Spiritual Competence: What It Is,Why It Is Necessary,and How to Develop It

Various professional standards underscore the importance of providing effective services to all people, including those from diverse religious backgrounds. Yet despite these standards, studies have repeatedly found that most social workers receive little training in navigating this aspect of diversity during their graduate educations. To address this lack of training, the present article discusses a concept that is foundational for effective service provision with spiritual clients from diverse religious backgrounds—spiritual competence. More specifically, this article outlines what spiritual competence is and why it is important in therapeutic work, and then offers a number of strategies for developing spiritual competence. As such, this article helps equip practitioners to provide more ethical, effective services in a nation characterized by increasing religious diversity.     

Social Work,Spirituality, and Diasporic Communities

Abstract

The discourse surrounding the role of spirituality in social work practice has been expanding exponentially in recent years. Similarly, the discourse surrounding the role of spirituality among diasporic communities has expanded in recent times as well. In this paper, we will consider the linkages between social work, spirituality, and diaspora. We will focus our discussion on a particular diasporic spiritual community, the Sathya Sai Baba movement and its social service activities. We will then consider the implications of such spiritual movements for the social work profession. Among the key issues explored in this paper are the change in the social construction of populations that have moved between two countries as 'immigrant communities' to 'diasporic communities' and the implications of these changes for social work. Another critical issue we discuss is how working with spiritual movements may help address the 'spiritual deficit' concern that some social work academics have referred to, and indirectly at least, we begin to address 'the social work crisis' issue that has negatively affected the social work profession over the last few years.     

Commercial ventures of religious organizations

Religious groups represent almost 40 percent of all U.S. nonprofits. An empirical study of 105 religious-based commercial ventures suggests several conclusions and implications for practitioners and scholars. First, the earning of income is rarely the primary consideration or measure of success in the initiation and evolution of religious-based nonprofit enterprise. The primary purpose of religious venturing is to achieve social and spiritual aims, such as evangelism, provision of membership services, or economic development. Second, the philosophy of the groups studied was more cooperative than competitive vis-vis other nonprofit and for-profit groups. Third, the study's findings on staff difficulties within nonprofit enterprise are consistent with those of other studies and underscore the importance of using volunteers strategically and of clearly defining how enterprise activities fit into the organization's mission. Fourth, a spiritual dimension distinguishes the operation of religious nonprofits, especially the Christian groups, from secular enterprise.     

How Do They Fit?

Abstract

Despite public policies that promote an increased role for faith-based organizations in the delivery of publicly supported services, insufficient attention has been paid to assessing how service delivery by faith-based and secular providers might differ. This study considers the issues involved in evaluating the role of faith-based organizations within the broad context of a community's social service offerings. Criteria are developed for assessing role differences by comparing the types of services, delivery approaches, and service locations offered by different types of providers. The approach is then illustrated using a large sample of social service providers in Los Angeles County. Important role differences are revealed. Faith-based organizations offer fewer and different types of services than their secular counterparts. The results suggest a modest and focused role for faith-based organizations in social service delivery, but one that is complementary to the efforts of secular providers. The methodological issues raised by such analyses are highlighted.     

精神残疾群体的社会保障需求与供给:现状、问题与发展建议

精神残疾人多生活困难,构成社会最为弱势的群体。本文采用实地研究与文献研究的方法,对精神残疾人的社会保障需求与供给进行专门考察。研究发现,精神残疾群体的主要需求包括治疗、基本生活支持、康复、长期照护与监管以及社会参与。对此,我国政府已通过多项社会保障制度安排予以回应,基本满足了精神残疾人的基本生活与治疗需求,但还存在社区康复服务匮乏、替代性照护服务供给不足、就学、就业难等问题。基于以上发现,本文认为精神残疾人的基本生存权虽得到较好保障,但是对其发展权和参与权依然关注不足。原因在于当前精神残疾人社会保障存在三个不平衡:经济保障与服务保障发展的不平衡,医疗服务与社会服务发展的不平衡,以及卫健、民政、残联不同部门能力与投入的不平衡。针对这些问题,笔者对未来政策的完善提出了参考建议。     

Differentiating the Social Service Needs of Homeless Sexual Minority Youths from those of Non-homeless Sexual Minority Youths

While homeless youths and sexual minority youths are at greater risk for negative life experiences, and homeless sexual minority youths are at greater risk than homeless heterosexual youths, little is known about the differential risks for homeless sexual minority youths compared to non-homeless sexual minority youths. Using a sample of 187 sexual minority youths from a community-based social service agency in Denver, Colorado, the findings of this study suggest that homeless sexual minority youths are at greater risk for victimization, mental health issues, substance abuse, and illegal or dangerous activities than their non-homeless counterparts. Implications for social work practice and social service provision are discussed.     

