Mental Illnesses are biochemical disruptions that affect the brain and influence human behavior.
Night and day among the tombs and on the mountains he was always howling and bruising himself with stones. ... 'Come out of the man, you unclean spirit!' Then Jesus asked him, 'What is your name?' He replied, “my name is Legion, for we are many…
Mark 5, NRSV
Mental Illnesses may result from genetic or environmental factors or from random breakdown in chemical processing. Some mental illnesses, such as post-traumatic stress disorder, are more properly termed "mental wounds," because they are triggered by the experience of specific traumatic events such as combat, domestic violence, child abuse or rape. The symptoms of Legion resemble dissociative identity disorder, another trauma-based mental wound.
Mental illnesses are a justice issue for several reasons. First, because they affect the mind, they affect human behavior and the ability to maintain relationships, which results in interpersonal difficulties and stigmatization that does not occur in a "physical" illness such as high blood pressure. Second, mental illnesses have been - and to a significant extent still are - treated differently from non-mental illnesses. Insurance companies group them in a different category that often receives less than adequate coverage. State health agencies often provide health care for mental illnesses through different provider networks. The average person often regards a mental illness as carrying a stigma that another illness or injury does not.
Biblical and Theological Context
" 'Mental illness' is a group of brain disorders that cause disturbances of thinking, feeling, and acting. Treatment should recognize the importance of a nonstressful environment, good nutrition, and an accepting community. Treatment should also recognize the importance of medical, psychiatric, emotional and spiritual care, psychotherapy or professional pastoral psychotherapy - in regaining and maintaining health. Churches in every community are called to participate actively in expanding care for the mentally ill and their families and communities." (2008 Book of Resolutions, "Ministries in Mental Illness," ¶3305)
The writers of our Scriptures described mental illnesses as possession by demons. There are a number of accounts of Jesus' compassion on persons whose mental illness was experienced in this fashion. These stories make important points in addition to reminding us that Jesus healed mental illnesses.
Scripture reference: Matthew 12:43-35; Mark 5:1-20 and Acts 16:16-18.
What GBCS Is Doing
We are:
Advocating for parity between mental illness and other illnesses is the primary emphasis for GBCS. We support the Paul Wellstone Mental Health Equitable Treatment Act of 2005 as it is being reintroduced in the 110th Congress.
Collaborating through the United Methodist Mental Illness Network with leaders in Annual Conferences beyond the local church level. Leaders consult with each other through an e-mail discussion group to discuss issues and share experiences.
Sponsoring the Caring Community Program, which seeks to bring all persons into a community of love that is central to the teachings of Christ. The 1996 General Conference passed a resolution calling all United Methodist congregations to become "Caring Communities." Caring Communities are encouraged to establish an education program on mental illness within the congregation; the church council is encouraged to adopt a statement agreeing to be in covenant with persons who have mental illness and their families; the congregation agrees to welcome persons with mental illnesses and publicize their stance; the congregation agrees to identify, develop and encourage means of supporting persons with mental illness and their families; and the congregation agrees to advocate to the community on issues affecting persons with mental illnesses and their families and to the lobby legislative bodies to correct injustices faced by these people.
Collaborating with other faith and Christian denominations through Pathways to Promise: Interfaith Ministries and Mental Illness (www.pathways2promise.org). This coming September 29-October 1 Pathways to Promise is sponsoring is 2009 Faith-Based National Summit at Belleville, IL, “Companions on the Road to Recovery from Mental Illness: Pathways for the 21st Century.”
Tell Your Story at Upcoming Town Hall Forums on Mental Health and Addiction Equity
Has anyone in your congregation been touched by mental illness or addiction? Forums across the United States will provide an important opprotunity to share those stories and help bring about greater justice for those who suffer.
Adopted by the United Methodist General Board of Church and Society in plenary session on October 14, 2001 on "Education for Clergy on Psychological Trauma."
Downloadable Resources
How to Become a Caring Community
This resource provides a series of suggestions on steps congregations can take, in the areas of education, covenant, welcome, support, and advocacy on behalf of persons with mental illness and their families, in order to become a United Methodist Caring Community.
