Healthcare organizations increasingly recognize the therapeutic value of addressing patients’ spiritual needs, yet few successfully integrate spiritual professionals into medical treatment teams. The coordination challenges are substantial: maintaining professional boundaries, ensuring appropriate communication, and preventing conflicts between clinical and spiritual care approaches. Most facilities either compartmentalize these services entirely or struggle with unclear role definitions that compromise both clinical and spiritual effectiveness.
Multidisciplinary Team Coordination
Timberline Knolls Residential Treatment Center demonstrated how spiritual care professionals could function effectively within comprehensive treatment teams. The facility employed Rev. Dr. Elizabeth Hulford, DMIN, BCC, as its board-certified chaplain, whose doctorate in ministry specialized in “dignity in patient-centered care.” This level of professional qualification ensured that spiritual care met the same standards as other clinical disciplines.
The chaplain’s role extended beyond traditional pastoral counseling to include clinical education and team consultation. Dr. Hulford provided continuing education programs for healthcare professionals, including a webinar titled “Spirituality and Gratitude in Recovery” that offered 1.5 continuing education credits and focused on “evidence-based research on spirituality and gratitude in recovery.”
Care at Timberline Knolls was “provided by a multidisciplinary team of experienced professionals” who worked collaboratively to “develop and deliver the focused services that will help them achieve true and lasting healing in mind, body, and spirit.” This team included psychiatrists, psychologists, licensed therapists, dietitians, nurses, and spiritual care professionals who coordinated treatment planning and delivery.
Acadia Healthcare’s support for this integrated team structure enabled seamless coordination between different care disciplines. The parent company’s commitment to individualized treatment supported the complex logistics required for truly integrated care delivery, allowing Timberline Knolls to maintain both clinical excellence and comprehensive spiritual programming.
Training Clinical Staff in Spiritual Fluency
Effective integration required more than just adding spiritual care professionals to treatment teams. Timberline Knolls invested in training clinical staff to address spiritual concerns appropriately within their therapeutic relationships. The facility’s continuing education programs emphasized that “fluency by professionals in spiritual language and experience can assist clients in their recovery process.”
This training approach recognized that patients often raised spiritual concerns with their primary therapists rather than exclusively with chaplains. By educating clinical staff about appropriate responses to spiritual questions and when to refer patients for specialized spiritual care, Timberline Knolls ensured that spiritual needs were addressed promptly and professionally throughout the treatment process.
The facility’s educational programming addressed practical challenges of spiritual care integration, teaching healthcare professionals to recognize when “spirituality is often relegated to the work of religious professionals thereby creating dissonance between clients and their care team.” This awareness enabled more seamless care coordination and prevented patients from feeling that their spiritual and clinical needs were being addressed in isolation from each other.
Professional development initiatives at Timberline Knolls also focused on helping staff understand cultural and religious diversity among patients. This training supported the facility’s inclusive approach that welcomed patients from diverse faith backgrounds while offering specialized Christian programming through The Grace Program.
Daily Integration Practices
The practical integration of spiritual and clinical care at Timberline Knolls required careful attention to daily scheduling and program coordination. The facility incorporated “core spiritual programming” that was “woven into the treatment schedule for both residents and staff,” including opportunities for “daily morning devotions and meditation.”
“The Sanctuary” served as a dedicated “sacred space on our campus that offers a supportive place for our residents to pray, meditate, and reflect.” This physical space symbolized the facility’s commitment to treating spiritual needs as integral to comprehensive care rather than as peripheral concerns.
Spiritual assessments became part of individualized treatment planning at Timberline Knolls, ensuring that each resident’s spiritual background and needs informed her overall care approach. These assessments helped treatment teams understand how spiritual resources might support or complicate clinical treatment goals, enabling more effective coordination between different care modalities.
Throughout its operation under Acadia Healthcare until its closure in February 2025, Timberline Knolls demonstrated that successful integration of spiritual and clinical care required systematic attention to team coordination, staff training, and daily operational practices. The facility’s model showed how healthcare organizations could move beyond simply adding chaplains to their staff to creating truly integrated care approaches that honored both evidence-based clinical practices and patients’ spiritual dimensions.
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