Live and IN PERSON – announcing #IFL2021

Posted on March 8, 2021 by Dr. G

On behalf of our entire Key Ministry team, I’m delighted to announce that Inclusion Fusion Live, the disability ministry conference we’ve hosted annually is currently scheduled to take place as a live and “in person” event on Saturday, April 17th, originating from Bay Presbyterian Church in suburban Cleveland. The theme of this year’s conference is doing ministry together after the pandemic.

Over the past year, some of our friends and colleagues in ministry put forth heroic efforts in producing very comprehensive online conferences with some of the best teaching on disability ministry we’ve seen anywhere. We were honored as a team to have participated in the Wonderfully Made and All Access conferences, as well as an Online Pastors Retreat loaded with mental health ministry resources. We don’t need to replicate their efforts – churches and ministry leaders interested in that training can readily access it by reaching out to the organizers of those events. Our team senses that the moment calls for something different.

Our understanding and experience of “church” has been shaken to an extent unlike any of us have experienced in our lifetimes. Months after most churches reopened for in-person worship, attendance at two-thirds of churches in the U.S. is down at least 30%, at least 50% in three churches out of ten and over 70% in one church in ten. Individuals and families served by our ministries have been among those most impacted by social isolation and their medical vulnerabilities will cause them to be among the last to return to church.   

We think it’s important at this moment for as many of us as possible to gather together in the physical presence of others (with appropriate health and safety precautions and social distancing) who share our love for Jesus and passion for including families impacted by disability in the church. We need to be with one another! It’s only through tapping the collective gifts we’ve received through the Spirit that we’ll be effective in our calling and help lead the larger church as it seeks to recapture the people and cultural influence lost in recent years – losses greatly accelerated by the pandemic.  

Some things about #IFL2021 will be as they have in the past – we’re gathering in Cleveland during spring to share ideas, hang out with one another and prepare for a new season of ministry. As with so many things in life this past year, much will be different.

In order to minimize risks associated with travel and promote a sense of connection and community between disability ministry leaders within cities and regions, #IFL2021 will be a live, multisite event. We’re expecting between 10-25 attendees at each site, possibly more at sites with the ability to host larger numbers safely.

This year’s conference will be one day as opposed to two to minimize the COVID – related burdens on our host sites.

Unlike past conferences that sought to provide education and resources on a broad variety of ministry topics, #IFL2021 will be organized around ONE theme. Disability ministry in the aftermath of the pandemic.

Because we’re seeking to tap into collective wisdom, there are no individual talks or presentations this year. #IFL2021 will be organized around seven conversations. Everyone attending in person will participate actively in these conversations. We’ll have familiar faces on our stage in Cleveland kicking off each conversation, which will be shared via webcast to each host site. Host sites will have one or more facilitators who will continue the conversations with attendees at their sites, emphasizing idea-sharing and development of local collaborations and solutions. We’ll have a livestreaming option for participants unable to attend an in-person event at this time. They will be placed in video discussion groups organized by region.

Out of the seven conversations, one – our “featured conversation” will be prerecorded. We wanted our friend and colleague Lamar Hardwick to facilitate the conversation sparked by his new book on the central role disability – and ministry leaders with disabilities should play in the dialogue around diversity in the church but thought it unwise to ask him to travel while he’s undergoing treatment for colon cancer. The disability and diversity conversation will kick off the conference in the Eastern and Central time zones and conclude the day in the Mountain and Western time zones.

Other topics of conversation we’ll likely address include…

How might our churches best address the need for Christian community among families impacted by disability already marginalized before the pandemic? 

How might innovative practices resulting from COVID shape disability ministry going forward? 

How can we preserve and support ministries struggling from a lack of funding or volunteers?

How might we promote collaboration within regions between churches and organizations engaged in disability ministry?

How might we best address the training needs of church staff, disability ministry leaders and volunteers going forward? 

How can we help the church minister with the rapidly growing population impacted by mental health issues? 

To make #IFL2021 a reality, we’re going to need help from lots of friends. Would your church consider serving as a host site for the conference? Click here if you’re interested in learning more about hosting. After you provide us with some basic information, a member of our team will be in touch shortly to discuss hosting requirements and the services and supports we provide. We’re hoping to open individual registration for #IFL2021 by March 21st. We understand the timeline is tight, but we quickly learned while refunding registrations for last year’s conference that advance planning during COVID is often futile.