Mental Illness Awareness Resources
This PDF file contains a variety of worship and informational resources suitable for Mental Illness Awareness Week, as well as other times of congregational focus on mental health issues.
Links
May is Mental Health Month
For more than fifty years, our country has celebrated May as Mental Health Month to raise awareness about mental illnesses and the importance of mental wellness for all. Mental Health America invites you to join us in this important observance. National Mental Health Association has resources available on their Web site.
Mental Health Ministries
Mental Health Ministries provides interfaith resources on mental health ministry. The site's sponsor, Rev. Susan Gregg-Schroeder, a United Methodist elder who has personally experienced depression, has helped design and promote a number of these resources.
NAMI FaithNet
NAMI, the National Alliance on Mental Illnesss, is not itself a faith-based organization. However, many of its members have found their religious faith to be an important component of their addressing mental illness and their healing, and the FaithNet section of NAMIs site provides resources addressing stigma, steps to mental illness ministry, examples of advocacy, worship services, and discussion groups.
Pathways to Promise
Pathways to Promise Interfaith Ministries and Mental Illness, is the organization through which United Methodists collaborate on mental illness ministries. Through Pathways to Promise, GBCS and other organizations cooperate in developing resources and events in support of congregational ministries and advocacy.
The rights and privileges a society bestows upon or withholds from those who comprise it indicate the relative esteem in which that society holds particular persons and groups of persons. We affirm all persons as equally valuable in the sight of God. We therefore work toward societies in which each person’s value is recognized, maintained, and strengthened. We support the basic rights of all persons to equal access to housing, education, communication, employment, medical care, legal redress for grievances, and physical protection. We deplore acts of hate or violence against groups or persons based on race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, religious affiliation, or economic status. Our respect for the inherent dignity of all persons leads us to call for the recognition, protection, and implementation of the principles of The Universal Declaration of Human Rights so that communities and individuals may claim and enjoy their universal, indivisible, and inalienable rights.
We recognize and affirm the full humanity and personhood of all individuals with mental, physical, developmental, neurological, and psychological conditions or disabilities as full members of the family of God. We also affirm their rightful place in both the church and society. We affirm the responsibility of the Church and society to be in ministry with children, youth, and adults with mental, physical, developmental, and/or psychological and neurological conditions or disabilities whose particular needs in the areas of mobility, communication, intellectual comprehension, or personal relationships might make more challenging their participation or that of their families in the life of the Church and the community. We urge the Church and society to recognize and receive the gifts of persons with disabilities to enable them to be full participants in the community of faith. We call the Church and society to be sensitive to, and advocate for, programs of rehabilitation, services, employment, education, appropriate housing, and transportation. We call on the Church and society to protect the civil rights of persons with all types and kinds of disabilities.
V. Right to Health Care
Health is a condition of physical, mental, social, and spiritual well-being. John 10:10b says, “I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly.” Stewardship of health is the responsibility of each person to whom health has been entrusted. Creating the personal, environmental, and social conditions in which health can thrive is a joint responsibility—public and private. We encourage individuals to pursue a healthy lifestyle and affirm the importance of preventive health care, health education, environmental and occupational safety, good nutrition,and secure housing in achieving health. Health care is a basic human right.
Providing the care needed to maintain health, prevent disease, and restore health after injury or illness is a responsibility each person owes others and government owes to all, a responsibility government ignores at its peril. In Ezekiel 34:4a, God points out the failures of the leadership of Israel to care for the weak: “You have not strengthened the weak, you have not healed the sick, you have not bound up the injured.” As a result all suffer. Like police and fire protection, health care is best funded through the government’s ability to tax each person equitably and directly fund the provider entities. Countries facing a public health crisis such as HIV/AIDS must have access to generic medicines and to patented medicines. We affirm the right of men and women to have access to comprehensive reproductive health/family planning information and services that will serve as a means to prevent unplanned pregnancies, reduce abortions, and prevent the spread of HIV/AIDS. The right to health care includes care for persons with brain diseases, neurological conditions, or physical disabilities, who must be afforded the same access to health care as all other persons in our communities. It is unjust to construct or perpetuate barriers to physical or mental wholeness or full participation in community.
We believe it is a governmental responsibility to provide all citizens with health care.
