Referral and collaboration between South African psychiatrists and religious or spiritual advisers: Views from some psychiatrists

Abstract

Corresponding author: A B R Janse van Rensburg (bernardj@gpg.gov.za) Background. Referral between psychiatrists and spiritual workers (e.g. Christian pastoral care workers, traditional healers, imams, rabbis and others) in the heterogeneous South African (SA) society is complicated and requires investigation to establish appropriate norms. Objective. To capture the views of some local psychiatrists on referral and collaboration between SA psychiatrists and religious or spiritual advisers. Methods. This explorative qualitative study involved in-depth, semistructured interviews with 13 local academic psychiatrists selected through purposive sampling. Each participant had a single interview with the aim of exploring themes related to the referral and collaboration process between psychiatrists and spiritual advisers. Theme content analysis of interview transcripts was done. Results for one of the six identified themes are reported; other results are reported elsewhere. Results. Within the theme 'referral and collaboration between psychiatrists and spiritual professionals' , three subthemes were identified: facilitating appropriate referral and intervention for individual users; information sharing and mutual awareness between disciplines; and addressing stigmatisation of users with psychiatric conditions. Conclusion. Dialogue between psychiatrists and religious or spiritual advisers should be developed on an individual practitioner and facility basis, as well as on an organised basis between representative societies. The process of formalising a relationship between local psychiatrists and different spiritual workers may, however, still have some way to go. S Afr J Psych

An exploratory factor analysis into the applicability of the Spirituality Care-Giving Scale, the Spirituality and Spiritual Care Rating Scale and the Spirituality in Occupational Therapy Scale to the South African context

“…This also suggests that occupational therapists may need to have continuous professional development and workshops in relation to spirituality in order to understand clients' spiritual needs. These findings support the studies which reported that occupational therapy professionals and other healthcare professionals need to be aware of the clients' spiritual needs in order to refer the client to the relevant members of the interdisciplinary team 7,15,29,30,31 . Factor 4 (Clients' spiritual needs) had two variables related to spirituality which involve clients' and clinician responsibilities.…”

“…The differences in the factor loading for this factor could be explained by understanding the contextual factor of the respondents such as racial beliefs, culture, and ethnicity. These support Janse van Rensburg et al 7 who reported that the South African population is multi-cultural, multi-religious and spiritually diversified. However, some of these contextual factors might make addressing spirituality challenging for the students.…”

“…Several studies have highlighted that spirituality and spiritual care both play a significant role in clients' occupational performance and engagement, health, quality of life and well-being [7][8][9] . Numerous studies conducted with Canadian and American occupational therapists identified difficulties in addressing spirituality in occupational therapy practice 10,11 .…”

“…Therefore, numerous studies in occupational therapy suggested that both students and clinicians should be provided with an opportunity to explore and experience their own spirituality as part of self-awareness and self-reflection in the occupational therapy education and practice 5,13,14 . South Africa is a spiritually diversified country 7,15 . Therefore, health care professionals need to be aware of, sensitive to and competent in understanding their clients'diverse spiritual needs.…”

“…Cultural diversity is defined as a form of appreciating the differences among people including gender, sex, age, ethnicity, sexual orientation and social status. Accordingly, it was suggested that students should become adept and aware of patients' spirituality and culture while conducting assessments 7 . This is consistent with Hemphill's 16:12 assertions that "spiritual issues can be approached as an aspect of diversity and treated with the same respect as any personal issue".…”