We miss our friends and colleagues. We’re looking forward to seeing members of our “tribe” and affording friends here in Cleveland and around the country with opportunities to reconnect for the purpose of identifying collective solutions to the ministry challenges we’re facing in the months and years to come.

We encourage everyone to follow Key Ministry’s Facebook page, our family support page or contact us to receive updates on #IFL2021 and other ministry programming and activities.

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A manifesto for the disability ministry movement

Posted on February 22, 2021 by Dr. G

Lamar Hardwick is positioned to be the most impactful advocate for disability inclusion in the American church for many years to come. He is at the forefront of a new generation of ministry leaders with disabilities drawing upon their lived experience to guide the church. His recently released book, Disability and the Church: A Vision for Diversity and Inclusion represents a must-read for Christians interested in welcoming, living with and serving alongside persons with disabilities.

Lamar’s work is extraordinary timely. The primary theme of the book is to “re-envision the role of church growth, evangelism and discipleship from a new lens that places disability at the heart of he diversity conversation.” He makes an effective and compelling argument for why the church must take the lead in the discussion of diversity – and ultimately, disability. He champions the need for identifying and resourcing persons with disabilities for positions of leadership and influence in the church. He does so while articulating a clear and concise theology of disability church leaders can readily embrace in the context of our society’s preoccupation with diversity, equity and inclusion. 

In his book, Lamar presents a vision for community characterized by Biblical diversity in contrast to ideas championed by proponents of Critical Theory. Key components of Biblical diversity are peace between people groups otherwise in competition with one another, unity in Christ derived from the recognition people with all conditions and from all races, ethnicities and cultures are equal at the foot of the cross, individuality, reconciliation and sacrifice. Biblical diversity reflects an appreciation for everyone’s true value and worth in the eyes of God and acknowledgment that the power necessary to achieve true diversity does not reside with humanity but with our creator.

The diversity dilemma for Christians in the West must begin with a critical question: Who’s missing? When we answer the question, Who’s missing? we find our mission.

Lamar Hardwick

If we are called to pursue Biblical diversity, central to that discussion is a pursuit of those who are missing from the community. Quoting from Lamar’s book, “every sheep matters.” He references the parable of the lost sheep to demonstrate the value of each and every person to the community overseen by the ultimate shepherd. He ties disability into the diversity conversation through pointing out that people with disabilities are the largest minority group in the world and the singularly most missed voice in the church. Authentic Gospel witness requires the church to “dive headfirst into the responsibility of creating communities where missing sheep are valued and pursued” with the same passion and persistence as Christ demonstrated during his earthly ministry. 

Deliberate inclusion of individuals and families impacted by disability is absolutely essential to aligning our priorities in a manner more consistent with those of the early church if we are to pursue diversity. Lamar points out that the early church didn’t view this as inclusion, instead seeing it as an obedient response to the teachings of Jesus. He powerfully contrasts the efforts to make church accessible during the early weeks of COVID-related social distancing with the church’s lukewarm (at best) response to including people with disabilities.

A second theme running throughout the book is the importance of elevating disabled voices into positions of leadership within the church. Lamar observes that one of the best ways to measure an organization’s commitment to diversity is by examining who it allows to lead. Having persons with disabilities in positions of leadership ensures the church remains intimately involved with the type of ministry that expresses the heart of God’s kingdom.

Another advantage to elevating persons with disabilities into positions of leadership is that they might help address the church’s obliviousness as to how church is perceived and experienced by outsiders, especially outsiders with disabilities. The greatest example of the disconnect might be illustrated by a 2020 LifeWay Research study (discussed here) in which 99% of Protestant pastors reported their churches are welcoming to individuals and families impacted by disability. A similar disconnect was reported in earlier LifeWay research noting differences between pastors and families in the preparedness of the church to provide mental health support.

Lamar has been uniquely positioned for a prominent role in the disability ministry movement. When our ministry team was planning for 2021, we reflected that our greatest challenge was gaining traction and influence with pastors. While our writing team and leaders from other like-minded ministries generate lots of useful content, Lamar’s seminary degrees and ministry experience, especially his ongoing experience as lead pastor in an ethnically diverse church situated in one of America’s major cities affords him a degree of credibility with pastors that most of us will never have. He recognizes that support from pastors is absolutely critical if things are going to change. His experiences as a person with autism lends him unique insight into the struggles persons might experience at church who struggle with social communication and processing sensory input. He also has the ability to initiate disability ministry collaborations with historically Black churches when it would be presumptuous and inappropriate for leaders from the predominant ethnic group to do so.

