It was once again an opportunity for clergy, religious and lay ministers in the Diocese to hear the perspectives of behavioral health professionals about issues they face in parish life. The theme of this year’s conference was “Journeying in Hope and Compassion with the Mentally Ill.” Keynote addresses on this theme were given by Sister Nancy Kehoe, RSCJ, PhD., an Assistant Clinical Professor of Psychology at Harvard Medical School, and Dora Tobar, PhD., Director of the Office for Family Life and Hispanic Ministry in the Diocese of Lafayette, Indiana.
Specific topics included addiction, dementia, teenage depression/suicide and the challenges of schizophrenia. The chemical and biological factors of various mental illnesses were emphasized in many presentations.
“[Drug addiction] is not just a moral issue,” said Dr. Ricardo Whyte, Medical Director of the Chemical Dependency Unit at Loma Linda University Medical Center’s Behavioral Medicine Center. “The neurobiology has been altered.”
To close the conference, the presenters answered questions from the audience during a panel discussion.
Parish leaders are often confronted with situations caused by mental health problems and have been ill-equipped to recognize these problems and offer appropriate help. Sister Chilee Okoko, D.M.M.M., Director of the Department of Life, Dignity and Justice, has established the Behavioral Health Conference and made other in-roads among the behavioral health community to bridge this gap.
“The ultimate goal is not to keep having these conferences at the Diocesan level but have parish level mental health ministries,” she said.
In his program letter for the event, Bishop Gerald Barnes sought to make the connection between mental health challenges and the role of faith in addressing them.
“Being aware of our human frailty and weakness, understanding the causes of disruption in the normal functioning of our body, and factors that affect our physical and spiritual well-being makes it easier for us to acknowledge our dependency on God, and to accept the help, or offer assistance to other human beings,” he wrote.
“No one lives to himself alone, just as no one dies to himself alone.”