Making Everybody Welcome: Pastoral Care and Mental Health in the Catholic community

I found a lovely website from the Catholic church in the UK:-

Everybody's Welcome Mental Health

What is Life Like?

I came home, ‘I can’t work any more’.  I was suffering from anxiety depression.  Soon my wife, Liz and I experienced extreme isolation.  Several parishioners said to her, ‘I would not stay with him’.   Priests and friends said ‘We can not visit any more.  There is too much pain here’. “Why can’t he pull himself together?”      

Catholic Church softens stance on suicide

The Catholic Church in England and Wales appeared to soften its stance on suicide, claiming it should be greeted with "compassion" rather than blame.

The auxiliary bishop of Westminster, the Rt Rev Bernard Longley, said church teaching on suicide had not changed but its understanding of mental health had altered.

He said: "Suicide is a grave sin, but an individual must be mentally healthy to be fully aware that what they are doing is a sin.

Church of England Report on Continuing Issues In Mental Health

Introduction

This report comes exactly five years after the Synod debate on the report Emerging Issues in Mental Health (GS 1491 – hereafter Emerging Issues) in February 2003. The choice of title indicates that the issues identified in that report are still very much with us, but also that there have been developments, both positive and negative, which deserve to be taken into account. Accordingly, this report traces the continuing quest for mental health services which will meet the needs of service users, carers and society as a whole.

Depression The Elephant in the Church

Depression: How churches and GPs can work together

We want to draw together in a helpful way what we have learned in recent years in Britain about the causes and treatment of depression and anxiety, as they affect Christian people.

We also want to suggest ways churches and medical professionals can work together and show that, with appropriate treatment, most Christians can he helped back to active and useful lives.

The Mental Health Ministry of the Local Church By Howard J Clinebell

Chapter 12: Minister and Laymen Work Together for Mental Health

A deep-level cure for the "spectator-itis" of laymen and the one-man-show orientation of ministers seems to be emerging in the "lay renaissance" -- a contemporary movement of profound significance for the mental health mission of our churches. This grassroots movement is growing spontaneously, on many fronts, with the rediscovery of the New Testament truth that every Christian has a ministry simply because he is a Christian.

The Mental Health Ministry of the Local Church By Howard J Clinebell

Chapter 11: Helping the Mentally Ill and Their Families

The minister will draw on all of his resources of empathy, interpersonal sensitivity, and compassion for those caught in the tentacles of an excruciating problem, but he should not attempt to diagnose the specific nature of the difficulty. This is the psychiatrist's area of competence and responsibility.

The Mental Health Ministry of the Local Church By Howard J Clinebell

Chapter 10: Pastoral Counseling and Mental Health

An oft-quoted study of a cross-section of the American adult population revealed that one out of every seven Americans has sought professional help with a personal problem. Of these, forty-two percent went to clergymen, twenty-nine percent went to family doctors, eighteen percent to psychiatrists and psychologists, and ten percent to a special agency or clinic. Ministers are on the front lines in the efforts to help the burdened and the troubled.