African-American Men’s Belief Systems

“A book about caregiving can’t be written,” one of our caregivers said, “without some discussion of our spiritual life.” Our caregiving respondents noted the importance of their religious and spiritual beliefs as a means for coping with the daily stress of caregiving. Men’s faith offered guidelines for the morality or “rightness” of caregiving. Prayer was a vehicle used to ask God for help, particularly when in distress. For the most part, men believed that God, Allah, or a Higher Power ultimately controlled the precariousness of the caregiving situation. Religious services and fellow church members often provided camaraderie and sometimes respite for the caregiver. Men’s faith became an internal well in which they laid conflicting emotions to rest and drew a continuing spring of strength and peace.