Developing a Spiritual Assessment Toolbox: a Discussion of the Strengths and Limitations of Five Different Assessment Methods

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Journal Article Review 1 The journal article, “Developing a Spiritual Assessment Toolbox: A Discussion of the Strengths and Limitations of Five Different Assessment Methods” by David Hodge, gives an overview of the benefits and limitations of five assessments methods; spiritual histories, spiritual lifemaps, spiritual genograms, spiritual ecomaps, and spiritual ecograms used by social workers to determine their client’s spiritual level. The Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations requires for social worker to determine whether patients, who said they had an encounter with God either through audible voice or visually, are mentally impaired or are a circumstance of their religious beliefs. These assessment tools can assist the social worker to devise a plan for their patient’s recovery. Hodge (2005) stated that “spirituality is often a core animating principle in clients’ view of reality; their spiritualty, thus, often fosters a culturally distinct worldview” (p. 314). Moreover, Hodges (2005) contended that 43 percent of all mental health clients rely on their religious deity for healing. According to Hodges (2005), these five assessment tools should be used according to the patient’s background and personality. First, conducting a spiritual history is similar to taking a family history assessment. The social worker asks the patient to take a two part questionnaire, an Initial Narrative Framework and Interpretive Anthropology Framework, in which the client will discuss their upbringing and spiritual background. The author believes that patients who are very talkative will benefit from this type of evaluation. However, clients who have a hard time communicating their thoughts will find this assessment burdensome. The second assessment is the spiritual lifemap, which is used for artistic patients who are able to draw their life’s major
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