Phoenix Diocese will soon aid mental illness patients and caretakers


Catholics who experience mental illness and those who care about them will soon have additional official assistance available in the Phoenix Diocese.

The establishment of an office devoted to Catholic mental health ministry has been announced by Bishop John Dolan.

Dolan said to CNA on September 19 that “a lot of folks are coping with loved ones who are in trouble.” “It’s a quiet act of kindness, and they plainly need all the assistance they can get.”

The new office will “let individuals know that they’re not alone when it comes to mental health,” according to the bishop. He underlined the need of encouraging open discussion and communication regarding mental illness.

According to the diocesan publication The Catholic Sun, Dolan announced the position on September 4 at Sts. Simon and Jude Cathedral during a Mass of Remembrance for those who have committed suicide.

The bishop presided over a clergy procession during Mass. They arranged flowers in baskets in front of a shrine in the cathedral with the assistance of other members of the congregation.

Every carnation represents a suicide victim. More than 1,200 names of suicide victims were submitted to the diocese in order to be remembered at the Mass.

The new bishop has a personal stake in the matter. Dolan described how his family lost an elder brother, a sister, and her husband to suicide in a video message titled “Sharing My Story: A Life Changed by Suicide” that was uploaded to the diocese’s YouTube page.

“Losing a loved one is really difficult. It’s doubly painful when a loved one commits suicide,” Dolan stated in the video.

“The Church provided me with some initial help, but not continuous assistance or genuine opportunity to speak about it. I buried so much that I just never gave my growth the attention it deserved.

A pastoral manual called “Responding to Suicide” was co-edited by Dolan, who took office as the new bishop of Phoenix on August 2.

Mental illness is a rather prevalent condition. According to the National Institutes for Mental Health, 53 million adult Americans, or about one in five, has a mental disease as of 2020. 5.6% of adult Americans, or 14.2 million people, are thought to have a serious mental disorder. Only 65% of them obtained mental health therapy in the year before.

The Office for Catholic Mental Health Ministry’s future priorities include teaching clergy and laypeople about mental health.

The office wants to provide Catholics the chance to receive help when visiting friends and family members who are dealing with mental illness.

According to Dolan, the new office would provide priests access to a mental health “first-aid kit” that will enable them to counsel or assist individuals in need.

According to Dolan, the educational component will enable clergy and religious members to have a basic understanding of mental health issues and training “so that they don’t leap to conclusions and sort of over-spiritualize conduct.”

A wide understanding of what mental health is should be ingrained in clergy as a result of this training initiative so that they don’t “attempt to address the difficulties on their own.”

The National Council for Mental Wellbeing will provide education. More than 3,100 organisations that provide mental health and drug abuse treatment are represented by the council, an advocacy and educational organisation that was created in 1969.

They essentially attempt to educate people on what to anticipate and what to look for, according to Dolan.

Its educational approach is completely clinical and does not emphasise any spiritual matters.

More than 2.6 million Americans have received training via the organization’s Mental Health First Aid programme “to recognise, understand, and react to signs and symptoms of mental health and drug use difficulties.”

The course includes how to communicate with a person in crisis and how to link a person with support. It also addresses typical indications and symptoms of mental health difficulties and drug use challenges. Additionally, it has material on trauma, drug use, and self-care.

According to Dolan, the psychological sciences have a place in Catholic doctrine and practise.

We consider psychology and psychiatry to be valuable gifts to the human race. We shouldn’t be afraid of it, he advised CNA.

Not adding to priests’ workloads is the goal. Instead, they will be able to point persons in need in the direction of a resource.

Dolan hopes to establish centres for those dealing with mental health challenges, behavioural problems, trauma, or grief in each of the diocese’s 15 deaneries.

Dolan said that he is not yet aware of the specifics of the preparation being given to the diocese’s present seminarians.

Speaking broadly about seminarians, he said that “counselling is probably one component of their preparation” and that prospective priests only get “small samplings” of psychology unless they are enrolled in lectures on the topic at their university or seminary.

The development of seminarians is covered in the 2016 document “Ratio Fundamentalis” from the Dicastery for the Clergy.

It states that seminarians’ preparation to become pastors will benefit from psychology’s “valuable contribution” to pastoral theology.

A role in advocacy will also be played by the Office for Catholic Mental Health Ministry. It will work to strengthen public policy and enhance financing for mental health initiatives.

As more and more persons with mental health illnesses are showing out on the streets, Dolan stated that this would assist “to ensure that mental health is at the front of all of our dialogues.”

The bishop cited trauma, mental illnesses, and drug use problems as some of the “whole variety of reasons” why some homeless individuals choose to live on the streets. He stated that the experience of homelessness itself adds to anxiety and mental health issues.

The Virginia G. Piper Charitable Trust, located in Phoenix, is providing financial assistance for the office, which is scheduled to open in January 2023.

Dr. Anne Vargas-Leveriza, of the diocese’s Office of Child and Youth Protection, and Dr. Maria Chavira, the diocese’s chancellor, are in charge of setting up the new office.

Dolan, a former auxiliary bishop of San Diego, cited other Catholic pronouncements including the letter on mental health care from the California bishops in 2018.

He said that Catholic dioceses like San Diego, San Francisco, and Orange are already tackling the issue, often with the help of other diocese-wide offices.

He mentioned the efforts made by the Catholic Institute for Mental Health Ministry, established at the University of San Diego, to educate diocesan and parish-level mental health ministry leaders nationwide.


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