Spirituality, Culture, and the Process of Assessment in Recovery

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.