Complex care patients who spend extended time in hospital often have unmet spiritual care needs, including exploring questions of meaning and purpose, and benefiting from deep, humanizing connections. This study explored how social workers and Allied Health professionals identify and respond to the unmet spiritual care needs of these patients. It highlights the opportunities and limitations of providing spiritually-focused care within the managerial approaches that are dominant in hospital settings and provides recommendations including increased recognition of patients' spiritual care needs and training for the workers who journey with them.
According to data analyzed from the Gallup Daily Tracking Politics and Economy survey between 2015 and 2017, nearly half (46.7%) of LGBT adults in the U.S. are religious, and just over half (53.3%) of LGBT adults are not religious. The majority who identified as religious attend Protestant churches. The Pentecostal church is a member of the Protestant Christian tradition. In a Constructivist Grounded Theory study of six U.S. gay male, Pentecostal Christians, our study excavates and chronicles their journey toward wholeness. Three major themes emerged from our study: embracing the journey, belonging to a community, and living unapologetically. From these themes, we learned that wholeness becomes possible when gay male Christians can form identities that are uniquely and holistically their own. We used these themes as a clarion call for clinicians who engage with clients encountering a conflict between their religious/spiritual tradition and their sexual orientation to actively assist their clients with reducing the dissonance they experience.
Over the past several years, the media has given greater attention to unarmed Blacks murdered by members of law enforcement. Even though African Americans comprise 13% of the population in the United States, they are disproportionately more likely to die at the hands of police. Many scholars highlight racism is the root of this violence. The premature deaths of unarmed African Americans have resulted in increased attention on anti-racism and social justice efforts, particularly within many Social Work programs in the United States. Since social justice, dignity and worth of the person, and the importance of human relationships are core values within the field of Social Work (National Association of Social Workers), we will examine how social workers may perpetuate racism by engaging in practices that are harmful to oppressed populations. In addition, we will discuss SGI Nichiren Buddhist principles and practices that could be incorporated into social work education and training to lessen the likelihood that social workers will contribute to the problem of racism. Furthermore, we will discuss how social workers can help train members of law enforcement to engage in anti-racist practices. Ultimately, we will examine principles of SGI Nichiren Buddhism that can inform social work's commitment to anti-racism and social justice.
In this paper, we present the results of a scoping review in which we examined the scientific literature (2010-2021) on faith-based organizations (FBOs) working within the field of poverty alleviation, focusing on the way studies define and use the term FBO. Fifty-two relevant studies were identified and included. Our research shows that the term FBOs is primarily used in American studies. Moreover, there is no broad consensus on the exact definition or meaning of the term nor on its scope. Because of this lack of consensus and the inherent shortcomings of the term, we suggest to replace the term FBO by the term "religion-based solidarity initiatives" (RSIs), We define RSIs as: "Initiatives that, from a religious inspiration, aim at organizing collective action for and/or providing support or services to people in vulnerable positions." These initiatives can range from small scale ad hoc initiatives till large scale formal organizations.
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This paper explores Christian anarchist ideas to encourage the reader to consider how to apply these to social work practice. The author contends that social work and the Christian faith have been associated with harmful practices that remain troubling legacies to this day. While social work has sought to distance itself from oppressive constructs, it has done so by becoming secularized, disconnected from any faith-based orientation seeking to help the least of these. By reconsidering Christian anarchism, it may be possible to challenge the notion that faith need be a form of justification for oppression and control, but is rather a liberatory force that can move us all toward an empowering and hopeful future for Christians and other believers that practice social work.
Religious values have played a historic role in African American society. The impact of religious values on social bonds among African American adults is assessed in this study. The quantitative study investigates the strength of religious values and social bonds among a sample of African Americans employed at a public housing agency. Key variables were measured using religious values and individual bond scale. The purposive sample (N = 188) was equally African American male and female, ranging in age from 26-68 years (mean = 51.2). Data analysis included frequency distributions, measures of central tendency, reliability assessment, correlations, and t-test for independent samples. Women demonstrated stronger religious values and had more significant correlates between religious values and social bond variables. The study supports previous research about religious commitment in the Black community and suggests a connection between church commitment, social support, and social bonding with African Americans. Social work practitioners increasingly encourage the utilization and incorporation of religious values and social bonds to empower African American women, but the current study findings warrant caution about making the same assumptions when working with African American men versus women. Future research should explore the important differences that were discovered in the current study between men and women vis-a-vis religious values and social bonds.
