People find strength and meaning through many different areas of their life. Official religious traditions can be extremely powerful for individuals to realize their power and strength but sometimes they can prevent an individual from going and receiving additional help. Mental illness still carries a large amount of stigma in present day American culture. If a family member is stricken with cancer, neighbors call, bring over food, and are sorry for what is happening. If a family member is diagnosed with a severe mental illness, however, most neighbors do not know how to respond, so they do not respond (Williams, 2012). This stigma causes shame in mental illness which in turn creates a society that is silent about mental health related issues.
…show more content…
The Catholic Church does an excellent job at focusing on the dignity of each person but there is still such a focus on redemptive suffering in the Church. This suffering can create an easy excuse for people who are dealing with thoughts of and self-harm behaviors: that they are doing it to lead a more holy life, to take up the cross like Jesus. There is no distinction between self-harm and self-mortification, but there needs to be a distinction created. With this distinction, the saints would be able to be fully and properly venerated with much less worry about self-harm behaviors happening from that …show more content…
Mental health professionals need to take a more active interest in utilizing religion as a source of strength for some of their clients. As discussed earlier, social work takes a very holistic approach in regards to the treatment of mental illnesses. This approach can be widened to ask initial questions of the individual regarding religion. When doing an initial biopsychosocial assessment, social workers usually touch on three main topics: family, friends, and job or school. Doing biopsychosocial assessments on children, the main questions that are asked are: How are your friends? How is your family? How is school? These questions help to base where an individual’s needs lie. An easy transition and change that social workers or other mental health professionals would be to do is to add questions about faith and religion. While religion can be difficult to talk about, there is a great value in discovering whether that can be a form of strength for
The Catholic Church does an excellent job at focusing on the dignity of each person but there is still such a focus on redemptive suffering in the Church. This suffering can create an easy excuse for people who are dealing with thoughts of and self-harm behaviors: that they are doing it to lead a more holy life, to take up the cross like Jesus. There is no distinction between self-harm and self-mortification, but there needs to be a distinction created. With this distinction, the saints would be able to be fully and properly venerated with much less worry about self-harm behaviors happening from that …show more content…
Mental health professionals need to take a more active interest in utilizing religion as a source of strength for some of their clients. As discussed earlier, social work takes a very holistic approach in regards to the treatment of mental illnesses. This approach can be widened to ask initial questions of the individual regarding religion. When doing an initial biopsychosocial assessment, social workers usually touch on three main topics: family, friends, and job or school. Doing biopsychosocial assessments on children, the main questions that are asked are: How are your friends? How is your family? How is school? These questions help to base where an individual’s needs lie. An easy transition and change that social workers or other mental health professionals would be to do is to add questions about faith and religion. While religion can be difficult to talk about, there is a great value in discovering whether that can be a form of strength for