Spiritual competence in psychiatry and psychotherapy-Barriers and success factors

Just as the World Psychiatric Association (WPA) and other national psychiatric societies, the German Association for Psychiatry, Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics (DGPPN) has published a position statement about religiosity and spirituality in psychiatry and psychotherapy, in which it demands patient orientation and spiritual competency in psychiatric professions. Previous research has shown that lack of competency is the major barrier against implementing spiritual care into clinical practice. The aim of this study was to examine spiritual care in psychiatry and psychotherapy. An evaluation of how health professionals in psychiatry gauge the spiritual care competency of their professional group and which variables influence this judgement. A total of 391 psychiatric nursing personnel, 75 psychiatrists, 119 therapists from diverse professions and 62 others, i.e. 647 working in German and Austrian hospitals completed the German version of the spiritual care competency questionnaire (SCCQ). Nursing personnel, older and spiritually more experienced persons gauged the spiritual competency of their own professional group comparatively higher and judged less frequently that they have no responsibility in this field. Nursing personnel reported the lack of suitable rooms as a barrier against implementation of spiritual care more often than other professional groups. Judging the spiritual competency of one's own professional group higher is associated with higher values in the SCCQ factors self-experience and proactive opening up, team spirit, perception and documentation competency. The responsibility of healthcare professions for spiritual care in psychiatry and psychotherapy is still a controversial issue among German-speaking psychiatric professional groups. This is partially due to a lack of competency in this domain.