Faithful Steward Ministries and FSM Women's Outreach

Mental Illness affects millions of us around the world in many forms. Depression, Anxiety, Bi-Polar are some of the more familiar types and less we forget, many of our nations hero’s return with PTSD. Some avoid treatment out of shame, others out of the frustration (see the article) of the treatment process itself. The church as unprepared as most are, should be a place they can find solace. – Mike

by David Qaoud

Note: This is a guest contribution by Amy Simpson. She is the author of Troubled Minds: Mental Illness and the Church’s Mission.

My mother has seen multiple psychiatrists, counselors, and other mental-health professionals. She has seen the inside of more than one mental-health hospital, one jail, and one prison. Her history with serious mental illness goes back more than 20 years. But if she were to go to a hospital today, in urgent need of psychiatric intervention, she would most likely start from scratch with a team of professionals who have no idea what medications she takes, what she suffers from, or what she needs.

She might be medicated, stabilized, and after a few days, discharged into the care of a family barely able to care for her, even after decades of practice.

Every time her insurance company has made a change, a doctor moved, or the person she last saw wasn’t available, she has had to meet with someone new and start over.

She needs to take medications every day, but until recently, no professional had explained–in a way she understood–that she has a chronic illness and must take meds for the rest of her life, for the sake of herself and others…

Continued at Source: How the Church Can Help with Mental Illness