“EVERYONE has a spiritual essence, it’s just a question of tapping into it,” says Alicia Short, a senior occupational therapist at the Retreat hospital in York. But for people with learning disabilities and mental health problems, the spiritual dimension to their care is often overlooked.
At the L’Arche community in Norwood, South London, spirituality is an active component of the daily lives of its 24 adult residents with a range of learning difficulties. Each resident lives locally with a care assistant, preparing meals and praying together, and spends the daytime at one of L’Arche’s workshops making candles, rugs and stonework.
L’Arche (“The Ark” in French) is an international network of Christian communities founded by a Canadian academic, Jean Vanier, and established 30 years ago in Britain. “We try to be inclusive, and welcome people of all faiths and none,” says Peter MacDonald, the day provision co-ordinator. “Each person is unique and has God inside of them. Through shared creative work, residents have the chance to achieve their God-given potential which enables them to access their spirituality, or externalise their inner beauty. It’s about finding God in each other in the here and now.”
To find God in a more formal context the community has close links with four local churches; the residents make their own decision about attending services. “Faith life is not a prerequisite of being part of the community, but a number of people take classes to be confirmed,” says MacDonald. The faith aspect of life at L’Arche is given substance by re-enacting the events of the major Christian festivals.
Macdonald cites the journey of Terry, 40, who arrived at L’Arche “extremely distressed” in 1991 and now leads prayers in the house. “I’ve seen people change in truly remarkable ways. It’s the small, simple things that count — Terry has a welcoming home, supportive friends and understands he is loved by God — and spirituality is part of that. I’ve definitely seen God at work,” says MacDonald.
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But for both the carers and the cared-for, it’s not always about God. “Some people express spirituality through religion but for others it can be found in whatever gives your life meaning or an anchor: friendship, nature or poetry, for examples,” says Kristine Pommert, the producer of BBC Radio 4’s God on My Mind.
Traditionally, training for care and medical staff has been predominantly secular. So what has changed? According to Pommert, there’s a new interest in formally assessing the value of spirituality in care work.
Blazing the trail is John Swinton, Professor in Practical Theology and Pastoral Care at Aberdeen University. He has recently completed a study of the spiritual needs of people with learning disabilities and how institutions fail to address those needs.
“Very often people with learning disabilities and mental health problems actually want a wider understanding of spirituality to be part of their treatment. And sometimes, for very good reasons, carers and support workers don’t incorporate that for fear of imposing values,” says Professor Swinton. Recent research by the Mental Health Foundation and in the US has backed up Swinton’s findings.
The objective, at least in Scotland now, is for all healthcare trusts to have a spiritual care policy with a specific focus on chaplaincy to give patients sustainable hope and purpose during illness. “One of the goals is to help healthcare professionals to focus on certain spiritual areas that are sometimes forgotten about in the midst of technology and medicine,” says Swinton.
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Helping people to tap into their spiritual source is a key part of the agenda at the Retreat in York, a 200-year-old institution set up by the Quakers to help provide humane assistance for people with mental health problems.
Such assistance might involve singing traditional hymns at a small worship service led by a minister, in order for an elderly patient with dementia to access a past spirituality and “bring it back to life”, or simply planting trees.
“It can bring absolute bliss to a person,” says Alicia Short. She uses sensory channels to help patients with cognitive impairments to access their spirituality: looking at the dew on the grass; smelling lavender; basking in the sun, and lighting candles. “We try to work holistically with what makes their hearts dance and touches them deeply. Though it’s a bit like wrestling with the fog at times.”
Annie Borthwick, the Retreat’s spiritual adviser, is well versed in client-centred challenges. “I suppose we live in a secular society and the old sort of religious frameworks are not really relevant to a lot of people nowadays.
“But it is my very strong conviction that everyone is spiritual, and there isn’t a human life that doesn’t need a sense of meaning. We need to know where we fit in, to have some kind of notion of who we are, why we’re here, what we connect with, what gives our life hope, what makes us feel real, what makes us feel authentic. I think these kind of wishes and urges are deeply spiritual.”
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God on My Mind is on BBC Radio 4 at 11am on Monday June 28