Pastoral care of mental illness and the accommodation of African Christian beliefs and practices by UK clergy

Gerard Leavey, K Loewenthal, M King

    Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

    4 Citations (Scopus)

    Abstract

    Faith-based organisations, especially those related to specific ethnic or migrant groups, are increasingly viewed by secular Western government agencies as potential collaborators in community health and welfare programmes. Although clergy are often called upon to provide mental health pastoral care, their response to such problems remains relatively unexamined. This paper examines how clergy working in multiethnic settings do not always have the answers that people want, or perhaps need, to problems of misfortune and suffering. In the UK these barriers can be attributed, generally, to a lack of training on mental health problems and minimal collaboration with health services. The current paper attempts to highlight the dilemmas of the established churches’ involvement in mental health care in the context of diversity. We explore the inability of established churches to accommodate African and other spiritual beliefs and practices related to the etiology and treatment of mental health problems.
    Original languageEnglish
    Pages (from-to)86-106
    JournalTranscultural Psychiatry
    Volume54
    Issue number1
    Early online date24 Jan 2017
    DOIs
    Publication statusPublished online - 24 Jan 2017

    Keywords

    • UK clergy and the pastoral care of mental illness: the tension between European and African Christian beliefs and practices.

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