Mental health chaplains find spirituality close to the surface
The Rev. Alan Galt likens mental health chaplains to dieticians - but in the case of chaplains, it's spiritual nourishment they're offering, to help people with mental illnesses negotiate the often lonely journey to healing and recovery.
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UnitingCare has four full-time mental health chaplains in New South Wales, as well as part-time and volunteer chaplains. They provide pastoral care, spiritual support and religious encouragement to people with a wide range of psychiatric disturbances, including depression, schizophrenia and dementia.
Working as part of inter-professional mental health teams, they visit people in psychiatric hospitals, psychiatric units attached to general hospitals and in community health centres. They also train and supervise people from all faiths to be effective in mental health ministry.
In addition to worship services and one-on-one visits, mental health chaplains run weekly pastoral groups in psychiatric hospitals and wards. During group time, chaplains share stories, anecdotes and teachings from various faiths, and invite participants to join in discussion and prayer.
Part of God's creation
Alan Galt has worked in the field for over 30 years and is now based at Rozelle Hospital.
He says pastoral groups are a time when participants can get in touch with their reserves of spiritual strength and think about what he calls "ultimate concerns" - finding purpose and meaning in life and hope, peace and courage in the midst of despair and anguish.
"Mentally ill people are often keenly aware of their fragility and vulnerability. Our role as chaplains is to help people with mental illness to have a healthy sense of their right to survive and of their being part of God's creation," he said.
"God gives us the freedom to live our own lives knowing we're going to make mistakes sometimes, and we want to help people with mental illnesses to realise that God is not trying to punish them with their condition."
Rosemarie Say works alongside Alan at Rozelle Hospital and in several other facilities around Sydney. She emphasises that the key is to listen and invite people to share their story as they are able.
"It would be unethical to go in and proselytise to people
who are in that vulnerable state. But nor do we have the same role
as social workers. We're there to sit with people in their pit of
despair and help them find their strength, their spiritual core,
and sensitively share the good news with them."
In recognition of the changing context of mental health care, chaplains have developed a range of multi-faith activities.
Last year, Alan and Rosemarie ran a pastoral training course in which chaplains from the Buddhist, Christian and Muslim faiths gathered to share their experiences. The course will run again this year at Prince of Wales Hospital.
And, in March, a group of 20 Muslim women participated in an introductory
Clinical Pastoral Education unit at St Joseph's Hospital, Auburn.
Supervised by Alan and Rosemarie, the women explored strategies
for effective hospital ministry and discussed how they could apply
their faith to pastoral situations.
Armed with their new skills, many of the women now plan to undertake
voluntary pastoral visitations with Muslim patients in Sydney hospitals.
More community support needed
Rosemarie is hopeful that the Federal Government's new $1.8 billion five-year plan - which will include an expansion of Medicare to make psychologists more accessible, improved mental health services in rural and remote areas, and a greater focus on community-based programs - will improve the picture for people with mental illness.
New South Wales, however, is widely acknowledged as having a poor track record on mental health. The government's recent refusal to grant extra funding to Lifeline, the state's only 24-hour telephone crisis counselling line, has prompted widespread concern, and the mentally ill are disproportionately represented within the state's burgeoning prison population.
Rosemarie argues that far more community support is needed for people with mental illnesses, and community education is "desperately needed".
"Stigma is one of the biggest hurdles the mentally ill have to face and it greatly adds to their struggles," she said. "In a lot of ways, old-style psychiatric hospitals like Rozelle with their beautiful leafy grounds are good for the soul, and for mentally ill people they can be sanctuaries. When they go back into the community they can find themselves vulnerable and in destructive environments.
Spiritual follow-up is so important for people once they leave a mental health institution and enter the community, but there currently aren't enough chaplains to do that."
This is where churches can play a crucial role, she said. "Some
churches are marvellous at welcoming people with mental illnesses
and providing them with a supportive community. But others can still
be a bit fearful of that difference."
Rosemarie is passionate about developing effective pastoral approaches
that allow people with mental illness to live with dignity.
"My theology in a nutshell is about building bridges rather than walls, as Jesus did by reaching out to those who were different or marginalised. I'm attracted to mental health ministry in particular because that is an area that tends to be avoided, but an area where spirituality is so close to the surface. In their brokenness, people with mental illnesses crave spiritual sustenance.
"Every day at Rozelle I am inspired by the resilience of the human spirit, and I, myself, feel ministered to."
Emma Halgren