We’re buying copies of Lamar’s book for every one of our ministry staff and Board members. Disability and the Church will likely be the most impactful book written in our field of ministry for many years to come. I also find Lamar to be “pitch-perfect” in the language he uses to speak into difficult issues with the grace and truth reflective of our faith, and we’ll be using his words as a model for how we communicate in the months and years ahead.

Disability and the Church: A Vision for Diversity and Inclusion by Lamar Hardwick is available through InterVarsity Press, Amazon, Barnes and Noble, ChristianBook and other fine retailers.

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We invite you to be join us for a wonderful disability ministry conference originating from South Texas this coming weekend. Sandra Peoples and Tiffany Crow are hosting this virtual event under very adverse conditions in their home state. The content is excellent and it’s affordable for churches on tight budgets. Check out http://www.allaccesshtx.com  — and use promo code “Key” to reduce your registration fee to $15.00. And…Pastor Lamar Hardwick is serving as the keynote speaker!

Posted in Inclusion, Leadership | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Recognizing a modern-day Daniel

Posted on January 18, 2021 by Dr. G

Then this Daniel became distinguished above all the other high officials and satraps, because an excellent spirit was in him. And the king planned to set him over the whole kingdom. Then the high officials and the satraps sought to find a ground for complaint against Daniel with regard to the kingdom, but they could find no ground for complaint or any fault, because he was faithful, and no error or fault was found in him. Then these men said, “We shall not find any ground for complaint against this Daniel unless we find it in connection with the law of his God.”

Daniel 6:3-5 (ESV)

Ten or so years ago, I was introduced to Shannon Royce while at McLean Bible Church presenting at one of their Accessibility Summits. At the time, Shannon was serving as President of Chosen Families, a non-profit ministry for families living with hidden disabilities, with a focus on autism and mental health concerns. She was one of the first leaders I met in the disability ministry community with an appreciation and awareness of challenges families impacted by mental illness face in being part of church. She was quite gracious and humble, and it was some time until I fully appreciated her accomplishments as a champion for families in our nation’s Capital. 

Shannon is an attorney by training who worked as an advocate for parents in conflicts with school systems after having served on the staff of Senator Charles Grassley. She was the Director of the Washington office of the Southern Baptist Convention’s Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission while serving as an early champion of mental health ministry within her denomination. Four years ago, she was appointed Director of the Center for Faith and Opportunity Initiatives at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, responsible for building partnerships with community and faith-based organizations, which help HHS serve individuals, families, and communities in need.

One of the tasks HHS became engaged in was implementation of the 21st Century Cures Act – a law passed during the final weeks of President Obama’s administration to accelerate medical innovation and spur cooperation among different agencies of the Federal government in addressing major disease states, one of which is mental illness. Shannon’s office became engaged with the interagency coordinating committee addressing mental illness because of the abundant evidence that participation in religious activities and communities has profound impacts upon mental well-being.

One manifestation of Shannon’s giftedness is her ability to recognize how complex systems and organizations might be leveraged in order to do good. A little over three years ago, I found myself sitting in my car in a parking lot outside Akron Children’s Hospital on a conference call Shannon had organized with a number of other faith leaders wondering where her efforts were leading. I came to discover she’s a true practitioner of three-dimensional chess as I witnessed her plans unfold. 

One of the byproducts of Shannon and her team bringing together faith leaders and mental health professionals from a broad array of religious traditions was the opportunity for Christians engaged in mental health ministry from different cultures, ethnic groups and denominational traditions to be introduced to and connect with one another. Before Shannon used her connections and resources to bring people together for these larger government initiatives, our team was connected to a handful of other churches and leaders actively seeking to advance mental health inclusion and ministry in the church. After taking part in her efforts, those connections probably increased by a factor of ten. We met folks from historically Black churches and folks from the Hispanic community doing great work who we may never have otherwise come across and gained a better understanding of the possibilities for mental health ministry.

