Catholic News Service
When faith embraces mental health treatment tightly, occasionally there are unexpected results.
That’s what Sacred Heart Sister Nancy Kehoe, a part-time assistant professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School, learned when she set up a small group at St. Paul’s Catholic Church in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Sister Kehoe had been treating patients for more than 30 years when she organized the group, which still meets monthly, with seldom more than 15 participants.
It began, she said, “at the request of three mothers who had adult children who suffer from mental illness. They originally just wanted me to meet with them, because one of (the children) had a lot of religious delusions.”
After two meetings, “they said … would you ever think about doing a group? So we used the publication of my book ‘Wrestling with Our Inner Angels,’ as a special event, as a way of advertising that we’re starting this new group called ‘Caring for the Soul.'”
After a few years, “because it was so stable, obviously a level of trust deepened.” This led to one of Sister Kehoe’s success stories.
“It was a man who had a dual diagnosis of depression and alcoholism who had left the church. What began to happen was that he began to find his way back to the church and is now in a seminary studying for the priesthood. I think it was really because the group would sort out his thoughts and feelings about his illness, and his questions about where was God in his life.”
In October, Sister Kehoe said, “we had the most fabulous evening in which members of the group presented their art.” Some brought songs they had composed, one performed magic tricks and one person who had been homeless “read a poem about imperfections.”
“Most of the people who spoke talked about their struggle with their illness. So the evening became this presentation of people claiming who they were, illustrating their gifts, being open about their illness. The spirit was really alive and well.”
Sister Kehoe, who plans to eventually write at length about her group’s progress, believes “it’s become a real model for how parishes can really address the issues,” including “the trust of people who struggle with mental illness. Sometimes they feel welcome in the church, and sometimes they don’t.”
Old stigmas about illness and treatment, usually reinforced by media stereotypes, still linger, said Tom Welch, a psychiatrist at the Northwest Catholic Counseling Center in Portland, Oregon. But Welch, a lay spiritual director, has found that most people at least consult websites “and look stuff up for better or worse” before seeking professional help.
“I make the analogy that it’s like other health conditions like diabetes. It’s not a sign of weakness. Every person has four basic components: the biological, the psychological, the social — that’s the community — and the spiritual. And in treatment, all four areas need to be addressed.”
Robin Henderson, chief executive behavioral officer with the Providence Medical Group in Oregon, agrees: “Generally the best way to approach it is as if it were any other health condition.”
She suggests that parishioners, in a supportive manner, could simply ask, “Gosh, you haven’t come to church lately. We’ve missed you at our community gatherings. You seem kind of down.”
How can families, friends, parishes identify and support those who struggle with mental health?
Simple, Henderson advises. “Talk about it. Not to not talk about it. It’s how we normalize and make people think they’re not different. It’s not a moral failure. It’s because you’re a human being with a human condition.”
People with mental health disorders “have the same needs. They may not be able to cook for their families. They may not even be able to shop for groceries.”
“It’s really easy when someone has cancer,” she observes. “We say, ‘What can we do to support you? Can we bring a casserole?'”
