Spirituality, Culture, and the Process of Assessment in Recovery

Background: The narrow perspective of the medical/psychiatric
model of care doesn’t adequately consider advocacy groups in its
concept of community health care. The central issue to positive
mental health, and the resolution of life problems, such as alcohol
or other drug challenges, gambling, abuse, etc., is partly vested in a
robust recovery management system that is sensitive to the spiritual
and cultural needs of consumers. The continued indifference in
clinical assessment protocols of ethnic and cultural identity is a
significant variable that impacts a person’s concept of belonging
and further defines a person’s relationship to the dominant cultural
standards of health. The mental health professions appear reluctant
to embrace a program of healing that includes people with the
“disease” who believe that long term recovery from their “disorder”
is not just biological and psychological but also communal and
spiritual. This historical neglect of recovery-oriented supportive
communities is one of the helping professional’s greatest weakness.