Leader says patient assessment should address spiritual realm

Assessment of patients in substance use treatment often fails to touch on spiritual factors that for some clients could be pivotal to recovery, says the head of spiritual care at one of the most influential treatment facilities.

It remains somewhat frustrating to the Rev. Jack Abel, MDiv, senior director of spiritual care at Caron Treatment Centers, to see that some addiction clinicians don't consider spirituality to be a constructive topic in treatment. Or, Abel tells Addiction Professional, they might acknowledge a patient's desire to address spirituality, but they'll make it clear that they personally consider the subject peripheral or optional.

“We need to be thinking about [spirituality] as a clinical discipline,” Abel says.

At the Aug. 19-22 National Conference on Alcohol and Addiction Disorders in Anaheim, Calif., Abel will deliver a workshop to guide addiction professionals in including questions about spirituality in patient assessment. Titled “ASAM Dimensions and Spiritual Assessment: A Clinical Training,” the session will summarize the knowledge he and his organization have gained from about a decade of work in this area, he says.

At Caron, seven full-time spiritual counselors (all master's-prepared but with a diversity of spiritual backgrounds) are trained in using the American Society of Addiction Medicine's multidimensional assessment model for spiritual assessment. The six ASAM dimensions cover areas ranging from acute intoxication and withdrawal potential in dimension 1 to recovery/living environment in dimension 6.

Abel's NCAD workshop also will touch on Caron's use of non-medical language in the spiritual assessments it conducts.

Helpful trend

Abel does believe there has been progress in advancing spirituality in the treatment field, as there no longer is the notion that 12-Step oriented programs own this territory exclusively. The emergence of mindfulness and yoga practices in many treatment programs has helped more professionals to look at spirituality from a positive standpoint, he says.

Yet he also believes that programs can strive for a deeper exploration of spirituality, in addressing issues of meaning and purpose in the life of a recovering individual. Patients will want to examine what their life in recovery will turn out to be, he says, and in some cases that will involve establishing or re-establishing connection with one's faith.