In the past at Lee’s Chapel Missionary Baptist Church in Cedar Grove, North Carolina, mental health has not been on the agenda.
“Mental health has not been something that has been talked about in the African American church, traditionally,” said Associate Minister Arlinda Ellison. “There is this opinion that you don’t talk about it, you pray about it.”
Since early 2023, however, that has changed thanks to an outreach program from North Carolina Central University (NCCU).
Faith Alliance Intervention Towards Health (The Faith Project) was started in January 2023 by Lorraine Graves, Ph.D., associate professor and interim chair of the department of social work. With a $500,000 grant from the federal Substance Abuse Mental Health Services Administration, Graves began reaching out to churches. Currently, the program works with 15 churches in four counties. Ten of those congregations are primarily African American.
Recognition, Support and Resources
Graves teaches people at churches how to recognize the signs and symptoms of mental illness, how to support those experiencing mental health conditions or crisis and supplies community health resources such as a crisis phone number, support groups organized by the National Alliance for Mental Illness (NAMI) and therapists.
The church people who are trained – 5-20 people at a time for a total of eight hours – in turn spread the knowledge among their congregations. Graves emphasizes that the trained church congregants do not supply mental health services.
While Lee’s Chapel Missionary Baptist Church has had a focus on health for several years, mental health was only a small part of that. Ellison, who comes from a public health background, said there were barriers to starting mental health training.
“Society has not fully made the connection between physical health and mental health,” she said. “We have a lot of elderly people in our church and their way of life was not to talk about this topic.”
The church pastor, however, got behind the mental health training. How people reacted to COVID was also a factor.
“Especially the isolation piece,” Ellison said. “This was a great time to talk about mental health.”
Not Knowing What to Do
At St. Matthew Baptist Church in Raleigh, Vernetta Davis, who serves on her church’s health team ministry, says the biggest challenge is decreasing the stigma and normalizing discussions about mental health.
“People have to know it’s OK not to be OK,” Davis said. “In the African American community especially, mental health has had a stigma. We are on a journey where we can no longer ignore mental health in the faith community.”
Davis, who is a licensed clinical mental health counselor, has seen indications that the training is having a positive impact at St. Matthew.
“We’ve gotten good feedback about it being a good tool and resource for them,” she said. “Also, some church members that have reached out to me about getting connected to mental health services.”
Common mental health challenges could include depression, anxiety, substance abuse, bipolar disorder, eating disorders and trauma.
“The biggest thing we see is not knowing what to do,” Graves said. “Parents might see something in their own children, a family member or a friend and not know whether to take it seriously or not. In addition to spiritual support, there are practical things (churches) can do,” Graves said.
Or as Ellison puts it, “You can have Jesus and have a therapist.”