Religiosidade e saúde: experiências dos pacientes e percepções dos profissionais

Abstract

A partir de nossa trajetória com pesquisas e orientação de pesquisas sobre o tema, como também de um levantamento de publicações brasileiras concernentes às relações entre religiosidade e saúde nos últimos dez anos, neste trabalho realizamos uma comparação entre o que se tem constatado nas investigações com os próprios pacientes e o que se tem encontrado nos estudos e observações com os estudantes e profissionais de saúde. Voltando-se a atenção mais especificamente para os campos da psicologia, da medicina e da enfermagem, constatamos que, embora seja crescente a literatura voltada para a importância de que a assistência religiosa/espiritual seja incorporada às práticas de acolhimento e humanização em saúde, há ainda um grande hiato entre o que mostra a experiência no mundo da vida dos pacientes e a postura formal dos profissionais que os atendem nos serviços de saúde especializados. Considerando-se esse hiato e seu grande paradoxo, num país de população tão religiosa como o Brasil, discutimos as implicações decorrentes para a formação profissional nos diferentes campos da atenção à saúde.

ReligiositySpirituality (RS) in the Clinical Context: Professional Experiences of Psychotherapists

“…Spirituality is often reported as a broad concept, a mental state, universally accessible, in which there is a quest for the sacred, linked to the cultivation of values, transcendence, and faith, and is found in all cultures (Koenig, McCullough, & Larson, 2001;Marques, 2010;Snyder & Lopez, 2009). Religiosity involves human dispositions that lead people to the ability of experiencing religious phenomena, the frequency of participation in religious cults, to the repetition of rituals and beliefs in rites, and is a term more related to specifi c religions and social practices (Freitas, 2014;Marques, 2010).…”

“…For the majority of the participants (n = 19), the subject has arisen in a deeper context and is substantially present in the lives of patients: "I have had patients who regard this religious institution as a prescription of life, they support theirs, really frequent, they bring this language" (S17). According to Freitas (2014), this seems to be a common reality, because both newly trained psychologists and more experienced professionals report that the religious/spiritual issues are frequent in the discourse and experience of their patients. However, for the interviewees in question, some situations were more frequent, such as the presence of confl icts involving the R/S and the discourses and demands associated with the mediumistic phenomenon.…”

“…According to Freitas (2014), for many newly trained psychologists, issues related to R/S introduce insecurity because they feel unprepared to deal with the matter, showing fear of incurring in ethical problems. On the other hand, experienced professionals, precisely because they have encountered these issues often, seem to develop a mode of action from studies developed by their own account, or from a kind of conciliation between what they learned and their own religious/spiritual education.…”

Best professional practices when approaching religiosity/spirituality in psychotherapy in Brazil

“…In the literature review of Koenig (2012), evidence for the influence of R/S on aspects of physical and mental health was evaluated, recognising possible positive and negative correlations. The fact that R/S is an infrequent subject in the undergraduate Psychology course (Freitas, 2014;Plante, 2007) This topic raises important questions for the scenario of performance and formation in Psychology, since recognising R/S as a dimension of the human being requires putting into practice the evidence that sustains this condition, supporting the professionals to exercise it accordingly. In this sense, González and Almeida (2010) defended the stimulation of changes that aim for the implementation of formative institutions capable of producing relevant knowledge for the reality of health in its different areas.…”

“…The professionals' lack of preparation to approach the subject is referred to in scientific literature (Freitas, 2012;Freitas, 2014). In addition, in the Brazilian context, the R/S theme is almost non-existent in the Psychology undergraduate course or is presented from the psychopathological bias, sometimes labelling the patient/client's religious/spiritual expression (Henning-Geronasso & Moré, 2015).…”