Association of Catholic Mental Health Ministers

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Ministries at Work

Stories from Mental Health Ministries
- The stories of Mental Health Ministry are filled with lessons, hope, and are a reflection of Christ’s mercy and love. Throughout the globe parishes, dioceses, and Catholic organizations have brought this ministry to those in their community. Through their dedication to accompany those living with mental illness and mental health concerns, they are bringing the light of Christ to others. Read the stories below. Check out the resources they have created. And see how the Holy Spirit might be inviting you to start a ministry in your community.
Diocese of Orange County
- Sometimes God will call us into this ministry in mysterious ways. Sometimes in painful ways. Sometimes in ways that are foggy every step of the way. From clinician to minister, leading the Orange County Diocesan wide Mental Health Ministry, Margery Arnold has led 15 parishes within Orange County as they collaborated with community agencies, organizations, and mental health providers to bring the light of Christ to those in their diocese. As she puts it, they are “stretcher-bearers and hope holders.”
  
  In launching this ministry, the Mental Health Ministry team has 3 goals.
  
  To lower or eliminate stigma in the parishes, paving a way to better welcome and love one another.
  
  To increase the likelihood that parishioners will "reach in" when they see someone in need of accompaniment.
  
  To increase the likelihood that there will be a group of parishioners who feel equipped to provide prayerful companionship, emotional and practical support, and links to mental health and other community resources.
  
  As a body is one though it has many parts, and all the parts of the body, though many, are one body, so also Christ. - 1 Corinthians 12
  
  This ministry is filled with successes and trials. It cannot be done alone. As a Mental Health Ministry team, each member of the team recognizes the gifts that they have been uniquely called and created to use within this ministry. When the team works together, the work becomes sustainable and joyful. The path through this ministry is not always known, but we must trust in the Holy Spirit to provide for us, both ministers and individuals living with the mental health concern. We must trust that the Holy Spirit will provide us with the people, gifts, and resources needed to continue to say, “yes” to Mental Health Ministry.
  
  Stigma and fear are very real components of this ministry. This is where education comes into play. Through programs such as the Sanctuary for Catholics course, the team can provide for themselves and the greater parish community a foundation and an invitation to greater conversation and understanding of what it means to accompany those living with a mental health concern. But, parish education events alone are not always enough. Reaching out to local Catholic newspapers, radio stations, podcasts, and other forms of media, provide additional educational opportunities for both the Catholic community and the community at large.
  
  One of the greatest lessons learned comes from involving individuals living with a mental illness and their loved ones in leadership in the ministry. This became critical to the ministry’s success. Do not be afraid to invite and learn from those most affected by mental illness. Learn from their story. Accompany each other.
  
  “We are joyful, connected, and creative missionary disciples.”
St. Joachim, Diocese of Orange
- What our community of Faith can do to minister a person who has a mental illness.
  The dignity of the individual is paramount in our belief that we are all created in the image and likeness of God. Our language and our actions should reflect that belief. When talking about mental illness, we should use “people first language.” We refer to people as the person they are - not the disease they have. So, we say “a person who has a mental illness” or “a man or woman with a mental illness.” We avoid referring to people using terms like “the mentally ill” or “the depressed,” or even worse terms “he/she is crazy”. We want to be known for who we are and not by the illness we have. We are more than the illness! As Christians and people with compassion we should never use stigmatizing language or demeaning terms when referring to people with an illness.
  
  Careful use of language is a way of communicating that people with mental illness, as Pope John Paul II said, “have the inalienable right not only to be considered as an image of God and therefore as a person, but also to be treated as such.”
  
  We make the dignity of the individual real by following the example Jesus gave us. Jesus calls us to seek out and include people in our faith community who are suffering and isolated. Jesus gave us many examples like story of the Good Samaritan who helped someone when no one else would, and the story of the father of the prodigal son that teaches us about unconditional love. It is when we love in these ways that we experience the love that God has for us.
- Lo que nuestra Comunidad de Fe puede hacer para ministrar a las personas con enfermedades mentales y a sus familias.
  
