| Summary: | Spirituality has emerged as an important component of mental health care. A
growing amount of empirical evidence and theoretical development exists on the effects
of spirituality and positive mental health outcomes. Consumer perspectives as well as
Canadian mental health policies advocate for the inclusion of psychological and social
health determinants such as spirituality in order to decrease the mortality and morbidity
associated with serious mental illness (SMI). Multidisciplinary teams of professionals in
the community provide the majority of mental health services. Despite these initiatives,
little is known about how mental health professionals incorporate spirituality in
community practice settings.
The purpose of this research study is to explore the perspectives of community
mental health professionals' (CMHP) in relation to the incorporation of spirituality in
their professional practice. An interpretive descriptive research design using constant
comparative method, and inductive content analysis has been used to uncover the
perspectives of CMHP about incorporating spirituality in their care of clients living with
SMI. Three focus group interviews were also conducted with CMHP (n=22) to explore
multidisciplinary points of view.
Findings of this study reveal that CMHP understanding of spirituality as well as
their experiences of working within a multidisciplinary team influenced the
incorporation of spirituality. CMHP understood spirituality to be an important aspect of
life, personally and for their clients. The significance of spirituality was defined by three
main attributes. These include, connection, religious and cultural beliefs, meaning and
purpose. These attributes were viewed to either positively or negatively affect their
client's mental health. Additional resources for coping, encouragement of health behaviors, and prevention of risk behaviors such as suicide were associated with positive
mental health outcomes. Negative mental health outcomes were associated with client's
increased anxiety related to their spiritual and or religious expectations, past traumatic
experiences and avoidance of medical treatment. Participants experienced three main
challenges to incorporating spirituality. These included boundaries of their professional
role, the lack of team support and the dominance of biomedical frameworks. Focus
group discussions served as a model for education and allowed a place for CMHP to
share their experiences about incorporating spirituality. === Applied Science, Faculty of === Nursing, School of === Graduate
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