One of the people I met in-person for the first time as a result of Shannon’s work was Janet Parshall. Without that introduction, I doubt Janet would have served as the featured speaker at our disability ministry conference two years ago and shared this incredible talk that’s now been viewed over 21,000 times. I met Kay Warren for the first time at the same meeting in Washington. Kay and her husband have probably done as much to advance the cause of mental health ministry in the church as anyone. But I’d put Shannon right up there with them. Collaboration between mental health ministry leaders is at least five years ahead of where it would have otherwise been without her efforts. There’s no way we’d have been able to pull together the resources for our online pastors’ retreat without the folks we met through her.

I consider myself blessed to have had the opportunity to observe the grace, maturity and self-control Shannon displayed in living out her faith and leading with excellence in the midst of a city where intense hostility to her values is a daily reality among those seeking power and influence. In that way, I consider her to be a modern-day Daniel. We need more people like her willing to enter into the centers of political and cultural power if we are to stem the steep decline in Christianity’s reputation and influence in America. I would aspire to conduct myself in the medical profession as well as Shannon has while serving in government.  

Shannon’s last day in her position was this past Friday. We should hope and pray that the new administration in Washington would appoint someone like her to assume her responsibilities. I’m interested in what God has next in store for her as our faith enters into a modern-day form of cultural exile, not dissimilar to the exile that Daniel was part of during the sixth century B.C. 

Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, to all the exiles whom I have sent into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon: Build houses and live in them; plant gardens and eat their produce. Take wives and have sons and daughters; take wives for your sons, and give your daughters in marriage, that they may bear sons and daughters; multiply there, and do not decrease. But seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the Lord on its behalf, for in its welfare you will find your welfare.

Jeremiah 29:5-7 (ESV)

I suspect Shannon would be pleased if the fruits of her work continue to be disseminated. Here’s a link to Compassion in Action: A Guide for Faith Communities Serving People Experiencing Mental Illness. In searching for video of events our ministry took part in through Shannon’s office, I came across this conversation featuring her, Rick Warren and Dr. Frances Collins (Director of the National Institute of Health) on practical ways Christians and other members of faith communities can demonstrate concern and hospitality to their neighbors during COVID-19.

On behalf of our entire ministry team, I’d like to extend our thanks and congratulations to Shannon for the work she and her team accomplished during her time at HHS and for the excellence she demonstrated in living out our faith during her time in Washington. We pray that God will bless you and your family abundantly!  

Posted in Advocacy, Key Ministry, Mental Health | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

More evidence churches are ESSENTIAL to mental health during COVID-19

Posted on December 14, 2020 by Dr. G
Photo by Daniel Borges from Pexels
Photo by Daniel Borges from Pexels

One of the most puzzling aspects of the government’s responses to COVID-19 has been their failure to recognize the importance of churches in mitigating the mental health impacts of the pandemic. The evidence base for the mental health benefits of worship service attendance is overwhelming. Over 3,000 peer-reviewed studies have been published examining the health benefits of religious or spiritual practices on health, with the vast majority of studies pointing specifically to the mental health benefits of religion.

Dr. Harold Koenig of Duke University authored a comprehensive review of the research linking religious practices with mental and physical health. Some of the mental health benefits of religion or spirituality include:

  • Lower levels of depression or faster remission from depression.
  • Fewer suicide attempts and fewer deaths as a result of suicide
  • Reduced levels of anxiety
  • Higher frequency of religious service attendance is linked to a lower risk of bipolar disorder.
  • Lower risk of personality disorders.
  • An inverse relationship between religious participation and substance use disorders

A survey was released this past week by the Gallup organization dramatizing just how essential churches have been over the last nine months.

For the past twenty years, Gallup has done an annual survey each November of health and healthcare in which they’ve asked Americans to rate their mental or emotional well-being. This year’s survey incorporated a random sampling of 1,018 adults from all 50 states conducted between and November 5th and November 19th. Here are some highlights from the study.

Americans’ latest assessment of their mental health is worse than it has been at any point in the last two decades. Seventy-six percent of U.S. adults rate their mental health positively, representing a nine-point decline from 2019.

Each year since 2001, Gallup has asked Americans as part of its November Health and Healthcare survey to say whether their own mental or emotional wellbeing is excellent, good, only fair or poor. The reading for those rating their mental health as excellent or good ranged from 81% to 89% until this year’s 76%.

Although the majority of U.S. adults continue to rate their mental health as excellent (34%) or good (42%), and far fewer say it is only fair (18%) or poor (5%), the latest excellent ratings are eight points lower than Gallup has measured in any prior year.

