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By Jim Coggins
The new Canadian Mental Health Commission is "a wonderful opportunity" for Christians to be involved in dealing with one of the most pressing issues in our society, according to one of its members.
Chris Summerville is one of 11 non-government members of the new Commission's board of directors. Besides struggling with mental health issues himself, he is the interim CEO of the Schizophrenia Society of Canada, executive director of the Manitoba Schizophrenia Society, and a certified Psychosocial Rehabilitation Practitioner. He is also a committed Christian and an ordained pastor with the Associated Gospel Churches of Canada.
Summerville said he hopes to bring a holistic approach to the issue that addresses body, mind, soul and spirit.
Prime Minister Stephen Harper announced the formation of the commission on August 31. It grew out of a study by a Senate committee chaired by Senator Michael Kirby, who will chair the new Commission.
The Commission's board of directors includes 11 non-government experts and six government representatives. The Commission will receive $10 million in start-up funds until mid-2009 and then $15 million a year after that.
Stigma
The Commission has been given three main tasks. The first is to launch a 10-year campaign to combat the stigma associated with mental illness. "We have a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to do what William Wilberforce did in regard to slavery -- to combat the social injustices associated with living with a mental illness," said Summerville.
These injustices include everything from discrimination in employment to people who don't want a group home in their neighbourhood, he said.
Removing the stigma is also key, said Summerville, because people are reluctant to seek help for mental problems until they become very severe -- sometimes due to pressure from family members who "don't want to let the family secret out." This is unfortunate, he said, because when problems are addressed early, "the outcomes are much better."
Marja Bergen, who facilitates the Living Room, a group for people with mood disorders in Burnaby, BC, agreed that "reducing the stigma is the most wonderful thing" about the new Commission because this will lead to more research and better care. Because people don't want to talk about mental health issues, nobody is establishing runs to raise money for the issue, she said.
Knowledge is power
The second task of the Commission is to establish a national information exchange, available to anyone who needs it.
Summerville said the goal is to establish a set of "best practices" so that people are not "working from prejudice."
This is important, said Bergen, because churches, for instance, often avoid addressing mental health issues because they just don't understand them.
Strategy
The Commission's third task is to devise a coordinated mental health strategy for Canada. Canada is the only G-8 country without such a strategy.
Summerville said the goal is to "address disparities" so that people can get "the same quality of care and services across Canada." For instance, it takes six months to see a psychiatrist in Winnipeg, and a year in Toronto. In some cases, said Summerville, people have to go "hundreds of miles away from home to find a crisis stabilization centre."
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"This shouldn't be in one of the wealthiest countries in the world," he said.
Implementing such a strategy will require much more than the $15 million a year budgeted so far. Bergen said that amount is "pretty puny when you consider the amount of need there is out there." She said she recently received a desperate call for help from a man who had gone to a hospital seeking help but was turned away because there were 20 patients ahead of him. "There are just not enough doctors, not enough counselling services," she said.
Medical and spiritual
Summerville said one of his goals is to "bring the presence of Christ" into the different perspectives that will be present in the Commission.
There has been a "prejudice against religion" on the part of some mental health professionals, he said, and "historically clinicians have been reluctant to discuss religion with their clients."
However, that is changing, partly because clients themselves are saying that finding purpose and meaning are an important part of their healing process. "Young people especially want to be defined more than just chemically," said Summerville.
As a result, the Spring 2007 issue of the Journal of Psycho-Social Rehabilitation and the Fall 2007 issue of the Journal of Mental Health Ethics are both devoted to examining the connections between mental health and spirituality.
"The recovery of wellness is as much a spiritual journey as a psychological or biological one," said Summerville.
Satan will use any opportunity to attack, including mental illness, said Summerville, but mental illness and spiritual should not be equated. "I know some wonderful Christians who have schizophrenia, and I know people in deep spiritual bondage who have no mental illness."
Mental illness has many aspects, he said, from chemical imbalances and genetic dispositions to traumatic experiences that may trigger problems.
