The Mental Health Generalist Course for Chaplains
Course Author: Charles James Parker, MDiv, EdD, APBCC-HPC
Self-Guided
This self-guided course, The Mental Health Generalist Course for Chaplains: What Every Spiritual Care Professional Needs to Know About Mental Health provides the basic skills and knowledge needed to provide chaplaincy spiritual care to people with mental health challenges. All Spiritual Care Professionals should have a working knowledge of mental health issues and concerns. Mental Health issues intersect with spiritual care daily. Mental health is a vital part of overall health, and as such, Spiritual Care Professionals should have general competency in this area.
Surveys conducted in the final quarter of 2021 by the Healthcare Chaplaincy Network and the Spiritual Care Association canvassed a wide range of participants, including chaplains, nurses, and clergy. Many of the chaplains responding to the survey were board-certified, and most had extensive clinical experience. These experienced individuals identified the following topics as areas they would like to learn more about to support their practice.
- Identifying spiritual needs in conjunction with mental health issues (72%)
- Interventions that work (62%)
- Compassion Fatigue (58%)
- Emotional/psychological first aid (52%)
- Burnout (46%)
- Mental health conditions (44%)
These survey results indicate a clear need and desire for a generalist mental health course for chaplains and others called to meet the spiritual needs of patients, their families, and health care providers.
This course is designed to introduce the Spiritual Care Professional to general mental health categories, develop a working knowledge of mental health disorders, and develop a working vocabulary encompassing an understanding of current mental health terminology. Reflecting chaplains’ stated needs, the course will include the following subjects, covering what chaplains can do before or in addition to engaging a mental health specialist.
- Identifying specific mental health conditions and responding appropriately
- Identifying spiritual care needs in situations where mental health issues occur
- Implementing interventions that have a history of working in a clinical setting
- Addressing empathy fatigue, burnout, and moral injury in fellow staff
- Providing emotional and psychological first aid
- Supporting patients with dementia with evidence-based interventions
- Addressing Suicidality
- Working in collaboration with resident mental health specialists, e.g., social workers, psychiatrists, etc., and knowing when to engage these specialists for assistance.
Learning Objectives
By the end of this course the learner will be able to:
- Define spirituality, summarize the unique ways in which it may be expressed by persons, and identify its benefits
- Describe the concepts of spiritual care, including differentiating between spiritual, pastoral and chaplaincy care
- Recognize and illustrate the value of spiritual care in specific care settings
- Differentiate between specialist and generalist spiritual care and the role of each
- Screen and evaluate patients and families to determine who would benefit from specialist spiritual care
- Distinguish unique elements of the spiritual care delivery process
- Conduct a spiritual care conversation.
Course Outline
Module 1: What is Mental Health, History and Evolution of Current Practices
Module 2: Identifying Specific Mental Health Conditions and Responding Appropriately
Module 3: Implementing Interventions that have a History of Working in a Clinical Setting
Module 4: Addressing Empathy Fatigue, Burnout, and Moral Injury in Fellow Staff
Module 5: Providing Emotional and Psychological First Aid-PSA Manual
Module 6: Supporting Patients with Dementia with Evidence-Based Interventions
Module 7: Working in Collaboration with Resident Mental Health Specialists, e.g., Social Workers, Psychiatrist
Module 8: Ethics, HIPAA and Duty to Warn
Number of Continuing Education Hours: 35
Number of Continuing Education Hours for Spiritual Care for Nurses: TBD
Number of Continuing Education Hours for Spiritual Care for Social Workers: TBD
This activity is pending approval from the National Association of Social Workers.