Religion and belief

Our members come from diverse ethnic and cultural backgrounds. This means each one will have unique core beliefs and values that are important to them.

These beliefs may guide their lives and can help motivate their practice as psychiatrists. These beliefs might be informed by a religion, a faith tradition or personal spirituality, or they might be inspired by non-religious values and ideas.

This diversity of thought and belief is a great strength to the College and should be celebrated.

The College has a long and proud history of celebrating diversity of belief and thought with three Special Interest Groups (SIGs) working in related areas for many years. More recently they have been considering the College’s commitment to equity, diversity and inclusivity (EDI) and how this relates to religion and belief.

• The Transcultural Psychiatry SIG (TSIG) has done much work to raise the profile of cultural competency and cultural sensitivity. As well as prompting us to explore the culture of our patients the TSIG also helps us reflect on our own culture and how it affects our professional practice in the UK and globally.

• Likewise, the Spirituality in Psychiatry SIG has many resources available on the importance of spiritual care for our patients. This is vital to the person centred, holistic model that the college is advocating for. It is also vital to authentic self-care as professionals working in often challenging circumstances.

• The Philosophy SIG continues to encourage philosophical thought by psychiatrists and analysis of the conceptual issues that lie at the heart of clinical psychiatry. They have championed values-based care which is now widely acknowledged across the NHS, and they have raised awareness of the phenomenological approach to understanding the subjective experience of our patients without imposing external frameworks.