a young adult female and middle-aged adult female sit on a couch holding hands, their heads bent in grief.

Mental Illness

Mental illnesses make up the most common category of disabilities in the United States, yet they may often be overlooked when people think about disability. Mental Illnesses are health conditions that alter thinking, mood, or behavior, often causing distress and disrupting the life of the person with the illness. Bipolar Disorder, Schizoaffective Disorder, Depression, Anxiety, Post-traumatic Stress Disorder, and Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder are all examples of mental illness.

Most church congregations include people who experience mental illness and their caregivers or family members. Historically, the stigma of mental illness and misinterpretation of biblical passages led to ostracizing people with mental illness or erasing their experiences. A healthy faith community recognizes the reality of mental illness as disabling without allowing the illness to define the person.

Tips for Supporting People with Mental Illness

For Congregations

  • Talk about mental illness in sermons and faith formation settings.
  • Hold a Mental Illness Awareness Sunday each May or October. Include members of the congregation with mental illness in the planning and leading of the worship service.
  • Honor the gifts of people who experience mental illness and provide opportunities for them to share their gifts in service and in leadership.
  • Educate the congregation on signs, symptoms, and causes of mental illness, and include local resources that support people with mental illness. Invite representatives from the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI), doctors, or mental healthcare practitioners.
  • Regularly offer mental health trainings from Mental Health First Aid, Churches Care, or Pathways to Promise.
  • Start a support group for members of the congregation with mental illness with a trained facilitator.
  • Pastors & Leaders:
    • Share openly about experiences of depression and anxiety, both from the pulpit and in conversations.
    • Maintain a list of local professionals and refer individuals as needed.
    • Pastors are mandated reporters in over half the states in the U.S. and, as such, must call 911 if someone is in danger of harming themselves.

For Individuals

  • Treat people with mental illness the same way you treat people with physical illnesses. Visit them when they are hospitalized, send them cards, and bring them meals when they are going through a particularly hard time.
  • Regularly check in on people who have mental illness and their caregivers: what is going well in their life; how could they use extra support right now?
  • Be intentional about your word choices when referring to people with mental illness: avoid terms such as “crazy,” “psycho,” “lunatic,” or “mental.” Use person-first language: “person with mental illness” or “person who has bi-polar disorder.”
  • When someone with mental illness is vulnerable with you, validate their emotions. Avoid empty platitudes and Bible verses that offer a quick fix. Instead, bear witness to their pain and validate that this is hard.
  • Make an effort to create friendships with people who experience mental illness. The healing the church offers is through relationships.

Resources

Resources from Others

Recommended Reading

Organizations

  • We Rise International: Churches Care, an intensive training for church, health and lay leaders to increase the Christian Faith Community’s ability to effectively support, assist, empower, and refer individuals and families experiencing mental illnesses and addiction/substance use disorder (SUD).
  • Pathways to Promise: an interfaith organization that provides support, education, trainings, and resources to congregations looking to be a welcoming place for people with mental illness, addictions, and disabilities. Companionship training program.
  • Interfaith Network for Mental Illness: resources, consultations, and educational materials for faith communities seeking to become places of care for people with mental illness.
  • Caring Clergy Project: resources for faith community leaders on supporting someone with mental illness and knowing when to refer them to a mental health care professional.
  • Mental Health First Aid A course that teaches people how to identify, understand and respond to signs of mental illnesses and substance use disorders.

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