STEPS FOR CREATING A MENTAL HEALTH MINISTRY
1. Make a commitment — before you begin, do some soul searching. Starting a Mental Health Ministry may take considerable time. You need to decide if you are ready to take on a long-term project.
2. Educate yourself — Learn about mental illness. You probably already have people in your faith community who have lived experience with mental illness, which will help you be understanding and compassionate with others. But if you have not already done so, we recommend you take the NAMI Family-to-Family class if you are a family member or the NAMI Peer-to-peer program if you are a person in recovery. You do not have to be an expert in mental illness to start a Mental Health Ministry, but it is helpful to have a basic understanding of the problems people are likely to face when they are dealing with various diagnoses.
3. Get buy-in from your clergy/board of directors — The lines of communication and the decision-making chain are different in every faith community,
4. Form a task force or ministry team — Get the word out that you are creating a task force or ministry team on mental illness. Set a time and place for the first meeting and announce it in the weekly bulletin, in the monthly newsletter, on the bulletin board and other appropriate places.
5. Decide with your team what you want to offer/accomplish — Define who you want to serve and how you will go about it. Do you want to offer a support group? If so, will it be for persons with mental illnesses, family members or both? Do you want (and do you have the skills) to offer support for those who are in the midst of crises or will you refer those people elsewhere? Will you offer education? If so, what form will that take? Classes? Workshops? Do you want to create a resource center or library? Are your services just for your faith community or do you want to reach a wider community? Exactly what do you plan to include in the scope of your ministry? Will you cover just the major mental illnesses or do you want to include other brain differences like addictions, brain injuries, dementia, autism, etc.? After you have clarified what you want to do, write a concise mission statement and set some goals.
6. Define strategies for keeping your faith community, board and clergy involved — Share your mission and goals with your community.
7. Make an inventory of available resources — Poll the members of your team and find out who they know who might be willing to speak at one of your programs. Talk to the therapists and psychiatrists in your congregation to see who will help. Ask your local NAMI affiliate for a list of resources they offer and leverage them. For example, your NAMI affiliate might offer support groups and classes you could refer people to, or they may be willing to train you to lead your own support group. Check out the resources available at NAMI FaithNET (www.nami.org/namifaithnet), Interfaith Network on Mental Illness (www.interfaithnetworkonmentalillness.org) and Mental Health Ministries (www.MentalHealthMinistries.net). Consider creating a resource notebook that members of your congregation can borrow.
8. Join with other organizations — Find out which faith communities in your area have Mental Health Ministries and meet with them to share ideas. Consider joining an interfaith network on mental illness in your community. Network with other organizations that have similar goals.
9. Communicate — It is important that you continue to communicate about your Mental Health Ministry on an ongoing basis. Consider writing articles for your newsletters on the topics you offer in your classes/forums. Take notes at your classes/forums and post them on your congregation’s Web site so people who didn’t attend can still glean some insights. Announce your events in the bulletin and even the local weekend edition of your newspaper if they are open to the public.
10. Be prepared to nurture your ministry — Creating a successful Mental Health Ministry takes more than passion. It also takes persistence. Don’t get discouraged if you don’t immediately see the results you had hoped for. Keep putting one foot in front of the other and you will succeed.
1. Make a commitment — before you begin, do some soul searching. Starting a Mental Health Ministry may take considerable time. You need to decide if you are ready to take on a long-term project.
2. Educate yourself — Learn about mental illness. You probably already have people in your faith community who have lived experience with mental illness, which will help you be understanding and compassionate with others. But if you have not already done so, we recommend you take the NAMI Family-to-Family class if you are a family member or the NAMI Peer-to-peer program if you are a person in recovery. You do not have to be an expert in mental illness to start a Mental Health Ministry, but it is helpful to have a basic understanding of the problems people are likely to face when they are dealing with various diagnoses.
3. Get buy-in from your clergy/board of directors — The lines of communication and the decision-making chain are different in every faith community,
4. Form a task force or ministry team — Get the word out that you are creating a task force or ministry team on mental illness. Set a time and place for the first meeting and announce it in the weekly bulletin, in the monthly newsletter, on the bulletin board and other appropriate places.
5. Decide with your team what you want to offer/accomplish — Define who you want to serve and how you will go about it. Do you want to offer a support group? If so, will it be for persons with mental illnesses, family members or both? Do you want (and do you have the skills) to offer support for those who are in the midst of crises or will you refer those people elsewhere? Will you offer education? If so, what form will that take? Classes? Workshops? Do you want to create a resource center or library? Are your services just for your faith community or do you want to reach a wider community? Exactly what do you plan to include in the scope of your ministry? Will you cover just the major mental illnesses or do you want to include other brain differences like addictions, brain injuries, dementia, autism, etc.? After you have clarified what you want to do, write a concise mission statement and set some goals.
6. Define strategies for keeping your faith community, board and clergy involved — Share your mission and goals with your community.
7. Make an inventory of available resources — Poll the members of your team and find out who they know who might be willing to speak at one of your programs. Talk to the therapists and psychiatrists in your congregation to see who will help. Ask your local NAMI affiliate for a list of resources they offer and leverage them. For example, your NAMI affiliate might offer support groups and classes you could refer people to, or they may be willing to train you to lead your own support group. Check out the resources available at NAMI FaithNET (www.nami.org/namifaithnet), Interfaith Network on Mental Illness (www.interfaithnetworkonmentalillness.org) and Mental Health Ministries (www.MentalHealthMinistries.net). Consider creating a resource notebook that members of your congregation can borrow.
8. Join with other organizations — Find out which faith communities in your area have Mental Health Ministries and meet with them to share ideas. Consider joining an interfaith network on mental illness in your community. Network with other organizations that have similar goals.
9. Communicate — It is important that you continue to communicate about your Mental Health Ministry on an ongoing basis. Consider writing articles for your newsletters on the topics you offer in your classes/forums. Take notes at your classes/forums and post them on your congregation’s Web site so people who didn’t attend can still glean some insights. Announce your events in the bulletin and even the local weekend edition of your newspaper if they are open to the public.
10. Be prepared to nurture your ministry — Creating a successful Mental Health Ministry takes more than passion. It also takes persistence. Don’t get discouraged if you don’t immediately see the results you had hoped for. Keep putting one foot in front of the other and you will succeed.
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