Do clinicians assess patients' religiousness? An audit of an aged psychiatry community team.

OBJECTIVES: To determine the frequency and quality of religious history taking of patients by clinicians working in an old age psychiatry service.

METHODS: A retrospective audit of 80 randomised patient files from the Koropiko Mental Health Services for Older People (MHSOP) in Middlemore Hospital, Auckland, New Zealand.

RESULTS: A total of 66 clinical records were available for analysis. A religious history was taken in 33/66 (50%) patients. However, when such histories were evaluated using the FICA assessment tool, only 10/33 (30.3%) histories contained detailed information regarding the patient's religiousness.

CONCLUSIONS: The infrequency and low quality of religious histories discovered in this audit suggest that clinicians need more training in taking a religious history from patients.