Mental Health & People of Faith: Becoming an Equipped and Caring Congregation

People with mental disorders and their loved ones fill our pews, our streets and our jails. To help address this reality, Mountain Desert District Justice Ministries is offering a fall program that helps congregations in supporting those with mental disorders and their families. Increasingly, mental health practitioners are coming to recognize the value and importance of religious community in coping with the real anxieties that come from living in a chaotic and sometimes de-humanizing world.

Mental Health and People of Faith is an opportunity to not only become educated but also a time to engage with other lay and professional religious leaders on an important topic that too often remains closeted in our congregations. For example, 10-25% of women and 5-12% of men develop depression sometime in their life. It takes a toll on the person, family members, the workplace and all of the person’s associations, including the church. It keeps one from becoming what one wants to be, and doing what one wants to do with one’s life. In suicide, depression is often an underlying condition. Informed and equipped congregations can literally help saves lives.

Topics to be covered in October include mental disorders and myths, understanding and care of mental disorders including depression, anxiety, mood, and personality disorders along with the opportunity to share congregational stories. All congregational care-givers and particularly those of you involved in RE programming will want to learn about children’s mental health and the healing process.

Unlike in the past, today there is increased awareness of the beneficial relationship between spirituality, organized religion, and mental health. Congregations offer a structure for reducing existential anxiety in a chaotic world offering a sense of hope, meaning, and purpose and thus emotional well-being. This compelling, interactive, and affordable program offers church staff, seminarians, and leadership teams a day filled with inspirational expertise and practical training.

It’s probably worth a conversation. If you need help, we’re always here! 

Our facilitator, Rev. Barbara Meyers, is the author of The Caring Congregation Handbook, a program for educating congregations about becoming intentionally supportive of people with mental disorders and their families. Affiliated with the Mission Peak Congregation in Fremont, CA, the Reverend Meyers produces a monthly public access TV program called Mental Health Matters.

Registration Deadline: October 15, 2010

See the full event description, download a flyer, and register online here!

Posted Monday, 30 August 2010 15:53 Written by Deborah Holder