The Needs for Psycho Spiritual Competencies for Disaster Workers in Malaysia

Natural Disaster such as big flood, earthquake, tsunamis, volcanic eruptions, fire raze, landslide, and other kinds of disaster always occurred everywhere in the world. The role of disaster workers is crucial in saving the victims in a critical situation where the inner strength to confront the dangerous situation and comfort the victims is needed. This study examines whether the training content to disaster workers possess sufficient knowledge and skills to cater the physical needs, as well as the emotional turmoil and instability situation, occurred to the victims. The secondary data sought from library and website research, scholars’ opinion from journals published and past research conducted. The psycho-spiritual competencies from the conventional and Islamic perspectives are highlighted. Differences in the two approaches were compared and evaluated. The finding shows that the disaster workers require both conventional and Islamic approaches of psycho-spiritual competencies to cater to the needs of disaster victims during the rescue process take place. Hence, Islamic psycho spiritual competencies contribute to the inner strength of the Muslim disaster workers as its emblem the soul and the spiritual heart qalb which correlated as the determinant factor of the well-being of the physical body of the human being.

A novel training program for mental health providers in spiritual competencies

Religion and spirituality are areas of diversity and multiculturalism that have yet to be comprehensively addressed in most mental health training programs. Without this type of training, many practitioners lack the competence and confidence to engage in spiritually competent care–clinical practice that recognizes the importance of religion and spirituality in people’s identity, worldview, meaning-making and, therefore, their psychological well-being. Emerging research on treatment outcomes and client preferences, as well as professional ethical mandates, support the need for training in spiritual competencies for mental health care. To address the gap between current professional training and the needs and realities of clinical practice, we have developed an online training program to assist practitioners in building their competency and comfort levels in integrating religion and spirituality into treatment. Spiritual Competency Training in Mental Health (SCT-MH) is a seven hour asynchronous, online program consisting of eight modules. The modules are designed to develop basic competency in 16 empirically-derived spiritual competencies in mental health. The content was derived from numerous instructional materials and peer-reviewed publications, with input from leading experts in the field of spirituality and mental health. It is a multidisciplinary program, allowing mental health providers from any discipline and orientation to participate. The material is applicable for working with clients with a wide range of mental health issues from diverse religious and spiritual backgrounds. In this manuscript, we will discuss how the program was developed, what it entails, who it was developed for, and future efforts to test it empirically.