# Presentation: 323879

## Guess whose coming to dinner! Working With the Clergy to Eliminate Disparities in Mental Health 

-       Rhonda Mattox, MD
- Mary Sue Farmer, PhD Candidate

## INSPIRATION

- Clinical practice
- “My pastor/Sunday school teacher/ said if I pray more/read more/etc that I will get better.
- Personal experience at worship services
- Research in the Bible Belt

## QUALITATIVE ANALYSIS

- Recorded sermons on Christian networks for 3 months
- Transcribed sermons with mental/physical* illness
- Determined themes using an approach derived from grounded theory

-    Blessed (fortunate, happy)
- is the man
- who walketh
- not in the counsel of the ungodly.  Psalms 1:1(KJV)

## GODLY COUNSEL

- 1⁄4 with mental disorders sought mental health care with clergy 1st.
- Large numbers of these individuals were seen by clergy only.
- Nature and quality of “treatments” delivered after contact is unclear.

## GODLY COUNSEL

- Little known about clergy members knowledge and attitudes
- Training in mental health varies, yet considered EXPERTS by lay people
- Nature and quality of “treatments” delivered after contact is unclear.

## GODLY COUNSEL

- 10% of clergy refer to formal mental health services.  (Meylink)
- 5 studies revealed that clergy do not have adequate skills to recognize suicide lethality.
- Majority recognize they need additional training in depression evaluation and suicide prevention.

## IMPORTANCE of Collaboration

- Trust issues
- Role of clergy in mobilizing the community
- Inadequacy of training of providers in spiritual and faith issues
- Changes in subjective norms

## RECOMMNEDATIONS

- Providers need training in cultural competence (religion)
- Training in eliciting spiritual history and explanatory models
- Work with faith based communities

## RECOMMNEDATIONS

- Education
- Navigation of the system
- Provide resources to strengthen current practices and facilitate and expedite rapid referrals.

## Initial Contacts-Fall of 2006

- Jack Ryan-Chief Chaplain Service
- Bonita (Bo) Barnes-Chaplain
- Greer Sullivan-Director SCMIRECC
- Mary S. Farmer-SCMIRECC
- Kristin Ward	-SCMIRECC
- Terry Kramer- University of AR Medical Sciences
- Rhonda Mattox- University of AR Medical Sciences

## Action Outcomes of the Collaboration

- Website with links for MH tools and contacts for ministers and community members
- Conference in Summer 2007 for area ministers on MH issues

## A Specific Request from the VA Ministers 

- VA Chaplain Service
- SCMIRECC
- UAMS
- Arkansas National Guard’s Family Readiness Services
- CAVHS Clinicians

## Life Guard: Bringing New Life to the GuardBackground

- Community Outreach for veterans and their families
- Self-help skills that can benefit all people, but especially those whose lives have been through dramatic changes
- The Guard would manage the logistics; the VA would provide the service

## The Life Guard Workshop

- Teach self-help skills based upon the Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) model.
- One of the ‘third wave’ cognitive-behavioral models
- Respond mindfully to their private experiences
- Make behavioral choices in alignment with their personal values.

## Three Skill Sets Covered

- Awareness of the relationship between the person and his/her private experiences
- Willingness to non-judgmentally experience these private events for what they are (i.e., sounds, sensations, images)
- Valued-based decision making.

## MIRECC Partnership with CAVHS Mental Health Life Guard Program

- “First-line providers:” full-time National Guard staff, chaplain service, community clergy, and other community helpers.

## Life Guard for Front Line Responders

- Skits and role-playing scenarios are matched to the target audience
- The goal: to demonstrate a few skills that can be used in a variety of situations
- Another objective includes providing knowledge about how to recognize when someone else can benefit from the skills and simple ways to introduce the skills to them

## Special Thanks

- Vince Roca-CAVHS
- Jeff Clothier-CAVHS
- Arkansas National Guard
- The veterans and their families for the sacrifices they have made on our behalf

- There are two paths
- to the same truth
- NOT
- two truths.