Åndelighet i psykisk helseomsorg: et sammensattog vanskelig tema

Mental Health Staff Perspectives on Spiritual Care Competencies in Norway: A Pilot Study

“…The fear of harming mental health patients by opening up for or addressing spiritual and religions matters is well known from the literature (Koslander et al, 2009;Ouwehand et al, 2014;Borge and Maeland, 2017;Neathery et al, 2020). Health care staff in mental health hospitals who are working with very ill patients have an ethical and professional duty to develop knowledge, skills, and attitudes to assess and address their patients also in the area of spirituality; this domain is an aspect of whole person patient-centered care (Saleem et al, 2014;Medås et al, 2017;Patterson et al, 2018). In discerning how to assess patients spiritually, Koslander et al's (2020) advises mental health nurses that spirituality can be both a resource and a challenge and is worth noticing, acknowledging, and discussing among the healthcare team members.…”

“…A large study done among psychiatric mental health nurses in the United States reported that the "most frequent barriers to providing spiritual care were lack of education and fear of exacerbating psychiatric symptoms" (Neathery et al, 2020 p. 370). There is a demonstrable need for more professional education on spirituality and spiritual care in mental health care because health care professionals working in this field lack competences in addressing spiritual concerns of patients (Helminiak, 2001;Saleem et al, 2014;Medås et al, 2017;Patterson et al, 2018;Neathery et al, 2020).…”

Innledning: Det eksistensielle

“…Helse-og omsorgsdepartementet (2018) peker på at åndelige og eksistensielle behov forsømmes i dagens helse-og omsorgstjeneste, og at det blir stadig mer utfordrende i dagens religiøse og kulturelle pluralistiske samfunn. På tross av oppfordringen til å inkludere eksistensielle problemstillinger viser forskere til at det fortsatt er tilbakeholdenhet og usikkerhet på hvordan det kan bli inkludert (Borge & Maeland, 2017;Medås, Blystad & Giske, 2017). Vedrørende sosialhjelpstjenester viser en nylig publikasjon til at amerikanske sosialarbeidere oftere ivaretar religiøse/åndelige behov enn norske sosialarbeidere (Vetvik, Danbolt, Furman, Benson & Canda, 2018).…”