaways, as volunteers used words like patience, love, joy, etc. to describe their experiences, Lawson and John couldn’t help but recognize that these are essentially the “Fruit of the Spirit” from Galatians 5.
They presented their findings in August 2024 during the Festival of Wisdom and Grace held at Lake Junaluska, NC.
Research with Care Partners
Steven R. Sabat, Professor Emeritus of Psychology, Georgetown University, together with Abigail C. Howell of the Georgetown Department of Psychology, and Daphne Johnston, who was serving as director of the Respite Ministry at FUMC Montgomery, conducted research on the impact of Respite Ministry on Care Partners.
Their finding showed that Respite Ministry:
- Provides enlivening, relationship encouraging, person-centered experiences for people living with dementia and concurrent educational workshops and support groups for care partners
- Reduces stigma around dementia in a large majority of care partners while improving communication and relationships in dyads
- Reductions in stigma are connected with and/or affected by:
- Reported improvements in care partners’ confidence regarding caregiving, reductions in their reported anxiety, able to delay long-term care for loved one
- Improved mood, sense of purpose, and self-confidence in people living with dementia, and decreases in their anxiety
Citation:
Sabat, SR., Howell, A.C. and Johnston, D.M. A Respite for All model decreases stigma and improves care partners’ relationships with loved ones living with dementia. Presented at the Gerontological Society of America 2022 Annual Scientific Meeting, Indianapolis, IN November 2-6, 2022.