Welcome to Diaconal Ministries Canada: Your Deacon Resource Centre

| People Experiencing Mental

Illness

STORY

Mary Hopkins lived with Manic

Depression, also known as Bipolar Affective Disorder. She was diagnosed

at 17 years old, and her teen years were

a nightmare. She tried a number of times to escape through suicide. She went through years of denial and repeated hospitalizations because she stopped taking medications that caused horrific side effects.

She learned to accept abuse—verbal, sexual, physical, and emotional— because she thought she deserved no better. She became a single mother. She lived well below the poverty line, and always with the fear of not having enough food and losing her home. She sees the same fear in the eyes of her children, but also anger and disappointment. As she accepts responsibility for their pain, she lives with guilt and a lack of self-worth.

She is angry at her lot in life and feels helpless to change any of it. She has lost her faith, believing instead that she is being punished. God, she feels, has turned away.1
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Who are the people experiencing mental health issues? | The Challenges | Justice Issue | Ministry Opportunities | Advocacy Opportunties |

Further Links & Resources

WHO ARE THE PEOPLE EXPERIENCING MENTAL HEALTH ISSUES?

in your community, you may meet a person like Mary. Here are some of the realities that people like Mary face:

Mental illness is often misunderstood, even within the faith community. The faith community sometimes sees this as a sign of weakness or a lack of faith, instead of an actual illness. This misunderstanding makes it difficult for a person experiencing mental illness to acknowledge it.
People experiencing mental illness say that the stigma can be worse than the illness itself.
Those close to them often do not know how to respond. The relationship with the person experiencing mental illness becomes stressed.
In rural areas in particular, professional help is not always readily accessible.

No one is immune to mental illness.

In Canada more than one in five will face mental illness sometime in his or her life,2 and it indirectly affects all Canadians through illness in a family member, friend or colleague.3

Mental illnesses are characterized by alterations in thinking, mood or behaviour - or some combination thereof - associated with significant distress and impaired functioning.4

The causes:

Mental illnesses are the result of a complex interaction of genetic, biological, personality and environmental factors, and the brain is the final common pathway for the control of behaviour, cognition, mood and anxiety. At this time, the links between specific brain dysfunction and specific mental illnesses are not fully understood.

Most mental ilnesses are found to be more common among close family members, suggesting a genetic predisposition to the disorders.

Personal factors such as age, lifestyle and life events can contribute to the onset of mental illnesses.

Environmental factors, such as family situation, workplace and socio-economic status of the individual, can precipitate the onset or recurrence of a mental illness.

Depression can contribute to or have a common pathway with physical illnesses such as cancer, heart disease and diabetes.

Working toward a recovery-focused system is a complex undertaking that rests upon three pillars:

Choice: access to a wide range of publicly-funded services and supports that offer people experiencing mental illness the opportunity to choose those that will benefit them the most.
Community: making these services and supports available in the communities where people live, and orienting them toward supporting people living in the community.
Integration: integrating all types of services and supports across the many levels of government and across both the public/private divide and the professional/nonprofessional dichotomy.5

THE CHALLENGES

Lack of services:

In addition to being confusing and frustrating to access, services are, many times, simply not existent for those who have a mental illness.

Sometimes, the only resources in abundance are expensive psychologists, occupational therapists, and nurses and social workers whose interaction with a person living with mental illness becomes reduced to delivering pills and needles, sometimes more for the comfort of the community than for the good of the patient. There are situations, however, when sedation through medication is necessary so that the person living with mental illness is not a danger to him or herself.

Statistics prove that medication alone is not as successful as when psychotherapy and medication are combined as treatment. For those impoverished or on a fixed income, sufficient treatment might not be available because of the high cost of therapy.6

JUSTICE ISSUE

DMC wants to encourage a community ministry model which incorporates justice and advocacy. When we meet people living with mental illness, we must acknowledge, whether we are friends, relatives, or leaders in the church, that any help we can offer will be limited because we are not professional counsellors. However, there are many other ways to walk with someone living with mental illness. Relationships are crucial; however, we could also suggest certain counsellors, or therapists, or perhaps even offer to pay for part of the professional sessions, if they are not covered through any health plans.

