Critical response to “grief and spirituality: main issues and implications for generalist social work and its framework guideline”

This letter critically responds to Kaňák’s article on grief and spirituality in generalist social work. While the article offers a useful bibliometric map and a practice-oriented framework, it risks overextending conclusions from a narrow Web of Science corpus and underdeveloping power, culture, aging, and ethics. I argue that future work should integrate intersectional, gerontological, and practice-based evidence, clarify referral boundaries, and test the proposed guidelines empirically so spiritually sensitive bereavement care can avoid both secular neglect and uncritical spiritualization in diverse social work settings worldwide.

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Publication Details

Journal
Journal of Religion & Spirituality in Social Work Social Thought
Published
2026-09-17
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1080/15426432.2026.2734563
Primary Topic
Grief, Bereavement, and Mental Health
Type
article
Field-Weighted Citation Impact
0.00
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article

Critical response to “grief and spirituality: main issues and implications for generalist social work and its framework guideline”

Mukhamad Zulianto
Journal of Religion & Spirituality in Social Work Social Thought
Grief, Bereavement, and Mental Health
article

Critical response to “grief and spirituality: main issues and implications for generalist social work and its framework guideline”

Mukhamad Zulianto
article en

Abstract

This letter critically responds to Kaňák’s article on grief and spirituality in generalist social work. While the article offers a useful bibliometric map and a practice-oriented framework, it risks overextending conclusions from a narrow Web of Science corpus and underdeveloping power, culture, aging, and ethics. I argue that future work should integrate intersectional, gerontological, and practice-based evidence, clarify referral boundaries, and test the proposed guidelines empirically so spiritually sensitive bereavement care can avoid both secular neglect and uncritical spiritualization in diverse social work settings worldwide.

Journal of Religion & Spirituality in Social Work Social Thought
National Dong Hwa University (TW)
Reduced inequalities
Openalex Percentile: Top 7%
Grief, Bereavement, and Mental Health
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