ACCESS: Free Mental Health Month resources open discussion, reduce stigma

Piece developed from Presbyterian News Service article at https://www.presbyterianmission.org/story/mental-health-month-brings-opportunities-for-opening-discussion-and-reducing-stigma/

Available mental health resource from PC(USA) for free download

This pandemic year has brought extraordinary challenges. Many are concerned about their mental health for the first time. Others have experienced increased symptoms or relapse. For millions, this pandemic has come on top of layers of chronic stress, trauma, and grief from facing systemic racism and brought with it a disproportionate risk of dying from COVID or from an act of racial violence. The pandemic has highlighted the serious mental health implications of economic insecurity and poverty.

Mental Health Month invites us to talk openly about mental health, to destigmatize mental health challenges, and to educate and equip ourselves and our communities for the long-haul.

To help, the PC(USA) Office of Mental Health Ministry, working in partnership with the Presbyterian Mental Health Network, is encouraging churches during May to emphasize the importance of mental health. The effort is highlighted in an online article by Darla Carter of the Presbyterian News Service published May 6, 2021.

The ministry has posted a downloadable PDF online to help clergy and other church leaders inform and education congregations about mental health during this phase of the pandemic.  The document includes links to:

• Ideas like “12 Things Yours Congregation Can Do in Mental Health Ministry” and the Mental Health Ministry 101 that gives an overview of the Presbyterian Mental Health Initiative adopted by the General Assembly in 2018.
• Educational resources like a Mental Health First Aid Training and National Crisis Helplines Handout
• Networks like the Presbyterian Mental Health Network and the interfaith Mental Health Ministries E-Spotlight newsletter with tips, ideas, articles and seasonal resources.  
• Prayer and worship resources like the free Radical Belonging: Mental Health Sunday Resources and Liturgies for All.
• Learn from peer-to-peer, family-to-family and basic courses about mental health offered by the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI), and from mental health resource lists vetted and curated by the PC(USA) Mental Health Ministry for different situations.