Service User Perceptions of Spiritually Competent Practice
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Mental Health Service User Perceptions of Spirituality and the concepts of Spiritually Competent Practice and Availability and Vulnerability
IRAS ID
277224
Contact name
Melanie Rogers
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
University of Huddersfield
Duration of Study in the UK
0 years, 6 months, 30 days
Research summary
The study aims to build on an earlier study (IRAS 222660) which explored mental health clinicians' perspectives of spirituality and spiritually competent practice. The earlier study adopted a mixed methods approach and gathered perspectives using a questionnaire and a subsequent in-depth interview with a sub-set of questionnaire respondents. The aim of the present study is to extend this work and explore the perceptions of those in receipt of mental health care, to discover what they think about spirituality in everyday life and in mental health care practice and including the role and concepts of Spiritually Competent Practice and Availability and Vulnerability. Previous work has shown that spirituality is considered to be an important component of education for healthcare professionals but that it is often not well integrated in training. The Chief Investigator and colleagues have developed concepts of spiritually competent care and availability and vulnerability to help provide a conceptual framework for improving education and practice in this area and we have begun an evaluation of this with mental health professionals (Rogers, Hargreaves and Wattis, 2019). We would now like to see how meaningful these concepts are for service users. An adapted version of the questionnaire and interview topic guides used in the earlier study will be used to gather service user perceptions of spirituality in everyday life and spirituality in clinical practice. We will approach adult mental health services at the Trust to help introduce the study to potential participants who will be mental health service users with capacity to provide informed consent to take part in this study. As with the earlier study questionnaire respondents will be asked if they would be willing to take part in a subsequent interview with a researcher to discuss their views in more detail.
REC name
South Central - Berkshire Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
20/SC/0062
Date of REC Opinion
7 Feb 2020
REC opinion
Favourable Opinion