NYAPRS: The following comes from OMH’s Bureau of Cultural Competence, which seeks to promote engagement of staff and consumers in the creation of Multicultural Spirituality Groups at New York State’s Office of Mental Health (OMH) funded programs. The BCC will provide support and assistance with provision of free training, supports, and resources to establish Spirituality Support Groups within  New York State’s Behavioral Health System.

BCC asks that you review the announcement below and follow-up with a call to the BCC to schedule a training.  

Send questions to frances.priestermoss@omh.ny.gov or at 518-473-4144.

The New York State Office of Mental Health, Bureau of Cultural Competence (BCC) is continuing to offer the training on Conducting Multicultural Spirituality Groups in Behavioral Health Treatment Settings for Inpatient and Outpatient Programs and other Behavioral Health Settings.

In this training, we will review the Manual:  Conducting Multicultural Spirituality Groups in Behavioral Health Treatment Settings: A Group Leader Guide available by download at:  http://ssrdqst.rfmh.org/cecc/sites/ssrdqst.rfmh.org.cecc/UserFiles/spiritgrpmanual.pdf.

The manual presents a format for conducting culturally sensitive group discussions focusing on spirituality to promote mental health. With illustrative examples, it describes how to facilitate participants’ drawing on their spiritual resources to deal with the problems of daily living and the challenges of moving toward a stable and gratifying life.  In order to do this, the group format is designed to focus on how members can identify their own inner strengths and values, ones compatible with their cultural, ethnic, and faith backgrounds.  Conduct of the groups is free of any specific religious or denominational orientation; however, specific attention is paid to issues that reflect sensitivity to the cultural background of the groups.

This manual is the product of a decade of award-winning clinical innovation and research at the Center for Spirituality and Healthcare, located at NYU Langone Medical Center and Bellevue Hospital.  The Center is affiliated with the Nathan Kline Institute for Psychiatric Research, and most recently, with its Center of Excellence in Culturally Competent Mental Health, directed by Carole Siegel, Ph.D.  The overall mission of the manual and the training sessions is: “to promote the conception that good health is premised on one’s enhanced personal meaning and spiritual fulfillment, and not just on physical wellbeing.” (Marc Galanter, MD: Preface to “Conducting Multicultural Spirituality Discussion Groups”).

BCC will provide training and resources to assist behavioral health clinicians to develop and implement spirituality groups within their agency or program. These are not webinars.  They are face to face trainings organized by you at your location with a minimum participation of 15, but no more than 20 participants.  The training session will run for two hours and will consist of group member introductions, a power point presentation, with the accompanying manual as a guide, and a simulated hour long spirituality group conducted with participants.

For scheduling training sessions, please have your staff contact Frances Priester Moss at 518-473-4144 or send an email to frances.priestermoss@omh.ny.gov