Spirituality and the Needs of Those with Autistic Spectrum Conditions: Some Implications for ‘Spiritual Care’ Policies

This publication is included in the Autistic Autism Scholarship Project. one author of this publication is identified as autistic in the project.

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Barber, C. & Kevern, P. (2011). Spirituality and the Needs of Those with Autistic Spectrum Conditions: Some Implications for ‘Spiritual Care’ Policies. Journal for the Study of Spirituality, 1(2), 203-214. https://doi.org/10.1558/jss.v1i2.203

Publication date: 17 Nov 2011 Added to AutiHub: 7 Sep 2026 Type: Article Article language: English
Publisher source (DOI) OpenAlex source

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Authors

Publication authors
2
Publication authors identified as autistic
1 / 2 (50.0%)
  1. Christopher Barber *
  2. Peter Kevern

Abstract

The rediscovery of spirituality in the last fifty years, particularly in secular institutions in the UK such as the National Health Service (NHS), has been characterized by an emerging stress on relationships, affective attachment and experiences of connectedness. This has been expressed in ‘spiritual care’ strategies that separate spirituality from any reference to religion. Although the intention may be to widen the remit of spiritual care to include people of all religions and none, this approach may paradoxically exclude those whose spirituality is not expressed primarily in affective terms.In this article these issues are discussed through reflection on the experience of one of the authors, a nurse with a diagnosis of high-functioning autism. The argument is made that an individualistic and ritually impoverished generic spirituality is not adequate to the demands of social inclusion on the one hand or religious validity on the other. Public institutions such as the National Health Service (NHS) need to engage with both the social and historical practices of religious communities if they are not to exclude vulnerable individuals from the provision of ‘spiritual care’.

Bibliography cited by this reference

Cited references are imported from external metadata sources when they are available. The list may be partial.

Cited bibliography overview

These indicators describe the bibliography cited by this publication. An author name is counted each time it appears in one cited reference, so the same person can be counted more than once. Names not yet linked to an author already present in AutiHub are treated as unknown, not as non-autistic. Last computed: 12 Sep 2026 01:04.

Cited references
28
With a DOI
11
Without a DOI, from raw bibliography text
14
1 / 28 (3.6%) cited references include at least one author identified as autistic.
References with data to complete
17 / 28 (60.7%)
References with detected author names
12 / 28 (42.9%)
Without detected author names
16
Without a structured title
14
Without a stable identifier
14
References with raw author names still to review
13
References with external metadata lookup issues
1
These indicators apply to cited references displayed on this page, after technical duplicates have been merged. A reference without a DOI can still support author statistics when a title and author names are available.
Author names detected in the cited bibliography
17
From DOI or external metadata
16
From validated raw bibliography text
1
Raw names already validated
1
Raw names still to review
17
3 / 17 (17.6%) names are linked to an author already present in AutiHub. 14 / 17 (82.4%) names are not yet linked.
Names linked to a person identified as autistic
1 / 17 (5.9%)
Calculated across all author names detected in the cited bibliography. Among names linked to an author already present in AutiHub: 1 / 3 (33.3%). Distinct people identified as autistic: 1 / 16 (6.2%).
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