Despite evidence that faith-based and spiritual coping supports people’s mental health, stigmata prevail in the aid sector around the need for psychological support in general and around this coping mechanism in particular. This qualitative research examines female aid workers’ experiences and aims to elucidate how this mechanism supports mental health in stressful, conflict, or disaster-affected living and working environments. Inductive thematic analysis of 14 semi-structured interviews reveals three themes around (a) specificities of the aid work context, (b) benefits and gains through this coping mechanism and related processes, and (c) potential downsides. Interview findings suggest a faith-based and spiritual approach helped interviewees feel grounded, calm, resilient, and present in difficult environments. Participants experienced a resolute identity, space for self-care, as well as access to community, belonging, and connection across national, faith, and spiritual boundaries. Results raise the importance of de-stigmatizing faith-based and spiritual coping and invite further discussion among practitioners.
In this section, a range of brief synopses of recently published articles that may be of interest to health visitors is presented. The aim of this roundup is to give an overview, rather than a detailed summary, of the research papers selected. Should you wish to look at any of the papers in more detail, a full reference is provided
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.