Social work and faith-based agencies in Sweden and Australia

The roles which faith-based agencies play in social work provision vary between countries. This article provides an overview of social work provision by the Church of Sweden in Sweden and the Catholic Church in Australia and explores how different relationships between faith-based organizations and professional social work practice have emerged in different countries. The article concludes with questions about the role of faith-based agencies which readers can reflect upon in their own contexts.

An integrated spiritual practice framework for use within social work

Social work continues to move towards the incorporation of spirituality within social work theory and practice, yet gaps remain at many levels. The current dearth of theorization of spirituality in social work has created a situation where individual social workers wishing to include spirituality in their practice are forced to rely on their own initiative and inventiveness, with no clear theoretical, practical, or ethical guidelines. This article presents the beginnings of an integrated spiritual practice framework which may help to address some of these concerns. This research scrutinized the proposed Integrated Spiritual Practice Framework (ISPF) through literature survey of three spiritual ideologies (Hinduism, Islam, and Buddhism) using the process of metatriangulation. The study found that each ideological perspective provided evidence and support for the structures and concepts of the ISPF. Through the analysis and theory building process, each ideology contributed greater understanding of components of the ISPF, resulting in a more sophisticated and developed framework for integrating spirituality within social work.

Spiritual paradigms : a response to concerns within social work in relation to the inclusion of spirituality

The current exploration to incorporating spirituality within social work has left many unanswered questions. This paper explores four identified spiritual paradigms articulated and authenticated through the survey of literature of three spiritual ideologies (Hinduism, Islam, and Buddhism) using the process of meta-triangulation. This paper offers the beginnings of a possible answer to some of the central questions, through the articulation of spiritual paradigms that already exist in a language and format that will make them accessible to social work.