Chaplaincy, Spiritual Care and Moral Injury: Considerations Regarding Screening and Treatment

Abstract

Moral injury is a complex trauma related syndrome involving a correlation of biological, psychological, social, and spiritual symptoms that can have substantial impact upon health and well-being. This paper argues for a holistic bio-psycho-social-spiritual approach to moral injury, by including chaplaincy in the screening and treatment of moral injury among actively serving military members and retired veterans. As part of the moral injury treatment process, and in alignment with the World Health Organization's Spiritual Intervention Codings, a new technique is proposed, “Pastoral Narrative Disclosure” (PND), as a guide for chaplains and others trained in spiritual care to assist those suffering from moral injury.

COVID-19, Nursing, Pediatrics and Measuring Religion and Health

“…As noted in the previous editorial, the topic of moral injury (both military and civilian) has been gaining increasing recognition particularly from a religious/spiritual perspective (Carey and Hodgson 2018). Further, this year marks two decades since that devastating event of September 11.…”

Exploring Moral Injury: Theory, Measurement, and Applications

“…Moral injury is postulated to be associated with impaired social well-being (Carey & Hodgson, 2018;Jinkerson, 2016;Koenig et al, 2017;Litz et al, 2009). To date, there is a paucity of research examining the relationships between moral injury arising from selfand other-directed transgressions and social wellbeing, especially among veterans.…”

Moral Injury and Social Well‐Being: A Growth Curve Analysis

“…There is no standard definition of MI (see Hodgson & Carey, 2017, for a review of definitions). However, considerable attention has been focused on MI as it relates to military service (Carey & Hodgson, 2018;Farnsworth et al, 2014Farnsworth et al, , 2017Koenig, Ames, et al, 2018b;Litz et al, 2009;Stein et al, 2012). The extant literature on MI has posited that a number of psychosocial challenges result from violating, being the victim of, or witnessing violations of deeply held moral beliefs in the military context.…”

“…Central to the theories and definitions of MI is the notion that MI is associated with impaired social well‐being (SWB; Carey & Hodgson, 2018; Jinkerson, 2016; Koenig et al., 2017; Litz et al., 2009). The concept of morality is interpreted within a social context, and societal reactions to moral conflict can themselves represent a source of further moral challenge for individuals who are struggling with things they did, failed to do, or otherwise experienced (Molendijk et al., 2018).…”