Saturday, September 27, 2003
Faith, mental health communities reach out together to help mentally ill
Voices in her head were as pronounced in Cynthia Barker's childhood as her love for God.
She remembers when she gave her life to Christ, during a period when she heard voices and tried to take her life.
Now a mental health consumer advocate, Barker felt stymied in handling her illness until her adulthood, when she attended a spiritual renewal program and later was embraced by a church home sensitive to people with mental illness. She told her story during a program Tuesday sponsored by the Mental Illness Awareness Coalition for leaders from faith and mental health communities.
"I always believed there was a God, a kind, loving God to serve," she said. "But I didn't understand why I was experiencing what I was experiencing."
The workshop attempted to share with clergy ways to help people with mental illness. It also served as a way to encourage the mental health community to see clergy as partners in fighting the problem.
At the program, "Burden of Silence: Mental Health Issues and the Faith Community," the audience and panelists said they want to see houses of worship work as adjuncts, not adversaries, to the mental health community.
Many in both communities sought to hold a gathering such as this for years, said Linda Kimmel, coalition chairwoman and director of public relations at Ridgeview, a mental health center in Oak Ridge.
"Sometimes people express their mental disorder in religious language, which may include 'demons' or 'Satan' or 'spirits,' and clergy will deal with it from that perspective before they realize it's a thought disorder, not necessarily a spiritual one," said the Rev. George Doebler, director of the pastoral care department at the University of Tennessee Medical Center. "Clergy may get to the point where they wonder how do they know when to refer people to counselors. We are trying to convey that, to get that dialogue going between clergy and the counseling community."
"From a pastor's standpoint, this is something near and dear to my heart," said the Rev. Steve Streeter, executive pastor of Parkway Christian Fellowship, near McGhee Tyson Airport, as he opened the program to close to 50 people gathered at the Candy Factory Tuesday morning.
"We need more of a dialogue between the faith community and mental health professionals," he said. "I am looking forward to what happens after here as well as to what happens here. Both (the faith and mental health communities) are called to help others. Both are called to treat the whole person."
Sheryl McCormick, a mental health consumer and advocate, said she's bothered when she and others with mental illnesses "can't talk about God to mental health professionals.
"And conversely, we can't talk about our mental illnesses in church," she said. "We're told to pray more, that perhaps we have demons. That all may be true, but this doesn't negate the fact of someone's need for mental health care."
Dr. Brent Coyle, a psychiatrist at Blount Memorial Hospital, cited surveys that indicated some people's religious conflict contributed to their psychology problems.
"Yet over 50 percent said they would like to weave in spiritual components into their care," Coyle said.
"I buy into the fact that people are healed through prayer, meditation and other means, but if it doesn't happen, what kinds of care are available to them afterwards to help them work through a belief that they may have that (there is) something wrong with their faithfulness for God not to heal them?"
There has been a shift toward acceptance of spirituality among mental health professionals, panelists said. They also complimented religious communities that are sensitive to people with mental illness.
The Rev. Bill Fowler, senior pastor of Church Street United Methodist Church, where support groups and programs about mental illness are held, said churches are commissioned to help people with the "spiritual, mental, and physical dimensions of disease in their lives."
Disease, he said, is "that which is not easy, that which is not at peace, that which is not at rest."
Permalink
