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Centre for Policy on Ageing | |
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| Spiritual need and the core business of social work | | Author(s) | Margaret Holloway |
| Journal title | British Journal of Social Work, vol 37, no 2, February 2007 |
| Pages | pp 265-280 |
| Source | http://bjsw.oxfordjournals.org |
| Keywords | Spiritual characteristics [elderly] ; Pastoral care ; Religion ; Needs [elderly] ; Social work ; Social surveys. |
| Annotation | The development of social work practice in spiritual care is examined. This paper reflects, too, on the attitudes towards spirituality and religion demonstrated by social workers in the UK, as reported in key findings from two empirical studies conducted ten years apart. Fieldwork for the first study, conducted by the author (as Margaret Lloyd), was undertaken from 1990 to 1992 and is the first of its kind to examine the treatment of spirituality for social work practice in the UK. The second study reported in 2004. Comparison of the findings from these two studies showed that the increased sympathy towards 'spiritual practice' is not as great in social work as is demonstrated amongst other human services professions, and that there is continuing inhibition and resistance in the UK in social work education in particular. The paper argues that much of the problem for practitioners, even when they identify spiritual needs as an issue, lies in the inadequate theorising and lack of practice guidance developed in the context of UK social work. It concludes by discussing this particular context of mainstream social work practice in the UK, and examines how assessment of spiritual need and spiritual interventions might connect with social work's core business. (RH). |
| Accession Number | CPA-070611001 A |
| Classmark | EX: OW: TR: IK: IG: 3F |
Data © Centre for Policy on Ageing |
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| ...from the Ageinfo database published by Centre for Policy on Ageing. |
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