What Is Faith Health?
Faith Health is a referral-based service that helps the Black church prioritize mental health by providing therapy services to its parishioners within the church. Faith Health fills a need in the Black community by bridging the gap between mental health and religion, understanding that spirituality is a companion to, not a substitute for, mental health services. Mental health is faith in action.
As systemic and structural barriers plague the Black community, the Black church has a unique opportunity to invest in the mental health and wellness of its members by utilizing Faith Health as a resource to dismantle these obstacles. Faith Health offers an alternative way to address the cost, stigma, misinformation, discrimination, inequity, and accessibility that congregants often face when seeking therapy in the community. While the Black church has been incredibly effective in nurturing the spirit and soul of its congregants, Faith Health provides treatment for cognitive, behavioral, and emotional conditions which affect their lives once outside of the church walls.
Why Faith Health?
According to American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, “90.4% of African Americans reported use of religious coping in dealing with mental health issues. In other words, many African Americans, rather than seeking support in the form of a mental health professional, go to the church.”
As an organic resource for community engagement and awareness, the Black church has a responsibility to collaborate with the mental health field to support those in the community with mental health conditions. The Black church is charged with inviting its members to value the competence of trained and mental health professionals to care for their emotional needs in the same way they trust the church to care for their spiritual needs. The consequences of not heeding this call leave the Black community to suffer with treatable mental health conditions. Faith Health is the answer to that call and creates a shared responsibility between the mental health field and the church to foster wellness in the community.