  La dignidad del individuo es primordial en nuestra creencia de que todos somos creados a imagen y semejanza de Dios. Nuestro lenguaje y nuestras acciones deben reflejar esa creencia. Cuando hablamos de enfermedades mentales, deberíamos usar un lenguaje que pone en primer lugar el individuo. Nos referimos a las personas tal como son, no como la enfermedad que tienen. Por eso decimos, “una persona que tiene una enfermedad mental” o “un hombre o una mujer con una enfermedad mental.” Evitamos refiriéndonos a las personas utilizando términos como “enfermos mentales” o “la depresión,” o incluso peores términos. Todos queremos ser conocidos por la persona que somos no por la enfermedad que tenemos. ¡Somos más que la enfermedad que tenemos! Como personas de compasión y justicia, nunca debemos usar lenguaje estigmatizador o términos degradantes cuando nos referimos a personas con una enfermedad.
  
  El uso cuidadoso del lenguaje es una forma de comunicar que las personas con enfermedades mentales, como dijo el Papa Juan Pablo II, “tienen el derecho inalienable no solo de ser consideradas como una imagen de Dios y, por lo tanto, como personas, sino también de ser tratadas como tales."
  
  Hacemos real la dignidad del individuo siguiendo el ejemplo que Jesús nos dio. Jesús nos llama a buscar e incluir a personas en nuestra comunidad de fe que sufren y están aisladas. Jesús nos dio muchos ejemplos, como la historia del buen samaritano que ayudó a alguien cuando nadie más lo haría, y la historia del padre del hijo pródigo que nos enseña sobre el amor incondicional. Cuando amamos de esta manera, experimentamos el amor que Dios tiene por nosotros.
Diocese of Rockford
- Starting a ministry, one that carries both a sense of newness and stigma around issues and concerns the people the ministry will accompany is not an easy task. When we see a need for a specific ministry and feel the tug (or more often a push) from the Holy Spirit, we want everything to happen at lighting speed. This desired speed and sense of urgency can have us feeling less than adequate when God has a different pace and/or the world around us slows us down. The pandemic slowed many of us down, but we can take this new pace and sit in frustration, or embrace the doors that the Holy Spirit are opening in our ministry and in our parish life. In Rockford, IL, the Mental Health Minsters are embracing the slower start as they build both community support, and lay the groundwork for education. Starting with the Sanctuary for Catholics 8-Part course, (to learn more about this course, click here) one parish is engaging its parishioners and breaking down the stigma of mental health in the Church. Through this course, bulletin announcements, and one-on-one engagement, slow and steady will build a sustainable and flourishing Diocesan wide ministry. As this year unfolds, there will be moments for continued education for each minister, prayer, faith formation, all while cultivating a community. They understand the need to balance both the clinical and the ministry, to know that their job is to minister and support, not solve all ills. They understand the need to be a community of faith, in addition to a ministers, to take care of one another so that burnout and distress is prevented as much as possible. Rockford has created some beautiful resources that we share with you now that might help you find ways to launch a ministry and discover ways how to keep the momentum going, without extinguishing the light.
St. Thomas of Canterbury Church, California
- Engagement of parish leadership is not always an easy task. Our priests often have full calendars and many demands, adding one more ministry sometimes feels like it might break the camels back, yet, there are simple ways we can engage our priests and bishops and as we have learned from St. Thomas of Canterbury Church in California. With their grant they were able to focus on building awareness, spend time identifying the needs of the community, and provide training in Mental Health Ministry. By building a foundation within the parish membership, they were able to take the leadership of the ministry off the shoulders of the pastor and instead engage the leadership as a friend of the ministry instead of the sole minster. Regardless of who leads this ministry, one should never do it alone. By establishing 2-3 ministry leads, the work load becomes manageable for a volunteer team. If the Lord is calling you to lead this ministry, don’t be afraid to take the role, build a team, and invite your pastor to become a friend of the ministry.
Hear about San Francisco's Mental Health Ministry got Started
- Key Takeaways from Washington D.C.
  
  Virtual training CAN work! Break it into small chucks, creating a series via webinar, live Zoom calls, or YouTube video series.
  
