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Article

Integrating religion and belief in social work practice: an exploratory study

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Pages 33-45 | Published online: 04 Dec 2020
 

ABSTRACT

This exploratory study examines how social work practitioners in England integrate service users’ religion, belief and spiritual identities. The study involved 34 semi-structured interviews with Qualified Social Workers and took a qualitative investigational perspective. By means of thematic analysis, the study suggests that practitioners employ either avoidant or utilitarian approaches, which may indeed be a coping strategy before the vast religious plurality in practice. The study also highlights when professionals perceive religion, belief and spirituality important. Those times are a) initial assessments, b) conditional intervention, c) referrals and d) response to this subject when safeguarding and child protection issues arise.

Acknowledgments

I would like to express my deep gratitude to the research participants who willingly shared their experiences to help me and the readers develop a further and a more advanced understanding of this topic.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

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