Patterns of Conversation between Clergy and Their Parishioners and Referral to other Professionals

Clergy deal with mental and physical health care issues as well as spiritual concerns within their congregations. Collaboration with psychotherapists and physicians could be argued to be “best practice” by clergy, but little is known about how clergy collaborate, particularly in non-hospital setting...

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Bibliographic Details
Authors: Grauf-Grounds, Claudia (Author) ; Backton, Audrey (Author)
Format: Electronic Article
Language:English
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Published: Sage Publishing 2007
In: Journal of pastoral care & counseling
Year: 2007, Volume: 61, Issue: 1/2, Pages: 31-38
Online Access: Volltext (lizenzpflichtig)
Parallel Edition:Non-electronic
Description
Summary:Clergy deal with mental and physical health care issues as well as spiritual concerns within their congregations. Collaboration with psychotherapists and physicians could be argued to be “best practice” by clergy, but little is known about how clergy collaborate, particularly in non-hospital settings. This study describes reported practice patterns of referral by clergy in the context of their conversations with parishioners. Clergy report that parishioners regularly express psychosocial and medical concerns to them, and clergy also initiate these conversations. Clergy refer to medical providers and psychotherapist 23% of the time, and these referrals are found to be helpful, even though the professionals rarely connect with each other. Physicians and psychotherapists report they refer to clergy 10% and 24% of the time, respectively, and often find these referrals helpful. Further research is needed to understand the barriers and bridges to collaboration between professionals in different domains of care.
ISSN:2167-776X
Contains:Enthalten in: Journal of pastoral care & counseling
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.1177/154230500706100104