DMC also wants to encourage you to wider action. We suggest seeking opportunities for the following:

MINISTRY OPPORTUNITIES

Search for/provide affordable housing for people living with mental illness, a safe and comfortable place, open at hours they want, accessible to their needs and feelings.
Create community: share food, talk to one another, laugh together, and help one another.7

ADVOCACY OPPORTUNITIES

At times it may be necessary to find a qualified counsellor for a person, or find out where various resources are available for a person or the family experiencing mental illness (like Social Services).
Deacons should also be involved in leading the local congregation to become more compassionate towards those whose lives are affected by mental health issues. The faith community should be able to provide the safe environment people living with mental illness and their families need.
The local church needs to speak up on behalf of the families that are affected by mental illness.
Available resources need to be easily accessible, including in rural areas where citizens are not immune to this illness.
Affordable housing may be needed, with qualified therapists who can go beyond custodial care, to aid in recovery.
Governments at different levels have issued studies and reports over the past few years, with recommendations to make mental illness more manageable within the fabric of Canadian society. As caring faith community we need to hold our governments accountable to the commitments they have made in response to the studies and reports.

FURTHER LINKS AND RESOURCES

1) Some valuable resources are available at

http://www.shalemnetwork.org/html/mental_illness.html :

Dealing with Mental Illness – Practical Tips for Families
The Religious Community and the Mentally Ill
Relating to the Mentally Ill, Tips for Clergy The Faith Community and Persons with a Mental Illness

How a Congregation can Respond to Families with Mental Illness
Ministry with People with Mental Illness.

Directories for agencies and Christian counsellors are available at

http://www.shalemnetwork.org/directory/index.html

2) Helpful Breaking Barriers articles are available at:

http://www.crcna.org/pages/disability_breaking.cfm. The summer issue will be focusing on mental illness.

3) Homestead Christian Care offers assistance through psychosocial

rehabilitation to help overcome the functional, interpersonal, and

environmental obstacles that can accompany a serious psychiatric

disability. Practical life skills such as cooking, hygiene, and medication administration can help to restore independence for their residents.

http://www.homesteadchristiancare.ca/index.asp

4) Government of Canada document: The Human Face of Mental Health

and Mental Illness in Canada 2006 helps outline what each of us can

do to improve one’s own mental health and the mental health of those

around us. It is designed to increase public awareness of mental

illness and mental health, and to help Canadians realize the great

strides we are making towards the illness and Canada’s new

Government’s commitment to mental health.

http://www.mooddisorderscanada.ca/page/related-links-2

5) Health Canada’s report A Report on Mental Illnesses in Canada is

designed to raise the profile of mental illness among government and

non-government organizations, and the industry, education,

workplace, and academic sectors. It describes major mental illnesses

and outlines their incidence and prevalence, causation, impact,

stigma, and prevention and treatment.

http://www.phac-aspc.gc.ca/publicat/miic-mmac/pdf/men_ill_e.pdf

6) The Standing Senate Committee On Social Affairs, Science And

Technology issued a report: “Out of the Shadows at Last” with 118

recommendations to improve the status of the mental health survivors.

http://www.parl.gc.ca/39/1/parlbus/commbus/senate/com-e/soci-e/rep- e/pdf/rep02may06high-e.pdf

7) The Canadian Mental Health Association “promotes the mental health of all and supports the resilience and recovery of people experiencing mental illness.” http://www.cmha.ca/bins/index.asp ______________________________________________
Footnotes:

1 From the Final Report of the Southwest Mental Health Implementation Task Force: Foreword. Found at http://www.health.gov.on.ca/english/providers/pub/mhitf/south_west/south_west.pdf

2 The Human Face of Mental Health and Mental Illness in Canada 2006: Minister's Message. Found at http://www.mooddisorderscanada.ca/page/related-links-2

3 A report on mental illnesses in Canada: Page 7. http://www.phac-aspc.gc.ca/publicat/miic-mmac/pdf/men_ill_e.pdf

4 The Human Face of Mental Health and Mental Illness in Canada 2006: Page 30

5 Out of the Shadows at Last, page 6. http://www.parl.gc.ca/39/1/parlbus/commbus/senate/com-e/soci-e/rep-e/pdf/rep02may06high-e.pdf or: http://www.parl.gc.ca/39/1/parlbus/commbus/senate/Com-e/SOCI-E/rep-e/rep02may06part1-e.htm#_Toc133222998

6 Out of the Shadows at Last, Chapter 1.2.3.

7 Out of the Shadows at Last, Chapter 1.2.3.

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