Since 2019, Spiritual Health Association (SHA) in partnership with Victorian Transcultural Mental Health (VTMH) has been offering the opportunity for mental health practitioners to explore and nominate the challenges they may encounter when spirituality or religion comes up for their consumers.
In April 2023, VTMH presented a webinar on “Spirituality matters – what clinicians needs to know” that launched the program for the year.
After this, 6 reflective sessions on topics concerning spirituality and mental health were conducted over the course of 2023. Topics included:
– How do I respond caringly to someone who believes they are Jesus, Mohammed or other revered sages?
– Spiritual beliefs, values and personal biases: How do they influence my work?
– Discussing spirituality and mental health in my organisation: Do I feel safe?
– How do I affirm someone’s spiritual identity and resources when supporting their recovery journey?
– I’m not spiritual or religious. How do I support consumers who are?
– As another year closes, where am I with regards to my own spiritual health and wellbeing?
These sessions were run online and participants were very excited to discuss each topic in a small group. The program will run again in 2024 with new topics.
Please sign up to the VTMH mailing list here to receive updates about when these sessions will occur and to find out what the topics will be.