These principles are a distillation of the wisdom of the members of the Association of Healing Health Care Projects and the Relationship-Centered Care Network who worked together to plan the Breakthrough Summit held October 2003 in Sun River, Oregon. Much of this wisdom is documented in the Pew-Fetzer Task Force report, "Health Professions Education and Relationship-Centered Care."
Create caring relationships. Acknowledge the importance of self-awareness, self-care, and self-growth. Beginning with self, establish an ethic of love, forgiveness, unconditional positive regard, and service; then extend this ethic as the core of all relationships in health care. Develop these relationships to sustain health of self, patients, heath care team, organization, community, and environment.
Respect each person's experience as valid. Respect the practice of relationship-centered care and healing health care in all its unique representations, without bias toward or against any religion, race, sex, position or rank, community, or culture. All change toward creating health and healing is valued, great or small.
Respect the person's own power and self-healing processes. Place control with the person receiving the care. Appreciate the patient's meaning of the health-illness condition, and base care on his or her needs and values.
Value and practice personal responsibility for health, intentions, and actions. Individual lifestyle choices, actions, and practices largely determine the outcome of health. Provide information to support the person/patient in being an informed decision-maker.
Honor the sacred. Pay attention to and respect the most precious aspects of each person and place. Respect the person's dignity, uniqueness, and integrity (mind-body-spirit unity). Create sanctuary—space and time to reconnect with wholeness and something greater than oneself. Honor the ancient as well as the visionary.
Hold economic models responsible and accountable to the outcome of health. Acknowledge and attend to the relationship between wise use of economic resources and health.
Adopt an attitude and practice of continuous learning and improvement. Challenge ideas; remain open-minded and receptive to innovation and experimentation; respond to the changing environment with unchanging commitment to these principles.
Connect with others. Build and sustain conscious connections/partnerships with other individuals and groups who share this intention for transforming health care.
Create a compelling vision that is inclusive of all providers and citizens. Respect the integrity of the community, and participate actively in community development and dialogue. A sustained intention with action for the well-being of others endures all obstacles.
Start now, act locally, keep going, and support each other. Many local actions are global action—the transformation of health care.
