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A Pragmatic Approach to Teaching Psychiatry Residents the Assessment and Treatment of Religious Patients

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Abstract

Objective

The authors descripe a pragmatic and atheoretical frameword for teaching psychiatry residents how to assess and treat religious patients.

Results

The psychiatrist’s goals in assessing the religious history are clarified. These goals differ between the assessment and treatment phases. During assessment, attention is paid to psychiatric phenomenology and careful history-taking utilizing knowledgeable outside informants. A framework is presented for engaging religious patients, fostering therapeutic alliance, avoiding pitfalls, and facilitating treatment within the patient’s religious context.

Conclusions

Emphasizing knowledge of phenomenology and information gathering skills may be more effective than emphasizing broad knowledge of many religions, except for clinicians practicing within a particular religious community.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Abarbanel Mental Health Center, 15 Keren Kayemet Street, Bat Yam, Israel, 59436

    David M. Blass M.D.

  2. Sackler Medical School, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel

    David M. Blass M.D.

  3. Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, Maryland, USA

    David M. Blass M.D.

Authors
  1. David M. Blass M.D.
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Correspondence to David M. Blass M.D..

Additional information

This study was supported in part by the Shapiro Family Foundation, Baltimore, Md.

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Blass, D.M. A Pragmatic Approach to Teaching Psychiatry Residents the Assessment and Treatment of Religious Patients. Acad Psychiatry 31, 25–31 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1176/appi.ap.31.1.25

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1176/appi.ap.31.1.25

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