The impact of religion/ spirituality on social workers’ daily practice

Abstract

Although social work can trace the roots of its establishment as a profession to religion/spirituality, the relationship between social work and religion/spirituality has deteriorated due to the former’s professionalisation and secularisation. Nevertheless, religious/spiritual values are important for many social work services and for the practice of the profession. It is, hence, worth demarcating the role of religion/spirituality for frontline social workers. In the current qualitative study, repeated interviews were conducted with 11 Chinese social workers from diverse social work settings. It was noted that Eastern and Western religion/spirituality can instil meaning and value in the profession’s nature.