Mental health and the church
Both Summerville and Bergen said churches often don't do a good job of dealing with mental illness because they tend to "treat it as a spiritual problem exclusively."
The Christian church was at the forefront of mental health reform in the 19th century but has since lost that role, said Summerville.
He added that there are two attitudes in the church that need to be corrected. First, some Christians have trouble understanding "messy people" and recognizing that we live in "a broken world." Such Christians think those who are mentally ill should experience complete and immediate healing and become impatient when they don't.
Other Christians believe that "signs and miracles" have ceased and those who are ill just have to endure it. Summerville said these people need to be reminded that Christ can bring more healing than they can ever imagine.
The church sometimes stigmatizes the mentally ill more than society in general does, said Bergen. She said she would like to see the church "at the forefront" of the struggle for mental health rather than "straggling behind."
Bergen said her own bipolar problem is purely a chemical imbalance problem that is treated by medication. However, the nonjudgmental support she has received from her church, Brentwood Park Alliance Church, has enabled her to "feel God's love at work in my life and helped me cope with my illness. I wouldn't be where I am today without my church's support."
The Living Room currently offers this kind of holistic support to 40 people, being connected to the Brentwood Church and to the Mood Disorder Association. Bergen has written a manual to guide other churches in setting up similar groups.
September 6/2007
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For years I have been trying to show the church how Christian spirituality can easily be integrated with psychiatry. My website www.drgrantmullen.com has lots of information on this. Way to go Chris Summerville!
"Satan will use any opportunity to attack, including mental illness, said Summerville, but mental illness and spiritual should not be equated"
This isn't science,this is the Harper version of the Spanish Inquisition. The Fundamentalists are ruling the roost. And we have peopel who beleive in imaginary creatures acting like doctors.... I need a joint just to stay sane after reading garbage like this.
One of their reported tasks is to find a link between cannabis use and schizophrenia, an answer without patients or victims asking. If so many million Canadians consume cannabis, and that number has been steadily increasing, why hasn't the number of psychotic or schizophrenics increased proportionally?
Which doctors and scientists will conduct these studies? Or will they be ideology based also?
Cannabis, the most useful plant on earth, the tree of life for some, is in fact, essence of Satan?
http://www.cannabisculture.com/backissues/cc11/christ.html
"Satan will use any opportunity to attack, including mental illness, said Summerville, but mental illness and spiritual should not be equated. "I know some wonderful Christians who have schizophrenia, and I know people in deep spiritual bondage who have no mental illness."
If it's science, i want to see the data and how the scientific method is effectively applied to statements like this . Now THAT would be a landmark diagnosis!
I think anyone who goes in with views like this will find it impossible to be objective in understanding critical views of the study. That in itself represents a serious risk in the validity of the research being done, especially if his presence hampers science and proper testing techniques/standards of best practice recognized in the science community.
"Besides struggling with mental health issues himself, he is the interim CEO of the Schizophrenia Society of Canada, executive director of the Manitoba Schizophrenia Society, and a certified Psychosocial Rehabilitation Practitioner."
"The Commission's board of directors includes 11 non-government experts and six government representatives. The Commission will receive $10 million in start-up funds until mid-2009 and then $15 million a year after that."
I'm just not sure how someone who has been recognized of having undisclosed mental issues should be put in charge of the sums of money we're talking about here. Does he struggle with voices talking to him? Does he suffer from manic depression? Is he bi-polar? Have severe stress issues? This is a very valid base that should be revealed as an accountability measure with someone appointed with our tax dollars who might have their own biased agenda based on personal experience. As CEO he has to look at the validity of the facts, and his position of CEO will undoubtedly provide an added element of pressure to the group who are trying to pass funding for particular projects which might disagree with his spiritual views. I do hope for transparency here.
I would want my CEO to be of sound mind and able to trust their judgement or at least see that they would be able to provide rational basis in case they deny funding a particular model of research. I don't deny that Christians could be capable in this mode, but i do question his mental fitness from the statement above for this position and see it as a major risk factor in both economic/fiscal responsibility as well validity of research.