Moving from a faith statement to statistical evidence: A Two-Year Study on the change associated with attending an ISP Retreat

Transcription

1 Moving from a faith statement to statistical evidence: A Two-Year Study on the change associated with attending an ISP Retreat Homeless and Addicted means being silent, isolated, alone, and unemployed. Homeless and Addicted also means being capable of communication, companionship, community and collaboration. One way of moving capability to actuality is offered by the Ignatian Spirituality Project. ISP offers overnight retreats, spiritual companionship follow through, and the experience of belonging to a community of hope. But spirituality is amorphous. Is it effective? Are lives really changed? ISP recently concluded a two-year, longitudinal study with program participants. Excitingly, the study found statistically significant change in the men and women associated with ISP retreats. Some of the measured changes include communication, self-insight, decisionmaking, responsibility, relationships with family and friends, employment status, and a meaningful relationship with God. As one participant from Washington DC described herself: I learned that God is with me all the time. I live each day the way that God would want me to and love myself as I love others. How does this work? The retreats invite participants to speak up, to share one-on-one with others, to work together, and to experience the gifts of community. All of this involves being more attentive to their experience. The key is to face one s disordered affections or inordinate attachments. This requires honesty about naming addictions, obsessions, and compulsions. Honesty casts light on the burdens which drain life of meaning. This light focuses on the addiction to substances, but also the psychological and spiritual problems fear, lack of confidence, isolation from society, and the need for relationships that mean something. Everyone has some kind of attachment or impediment that hinders building a strong relationship with others and with God, says Fr. Bill Creed, SJ, ISP Founder and current chairman of the ISP board of directors. The retreats combine the Spiritual Exercises of Ignatius Loyola and the Twelve Steps of Alcoholics Anonymous to help persons face those forces which 1

2 deters connection to the deeper self, to others, and to God. Spiritual and personal growth can occur when these blocks are noticed and removed. We hoped that Ignatius s Spiritual Exercises could be adapted to help those who are homeless and addicted find greater freedom and meaning in life. We had many success stories but now we have a scientific study which verifies the effectiveness of the ISP retreat. The ISP retreat welcomes homeless addicts who realize how homelessness and addiction have weakened self-esteem and self-control, caused harm to closest relationships, made employment improbable, and eroded a solid connection with God. The ISP retreat fosters facing one s self, creating good relationships: communicating with truthfulness and trust, taking responsible appropriate care of one s physical and mental health. It challenges retreatants to honor and respect the goodness of others. And it opens up a way to allow life-in-god be the foundation of one's life. ISP has heard many stories of the success of the retreats stories about how a person had changed for the good. Stories about Amanda, Steve, and Wayne. These individuals made permanent and significant changes to their lives. They are communicating, enjoy close companionship, are connected in community, and collaborate with other workers through their jobs. However, the question remained whether these were exceptions. And if not, could this change be measured scientifically? Now, through this Outcome Study ISP has confirmed that there is long-term behavioral change in those who participate in the ISP retreats and spiritual companionship process. We wanted to do a study on the outcomes of the ISP retreats, said ISP Executive Director, Tom Drexler. Though we had plenty of anecdotal evidence, we wanted statistical data as well. We knew the retreat was a spark that often leads to long-lasting transformation. After receiving approval from the Institutional Review Board for Human Subjects Research, the study administered surveys of retreatants before the retreat took place and then again at six months and twelve months after the retreat. Besides gathering demographic data, the surveys used the CAGE Questionnaire (Ewing, 1984) to determine addiction, a Threeitem Loneliness Scale (Hughes, Waite, Hawkley and Cacioppo, 2004) to measure the degree of loneliness, and a Conversion Scale (Rowell, 2009) to measure transformation. Transformation is based on Bernard Lonergan s theology that understands religious conversion as the foundation for affective, moral, and intellectual conversion. This study is so unique and exciting because it 2

3 combines both signs of external change (i.e., improved employment, housing, education, and recovery) with interior change (i.e. degree of loneliness, conversion), said Nancy Rowell, the research analyst. (see Table 1) The Outcome Study provided evidence that the ISP retreat is correlated with change from silence, isolation, alienation, and joblessness to communication, companionship, and community. A Wilcoxon Signed Ranks Test showed that the ISP retreat did elicit a statistically significant change in the measured outcomes: loneliness, conversion, employment, and housing. (see Table 2) Six months after the retreat, participants were tested again. Data showed that retreatants had improved housing and employment status. They experienced a statistically significant decrease in loneliness, and an increase in conversion in four areas: affective, intellectual, moral and religious. The study not only verified loneliness among retreatants had decreased but when compared to a matched control group, a Mann-Whitney Test showed that those who did not make the retreat, the control group, -- their degree of loneliness had increased with statistical significance. (see Table 3) The ISP retreat and Outcome Study reveal a significant change. This change influences how a person pays attention to thoughts, feelings, and attitudes. It attends to how one reflects on personal experience, how one makes rational judgments, and how one acts responsibly on this new awareness and conclusions. The ISP retreat for the homeless was structured to address these issues. The retreat is built on the belief that attention to one s spirit determines whether one is victim to the inner saboteur or whether one finds a way to develop healthy attitudes, values, beliefs which foster the flourishing of life. Paying attention to one s spirit becomes pivotal if a person is to move out of homelessness and move away from the addictions that seem to thwart hope. Integrating this new awareness, this new understanding, this new pattern of making choices, allows retreatants who are homeless and addicted to witness the change in their own lives. Studies of those who are homeless and in recovery from addictions are difficult to achieve because the participants are so transitional. Collaboration was critical. The study relied upon the guidance of psychologists and statisticians from DePaul University and John Carroll University to craft the study s instrument and interpret its results. The findings are very 3

4 encouraging, and like all good research, points to the need for further study. ISP is hopeful that these methods and results might one day be included in an even larger study. The study is important, Fr. Creed said. The Ignatian Spiritual Exercises have a very broad focus, and the more we learn about how to adapt some of the principles will help us find what works and what may not. We are very encouraged by the results of the Outcome Study. The ISP hopes the findings of the Outcome Study will cause some rethinking of the conventional ways to assist the homeless. ISP sees the retreats as providing the fundamental foundation of hope, the spark of conversion, which leads to greater communication, greater companionship, greater community and greater collaboration with others. ISP hopes changes in public policy might lie on the horizon knowing spiritual conversion is a big part of change. Table 1 Four Types of Conversion - Lonergan Conversion Precept Description Affective Be Attentive An appropriate response to emotions that brings about well-being. Intellectual Be Intelligent The ability to know and have insight that improves ones ability to judge. Moral Be Reasonable The ability to make decisions based on values vs. satisfaction. Religious Be Responsible The experience of God who first loves one and the call to make a wholehearted response to this love. 4

5 Table 2 Wilcoxon Signed Ranks Test Note: * = significant at 0.05; ** = significant at 0.01 level Table 3 Mann-Whitney Test N Mean Rank p-value Loneliness - Control Loneliness ISP Retreat Total 76 < 0.001** Note: * = significant at 0.05; ** = significant at 0.01 level Nancy Rowell, Fr. Bill Creed, S.J., Jordan Skarr and Dan McGraw all contributed to this article. For more information on the Ignatian Spirituality Project, contact the ISP National Office at or visit 5