INTERFACING RELIGION, SPIRITUALITY AND SOCIAL WORK
3.9 SPIRITUAL STRUGGLE AMONG SOCIAL WORK CLIENTS
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face of an often devastating situation. A smaller body of evidence points to the potentially harmful effects of spirituality/religion for persons with HIV and AIDS who may have been ostracised from their religious institutions or their own communities of faith due to lifestyle issues or the stigma/prejudice associated with being HIV positive.
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people identifying with groups that are under-represented or at risk of mal- treatment in society face higher levels of spiritual struggle.
women report struggling more than men.
people identifying with non-majority faiths demonstrate greater spiritual struggle than students from majority faiths.
varying perceptions of God relate to spiritual struggle. Students whose perceptions of God is teacher, divine mystery or universal spirit are more likely to struggle than those who perceive Him as beloved, protector and ―part of me‖.
people who are religiously engaged experience fewer struggles than average students.
struggling relates to low levels of psychological well-being, physical health and self-esteem.
The young adult‘s spiritual experiences depend upon their resolution of issues surrounding sexuality, in-group versus inter-group relations and the ability to conform their personal behaviour to spiritual beliefs (Pellebon & Anderson, 2012).
Spiritual struggle includes both reappraisal and discontent. According to Pargament et al (2000), religious reappraisals are cognitive efforts to ascribe meaning to stressful events by bringing one‘s perceptions of an event which is in line with one‘s global meaning system. Wortmann, Park and Edmondson (2011) further mention that some of these reappraisals take a negative tone as in, for example, attributing a stressful event to punishment from God (Punishing God Reappraisal) or work of the devil (Demonic
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Reappraisal). Spiritual discontent, on the other hand, involves anger with God‘s love or wandering whether or not one has been abandoned by God. People facing challenges may feel let down, betrayed and may experience a sense of mistrust. Koenig (2014:1163) notes that ―….a patient may feel that their medical condition is a punishment from God or that God has deserted them or that their faith community has abandoned them. Alternatively a patient may be struggling with where he or she is going after death, fearful perhaps of going to hell….‖ Greater conflict with God or other people over faith predict greater psychological distress particularly if spiritual struggles remain chronic and unresolved (Mahoney & Cano, 2014).
3.10 INDIGENISATION OF SOCIAL WORK PRACTICE: THE PLACE FOR INDIGENOUS BELIEF SYSTEMS
Indigenisation refers to the extent to which social work fits local contexts (Gray, 2005).
Opposed to indigenisation are the concepts of universalism and imperialism.
Universalism is defined by Gray (2005) as trends in social work to find commonalities across divergent contexts such that it is common to talk about a social work profession with shared goals and values wherever it is shared. Gray and Fook (2004:628) further define universal social work as ―a form of social work that transcends national boundaries and which gives social work a global face such that there are commonalities in theory and practice across widely divergent contexts‖. Imperialism is defined as trends within social work which promote the dominance of Western world-views over diverse local and indigenous cultural perspectives (Gray, 2005). According to Wong (2002), indigenisation challenges universal knowledge and the cultural hegemony of the dominant discourses locally and globally.
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There is a quest in the universalism of social work to find an agreement on the universal definition of social work (Gray & Fook, 2004). However, social workers across the globe do not agree on the universalism of social work values. Cossom (1990) argues that in the developing world, social work should free itself from the inbuilt assumptions and cultural biases of first world theories and models of practice and come up with indigenous education and practice. Social work practice must be contextually oriented.
Gray and Fook (2004:627) believe that there is room for many types of social work across widely divergent contexts united by shared human rights and social justice goals.
Dialogical processes within local contexts are more likely to create indigenous and relevant models of social work practice than imported ones since they directly address the needs of the country, respond to the culture of the people and focus on pertinent social issues (Gray & Fook, 2004).
Colonisation has destroyed much of what was good, just and right in most African cultures. Indigenous modes of helping one another and natural kinship networks were overlooked (Gray, 2002). Menand (2001) argues that any model of philanthropy premised on top down is false.
Cultural competence in social work is a lifelong, on-going process which includes the importance of religion and spirituality in the lives of clients (Wiedmeyer, 2013). Social workers are encouraged to comprehend cultural contexts specific to their clients and how that knowledge is used in the everyday lives of their clients in order for meaning to be known and revealed (Wiedmeyer, 2013). Some authors (Hodge, 2004; Hodge &
Bushfield, 2006) have identified spiritual competence as a more focused type of cultural competence. Hodge (2004) notes that spiritual competence has three interrelated
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dimensions: (1) an increasing awareness of one‘s own spiritual world-view including all of its assumptions and biases, (2) developing a non-judgemental understanding of the clients‘ spiritual world-views and (3) an increasing ability to create and implement strategies that are appropriate, sensitive and relevant to the client‘s world-view.
More importantly, social workers should be cognisant of the fact that spirituality is culture and as such, they should respect spiritual diversity. However, despite the widely reported importance of spiritually sensitive social work, professionals in the spiritual care teams should not prescribe religion to non-religious clients nor force a spiritual assessment on a client (Koenig, 2014).