Integrating religion and belief in social work practice: an exploratory study

Abstract

This exploratory study examines how social work practitioners in England integrate service users' religion, belief and spiritual identities. The study involved 34 semi-structured interviews with Qualified Social Workers and took a qualitative investigational perspective. By means of thematic analysis, the study suggests that practitioners employ either avoidant or utilitarian approaches, which may indeed be a coping strategy before the vast religious plurality in practice. The study also highlights when professionals perceive religion, belief and spirituality important. Those times are a) initial assessments, b) conditional intervention, c) referrals and d) response to this subject when safeguarding and child protection issues arise.

Assessing professional integration of clients’ religion and spirituality beliefs in practice

“…The literature suggests that social workers should be aware of, and seek training regarding, clients’ religious/spiritual beliefs and practices, particularly those that differ from their own (Band-Winterstein and Freund, 2015). This accords with Pentaris’s (2012) comment on the importance of spiritual competency in multifaith societies, as well as professional self-awareness regarding one’s own religious/spiritual beliefs and values. Recently, as a result of this understanding, an online spiritual competency training programme was developed across mental health fields (Pearce et al, 2019).…”

Says Islamic Culture: From the Crisis of Logic to Religious Drinks

“…So today's society should understand that good things can be good because they have their own measure of goodness. Because it could be that excessive goodness will become bad in another day (Pentaris 2020;Thames and Scolaro 2022). Regarding the normalization of immorality and other vices, Allah SWT has said through different verses in the Quran, one of which is a series of verses from Surah Al Ahzab.…”