Alison
Newham may be worth looking at,,, before travelling to scotland!!! i
found this article and it has a small reference to prayer room. hope its
useful.
regards
hanif.
Subject: [MMH] spiritual dimensions in mental health care ...
Restored faith
Sophie Petit-Zeman on how a spiritual dimension has been added to treating
people with mental health problems
Wednesday February 21, 2001
The Guardian
Persuading the NHS to extend its remit amid countless budgetary demands is a
tough job. However, two years ago cash was found to set up a department for
religious, spiritual and cultural care in Newham, east London. And a report
out today shows how the initiative has forged links between people with
mental health problems and their faith communities, while raising awareness
among health and social care staff of the importance of religion.
The department was the brainchild of Nigel Copsey, an ordained minister and
resident of London's east end for most of his life. Some 40% of his local
population - one in two of whom is black or Asian - is estimated to have
links with a faith group. No fewer than 294 religious organisations are
active locally, covering almost the entire spectrum of major world
religions, with the exception of Judaism - although the population of
neighbouring Hackney is 12% Jewish.
Copsey spent two years researching how best to provide mental health
services within such multi-faith communities. He says: "Religion is
inextricably bound with culture, and as fundamental to the lives of many
minority ethnic communities as food and drink. Faith communities are the
most significant group within the local population. People understandably
become suspicious when the secular and spiritual are separated."
The western psychiatric model traditionally excludes spiritual dimensions
and overlooks the significance of religion in people's lives. Indeed, in
many cases, Copsey found that faiths attribute what British society would
describe as mental illness to "spiritual sickness".
Despite the recent declaration by health and social care minister John
Hutton that development and delivery of culturally appropriate services can
no longer be regarded as optional, it can still prove very hard to get such
issues on to the NHS agenda. Copsey admits to having been incredibly lucky
in having had full support from the outset from leaders of the East London
and City mental health trust.
He stresses that the department needed to reflect the area's diversity,
moving way from the chaplaincy model. "Other places tried to launch similar
initiatives by appointing chaplains and assistants, but neither an imam nor
a priest can cover the range of religions," he says. "The department clearly
needed to be run by a neutral coordinator to assess what's there and what's
needed."
The first coordinator was an Asian woman with Hindu and Christian
backgrounds, who was also a trained counselling psychologist. After six
months, however, it was clear that the workload was too great for one person
and the department now has three coordinators, from different religions, and
has also co-opted two multilingual Muslim co-workers from acute wards within
Newham.
These workers have proved invaluable in liaising with patients, who may not
speak English well enough to explain their religious needs to staff. As
shown in today's report, Forward in Faith, published by the Sainsbury Centre
for Mental Health, many such patients fear they will be labelled psychotic,
then compulsorily detained and forcibly medicated - the faith that they need
most at a time of crisis itself becoming a burden.
The team applies an action research model - asking patients on the wards
what they want - which Copsey stresses is vital to "turn findings into
action that results in social change". But simple changes of fundamental
importance to many patients can be surprisingly complex to implement, as the
department found when it discovered that the needs of Muslim men during
Ramadan were being overlooked.
Although their hospital had a prayer room, it was unfurnished, contained no
religious symbols, and few staff and patients knew it existed. The
department set about making the room welcoming, buying prayer mats and
publicising its existence, and produced a staff handout explaining the
meaning of the festival and related issues, such as prayer times and
fasting. The latter raised the importance of ensuring that meals were
available at unusual times of day - necessitating revised kitchen
timetables - and that religious observance was reconciled with the need to
take some medication with food.
Such complexities have prompted the department to expand, establishing two
teams - one to research need, the second to turn ideas into action. The
department will also soon take its work outside hospitals, meeting religious
needs within a community context, and the changing boundaries of local NHS
trusts will bring extension of its remit into Hackney and Tower Hamlets.
Within the next two years, the department aims to be able to: respond
holistically to the specific needs of people from all religious, spiritual
and cultural backgrounds, supporting them during and after treatment; offer
people receiving mental health care a befriender from their own background
and mother tongue, as well as contact with their own faith group in the
community; and run comprehensive training programmes that bring together
mental health care workers, faith leaders and members of faith communities.
Peter Horn, chief executive of the East London and City mental health trust,
is strongly supportive of the approach. "The work on spiritual care that
Nigel and his team have undertaken in Newham has been an important success,"
he says. "It has helped link people with mental health problems to their
spiritual communities and has raised staff awareness of these issues. As a
trust, we would like to extend the work across east London."
Copsey has also helped the South Essex mental health trust, which is hoping
to roll out a similar project in its area, and his work has been welcomed by
other mental health organisations.
Vicky Nicholls, who is coordinating related research as part of the Mental
Health Foundation's "strategies for living" project, based on user-led
research with a particular focus on alternative and self-help strategies for
coping with mental health problems, wants to see comparable services set up
across the country. She says: "We recommend that mental health service
providers and local faith communities work together to improve mutual
awareness and communication, as is happening in Newham.
"Our research has found that religious beliefs are important to many people
with mental health problems and we have looked in depth at how religious and
spiritual beliefs and practices are sustaining and supportive. The situation
is complex, because some people have negative experiences with religious
communities, but positive findings include giving a sense of purpose and
meaning to life, peace and comfort, inner spirituality, the support of
others and the presence of God."
Forward in Faith is available at £7, plus 70p p&p, from the Sainsbury Centre
for Mental Health, 134-138 Borough High Street, London SE1 1LB (020-7827
8352).
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