Spiritual Assessment in Social Work and Mental Health Practice

Spirituality often plays a critical role in health and wellness, yet few have explored in detail the process through which practitioners can identify and use clients' spiritual strengths to their mutual advantage. To address this gap, this practice-oriented text equips helping professionals with the tools they need to administer spiritual assessments ethically and professionally. David R. Hodge outlines a number of assessment approaches, including an implicit method for evaluating "secular" forms of spirituality. Case examples illustrate the implementation of these strategies in different clinical settings and with groups from diverse racial, geographic, and socioeconomic backgrounds. (Publisher) Spirituality often plays a critical role in health and wellness, but the process through which practitioners can identify and use clients' spiritual strengths has not been explored in any detail. To address this gap, this practice-oriented text equips helping professionals with the tools needed to administer spiritual assessments in ethically and professionally. David Hodge outlines a number of approaches to assessment, including an implicit approach to evaluate “secular" forms of spirituality. Case examples illustrate the implementation of these approaches in different clinical settings with Table of Contents 8 Introduction 10 1. Understanding Spirituality and Religion 18 2. Rationales for Conducting a Spiritual Assessment 30 3. Brief Assessment 44 4. Guidelines for Moving to a Comprehensive Spiritual Assessment 59 5. Comprehensive Assessment and Spiritual Histories 76 6. Spiritual Lifemaps 91 7. Spiritual Genograms 102 8. Spiritual Eco-maps 116 9. Spiritual Ecograms 128 10. Implicit Spiritual Assessment 139 11. Conducting Spiritual Assessments 156 12. Summary of Key Points and Future Directions 178 References 190 Index 212