Faith Communities and Mental Health

Workshop at First Church Cambridge by NAMI Central Middlesex FC&MH Team

On the afternoon of May 22, 2023, the Faith Communities & Mental Health team held a workshop for 6 Cambridge faith communities. The goal?—to educate and encourage faith communities to build cultures of inclusion and welcome for all individuals with mental health challenges. This work came out of the experience of Jennie Payne at the NAMI Convention several years ago when NAMI Austin shared their NAMI and Faith workshop ideas. Jennie brought this back to NAMI Central Middlesex and it has grown and morphed to meet the needs of Massachusetts’ faith communities.

The workshop includes the expertise of a number of faith leaders, social workers, NAMI In Our Own Voice speakers, and interested NAMI members. This recent event of 2023 was a pilot program to involve church communities of faith who have done a significant amount of work already to create a welcoming/inclusive culture. In 2022 and before, the workshops were primarily for leaders of all faiths to begin a process of education, welcoming, and inclusion.

All these NAMI Central Middlesex forums have included education about mental health, stigma awareness, caring/compassionate culture-building, storytelling by people with lived experience, small group discussions of practical scenarios that happen often in faith community settings, and take-home resources.

Since these programs have been well-received, more than likely there will be more coming next year and beyond. Watch for more on this from NAMI Central Middlesex and consider it for your faith community.