Faith, Spirituality and Recovery from Mental Distress
Nick Dixon, Joint Commissioning Manager for Mental Health Services
Nick spoke about the 'Recovery' approach to helping people who are suffering from mental distress, and the significance of spirituality in that recovery process. This is a summary of the main points of Nick's talk. A copy of his powerpoint presentation is available by clicking the link at the end of this section.
The Mental Health Service nationally has been taking a more holistic approach to promote positive mental health. There will always be a need for a clinical approach to services for people with serious mental health conditions. Medication and the support of psychologists or psychiatrists will always be needed by a proportion of people suffering from mental distress – this may be needed over a short or long term. However, there is an acknowledgement that people suffering from mental distress can be supported to reach a place where they are not powerless to contribute to their own recovery. As a result, the Recovery approach is being adopted by mental health services.
The Mental Health Service in Stockport will adopt the Recovery approach as its guiding philosophy, ensuring that the services and interventions people will receive will maximise their chances of growth beyond the limitations imposed by the illness and minimise those which maintain dependence.
Recovery in mental health terms does not necessarily mean the same as recovery from a physical condition. Instead, it means:
- a journey to a better and more satisfying place, with purpose and meaning to life rather than simply treating symptoms
- the restoration of a person to a place of mental wellbeing, which means a person can live a fulfilled life with or without a mental health disorder
- a focus on goals and aspirations, strengths and hope in contrast to a focus on illness, problems and deficits
- positive risk taking rather than risk averse practice.
This has meant a shift in attitude. People need to take positive risks in order to grow as a person, not get hidden away in a risk–free day centre, being medicated to maintain them, stable but unfulfilled. Taking the recovery approach in providing mental health services means there have been changes:
- Seeing the person and what matters to them is a vitally important part of recovery.
- Staff are not just ‘experts’, but instead take the role of a life coach/ motivator who can give the encouragement people need to take steps for themselves
- People need to see that they can contribute significantly to their community, to work, to family life even when suffering from and learning to manage a disorder on a day-to-day basis.
Statistics show that 1 in 4 people will suffer from some element of mental distress at some point in their lives. Positive mental wellbeing and the prevention of serious mental illness is, therefore, a key to the new holistic approach. The Health Service cannot provide all this alone – they need to partner with faith groups, housing providers, voluntary support organisations, the arts and others. Stockport’s Wellbeing Centre was set up in 2006 – it was one of the first of its kind in the country to be established to look at improving wellbeing instead of just treating mental illness.
The significance of Spirituality in recovery
The Health Service is acknowledging the need for a spiritual and/or faith aspect to recovery from mental distress. Spirituality a significant part of any faith, but is not exclusively limited to religion. It can also be described as:
- A journey giving meaning to life
- A way of understanding the world and your place in it
- Belief in a higher being
- A feeling of belonging or connectedness
- A quest for wholeness and hope
- A core part of identity
- A sense of there being more to life than material things
Spirituality can be expressed in a number of ways including religious practices, spiritual communities, living by certain values, rituals, creative activities, finding it in nature, self awareness activities and voluntary work.
Spirituality can be a very positive force, which gives strength and improves wellbeing, provides a way of coping and supporting your own resilience, improves self control, self esteem and confidence and gives sense, meaning and purpose to life. However, spirituality can sometimes also be negative, for instance if it leads someone to strive after unattainable standards of virtue or if a person has a crisis of faith.
Useful Weblinks
- National Spirituality and Mental Health Forum
- The Royal College of Psychiatrists’ Spirituality and Psychiatry Special Interest Group
- The Multi-Faith Group for Healthcare Chaplaincy
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