This resource provides evidence-based guidance on the implications of religion and spirituality on mental health.

This resource provides evidence-based guidance on the implications of religion and spirituality on mental health

Religiosity and spirituality (R/S) represent a very important factor of daily life for many individuals across different cultures and contexts. It is associated with lower rates of depression, suicide, mortality, and substance abuse, and is positively correlated with well-being and quality of life. Despite growing academic recognition and scientific literature on these connections this knowledge has not been translated into clinical practice. Part of the expanding Oxford Cultural Psychiatry series, Spirituality and Mental Health Across Cultures is a timely exploration of the implications of R/S on mental health. Written and edited by 38 experts in the fields of spirituality and mental health from 11 countries, covering a wide range of cultural and geographical perspectives, this unique resource assesses how mental health relates to world religions, agnosticism, atheism, and spiritualism unaffiliated with organised religion, with a practical touch. Across 25 chapters, this resource provides readers with a succinct and trustworthy review of the latest research and how this can be applied to clinical care. The first section covers the principles and fundamental questions that relate science, history, philosophy, neuroscience, religion, and spirituality with mental health. The second section discusses the main beliefs and practices related to world religions and their implications to mental health. The third reviews the impact of R/S on specific clinical situations and offers practical guidance on how to handle these appropriately, such as practical suggestions for assessing and integrating R/S in personal history anamnesis or psychotherapy.

Every health professional interacts with patients from different cultures to their own, not just those from different countries, ethnic or religious groups, but also those with cultural differences due to sexual orientation, lifestyle, beliefs, age, gender, social status or perceived economic worth. The potential for confusions in communication and consequent problems are even greater in primary care mental health than in other areas.This guide for all health professionals provides a model for working in mental health across cultures, and outlines practical ways of using psychotherapy skills across cultures. It can be used as personal preparation by individuals in any primary care setting at home or abroad, or as a teaching tool for use with health professionals travelling to another culture, including overseas aid workers and those moving to a new country. It is also of great value to everyone interested in transcultural medicine. 'Wherever we work, whoever we are, we are working across cultures, often without realising it. The first step is to become conscious of this fact. The next step is to read this book' - Jill Benson and Jill Thistlethwaite.

Explore pastoral strategies for dealing with mental health problems! Mental health is increasingly being recognized as an important issue in later life. This valuable book will help you examine this dimension of aging in the context of pastoral, spiritual, and cultural issues. It explores the relationship between mental health, spirituality, and religion in later life, including the search for meaning, cultural issues, spiritual issues, depression, dementia, and issues of suicide in older people. The first part of Mental Health and Spirituality in Later Life focuses on theology, ethics, and cultural issues in mental health and aging. The second part addresses issues of multidisciplinary practice, including a challenging chapter written by a woman with early onset dementia (Alzheimer's) and other chapters that present perspectives on the uses and meanings of ritual and symbolism in mental health and pastoral approaches to care. Part one of Mental Health and Spirituality in Later Life deals with issues of theology, culture, and mental health in later life, focusing on: the importance of a richly textured understanding of personhood as a prerequisite for constructing a picture of late-life mental health in the context of theology the relationship between culture, spirituality, and meaning for older immigrants—and their effects on mental health the adverse effects of a mental health system that reflects only the dominant culture of a society, leaving minority cultures vulnerable to misdiagnosis and inappropriate treatments that can do more harm than good a wholistic picture of aging that moves beyond the biomedical paradigm and demonstrates the power and potential of the human spirit in adjusting to and moving beyond suffering Part two of this valuable book addresses issues of concern to practitioners in mental health and spirituality for the aging, including: disruptive behavior among nursing home residents and common practices that fail to identify its causes or address the problem how some staff/resident interactions can produce suffering for all concerned—with case study outlines that illustrate the point memory loss and its effect on spirituality, self-worth, and the faith community pastoral care for people suffering with dementia—with practical information on helping them to make use of the power of prayer and to deal with loneliness, fear, and disempowerment an insightful look at a recent major study of residents in aged care facilities in Australia that explores the link between depression and spirituality risk and protective factors associated with suicide in later life and the treatment of depression pastoral interventions for depression and dementia

For more than a century, anthropologists and psychiatrists engage in conversations concerning relationships between embodied well-being and religion. Taking account of shifting meanings of 'religion' in global modernities, the included essays reveal how historically and culturally embedded local encounters between psychiatry, religious experience, and ritual healing contribute to an increasing diversification of 'mental health.' The multitude of theoretical perspectives and methodological approaches brought to the field in the global north and the global south introduce novel insights into current debates between clinical practitioners, ethnographic fieldworkers, and historians of psychiatry. (Series: Culture, Religion and Psychiatry, Vol. 1) [Subject: Psychiatry, Religious Studies, Ethnography, Sociology]

Culture and Mental Health takes a critical look at theresearch pertaining to common psychological disorders, examininghow mental health can be studied from and vary according todifferent cultural perspectives. Introduces students to the main topics and issues in the areaof mental health using culture as the focus Emphasizes issues that pertain to conceptualization,perception, health-seeking behaviors, assessment, diagnosis, andtreatment in the context of cultural variations Reviews and actively encourages the reader to consider issuesrelated to reliability, validity and standardization of commonlyused psychological assessment instruments among different culturalgroups Highlights the widely used DSM-IV-TR categorization ofculture-bound syndromes

We live in a multicultural society, yet how well do we understand the differences that exist across cultures and how they may impact on mental health and mental health assessment? Assessing Mental Health Across Cultures provides a framework for mental health professionals and students to obtain an in-depth understanding of a client whose cultural background is different to their own. The book uses a combination of theoretical discussion and case examples set in the context of Australia's multicultural society. Chapter titles include: Issues and Dilemmas in Diagnosis Across Cultures Cultural Values, the Sense of Self and Psychiatric Assessment Expression and Communication of Distress Across Cultures Issues in Translating Mental Health Terms Across Cultures Crosscultural Beliefs about Illness Negotiating Explanatory Models

As human migration brings an ever more diverse range of people, cultures and beliefs into contact, Western medical systems must adapt to cater for the different approaches it encounters towards illness, the body, gender, mental health and death. Based upon training courses taught by the author to staff at hospitals, mental health professionals, and on degree courses, this complete resource provides an essential foundation for understanding the complex and manifold approaches to medicine and health around the world. An awareness of this diversity moreover allows healthcare professionals to better engage with their patients and offer them satisfactory care and support in the future.

"Are religious practices involving seeing visions and speaking in tongues beneficial or detrimental to mental health? Do some cultures express distress in bodily form because they lack the linguistic categories to express distress psychologically? Do some religions encourage clinical levels of obsessional behaviour? And are religious people happier than others? By merging the growing information on religion and mental health with that on culture and mental health, Kate Loewenthal enables fresh perspectives on these questions. This book deals with different psychiatric conditions such as schizophrenia, manic disorders, depression, anxiety, somatisation and dissociation as well as positive states of mind, and analyses the religious and cultural influences on each."--Publisher's description.