THE IMPACT OF SPIRITUALITY IN MENTAL HEALTH CARE Literature Review of 10 Scientific Articles about the Spiritual Needs of Patients in Mental Health Care

Abstract

Master’s essay attempts to answer three research questions: (1) Which kinds of spiritual needs do patients experience in mental health care? (2) How do patients experience the relationship between the satisfaction of their spiritual needs and the improvement of their mental health? (3) How do patients relate their spiritual needs to their experience of the meaning of their life and suffering? A qualitative research design and a hermeneutic phenomenology method are used in this study. The study reviewed ten scientific articles on spirituality in mental health care as relevant to professional health caregivers. Findings show that patients’ spiritual needs could be given a religious meaning (which constitutes patients’ participation in religious activities and fellowships), existential meaning (which entails having the transcendence experience and purpose of life), and a holistic meaning of spirituality (which incorporates communal, religious, and existential understanding of spirituality). Patients experience that satisfaction of their spiritual needs helps them to find meaning to their suffering and purpose in their life. Incorporating spiritual intervention in mental health care improved the relationship between patients and healthcare givers, where healthcare givers helped patients to identify spiritual resources to get them through a difficult situation, to cope with suffering, and experience a sense of stability, had a positive impact in patients experience of health. The study concludes that spiritual care is widely neglected in mental health care and that this situation could be corrected by training healthcare givers to be responsive to patients’ spiritual needs, which the study proposes as a theme for future research. Thus, to improve patient’s health.