Supporting People with a Mental Handicap in the Community: A Social Psychological Perspective

Community care is a key concept in policy-making and service provision for people with a mental handicap. Yet the nature of the 'community' and the source of 'care' referred to is rarely specified. The meaning of 'community' is examined in relation to sociological and social psychological research and the assumption that geographical proximity promotes shared identity and caring relationships is called into question. It is argued that an emphasis on place and nostalgic notions of neighbourliness can obscure the difficult social psychological work of creating relationships within which people with a mental handicap can develop positive social and personal identities. The paper emphasises the importance of such relationships and argues that, for many people with a mental handicap, spontaneous local contact will not provide adequate levels of support and involvement. The creation of artificially maintained supportive networks is recommended and the resource implications of achieving good-quality care in the community are noted.     

Survival and Abuse: What We Can Learn From It

This article is about a journey involving survival, abuse and learning. It is written by two people who have considerable experience of being involved with mental health services; both are currently making an active contribution to social work education. It describes the way in which, in situations of survival and abuse, service users can use their experience and knowledge to learn how to support and advocate for each other. It suggests that the relationships that are built between service users as a result of these experiences can be used to address some of the gaps in service provision. At the same time these relationships can provide mutual learning which can be used to improve the education and training of social workers and other professionals.     

Can the Secular Be the Object of Belief and Belonging? The Sunday Assembly

In public discourse and much sociological research individuals are considered secular if they do not hold religious beliefs or belong to any religious group. But can the secular itself become an object of both belief and belonging? Can secular people develop self-understanding and existential purpose in communal contexts that engage a religious model? To explore these questions I investigated the Sunday Assembly, a new network of secular congregations. Based on two years of research including fieldwork at the London, San Diego, and Chicago Assemblies, in-depth interviews with 21 Assemblers, and analysis of video-recorded Assembly services, this study examines the interactional, meaning-making dynamics of what I term communal secularity. I explore the broader question of belief, morality, and belonging in an increasingly complex secular-religious landscape through an analysis of the congregational activity of this newest iteration of the growing secular community. Having distilled thematic categories from an inductive analysis of the talk, practice, and other elements of congregational culture at the Sunday Assembly, this study reveals the social interactions, functions, and symbolic practices that frame participants experiences and express secular values and belief systems. I argue the secular can become an object of a nonsupernaturalist sacred, and that congregants engage interactions and meaning structures, both explicitly and implicitly, that parallel, coalesce with, and in several ways depart from, traditional religious congregations. My research reveals how secular beliefs can both function and fulfill in ways typically credited to religion. As such, the secular should not refer exclusively to the lack of religiosity, but should acknowledge the diversity of contemporary secular forms, some of which embrace a religious character. Implications of communal secularity for the broader community are discussed, and I suggest additional vistas of research as part of the emerging scholarly literature in this area.     

What mental health professionals in Israel know and think about adolescent problem gambling

Mental health professionals are well versed in addressing multiple adolescent risky behaviours and play a primary role in the identification of and referral process and service provision for young people who engage in such behaviours. Given their ‘person-in-environment’ approach, training in multi-sectoral collaboration, and awareness of social policies, social workers are especially equipped to provide needed mental health services to young people. The aim of the current study was to examine Israeli mental health professionals’ awareness of and attitudes towards adolescent high-risk behaviours, including gambling. Child psychologists, social workers and school counsellors (N = 273) completed an online survey addressing concerns related to high-risk behaviours. Findings revealed that social workers perceived gambling as being among one of the least concerning adolescent mental health issues and reported feeling the least confident in their abilities to provide services to young people with gambling problems. The results suggest the importance of youth gambling addictions being incorporated into social work training curricula.     

