MENTAL HEALTH & COMMUNITY CARE

MENTAL HEALTH & COMMUNITY CARE

Mental health and well-being are a part of human life. The World Health Organization describes mental health as “a state of well-being that enables people to cope with the stresses of life, realize their abilities, learn and work well, and contribute to their community.” Supporting the mental health and well-being of members of our communities as well as ourselves through practices like wellness, trauma-informed ministry, and pastoral care can be a meaningful, life-giving, and even life-saving way of loving one another and living into Christian faith.

Community care can encompass social, emotional, material, and spiritual support for people navigating difficult, painful, or traumatic situations, including major life transitions, loss, grief, illness, injury, violence, and natural disasters. Care is a fundamental human need, both in times of crisis and in the stresses of everyday life, and differences in people’s identities and experiences—including by age, race, nationality, economic status, religion, gender, sexual orientation, and disability—can contribute to the kind of care and support that they need, particularly within inequitable social structures. Community care can be offered to individual persons as well as to groups and communities.