The latest weakening in positive ratings, from a Nov. 5-19 poll, are undoubtedly influenced by the coronavirus pandemic, which continues to profoundly disrupt people’s lives, but may also reflect views of the election and the state of race relations, both of which were on Americans’ minds this year.

Self-ratings of mental health declined in every demographic Gallup measured – age, race, gender, income, marital status, political affiliation except for one – weekly church attenders. 

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In some ways, I can understand the public policy decisions that led some states to order churches closed while keeping liquor stores, strip clubs and marijuana dispensaries open. After all, Christians are enormously underrepresented in psychiatry, and likely underrepresented in public health. Church attendees are probably less likely to be in the meetings where public health responses to COVID are being debated. Many states that have cracked down most harshly against churches during COVID-19 are led by politicians less inclined to view church attendees as key supporters.

What I don’t understand is why so many of our churches have failed to recognize their importance in mitigating the mental health impacts of COVID. Persons with mental health concerns are more likely to turn to clergy for help than a psychiatrist or their primary care physician. Many historically Black churches have been at the forefront in supporting the mental health needs of the communities they serve during COVID. If I were a social media manager at a church, I’d be telling the world about the Gallup study through my Facebook and Twitter posts.

How might churches most effectively support the mental health of their members and attendees during this time? This post considers mental health support during #CovidChristmas, while this one outlines a broader range of support strategies during COVID-19. Here are a few thoughts for churches to consider during the long, dark winter ahead.

Keep the church open for worship services if at all possible. At a time when the only people whose mental health is improving are regular church attendees, worship is more important than ever to those in your church with mental health vulnerabilities.

Make sure individuals and families who have stopped attending church know they haven’t been forgotten. It’s likely given the large increases in anxiety and depression during COVID that many who attended church last year but are now absent from worship services (in-person attendance is down 64% since the beginning of COVID) are hurting. A study published earlier this week reported that people without depression or anxiety have experienced the greatest increase in mental health symptoms during COVID. Consider how the people of the church might mobilize to look after one another.

Don’t miss the opportunity to invite folks to Christmas services who don’t regularly go to church or don’t have a church to attend this year. Given what we learned from the Gallup study, there may be far more people open to the Gospel during this season than in years past. Even with social distancing, many churches will have seats available this Christmas that they haven’t had before. What better time than now to invite someone in need of the hope we have in Christ?

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Our ministry team very much appreciates your prayers and financial support as 2020 comes to a close. Families of kids with disabilities have had an incredibly difficult time over the last nine months. Churches have struggled with all the changes resulting from social distancing. Our staff has done an incredible job in helping churches help families this year while controlling costs, but we’re currently running about $15,000 behind our expenses from having to cancel our national ministry conference, Inclusion Fusion Live. If you’ve taken care of your responsibilities to your local church, we’d appreciate any donation you might provide. Would you consider starting a Facebook Fundraiser on behalf of our ministry? Online gifts have become an increasingly important source of support.

If you’re unable to give, but have been encouraged or supported by our ministry this year, we’d love to hear from you. The encouragement at this point in the pandemic might be more impactful than the money.

From our Key Ministry team we extend our Best Wishes for a Blessed and Joyous Christmas!

Posted in Key Ministry, Mental Health | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Twenty ways our ministry made a difference in 2020

Posted on November 23, 2020 by Dr. G
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Not that I am speaking of being in need, for I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content. I know how to be brought low, and I know how to abound. In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need. I can do all things through him who strengthens me.

Philippians 4:11-13 (ESV)

I’d like to express my heartfelt thanks and admiration for the magnificent work accomplished by our ministry staff, volunteers, writing team and the pastors, staff and volunteers of the churches we serve over the last twelve months through some of the most unusual and trying circumstances the small “c” church has experienced in our lifetimes.

Our ministry plans for 2020 went out the window when church doors closed across the country as we learned the meaning of social distancing. But in reviewing the accomplishments of the team in 2020, it’s hard not to argue that Beth, Catherine, and the rest of the team had their most impactful year of ministry ever.

Here are 20 ways in which our team made significant impact for the cause of including families of kids with disabilities and children and adults with mental health concerns in this most challenging of years.