  Social Media is where the secular world and the faith world meet. Don’t be afraid to use the various platforms to promote resources, educational events,
  
  Be Connectors! Invite members of our parish (including your pastor) to participate in discussions, connect people and resources to each other.
  
  Support the existing health ministries in your parish or diocese. You never know when overlap will occur or when you could support/partner with each other.
  
  Consider having an ASL interrupter at your events, meetings, and programs.
  Idea from St. Nicholas and St. William in California: Use existing films to enhance your ministry offerings. Fils such as Angst, LIKE, and The Upstanders can provide meaningful moments for your community. You never know what discussions it might prompt.
Holy Spirit Church, California
- Work small. Don’t be afraid of Small Groups. (8-10 people including the facilitators.) It is the perfect size to cultivate discussion. Us scripture as a guide, talk about real mental health issues, and invite God intro your healing process. Get started! No one is perfect, but everyone can inspire a community free from judgement, open to the movement of the Holy Spirit.
Archdiocese of Los Angeles
- People in our faith communities are hungry for information on Mental Health. This is something that the Diocese of LA discovered and worked with as they built and expanded their Mental Health Ministry. LA started with basic communication. Hosting general info Martian webinars/info sessions on Mental Health Ministry helped them gain perspective as to how many people might be interested. This was followed up with a 4 week training series that helped provide a much desired depth to what mental health ministry means for LA and lead to the momentum they found throughout this past years. Each program added more information, found greater depths, and has lead a robust training program where perspective and current mental health minsters learned from mental health professionals that were not only experts in the field of mental health, but also well versed in parish ministry. LA found a balanced blend of both the knowledge of the clinician and the desired outcomes of the ministry. Their success had not been without its lessons. Planning head, and having a portfolio of communication materials before launch would have been helpful. This would allow each participant to put the next event or training on their calendar will in advance, but it would also allow the ministry team space to not scramble at the last minute. As many ministries discover, this truly needs to be a team effort, it needs to come with networking, fellowship, and partnership both with fellow ministries, but also within the greater diocesan community. One other tip the would give fellow mental health ministries that they wish the did from the start, offer a toolkit at the end of the initial training so that ministers know how to bring this work into their parishes. Sometimes given a step by step guide to what to do is enough to help a parish take the first team, and then dare to open up for the Holy Spirit to flesh out the rest.
- Key Takeaways from St. Thomas the Apostle, Illinois
  
  Collaborate with other ministries to offer prayer services devoted to Mental Health. This can be done in simple ways such as having the prayer intentions all relating to Mental Health, or select readings that relate to the dignity of human life as your focus.
  
  Offer presentations that are specific to an age group. Offer one to Youth, Young Adults, Families, Older Adults. Have appropriate themes for each.
  
  Invite various individuals to present at a 5-night program such as a deacon, mental health professional, spiritual director, Grief Group facilitators, and so on. During these 5 nights, engage in small digestible moments of prayer, mental health education, and dialogue.
  
  Encourage your team to take Mental Health First Aid.
  
  Collaborate!
  
  Offer a St. Dymphna Mass
  
  Create something tangible that you can hand out, place in the bulletins, or have in a parish library. This could be a one page flyer that has quick facts, a prayer, and contact information for the ministry team and local resources, or create a panel or bookmark with similar information to the flyer.
An Idea from Kansas City, KS
- Start a book group, to grow in faith, education, and community. Select a book that will inspire conversation about mental health and the Church. Engage is discussion about how you might build a mental health ministry in your parish, all it takes is one person to answer “Yes!” Allowing the Holy Spirit to move through that “Yes” and build what is needed in your unique community. Kansas City chose The Depression Cure by Stephen S. Illardi.
Lessons from Established Ministries
- Consider the spiritual and mental well-being of your team. Provide moments for rest, faith development, and social connection. Spiritual care can never be underestimated.
- Your mental health education never ends! Continue to learn, grow, and expand your mental health knowledge/literacy. This will only enhance how you are able to accompany those who come to this ministry seeking the light of Chris
- ENGAGE THE CLERGY! We need their support, their confidence, and input. With our priests and bishops supporting us, we ourselves find the confidence it takes to lead when we are called to this role of Mental Health Minister.