ABSTRACT
Here, I move to engaging with how the organisational, community and policy contexts can all influence how spirituality is considered and how they are included – or not in practice. It may be that in order to build spiritually critical practice, the emphasis for change needs to be on one or all of these contexts rather than individual change. Each will have implicit or explicit assumptions related to spirituality and religion that may need to be articulated, reinforced for challenged. Some social workers work in secular organisations, others in ‘faith-based’ organisations and each can generate dilemmas for workers about how to practice including the spiritual. Policies influence all domains of practice and reflect social structures and expectations which social workers might affirm or seek to change from a socially just perspective. Social work also has a part to play in fostering celebration of religious and spiritual diversity in communities. This chapter takes each of these three aspects of social work and uses examples to explore how to build spiritually inclusive practice.