1. The team quickly mobilized to provide training, connection and support to ministry leaders related to impacts of COVID-19. All of our coronavirus-related resources may be found here. We launched weekly “Idea Share” videoconferences including church staff and volunteers from across the country to facilitate brainstorming of ideas for serving kids and families during #COVID19. Other sessions provided encouragement and support to parents of kids with disabilities who suddenly found themselves without many of their usual support services for their children. One of our most popular video roundtables featured the author, pastor and biblical counselor Jonathan Holmes discussing the use of Scripture to help manage and support emotional health during COVID-19.https://player.vimeo.com/video/408070764?app_id=122963&wmode=opaque

2. Together with members of our writing team and leaders of other like-minded disability ministries, we produced and hosted a special Easter Sunday worship service for families impacted by disability. The service received over 31,000 views on our Facebook page. The service may be viewed here in its entirety.

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3. Our team, in partnership with Amplify Social Media produced on Online Pastors Retreat in response to the dramatic increase in mental health struggles among clergy and the population at large during the pandemic. Nearly 200 pastors and church staff to date have registered for this remarkable resource, addressing key topics in self-care, church care and steps for becoming a mental-health friendly church. We were honored to have been joined by many prominent church leaders in this effort, including Kay Warren, William Vanderbloemen, Pete Scazzaro and Brad Hambrick. Click here to learn more about the retreat, or here to register.

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4. We continued our work with the Office of Faith-Based Partnerships of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and their efforts in helping congregations from all faith traditions improve their capacity for supporting individuals and families with mental illness. On April 28th, Steve had the opportunity to take part in a nationwide videoconference hosted by the Partnership Center on Mental Health in the Time of COVID, together with Kay Warren and psychologist and former Pennsylvania congressman Tim Murphy. Several thousand had registered for the webinar and many more have viewed it since then through YouTube.https://www.youtube.com/embed/C8Zzgw4ihOg?wmode=opaque&enablejsapi=1

5. Speaking of the Office of Faith-Based Partnerships, we were honored to contribute to Compassion in Action: A Guide for Faith Communities Serving People Experiencing Mental Illness, available as a free download through the HHS website. The guide is organized around seven key principles applicable in all faith traditions that offer a way for spiritual leaders to address mental illness in the communities they serve. The guide also identifies concrete houses of worship might take to “put their compassion into action.”

6. Our team played a significant role in Wonderfully Made, the “sister” conference of Inclusion Fusion Live, which was held virtually this past October. All of our core team served as presenters, with Steve doing one of the keynotes. Wonderfully Made featured a number of our writers and represented the largest disability ministry conference of 2020.

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7. We were able to take part in four live, in-person training events before the COVID shutdowns – training for the children’s ministry team on mental health inclusion at Bay Presbyterian Church, two additional local trainings in Northeast Ohio, and the Together Conference at Mount Paran Church in Atlanta on the first weekend of March.

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8. Steve was invited to speak as part of the Church Mental Health Summit, sponsored by Hope Made Strong on October 10. 1,785 attendees registered for his talk on Why Attending Church is Difficult for Families Impacted by Mental Illness.

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9. We continued to grow the disability ministry field. The Special Needs and Disability Ministry Leaders group we facilitate. 235 new members have joined the group this year, currently standing at 2048. 950 members have been added since November, 2018.

10. We continue to find new avenues to educate the church about mental health ministry. This article from Steve was featured in the Fall 2020 issue of Evangelicals magazine, produced by the National Association of Evangelicals. The Brink magazine, produced as a a devotional magazine for twentysomethings, featured an interview with Steve as the cover story for their Fall issue.

11. We continued to produce content that ministry leaders and families seek to access. Our website has had over 125,000 unique visitors this year through mid-November. Between our Church4Every Child and Special Needs Parenting blog, we’re approaching 4 million page views. Nearly 5,000 people subscribe to our blog posts. Over 22,000 follow our content on Twitter, with nearly 16,000 following our Facebook page for churches and 18,000 our Facebook page for parents.

12. We continued to build upon our relationship with the disability ministry team of the South Atlantic Conference of the Seventh Day Adventist Church. They’ve sponsored a broad range of trainings for their pastors and membership on mental health ministry and they report sixteen pastors have begun mental health initiatives in their churches this past year.

