Ellen Faubert

ellen.faubert@abdn.ac.uk

This study of the relationship between psychiatrists and chaplains will explore the ways in which chaplaincy and psychiatry can collaborate effectively in the assessment and delivery of spiritual care to people experiencing mental health problems within a Canadian context. Within my the experience as an experienced mental health chaplain, there is often an unresolved tension between psychiatry and chaplaincy that leads to antipathy, lack of referral and the omission of vital dimensions of spiritual care that require collaboration and synergy between psychiatry and chaplaincy . Even with the renewed interest on the effects of spirituality today on the mentally ill and the positive outcomes that research has revealed, many psychiatrists remain unconvinced about the use of spirituality in their practice. Through a series of in-depth interviews with chaplains and psychiatrists working within inpatient mental health facilities in the Toronto area, this project will 1) seek to develop a deep understanding of how both of these disciplines understand themselves in relation to spiritual issues. 2) examine how they understand and respond to one another; and 3) seek to develop ways of affiliation in which a potentially transformative synergy might be developed between these two vital mental healthcare disciplines