Our Story

Inspiration

Dadi Janki

The inspiration for the Values in Healthcare programme came from Dadi Janki, the president of The Janki Foundation for Spirituality in Healthcare charity. The Foundation is committed to promoting holistic care, and supports a hospital in Rajasthan, India called the J Watumull Global Hospital and Research Centre. Dadi Janki wanted the charity’s work to include supporting all healthcare practitioners in the UK. Aware of the low morale and burnout amongst those caring for the sick and needy, she felt that a spiritual approach would enable healthcare workers to tackle the challenges and build self-esteem.

A message from the President of The Janki Foundation

In my life, I have learned the value of the life of a human being; and also how important it is to have values in life. Those who have developed the Values in Healthcare programme have experienced for themselves how values work inside us to influence everything around us. The mind has a connection with the body, and the body with the mind. What goes on in the mind has an impact on the body, relationships, and the atmosphere in the world.

When we understand our spiritual identity, we are able to live according to our higher values. The mind becomes full of rich, powerful thoughts, and the heart full of honesty and truth. Then the mind remains well, relationships stay healthy, and the body is given strength. Automatically, we find it easy to co-operate with others and to serve with a generous heart.

In healthcare, patients appreciate such compassion beyond measure. Their healing is accelerated, and the blessings they feel towards those who have served them make all efforts worthwhile.

When higher values, and spirituality, inform our lives, we become happy and fulfilled. Then compassion flows easily and naturally. When there is a lack of contentment, as a result of losing sight of values and spirituality, work becomes dry and burdensome.

As spiritual power accumulates, it is as if nothing can obstruct the experience of pure, elevated feelings towards oneself and others. Then the values that are so valuable in healthcare emerge effortlessly in all our actions and interactions.

History

The foundation of VIHASA was laid around the turn of the millennium, in the year 2000, when a selected group of healthcare professionals met to explore the issue of low morale in healthcare professionals. Through their experience in general practice, psychiatry, nursing, medical education, complementary therapy, occupational health and organizational consulting, the group members brainstormed to find a way that could encourage healthcare professionals to find meaning and purpose in their work. Together, they developed an educational program ‘VIHASA’ to facilitate the experience of universal values, using a spiritual approach, to address the issues on a personal level and its consequences at an organizational level.

Values in Healthcare: A Spiritual Approach (VIHASA) brings hope to beleaguered healthcare workers by rekindling their early enthusiasm and building self-respect and optimism about the future and preventing burnout by promoting a spiritual model of modern healthcare. The program has since been used in the UK and internationally by individuals involved in the medical and nursing professions, as well as by educational establishments.

Founding Team

Left to right: Sarah Eagger, Anne Kilcoyne, Kala Mistry, Anne Radford, Joy Rendell,
Craig Brown, Arnold Desser, Maureen Goodman (front), Jan Alcoe (back)

The parent organization- Janki Foundation

VIHASA was developed by the founding team at the Janki foundation. The Janki Foundation (previously The Janki Foundation for Global Heath Care) is a UK charity promoting spirituality in healthcare.

Great advances in the field of medicine on the physical level have led to ever-increasing demands on health services, but at the expense of human-centred ethics and practice. The Foundation acknowledges the central role of positive thoughts and feelings, compassion and kindness in maintaining wellbeing and preventing illness. Through publications, experiential learning, talks, and networking, the Foundation provides opportunities to further such approaches among individuals and professionals.

The organization is committed to promoting holistic care and it already supports a hospital in Rajasthan India called the J. Watumull Global Hospital and Research Centre.

To know more about - Janki Foundation Click here

About the Team

We are a group of close-knit individuals who work together to organize workshops that empower participants and create climate of positivity. From the north to the south, we all volunteer to run these crease events around the country. While most of us are doctors, health practitioners and medical professionals, VIHASA team has now a colorful mix of writers, designers, chartered accountants and people from IT and management backgrounds. This diverse pool allows us to select the most suitable faculty for any program/event and ensure that participants from different backgrounds can take the maximum benefit of the program.