Integrating spirituality in the approach to psychiatric practice

Abstract

Interest in spirituality and psychiatry has grown significantly over the past two decades. Since the 1990s, interest groups have been formed by several professional associations in the USA, Canada, the UK, the Netherlands, Brazil and Australia. Interest in spirituality, religion and culture has, however, always existed in Africa and has recently in a South African (SA) context also emerged more publicly in secular areas such as health and mental health, where the need to be ‘culturally competent’ has extended to competence regarding the multireligious and spiritually diverse contexts of local medical practice. Locally, in SA, a Spirituality and Psychiatry Special Interest Group (S&PSIG) of the South African Society of Psychiatrists (SASOP) was established with the objectives, among others, to promote, maintain and protect the discipline of psychiatry as a medical speciality as far as it relates to spirituality as an additional dimension to the biopsychosocial model, and to provide a forum to clarify concepts and professional boundaries. It also became important to develop local guidelines, which was initiated by the S&PSIG, undertaken in view of the extent of local and worldwide religious affiliation, rapid growth of academic