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Despite a wealth of evidence demonstrating a strong positive correlation between a person's spirituality and their mental health, there is evidence to suggest that those who seek to provide health care are not taking it seriously enough. This work presents a model of mental health care that will enable carers to incorporate spirituality effectively into their caring strategies. Using a critical evidence-based and interdisciplinary approach to contemporary mental health practice, the author explores the therapeutic significance of spirituality for clients in a number of different context with problems such as psychotic disorder, depression, Alzheimer's disease and AIDS, from the perspective of both carers and service-users. The author also provides a critical review of existing literature in the field to assess the place of spirituality in contemporary theory and practice.
About the Author
John Swinton is the current Editor of Contact. He is Lecturer in Practical Theology at the University of Aberdeen and a minister in the Church of Scotland.
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Contrary to what might often appear to be the case, the latter part of the twentieth century has seen a major upsurge of interest in spirituality within the Western world. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
Contrary to what might often appear to be the case, the latter part of the twentieth century has seen a major upsurge of interest in spirituality within the Western world. Read the first page
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Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
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31 of 31 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
An attempt to redress an imbalance in mental health care,
By A Customer
This review is from: Spirituality in Mental Health Care : Rediscovering a Forgotten Dimension (Paperback)
I was hoping Spirituality and mental health care might be able to help me with some of my patients. One in particular who, when he is relatively well, believes he is a shamanic healer who hears the voices of the spirits. When he is less well he believes he is a god, possibly Apollo, and that the world is about to end because the sun is dead. There is no direct reference to shamanism in John Swinton's book but, in an indirect way, it does provide useful insights for working with people who aredeeply spiritual, religious or religiose. The author - a theology lecturer with a background in psychiatric nursing and chaplaincy - argues that the spiritual dimension of mental health care has been overlooked, because of the dominance of the medical paradigm, and the narrow outlook imposed by theorists, educationalists and society. 'Hard science' is seen as the basis of 'good care', while "spiritual knowledge has fallen out of favour as a credible professional pursuit." Of course, the requirement that mental health practice must be evidence-based has only heightened this. Swinton welcomes evidence-based practice, agreeing that it is vital that practitioners strive to base their theory and practice on appropriate and well-researched evidence. However, he questions "what actually constitutes acceptable evidence, who decides and why?" Large sections of the book are taken up with exploring positivism, empiricism and the power of the medical model, and the text becomes very philosophical and conceptual when it moves on to discuss ideas like hermeneutic phenomenology. For all this, the book is full of useful, practical ideas. It considers different types of religious belief and practice, not in terms of the tenets of the major religions, but in terms of the psycho-social effects of religious and spiritual involvement. In doing this, Swinton draws on empirical research in the field. He makes a useful distinction between 'empirical' and 'empiricist'. "Empirical research," writes Swinton, "is no bad thing ... However, when disciplines assume that this is the only way in which truth and knowledge can be gained ... problems arise." If I have a criticism, it is that the book's discussions on the relationship between religion and mental health tend to focus on mainstream Christianity. It would have been interesting to broaden the horizons, to explore - for instance - the interface between meditation and relaxation, between paradoxical injunctions and Zen koans, between the therapeutic use of silence and the Quaker tradition. On one level, Spirituality and mental health care is simply making a plea for mental health workers to be open to other world views. Whatever our own personal perspectives on spirituality and religion, there is no reason why we should believe that there is only one type of evidence that counts. "If there are multiple realities," writes the author, "it becomes totally valid to listen to the myriad of mini-narratives within which a variety of explanations of human experience is expressed, each of which is considered valid according to its own criteria." (Review by Tony Gillam).
9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A recommended read for all mental health workers,
This review is from: Spirituality in Mental Health Care : Rediscovering a Forgotten Dimension (Paperback)
This book is easy and enjoyable to read but a challenge to put into practice. The dominance of the medical model in mental health care and the paradigm of evidence-based health care has meant that many practioners do not feel confident to use spiritual interventions with the people they wish to help. The call in this book to incorporate a spiritual paradigm into practice enables the reader to appreciate the deep spirtual underpinnings to many people's mental distress and how that experience can then be used to enable recovery. It helps people to validate their spiritual experiences as oppossed to seeing them as an disease entity.The book focuses on how spiritual healing can be used in a number of different types of distress with a particular emphasis on depression. It also contains an impressive reference list. I would recommend this book to anyone who wishes to practice or understand mental health care in a holistic way.
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