How faith‐based social service organizations manage secular pressures associated with government funding

This article reports selected findings from a qualitative case study of two faith‐based social service organizations to address two questions: (1) How does government funding influence the religious characteristics of faith‐based social service organizations? (2) How do government‐funded, faith‐based social service organizations manage the tensions arising from both secular and religious contexts? The findings suggest that the adaptation of secular institutional practices is not as inevitable as some have feared. Rather, the two organizations studied showed convincingly that their faith traditions and values were alive and widely evident throughout their organizations. Three key strategies emerged as means for maintaining religiousness in the face of secular pressures: (1) Religious identities were perceived as given rather than chosen, and therefore were not negotiable; (2) religious values provided strong justification for seeking relationships with others who do not share their faith; (3) the religious worldview blurred religious and secular distinctions so that secular technologies and practices could comfortably be utilized.     

‘It's People's Whole Lives’: Gender,Class and the Emotion Work of User Involvement in Mental Health Services

The concept of emotion work has been widely applied to the study of service work. Yet its use in understanding the social dynamics of user involvement in public services remains under explored. Drawing on a study of user involvement in mental health service development, I show its utility for understanding this social and political realm. The article discusses findings from a critical discursive and contextual emotional labour perspective, taking into account organizational and institutional factors as well as social structural dimensions of gender and social class. It shows how discourses on emotion, constructed through articulation of personal experiences of service usage both reflected and constructed the ideological and structural positionings of women service users, while emotional discourse — displays of anger in user involvement forums — worked to constitute traditionally male and ideologically masculine elements of the field, as well as the working‐class identities of some participants. These forms of emotion work, and the ways in which they elicited further emotion management from service users and workers alike, are located in relation to the rules of engagement of user involvement and the bureaucratic institutional forms within which this took place. The article concludes that the emotion work of user involvement ultimately helped to reproduce the dominant institutional and social order, including its gender and class dimensions. Implications for policies and practices of user involvement in mental health services are provided.     

Rural Social Service Disparities and Creative Social Work Solutions for Rural Families Across the Life Span

The provision of social services in rural areas has historically presented a challenge for social workers. Rural social service disparities are presented in relation to key challenges surrounding the provision of social work services in the rural United States. Barriers that define rurality and hinder the provision of social work to rural families, a multicultural examination of rural community strengths and resiliency, and creative solutions for rural social work delivery are discussed. A case study utilizing collaborative partnerships between rural churches, schools, and community leaders to combat rural homelessness and streamline service delivery for rural families across the life cycle is presented.     

Living with dementia in rural and remote Scotland: Diverse experiences of people with dementia and their carers

There is a lack of research into people's experiences of using services as dementia sufferers themselves, or because they care for someone with dementia, in rural areas. This article explores their experiences in the context of rural Scotland, drawing on data gathered from both people with dementia and their carers. Our research suggests that understanding the nuanced and co-constituted experience of dementia in rural communities is a pre-requisite for improving service provision. The paper explores the way in which participants linked their experiences to their spatial location in rural areas. Our findings suggest that participants used a narrative of idealised rurality which linked together interwoven and overlapping social networks, a physical relationship with place and a sense of self sufficiency. However, the participants’ stories also highlighted the diversity in experiences as service users between places, suggesting a disjunction between the generalising narrative of the rural idyll and their particular situations. These findings extend the literature on rural mental health issues and on the experience of dementia in particular, in turn helping to inform place and person centred policies.     

Serving queer survivors of intimate partner violence through diversity,inclusion, and social justice

Queer individuals are at a heightened vulnerability to experience intimate partner violence (IPV). However, social supports for IPV survivors are often designed for cisgender and heterosexual individuals. Guided by a queer theoretical lens, this study uses interview data from seven service providers purposefully sampled through queer-serving organizations to explore how professionals can better serve queer survivors. A phenomenological analysis of the data suggests the use of three broad practice approaches: diversity, inclusion, and social justice. First, practitioners and staff discussed how they incorporated diversity by representing their clients’ backgrounds and histories. Second, they described inclusion through creating affirming spaces that recognize the unique needs of queer survivors. Last, they offered strategies related to social justice, such as implementing anti-oppressive frameworks, empowering clients beyond service provision, and being/creating advocates for social change. Together, these approaches and related strategies suggest ways to provide responsive practice for queer IPV survivors.     

