Religion and Spirituality in Psychiatry

Teaching Religious and Spiritual Issues 347can use FICA, but need more religion-spiritualitytraining.Th is author recommends dividing contentfor clinical care students into three categoriesof decreasing priority: essential, important, andhelpful. (5) The content of these categories differsfrom the core modules of the Model Curriculum .First, teach essential information, then importantinformation if time permits, and finallyprovide helpful information in longer undergraduatepre-clinical courses. New instructorsdon’t have to re-invent the wheel to teach thistopic: The 105-page Model Curriculum is availablefor teaching psychiatry residents, psychologists,or social workers and would require only anupdated literature search for new mental healthreligionresearch data. The Model Curriculum istoo long to be taught in most residency curricula,but contains three core modules that wouldfit into most postgraduate clinical didactic programsand has optional modules (for example,trauma, gender issues, and substance abuse) forother settings.5.2.1. Essential ContentTh e goals of essential material are to helptrainees gain enough skills and comfort totake religious-spiritual histories from theirpatients and to mold attitudes with scientificdata on religion-spirituality. This author recommendsdividing this essential content intotwo sections: (1) general information on dataon religion- spirituality in health, and (2) gatheringand interpreting a religious/spiritual history.Address knowledge by teaching generalinformation that includes definitions of religion,spirituality, religious demographics in thesurrounding general population, and the gapin interest between mental health practitionersand the population (outlined in reference 20).Address attitudes and counter preconceivedbeliefs by including basic research data on therelationship of religion-spirituality to physicaland mental health. Teach essential skills bypresenting a live or recorded religious-spiritualhistory with a patient. Essential self-knowledgecan be gained by asking students to intervieweach other or present their personal religioushistory to a small student group. Appendix A ofthe Model Curriculum contains sample historyquestions; Appendix B contains criteria for evaluatinga religious biography. (19)5.2.2. Important ContentTh is author recommends three topics as highpriority after essential material has been covered.The most important is examination of psychodynamicsby which religion and spiritualityoperate to enable students to interpret clinicaldata. Trainees should learn the characteristicsof psychotic, neurotic, and healthy expression ofindividual religion-spirituality and the dynamicsof religious group processes. Importantmaterial includes ethical standards in addressingreligion-spirituality in treatment and caseexamples of therapeutic responses to religiousspiritualissues. Adult learners respond best topractical educational approaches, so this authoradvises using case examples of healthy and pathologicaluses of religion.( 80 , 81 )5.2.3. Helpful ContentHere we arrive at the luxury section forcurricula blessed with ample teaching time.This author recommends three topics. Mostimportant is further differential diagnosis ofreligious-spiritual material and psychodynamics,best taught via case discussion augmentedwith didactic instruction. Inpatient, psychiatricemergency workers, and primary carestudents will encounter religious material inpsychosis, mania, severe depression, substanceabuse, and organic brain illness. Psychiatrists,psychologists, and therapists conducting outpatientpsychotherapy will encounter thosetopics and neurotic and personality disordermanifestations of religion-spirituality. Clinicaltrainees are notoriously content-bound, so thisauthor highly recommends teaching simultaneousattention to religious-spiritual contentand process in small groups and individualsupervision.Second, this author recommends teachingreligious-spiritual development across the life