13. We’re honored to have been selected as one of nine ministry organizations to have been invited to partner with the Tim Tebow Foundation for Shine On, a ministry of the foundation dedicated to connecting new and growing special needs programs within local churches to world-class faith-based resources that train, guide, and support churches as they serve their local community of people with special needs. Formed by an ongoing desire to see churches worldwide extend their individual Night to Shine proms into year-round ministries, Shine On is an initiative several years in the making. When a church is simply looking to refine an existing ministry for those with special needs, or looking to build one from the ground up, we’re available along with the other eight organizations to offer both inspiration and assistance.

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14. We continued to field lots of consultation requests from churches, despite closures related to the pandemic. Beth received 81 consultation requests for general disability ministry issues and Catherine responded to 42 consultation requests for mental health ministry to this point in 2020.

15. We were invited to contribute to many podcasts in 2020. Beth and Catherine joined Tom Bump from the Kids Ministry Collective on special needs ministry during COVID-19. Beth addressed worship service inclusion in this podcast with Stephanie Holmes for Springbrook’s Converge Autism Radio podcast. Steve did this video podcast with Tony Kummer from Ministry to Children on disability ministry lessons the church might learn during the pandemic. Beth also took part in this video podcast sponsored by SOAR Special Needs Ministry on disability ministry in the new normal.

16. Beth has been active in development of a collaborative in Northeast Ohio of churches participating in Night to Shine events. The collaborative may serve as a model for church-based disability ministries to provide mutual support in other cities and regions.

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17. We’ve met with the producers of Unseen, a documentary intended to give an unfiltered, honest glimpse into the mental and physical struggles of special needs caregivers. The filmmakers seek to demonstrate how the exhaustion and isolation of special needs caregivers represent a public health crisis.

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18. Catherine was invited to serve as a contributor to the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission website. Her first post offered four suggestions for shepherding pastors during the coronavirus. Steve contributed posts on how churches might support mental health during the pandemic and Churches, Holidays, Pandemics and Mental Health, scheduled for publication during the coming week.

19. We’ve recently met with the Lutheran Foundation to plan mental health ministry education activities for 2021 and 2022. We’ve scheduled a webinar for March of 2021 on the barriers individuals and families face in being part of church.

20. Steve has continued to serve as a regular contributor to the Brian and Jannelle morning show on Moody Radio Cleveland. This segment on flattening the mental health curve during the pandemic was featured on Moody Radio last March. He also appeared on Mornings with Carmen LaBerge and The Ride Home with John and Kathy’s afternoon show on 101.5 The Word in Pittsburgh.

Brian and Jannelle (with a special appearance from Kathleen) at Moody Radio Cleveland
Brian and Jannelle (with a special appearance from Kathleen) at Moody Radio Cleveland

I’m tired from listing all the stuff our ministry did this year. But the need for the support our ministry provides isn’t going away and will only intensify as the calendar turns to 2021.

Our ministry team would very much appreciate your prayers and financial support as 2020 comes to a close. Families of kids with emotional, behavioral, developmental and physical difficulties have had an incredibly difficult time over the last eight months. Churches have struggled with all the changes resulting from social distancing. Our team has done an incredible job in helping churches help families this year while controlling costs as much as possible, but we’re currently running about $15,000 behind our expenses this year as a result of having to cancel our national ministry conference, Inclusion Fusion Live, after reducing our spending by approximately 30% from what was budgeted at the beginning of the year.

If you’ve taken care of your responsibilities to your local church, we’d appreciate any donation you’re able to provide. Would you consider starting a Facebook Fundraiser on behalf of our ministry? Online gifts have become an increasingly important source of support.

If you’re unable to give, but have been encouraged or supported by our ministry this year, we’d love to hear from you. The encouragement at this point in the pandemic is at least as impactful as the money.

From our Key Ministry team we extend our Best Wishes for a Blessed and Joyous Thanksgiving, looking forward to the time when we can all be together again with our families again.

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A plan to help hurting churches help hurting families

Posted on November 17, 2020 by Dr. G

With all the upheaval we’ve all experienced over the past eight months, the most unsettled I’ve felt was the first Sunday my family and I attended a worship service inside our church’s building. I’d never seen the church so empty. I’d been worried about not having a place to sit thanks to the distancing requirements if we arrived a little late. I’d guess our main sanctuary was maybe 10-15% full when we could comfortably host 40% of our normal capacity with all the restrictions. This after two services (traditional and contemporary) customarily held during that hour were combined in one space.

