Theological and Ethical Foundations
Before I go into the more ethical reasons of why this is so important to our Catholic healing ministries, let me provide a personal perspective on the issue. As a veteran of the United States Armed Forces, I have seen my share of horrible situations and suffered traumatic emotional pain from them. I am one of the tens of thousands of military veteran’s and overall Americans who suffers from depression and I am also Bi-polar. I have struggled for many years through counseling and medication to put my life into balance with what society would consider normal. There is no magic pill for that and it takes lots of time and hard work by trained professionals to continue to understand the intricacies of today’s …show more content…
Many do not find their way to help in time and are unfortunately lost to this debilitating disease. My son was one of these victims, who like his father suffered from depression and bi-polar disease, but was not able to find the help in time in order to save his life as he became another victim of suicide at the age of 24. Two months after my son passed away, a co-worker experienced the same struggle I was experiencing understanding the loss, when her 24 year old took his life with no warning. I have seen with my own eyes the number of military veterans who have been inflicted by this horrible disease and the rising number of suicides for those who return from combat. These scenarios are played out every day in our country and is impacting families from all walks of life, whether young, old, veteran, professional, rich or …show more content…
Catholic Health Care facilities need to merge a wide range of contradictions to our faith as we muddle through the treatments for those afflicted with Mental Health Disease and work to provide an understanding by faith, science, pastoral and health care working side by side. We have made great strides over the past decade to bring a face to this issue and open the dialogue between these competing forces in order to move forward. Jesus was the greatest of all physicians whom ever lived and showed us that we as people need to follow his lead as healers and show compassion and understanding and to treat each individual with dignity and respect and provide service for the whole of the person, mind, body and soul. Great advancements in psychiatric therapy and new medications to treat the illness have improved and as caring Catholics we must welcome them with open
Before I go into the more ethical reasons of why this is so important to our Catholic healing ministries, let me provide a personal perspective on the issue. As a veteran of the United States Armed Forces, I have seen my share of horrible situations and suffered traumatic emotional pain from them. I am one of the tens of thousands of military veteran’s and overall Americans who suffers from depression and I am also Bi-polar. I have struggled for many years through counseling and medication to put my life into balance with what society would consider normal. There is no magic pill for that and it takes lots of time and hard work by trained professionals to continue to understand the intricacies of today’s …show more content…
Many do not find their way to help in time and are unfortunately lost to this debilitating disease. My son was one of these victims, who like his father suffered from depression and bi-polar disease, but was not able to find the help in time in order to save his life as he became another victim of suicide at the age of 24. Two months after my son passed away, a co-worker experienced the same struggle I was experiencing understanding the loss, when her 24 year old took his life with no warning. I have seen with my own eyes the number of military veterans who have been inflicted by this horrible disease and the rising number of suicides for those who return from combat. These scenarios are played out every day in our country and is impacting families from all walks of life, whether young, old, veteran, professional, rich or …show more content…
Catholic Health Care facilities need to merge a wide range of contradictions to our faith as we muddle through the treatments for those afflicted with Mental Health Disease and work to provide an understanding by faith, science, pastoral and health care working side by side. We have made great strides over the past decade to bring a face to this issue and open the dialogue between these competing forces in order to move forward. Jesus was the greatest of all physicians whom ever lived and showed us that we as people need to follow his lead as healers and show compassion and understanding and to treat each individual with dignity and respect and provide service for the whole of the person, mind, body and soul. Great advancements in psychiatric therapy and new medications to treat the illness have improved and as caring Catholics we must welcome them with open