Spirituality in social work

Why did God let my baby die?' Spirituality can be understood as the 'why' question, which, during times of crisis, desperately seeks meaning in events that happen to us. Spirituality 'concerns our world-view - what makes us 'tick', and gives meaning and purpose to our lives' (Moss, 2005. p. 12). Social workers are so often called on to deal with 'why' questions as well as issues of meaning and purpose, even if the concept of spirituality is never explicitly mentioned (Moss, 2005, p. 12; Parsloe, 1999; Rice, 2002). Spirituality and religion are fundamental to all human cultures. Although Australia and New Zealand can be seen as postmodern, secular and multicultural societies, in which formal religious adherence has declined, there is no indication that people are any less spiritual (Bouma, 2006). New Zealand and Australia have particularly mixed population groups, with diverse traditions differing in ethnicity and language, religion and spirituality. Spirituality may permeate all aspects of people's lives and is an active area of interest for many. Yet the assumptions of some secular cultures about spiritualities may mean that they are unacknowledged, made invisible or actively denied. Empirical research finds that helping professionals are less religious or spiritual than those whom they serve. Moreover. the research finds that service users for whom religion and spirituality are important are often mistrustful of helping professionals in particular (Roenig et al., 2001; Roenig et al.. 2012). This gap between helping professionals and service users has major practical implications for whether religious and/or spiritual people feel able to work with helping professionals and how they are treated when they do.