Spirituality and Mental Health
SELF STUDY LEARNING MODULE

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One in five people in the United States have or will have mental illness sometime in their life.

More than five million people in the United States alone suffer from serious chronic mental illness. Through an interdisciplinary approach integrating spirituality and mental health, this Learning Module enables professional care givers from the religious, medical, therapeutic, and social work communities to better recognize and work with the diverse needs of those who suffer from mental illness and the needs of those who are close to them. This Learning Module explores the relationship between spirituality, religious beliefs, and mental health.

Presentations:

Access to presentations requires WEOI membership or Learning Module registration. (Click here to register)

• "The Problem of Dualism in Mental Health/Mental Illness:
  A Need for a Paradigm Shift"
  by Willian E. Amos, Ph.D., and Rebecca Valla, M.D.

  Dr. William Amos is Regional Director of Pastoral Counseling Services for the North Carolina Baptist Hospital in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. Dr. Rebecca Valla is theMedical Director of Pastoral Counseling Services for the North Carolina Baptist Hospital in Winston-Salem, North Carolina

• "The Strength to be Human: A Theology of Mental Health"
  by John Swinton, Ph.D.
  Professor of Pastoral Theology, Aberdeen University, Aberdeen, Scotland

• "Spirituality in Mental Health Care Practices"
  by John Swinton, Ph.D.
  Professor of Pastoral Theology, Aberdeen University, Aberdeen, Scotland

Learning Objectives:

Following this learning module one should be able to:

1. Identify their own spiritual/theological perspectives regarding human dignity, values, and mental health.

2. Recognize the dualisms that have developed between mental health and mental illness and articulate an incarnational paradigm for mental health

3. Develop care giving/ministry approaches that are relational, reflect understanding of the experience of mental illness, and include mental health in a holistic paradigm.

4. Distinguish the difference between explaining the dynamics of mental illness and understanding the human experience of it within the context of persons and families.