Just a few years ago, stories on religion and mental health were more likely to be about faith leaders ostracizing congregants with mental disorders than offering them help. That’s starting to change as houses of worship increasingly reject harmful practices and seek to connect members with meaningful resources. 

Earlier this month, Faith & Leadership wrote about a North Carolina congregation facing a suicide epidemic. Rather than preach on why such deaths are sinful, the church created new discussion groups on suffering and mourning. It will soon hire a wellness director to supervise the ongoing response. 

This edition of ReligionLink offers the tools you’ll need to cover developments like that in your region. The relationship between faith communities and mental health professionals is still imperfect, but solutions-oriented stories may help your readers bring about more positive changes.

Background reading

• Read “A church invests in mental health in response to parishioners’ suffering” from Faith & Leadership on July 9, 2019. 
• Read “‘Don’t worry about being perfect’: Faith leaders will address suicide and mental health during the national weekend of prayer” from the Deseret News on Sept. 5, 2018. 
• Read “These faith-based communities are building out mental health programs to serve their congregations” from Mic on May 31, 2018. 
• Read “The role faith leaders can play in preventing and responding to suicide” from the Deseret News on May 22, 2018. 
• Listen to the Keep Asking podcast’s interview with Gary Sibcy on April 6, 2018. 
• Read “Christian faith communities are often on the front lines of mental health care” from Vox on Oct. 6, 2017. 
• Read “Mental illness rarely addressed by churches” from Religion News Service on Sept. 22, 2014. 
• Watch “Treating mental illness with medicine and religion in India” from PBS NewsHour on Sept. 10, 2014. 
• Read “Saving minds along with souls” from The New York Times on April 18, 2014. 
• Read “Suicide of star pastor Rick Warren’s son sparks debate about mental illness” from The Washington Post on April 10, 2013.

Relevant research

• Read “Religion’s relationship to happiness, civic engagement and health around the world” from Pew Research Center on Jan. 31, 2019. 
• Read “Mental health: Strengthening our response” from the World Health Organization on March 30, 2018. 
• Explore the latest statistics on mental illness in the U.S. from the National Institute of Mental Health.
• Read “Suicide remains a taboo topic at churches” from LifeWay Research on Sept. 29, 2017. 
• Read “American values, mental health and using technology in the age of Trump” from Baylor University in September 2017. 
• Read “Suicide is an epidemic, but doesn’t lead to hell, Americans say” from LifeWay Research on Aug. 21, 2015. 
• Read “Young adult American-born Muslims and mental health: An exploration of attitudes, challenges and needs” from The Institute for Social Policy and Understanding on Dec. 31, 2014.  
• Read “Mental illness remains a taboo topic for many pastors” from LifeWay Research on Sept. 22, 2014. 
• Read “Mental health: Half of evangelicals believe prayer can heal mental illness” from LifeWay Research on Sept. 17, 2013.

U.S. sources

• Sameera Ahmed

  Sameera Ahmed is a fellow at the Institute for Social Policy and Understanding and an assistant clinical professor in the department of psychiatry and behavioral neurosciences at Wayne State University in Michigan. She is co-editor of Counseling Muslims: Handbook of Mental Health Issues and Interventions. 

• Kelly Brill

  The Rev. Kelly Brill is senior minister at Avon Lake United Church of Christ in Avon Lake, Ohio. In 2012, after officiating the previous summer at funerals for five people who had killed themselves, Brill worked with the local chapter of the National Alliance on Mental Illness to offer a free series of classes for friends and relatives of people suffering from mental illness.

• Chip Edens

  The Rev. Chip Edens is rector of Christ Episcopal Church in Charlotte, North Carolina. After his church community experienced six suicides in five years, Edens and other congregational leaders decided in 2019 to hire a wellness director.

• Debra Flics

  Debra Flics is a psychotherapist in New York City. She has written about why some efforts to use Buddhist practices to treat mental illness are misguided.

• Paul Froese

  Paul Froese is a professor of sociology at Baylor University and research fellow for the school’s Institute for Studies of Religion. He is the author of several books, including On Purpose: How We Create the Meaning of Life.

