Associate Organizations

• Relationship-
  Centered Care Network
• Center For Health and Learning at St. Charles
• Craig Hospital
• Healing HealthCare Systems, Inc.
• The Creative Connection
• Healing Journeys
• Woodwinds Health Campus

"We are the ones we have been waiting for."

–Elder Wisdom

 

Relationship-Centered Care Network

The Fetzer Institute
9292 West KL Avenue
Kalamazoo, MI 49009
616-375-2000
www.fetzer.org/rcc

A number of years ago, the New York Times featured a front-page article entitled, "Where Is the Care in Healthcare?" With similar questions in mind, the Fetzer Institute and the Pew Health Professions Commission formed a task force in 1992 to examine ways to develop health professions curricula that promote an integrated approach to healthcare that affirms the interaction of biomedical and psychosocial factors of health. The report, published in 1994, describes the primacy of relationships to health and healing and outlines recommendations for health professions education with regard to strengthening the following:

• Relationships between caregiver and patient and family
• Relationships between practitioners
• Relationships between practitioners and their community

The report was widely distributed to healthcare organizations and academic centers; yet the Fetzer Institute felt that more was needed to reinforce the importance of relationships in healthcare. Aware that there were health professionals who already believed in the importance of relationships and that they often work in isolation within their organizations with no contact with one another, the Fetzer Institute decided to reach out and invite them to dialogue about their work. This effort was met with resounding affirmation by participants, who were grateful for the opportunity to meet. This gathering in 1996 was the beginning of the Relationship-Centered Care (RCC) Network. Since then, the Relationship-Centered Care Network mailing list has grown to nearly 1,000 people. The network has developed a Web site, publishes a quarterly newsletter, and coordinates an on-line list serv. Current efforts are aimed at updating the Web site and creating ways for those interested in relationship-centered care to collaborate more easily.

The smaller groups that make up the whole of the RCC Network convene for occasional national conferences, which are open to anyone interested in RCC and have been held bi-annually since 1998.

Expansion of the network continues through the creation of regional groups (San Francisco, Dallas-Fort Worth, Central Florida, the Northeast and the Northwest, Milwaukee, and Kalamazoo), with more groups in beginning stages of development. In each case, participants are finding encouragement, support, and opportunities for furthering their understanding and practice of relationship-centered care.

Healthcare continues to be at a critical juncture with practitioners feeling the strain of an overstretched system. There is widespread despair over the current emphasis on the bottom-line versus quality and genuine care. Thus, the Network's focus on relationships in healthcare is essential for effective outcomes and will continue to be important in promoting the healing effect of relationships among practitioners, patients, families, organizations, and communities.