Abstract
Aims
To find how best to integrate religion/spirituality (R/S) into clinical care.
Methods
This was a qualitative study. 41 mental health patients of varying diagnoses in secondary care underwent semi-structured interviews describing their mental health and spiritual journeys and how these have interacted, before, during and after a period of acute illness. Grounded theory was used. Detailed coding was carried out and themes extracted.
Results
Preliminary results from this project have already been reported, (submitted for publication). 5 main processes by which R/S interacted positively or negatively with mental health recovery were identified:
R/S experiences, (+ve or -ve),
Existential crisis, (-ve),
Influence of faith community, (+ve or -ve),
Finding a personally meaningful faith, (+ve),
Changing priorities to a more spiritual outlook, (+ve).
Further analysis has allowed a comparison between our different participants who were at different stages of recovery:
Those who described themselves most as being in recovery tended to have more positive R/S experiences, support from a faith community, a personally meaningful faith and have changed their priorities. Most have also found clinical care helpful. However, often R/S was considered more helpful both for personal recovery and symptom relief. For others in this group, R/S enables living a satisfying life despite limitations of illness partially controlled by medication.
Those who described themselves most as struggling with mental illness were much less likely to have a personally meaningful faith or had changed their priorities. They tended to have negative R/S experiences, persistent existential crisis and/or rejection from a faith community. Most of these people find both clinical care and R/S issues unhelpful. Some people were finding clinical care helpful but R/S barriers were blocking their recovery.
Many people at all stages of recovery said they wanted more help with R/S issues. They often regard their illness as a spiritual problem and consider positive R/S experiences a key to recovery.
Conclusion
Spiritual health may be important for recovery from many mental health problems and needs to be addressed according to the 5 themes.
Possible R/S barriers identified, even if symptoms seem to be responding to clinical treatment.
Positive R/S experiences and/or support from a faith community used to help overcome R/S barriers.
Support made available to find a personally meaningful faith and change priorities.
Referral to spiritual care offered more frequently.
Clinical care will be most effective if combined with facilitating spiritual health.