Page 181 - Creating Spiritual and Psychological Resilience

150 Creating Spiritual and Psychological Resilence

languages.” Confusion and misunderstandings are not uncommon.
Conflicts with role differentiation, terminology, authority, boundaries,
trust, and communication must be identified by those willing to resolve
them and resolved by those able to work together. Sometimes being well
intentioned, eager to be of service, and concerned about the well-being of
those we are serving can become testy. Everyone brings something from
his or her own history to the situation at hand. Everyone wants to be as
helpful as possible. Mental health workers do not always trust that spiri-
tual care providers will recognize that sometimes people’s emotional and
psychological needs go beyond what the spiritual care provider can handle.
Spiritual care providers, in turn, may feel that their skills are not valued
and, at times, are negated by the mental health professionals. In the midst
of disorganized chaos, the organizational structure of disaster response
threatens to break down. This is exactly the worst time for this to happen.
In contrast, those seeking true collaboration recognize that a disas-
ter site is no place for competition and that no one discipline is the final
authority. Rather, those groups designated as leads retain equal status in
the partnership. In the ideal world, disaster operations in which mental
health providers report to a mental health lead, spiritual care providers
report to a spiritual care lead, and the two leads collaborate as equals
reporting to a job director is the most effective model. When the two
leads do not collaborate and instead one or both communicate only to the
job director, the chaos inherent in any disaster situation is exacerbated,
duplication of effort occurs, and the relationship between the two leads
becomes strained and characterized by mistrust. The result of this is that
clients do not receive the best care as energy and efforts are diverted to the
relationship difficulties of the two disciplines.
In communities, and among representative organizations where devel-
oping effective collaboration between mental health and spiritual care has
been a priority, the relationship between the disciplines could be likened
to a dance. With individual clients and sometimes communities, there
are times when one leads, another follows, the roles can change, and the
movement is fluid. There needs to be an implicit trust that, when one group
takes the lead, the other will stand by to assist as needed. This trust devel-
ops as with any other relationship, across time and experience together as
each discipline learns that the other has an inclusive, open, and nonter-
ritorial framework.
Each disaster is different, although always chaotic and ripe for com-
munication gaps. When individual responders have been well prepared,
in both the theoretical and response level, and when the leads and team