Detecting and Decomposing the “Faith Factor” in Social-Service Provision and Absorption

Abstract

Faith-based provision and reception of social services may yield results that differ either randomly or persistently (via “fixed effects”) from the outcomes achieved under non-faith-based, but certainly not value-free, administration of these services. Yet attributing raw differences in performance to unobservable factors assumed to derive from “faith” should be a last resort. Instead, the objective of analysis should be to identify any such factors and their cost and strength operationally so that they can become a managed part of any program offered by existing providers or entrants.

These factors, or the cost effectiveness of employing them, could differ between secular and faith-based providers. Then members of the two groups optimally would use a different mix of means even if they were to pursue precisely the same ends. Yet program design and operation by both groups would stand to benefit from knowing the keys to their relative performance in particular areas of social service with particular groups of clients. Comparing the outcomes of experiments based on random assignment may provide little help in that regard. Micro-simulations may provide a superior approach to tightening the link between input-based model predictions and continuous learning from outcomes.     

The Coalition,austerity and mental health

In the United Kingdom, the Coalition government’s recent commitment to improving mental health provision masks the extent that their policies of austerity have already brought harm to those same services. Government-driven policies have led to significantly reduced funding within mental health, increasing pressure on a system that was already chronically under-resourced. Further, people who are experiencing mental distress, and mental health service users, have been especially vulnerable to the harms of the current austerity programme, including being at the sharp end of the assault on public services and welfare spending. This piece discusses the impact of austerity, exploring the effects of government policies and with a critical perspective of the dominant discourses around mental health. It argues that by exacerbating social inequality, government policies are also directly leading to worsening mental health in the United Kingdom.     

“A Community of Communities”– Catholic Communitarianism and Societal Crises in Ireland, 1890s–1950s1

Abstract This article argues that discourse on community as a socio‐political problem needs to be located within historical, institutional, and socio‐structural contexts if it is to be properly understood. In particular, it suggests that the role of religion in promoting forms of communitarian discourse and practice needs to be given greater attention than it has hitherto received within the social sciences. The article pursues this argument through examination of the religious discourse on community cultivated and promoted by the Catholic Church in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. By providing an analysis of its role in Catholic responses to three major socio‐political crises in Ireland between the 1890s and 1960s, the paper suggests that not only does socio‐religious discourse on community constitute a powerful alternative to secular social‐scientific discourses, but that such discourse is particularly effective in helping to constitute specific groups as communities, given favourable sociological conditions.     

The non-profit sector in East Germany: before and after unification

The paper describes how the non-profit sector in East Germany has passed through several distinct phases in recent years. It shows how the role of the non-profit sector under the system of party dominance and centralised economic and social planning signified a major contradiction of East German society: the artificial under-development of civic society in eastern Europe's most successful economy. During the first phase of the transition period in late 1989, the expression and manifestation of political views was predominant. With the disintegration of the socialist party-state, the needs for social service provision increased. West German organisations have increasingly become the dominant factor in East German non-profit sector affairs. The paper argues that the East German non-profit sector will emerge as a slightly poorer and more secular version of its West German counterpart.     

Ageing Lesbians: Marginalising Discourses and Social Exclusion in the Aged Care Industry

The provision of services for ageing lesbians in Victoria, Australia, appears, at an initial reading, to be equitable and inclusive. Government polities suggest recognition and respect for diversity, with a focus on equitable provision of all social services. The reality, however, turns out to be both problematic and exclusionary. The researchers explored how dominant discourses around aged care facilities fail to take into account the identities and needs of ageing lesbians. The advertising brochures of aged care facilities were subjected to a critical and feminist discourse analysis, which was then compared with the perceived needs of a group of ageing lesbians from the same region as the aged care facilities. The data revealed marginalizing of non-heterosexual identities through the absence of representation in the brochures and their exclusion in the construction of aged care space. Further, a review of aged care policies that underpin the provision of services found that lesbian needs and identities were not included or mentioned in the special need groups. This limits the potential of the aged care industry to provide services that are culturally sensitive, safe, and inclusive.