Faith leaders often lack training and comprehensive knowledge about domestic violence (DV). Yet, awareness about DV is a vital part of a faithful response to abuse. Clergy members and lay leaders need to engage in training on what DV is and the effect it has on families, which will make a difference in their response to DV in their congregations. This project expands current research on congregations, clergy, and DV. The data supply insights into the beliefs and practices of faith leaders. The knowledge gained will inform future efforts to educate faith leaders, increase policy creation, and improve response to disclosures of abuse. With greater education efforts, clergy can better support victims of abuse.
Religiously oriented organizations have helped address critical needs in the lives of individuals, families, and communities throughout the history of the United States. However, there are few studies that have explored variation in religious orientation across the substance use system of care. This study examined the level of religious orientation within services serving populations affected by substance use and misuse in a Midwest metropolitan area. We observed facility characteristics, substance use disorder (SUD) treatment services, and support services significantly differed by facility religious orientation. The most religiously oriented facilities were found in racially diverse communities, potentially addressing service gaps.
A growing body of work has identified the impact of spirituality and religion in the life of the client and the significance it has for how social workers approach and understand their work. This study, based on qualitative interviews with social work practitioners, contributes to this literature by exploring how social workers' beliefs impact their motivation to enter the profession, their willingness to explore spirituality and religion with clients, and the role that their own sense of spirituality or religion has in supporting or challenging them in the face of a difficult profession. We found that participants expressed a nuanced understanding of their spiritual or religious identification, offering a critically reflexive stance that demonstrated a fluidity in beliefs that for several also correlated with a willingness to initiate exploration of the significance of spirituality and religion in their clients. Our findings indicate that social workers are motivated to enter a profession that aligns with their values, and that more education and training are needed to better equip social service agencies to understand the significance of spirituality and religion, and to support social workers to engage in exploration of spirituality and religion in their work with clients.
Sub-Saharan Africa reports high rates of human trafficking including child soldiers, sex trafficking, forced domestic labor, and ritual enslavement. In some countries, a majority of agencies who provide anti-trafficking specific services are faith-based organizations serving local communities. The shared value of social justice expressed by both religious organizations and the social work profession presents opportunities for collaborations in this field. However, there exist many gaps in the literature on faith-based anti-trafficking interventions, including best practices, program evaluation, and strategies to improve multi-sector collaborations. This research employs a scoping review to map peer-reviewed publications on faith-based organizations in anti-trafficking in sub-Saharan Africa. We examine the types of faith-based organizations providing services in this field, identify the trafficking sectors addressed, and the interventions offered. Informed by the findings of this review, we provide a research roadmap to promote multi-sector anti-slavery collaborations with the goal of maximizing the pool of resources available to both faith-based organizations and social work researchers and practitioners. Indeed, deliberate engagement built on shared values could bolster provision of localized and responsive survivor-centered services in the region.
Child sexual abuse (CSA) impacts individuals and communities in numerous ways, including their faith. This study’s aim was to learn from individuals who have an interest and/or expertise in spirituality and CSA about how various groups can support those impacted by CSA. The participants (n = 76) took part in a symposium focused on this topic and responded to an online survey with open-ended questions. Three themes emerged: negative impacts, direct response, and institutional changes. Using these responses, a model for Spiritually Informed Care is described, and implications for practice for those who work with those who have been impacted by CSA.
Throughout social work's history, scholars have debated the impact religiously affiliated colleges and universities have on social work education. Some have viewed religious affiliation as an asset contributing to training in values and ethics, while others question whether institutions' religious commitments conflict with professional values. To date, no national study has examined the perceived influence that institutions' religious affiliation has on Master of Social Work (MSW) programs. Drawing upon data from a national survey of MSW faculty across the United States, we begin to address this gap. Results reveal several ways faculty perceive their institutions' religious cultures influence education and training on social work competencies.
The youth sector in Australia has secularized considerably over the past five decades, yet many active Christians choose to work within it. Despite Australia’s increasingly multi-faith society, little Australian youth work research exists that would explain how these Christians understand the relationship between their personal faith and their professional role, nor how they integrate the two in practice. Drawing on in-depth interviews with 29 Christian youth workers, this article seeks to remedy this gap. It asks: (1) How do Christians in the secular youth work sector understand the place of their faith within their professional role?; and (2) how do they practice “care” and “dialogical evangelism” as practical expressions of their faith? The article finds that Christians in secular youth work tend to view the nexus between faith and youth work through the theological motif of imago Dei. They see the practical expression of their faith, first, as one of “care” which flows from their theological belief of imago Dei. Second, they value conversation about faith with young people, but place the agency of young people at the center of these discussions, in a practice of “dialogical evangelism.” The article concludes by discussing the implications for educators and academics.