• Susan Gregg-Schroeder

  The Rev. Susan Gregg-Schroeder is a United Methodist minister in San Diego and coordinator of Mental Health Ministries, an effort that grew from her own experience of depression. She is the author of a paper, “Mental Illness and Families of Faith: How Churches Can Respond.”

• Hamada Halid Altalib

  Hamada Halid Altalib is the editor-in-chief of the Journal of Muslim Mental Health and one of the founding directors of the Institute of Muslim Mental Health. He is an associate professor of neurology and psychiatry at Yale University.

• Ron Hawkins

  Ron Hawkins is a member of the executive advisory board for the American Association of Christian Counselors.

• Marya Hornbacher

  Marya Hornbacher is a writer and nonbeliever who has written widely of her own struggles with mental illness. She is the author of Waiting: A Nonbeliever’s Higher Power, which explores what spirituality can mean to nonbelievers recovering from a mental illness.

• Aaron Kheriaty

  Aaron Kheriaty is the director of the bioethics program at the University of California, Irvine, School of Medicine. He wrote The Catholic Guide to Depression: How the Saints, the Sacraments and Psychiatry Can Help You Break Its Grip and Find Happiness Again.

• Warren Kinghorn

  Warren Kinghorn studies the role faith communities play in responding to mental illness. He is an associate research professor of pastoral and moral theology at Duke Divinity School and an associate professor of psychiatry at Duke University Medical Center.

• Molly McGurk

  Molly McGurk is the director of mental health services for Jewish Family Services of Greater Kansas City. Her organization also leads the Greater Kansas City Mental Health Coalition, which aims to reduce the stigma of mental illness.

• Barbara F. Meyers

  The Rev. Barbara F. Meyers leads mental health ministry for Mission Peak Unitarian Universalist Congregation in Fremont, California.

• Gary Sibcy

  Gary Sibcy is a licensed clinical psychologist and professor of counselor education at Liberty University. He has spoken about how pastors can prepare to help congregants experiencing a mental health crisis.

• Matthew Stanford

  Matthew Stanford is CEO of the Hope and Healing Center and Institute in Houston and an expert on mental illness and the church. He is the author of Grace for the Afflicted: A Clinical and Biblical Perspective on Mental Illness. He has studied how seminaries prepare students to address mental illness within faith communities.

• Ed Stetzer

  Ed Stetzer holds the Billy Graham Chair of Church, Mission and Evangelism at Wheaton College and serves as executive director of the school’s Billy Graham Center for Evangelism. He was formerly the executive director of Lifeway Research, a division of Lifeway Christian Resources of the Southern Baptist Convention. He blogs on a variety of subjects related to American evangelicalism for Christianity Today.

• Laura Turner

  Laura Turner is a Christian writer and journalist who frequently explores the intersection of religion and mental health.

• Lindsay Wilkinson

  Lindsay Wilkinson is an assistant professor of sociology at Baylor University, where she studies medical sociology, aging and social stratification. She has assisted in several Baylor religion studies, including research on religion and mental health.

• Michael R. Zedek

  Rabbi Michael R. Zedek is rabbi emeritus of Emanuel Congregation in Chicago. He wrote a chapter on religion and mental health from the Jewish perspective for the Handbook of Religion and Mental Health.

International sources

• Carlos Eduardo Amaral

  Carlos Eduardo Amaral is a professor of collective health at the University of Campinas in Brazil. He has studied how patients access mental health care in Brazil, which includes seeking faith healing or speaking with a religious leader.

• Ricardo Araya

  Ricardo Araya directs the Centre for Global Mental Health at King’s College London. He specializes in developing affordable treatments to mental disorders and implementing them in resource-poor countries.

• Milesh Hamlai

  Milesh Hamlai helped increase access to and use of medical treatments for mental illness in Ahmedabad, India, by creating the Dava and Dua Program, which seeks to bridge the gap between modern medicine and faith healing.

• Mark van Ommeren

  Mark van Ommeren studies how traumatic experiences affect mental wellness for the World Health Organization.

Related ReligionLinks

• Mental illness: What is the role of the church, temple, mosque?
• Faith and mental illness: Churches open up on treatment