Religion and Spirituality: How Clinicians in Quebec and Geneva Cope with the Issue When Faced with Patients Suffering from Chronic Psychosis

Abstract

Spirituality and religion have been found to be important in the lives of many people suffering from severe mental disorders, but it has been claimed that clinicians "neglect" their patients' religious issues. In Geneva, Switzerland and Trois-Rivières, Quebec, 221 outpatients and their 57 clinicians were selected for an assessment of religion and spirituality. A majority of the patients reported that religion was an important aspect of their lives. Many clinicians were unaware of their patients' religious involvement, even if they reported feeling comfortable with the issue. Both areas displayed strikingly similar results, which supports their generalization.

A Randomized Trial of Spiritual Assessment of Outpatients With Schizophrenia: Patients' and Clinicians' Experience

“…Also, treatment and illness representation-that is, patients' explanatory models-frequently involved a spiritual component that was likely to influence treatment adherence (9). These results were further replicated by our research group in Quebec, Canada (10).…”

Measuring mental health in the clinical setting: what is important to service users? The Mini-Service user Recovery Evaluation scale (Mini-SeRvE)

“…In addition, these figures were for our service user sample. Indeed, our religiosity figures are similar to those for service users found elsewhere in Europe, (Borras et al, 2007, Borras et al, 2010, and confirmed previous findings, (Kirov et al, 1998), that suggest religion/spiritual belief is more important for service users than for the general population. Although in our service users we find increasing ImpR to be associated with increased RWB, this correlation is by no means complete, (R 2 =.417).…”

“…finding meaning and purpose in life, ("existential"), (Galanter et al, 2011, Huguelet, 2016, and a religious faith in particular, (Borras et al, 2007, Mohr et al, 2012. Clinicians often find these issues difficult to address, (Borras et al, 2010).…”

Integration of Spirituality and Religion in the Care of Patients with Severe Mental Disorders

“…To overcome the reluctance of mental health professionals, training, including the experience of coanimation of spiritual groups, proves its efficiency [24,40]. The well-known under investment in S/R by mental health professionals is not an obstacle for this training, while non-religious therapists perform as well as religious therapists [28], and they usually bring strong values of compassion and openness into care, interested in training on spiritual assessment [11,21]. In that context, training and research on clinical outcomes of spiritual groups are crucially needed.…”

“…The importance of S/R is a phenomenon that is poorly acknowledged by clinicians [11]. The assessment of spiritual needs and by whom and how the patient wants those needs to be addressed is an essential part of care management [12,13].…”