Children Spirituality Religion And Social Work

Attention to children’s spiritual and religious well-being is required by legislation, Government guidelines and the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child 1989. Margaret Crompton has worked with and on behalf of children as a social worker, lecturer and writer. Her recent publications include Children and Counselling and a training pack, Children, Spirituality and Religion. This jargon-free book develops and adds to those ideas and materials, focusing on everyday practice in social work, education and health care. Reference is made to several religions and to ideas about spirituality, which is not necessarily associated with religious belief and observance. Practitioners’ experience is also cited. Topics include, spiritual and religious rights, spiritual development, needs and well-being, implications of religious beliefs and observances for daily life and care, abuse and neglect, death, including suicide and abortion and communication, including stories and play.

Over the past ten years, the fields of social work and education have grappled separately with definitions of spirituality, ways to integrate spirituality into the classroom, and the rendering of spirituality as a meaningful concept for practitioners, students, and researchers. Social work and education have many commonalities in areas of engagement with children, families, and communities. For the first time, this book brings together these two professional disciplines for interdisciplinary discussions that advance our knowledge in the broad area of “spirituality.” The book’s three sections reflect broad topic areas created to facilitate dialogue between the contributors, all of whom have established expertise in exploring spirituality in education or social work. The first section of the book explores the historical and theoretical underpinnings of spirituality in education and social work. Examination of our respective heritages uncovers the religious roots within our professions and reveals a present understanding of spirituality that calls for active engagement in challenging oppression and working toward social justice. The second section shifts the focus to the pedagogical implications of incorporating spirituality into higher-education classrooms. The varied level of acceptance and the tensions that come from including spirituality, implicitly or explicitly, in the programs and coursework in our respective faculties are illuminated by authors in both professions. The final section explores issues related to practising and teaching in the field from a spiritually sensitive perspective.

Social work in modern society requires practitioners to be culturally and spiritually sensitive. This book explores the often challenging relationships between spirituality, religion and social work. It considers the skills, knowledge and values that are required to incorporate a spiritual awareness into social work practice and in doing so explores in greater depth the social worker/service user relationship. By using case studies, reflective exercises and other learning features, students will begin to appreciate and understand the importance of a spiritually sensitive approach to their social work practice.

Offering a focus that is lacking (or not clearly evident) in most spirituality books, Dudley addresses specific ways of incorporating spirituality into practice and integrates many of the contributions of other writers into an overall eclectic practice approach. His approach revolves around many of the core competencies of the EPAS accreditation (CSWE, 2008). Most of the core competencies are addressed with an emphasis on professional identity, ethical practice, critical thinking, diversity, practice contexts, and, a major practice framework of the book, the practice stages of engagement, assessment, intervention, and evaluation.

For much of the twentieth century, professional social work sought to distance itself from its religious origins with the consequence being that the role of spirituality in the lives of service users tended to be sidelined. Yet it is clear that many people begin to explore their spirituality precisely at times when they are trying to make sense of difficult life circumstances or experiences and may come into contact with social workers. In recent years, there has been an increasing understanding that in order to be relevant to the lives of people they work with, social workers need to go beyond their material needs, but there is little understanding of how spirituality can be sensitively incorporated into practice, especially when either practitioners or service users have no religious affiliation or there is no shared religious background. In this pathbreaking volume Beth Crisp offers social workers ideas of beginning conversations in which spiritual values and beliefs may surface, allowing service users to respond from their own framework and to begin to discuss the specific religious or spiritual practices and beliefs which are important to them. She considers spirituality in the context of lived experience, a perspective that she argues breaks down any mystique and suspicion of explicitly religious language by focusing on language and experiences with which most people can identify. Such a framework allows exploration of issues that emerge at different stages in the lifespan, both by persons who are religious and those who do not identify with any formal religion. Most literature on spirituality within social work refers to the elderly, to those who are sick or have been bereaved, yet, as Crisp points out, spirituality is important for people of all ages and not just at seemingly exceptional moments.

This international volume provides a comprehensive account of contemporary research, new perspectives and cutting-edge issues surrounding religion and spirituality in social work. The introduction introduces key themes and conceptual issues such as understandings of religion and spirituality as well as definitions of social work, which can vary between countries. The main body of the book is divided up into sections on regional perspectives; religious and spiritual traditions; faith-based service provision; religion and spirituality across the lifespan; and social work practice. The final chapter identifies key challenges and opportunities for developing both social work scholarship and practice in this area. Including a wide range of international perspectives from Australia, Canada, Hong Kong, India, Ireland, Israel, Malta, New Zealand, South Africa, Sweden, the UK and the USA, this Handbook succeeds in extending the dominant paradigms and comprises a mix of authors including major names, significant contributors and emerging scholars in the field, as well as leading contributors in other fields of social work who have an interest in religion and spirituality. The Routledge Handbook of Religion, Spirituality and Social Work is an authoritative and comprehensive reference for academics and researchers as well as for organisations and practitioners committed to exploring why, and how, religion and spirituality should be integral to social work practice.

As Spirituality in Social Work: New Directions shows you, there has been an increase of interest among social workers concerning spiritual matters. In response to this collective interest, Edward Canda and several other members of the Society for Spirituality and Social Work have compiled a thorough and timely compendium of social work research, theory, and practice. Their book will guide you in your efforts to meet the needs of your families and clients while still remaining educated and respectful of the many religous and nonreligious views different people have. In Spirituality in Social Work, you'll get an update on the current state of spirituality, social work scholarship, and education. From there, you'll move on to current appraisals of the many specialized ways social work educators are teaching spirituality in MSW programs, and you'll ultimately come full circle to a fuller understanding of the many ways social work and spirituality complement and inform each other in the classroom as well as in the field of practice. Most importantly, you'll get specific guidance on these topics: how to enhance the intuition of social workers when to apply the Transegoic model to a dying adolescent where to engage in conceptions of spirituality in social work literature what Taoist insights can do to enhance social work practice how social work can prosper in future efforts to link spirituality and social work In many ways, Spirituality in Social Work is a spiritual awakening in its own right--for social workers, for individuals, and for communities at large. The demand for social work practitioners, educators, and community officials to be cross-trained in spirituality and social work is on the rise. So, if you're struggling to find new ways to deal with the ever-increasing and ever-diversifying demand for spiritual training in your particular social work setting, pick up this insightful edition and find new hope and direction in the many different ways that social work and spirituality can work together for you.

This book examines how religion and related beliefs have varied impacts on the needs and perceptions of practitioners, service users, and the support networks available to them. The authors argue that social workers need to understand these phenomena, so that they can become more confident in challenging discriminatory and oppressive practices. The centrality of religion and associated beliefs in the lives of many is emphasised, as are their potentially liberating (and potentially negative) impacts. In line with the Social Work in Practice series style, the book allows readers to explore issues in depth. It focuses on knowledge transmission, and the encouragement of critical reflection on practice. Each chapter is built around 'real-life' case scenarios using a problem-based learning approach. This book is the first to deal with social work and religion so comprehensively and will therefore be essential reading not only for social work students, but also for practitioners in a range of areas, social work academics and researchers in the UK and beyond.