Ethnicity, religion and clinical practice: a qualitative study of beliefs and attitudes of psychiatrists in the United Kingdom
Abstract
There is growing interest in the relationship between religion and mental health and the need for compassion, empathy and “spiritual competencies” within health services including psychiatry. The nature and the extent of such a relationship are highly vexed and polarising within the psychiatric profession. While the United Kingdom is ostensibly a secular society, a high percentage of NHS clinicians hail from religiously oriented societies; we know little on how the religious beliefs of such professionals are resolved in a secular practice. This is a qualitative study exploring psychiatrists’ attitudes to religion and spirituality within their practice and which attempts to examine how these are resolved in the therapeutic relationship with, and management of, religious patients. Twenty interviews were conducted with psychiatrists working in London. The main finding was the strong degree of dissonance amongst the migrant psychiatrists between their practice in their home countries (incorporating patients’ religious beliefs) and in the United Kingdom (excluding them). The need for more training in this area and the relevance of the results are discussed and placed in the context of previous literature.
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Some studies show that although psychiatrists consider it important to integrate religion/spirituality in the therapeutic context, in practice this does not often happen unless patients themselves took the initiative.
“Some studies show that although psychiatrists consider it important to integrate religion/spirituality in the therapeutic context, in practice this does not often happen,9,10 unless the patients themselves took the initiative.27”
From A preliminary survey on the religious profile of Brazilian psychiatrists and their approach to patients' religiosity in clinical practice (2016) · cites this paper as [27]
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- Authors
- Durà-Vilà, G., Hagger, M., Dein, S., & Leavey, G.
- Affiliations
- Central and North West London NHS Foundation Trust (GB)
- University College London (GB)
- Queen's University Belfast (GB)
- Venue
- Mental Health, Religion & Culture
- Publisher
- Informa UK Limited
- Published
- 2011-01
- Volume
- 14
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 53-64
- ISSN
- 1367-4676 (ISSN-L)
- 1469-9737
- OpenAlex
- W2008879488
- Cited by
- 28
- References
- 27
- Citations by year
- 2026: 2 · 2023: 1 · 2022: 2 · 2020: 2 · 2019: 2 · 2018: 4 · 2017: 3 · 2016: 3 · 2015: 3 · 2013: 2 · 2012: 1
- FWCI
- 1.98
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Mental Health Religion & Culture (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Health › Religion, Spirituality, and Psychology
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Cultural Competency in Health Care
- Social Sciences › Demography › Workplace Spirituality and Leadership
- Keywords
- religion and mental health, spirituality in psychiatry, psychiatrists' attitudes, religious beliefs, therapeutic relationship, religious patients, secularism, spiritual competence, professional training
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