Spirituality and mental health in humanitarian contexts: an exploration based on World Vision’s Haiti earthquake response
Gaps
This seminal article looks at the work of World Vision International, an international faith-inspired non-governmental organisation, and their response to the earthquake in Haiti in 2010. it identifies a significant gap in materials and interventions that combine spiritual needs with the mental health and psychosocial support needs of affected communities and a lack of guidance and consensus about psycho-spiritual approaches in humanitarian contexts.
Frame of Reference
While the relationship between spirituality and mental health can have positive and negative impacts, the author argues that spiritual beliefs and practice directly contribute to a community’s frame of reference and their finding meaning in a crisis and, ultimately, their access to resources and capacities for coping.
Spiritual Assessment
The author recommends that spiritual assessment should be part of overall MHPSS assessments to understand and respond to the diverse, context-specific spiritual needs of different communities affected by humanitarian crises.
Comment:
This is a seminal article that caused a stir on publication for drawing attention to individual’s and communities’ faith needs and continues to influence research and policy on faith sensitive MHPSS. The author is a psychologist and was working for the international faith-based organisation World Vision, and thus had a unique insight into this topic.