I’ve heard similar stories from friends at other churches. The general consensus in our area is that attendance at worship services is around 30-40% of what it was before the pandemic. That’s consistent with these statistics from a prominent church consultant (Tony Morgan), reporting attendance nationwide of 36% of pre-pandemic levels. Obviously, lots of people will come back when the need for social distancing ends. But lots of people won’t. I’ll be taking a closer look at this podcast in a future post in which Thom Rainer (former President of LifeWay) predicts the typical church will lose 30-40% of its people as a result of the current disruption. In that same podcast, Rainer noted that 80% of 1,000+ pastors who responded to an online survey said they’re contemplating quitting. Our churches are in distress.

David Kinnamon of the Barna Group estimates 20% of churches will be closed within the next eighteen months. Fewer than 50% of regular church attenders ages 55 and under reported a preference for primarily “physical” church gatherings. While we’re likely to lose less committed people, the impact on church finances is inevitable. The larger issue for disability ministry centered around weekend worship will be the impact on the volunteer pool upon which these ministries depend.

Credit: Barna Group
Credit: Barna Group

We’ve been thrust into the most radical change in the way “church” is conducted since the Protestant Reformation. The future is very unclear. But God’s at work in the process. The statistics above suggest we haven’t exactly been successful as of late in discipling people if so many have left. A surprising number of church attendees aren’t interested in getting back to “normal” in attendance at weekend worship services.

Our team is wrestling with planning ministry for next year when nobody really knows for sure what church is going to look like twelve months from now or how much more of a hit churches will take from additional steps to control the pandemic over the next 6-9 months. It’s like the challenges a quarterback faces in throwing the ball to a spot where he anticipates his receiver will be based upon the receiver’s reaction to the defense being played.

This article from Tony Morgan was very helpful in helping me to understand how churches will operate after COVID. Here’s a photo from his post with a summary of his key points.

From Tony Morgan: Seven shifts I foresee churches will need to make as a result of this crisis:
From Tony Morgan: Seven shifts I foresee churches will need to make as a result of this crisis:

While we’re likely to find ourselves making stuff up on the fly again this year in response to need, these are some of our guiding principles for expanding disability ministry in a shrinking church in the years ahead.  

We’re preparing for a paradigm shift in which less and less ministry will be done by paid professionals. Pastors and church staff will transition from doing ministry to resourcing volunteers to do ministry. Established disability ministries that survive are more likely to do be led by highly motivated volunteers and new disability ministries will be established by volunteers. We need to give church leaders the resources they need to keep ministries going in the absence of funding and train leaders to launch ministries in churches that have the heart but are low on resources.

We need to empower the people of the church to identify and respond to ministry opportunities without expecting leaders to start a program. When Morgan refers to “simplicity” in his model, he means churches focusing on doing a few things with excellence versus operating lots of programs that compete for shrinking pools of money or volunteers. Churches won’t be starting many new programs. That means someone who sees the need for a Christian-based mental health support group needs connections with organizations to help them start a group, support their group and promote their group.. How might the people of the church provide respite care in their neighborhoods when a church doesn’t have the facilities or volunteers to support respite events? What does disability ministry look like for “microchurches?” How might we empower individuals with disabilities to start microchurches to reach their friends and neighbors who don’t have a church?

I’d argue that doing ministry is a much-underutilized strategy for churches struggling with discipleship. The model of coming to church to be “taught” by the professionals has clearly lost favor with generations younger than mine. People grow by doing. Encountering pushback in ministry forces people to pray, to turn to Scripture and to seek wise counsel – in other words, to grow spiritually. We can support churches as they pursue outwardly-focused disability ministry. How might we point churches to opportunities to share the love of Christ with members of the disability community who would never otherwise enter their buildings?

Promoting connectedness – This may be the most important component of our ministry plan going forward. We’re experiencing a mental health crisis along with a medical crisis in large part due to the disruption in relationships caused by the pandemic. How can we encourage and support one another in ministry? How do we support pastors and church staff who are experiencing enormous disruption in their work lives? That’s how we ended up partnering with another organization to host an Online Pastors’ Retreat accessed thus far by over 180 church leaders.

How can churches across a city or a region support one another in doing ministry? That’s a hot topic in our home region at the moment. How might churches pool their resources to support one another’s disability ministry initiatives? How might local ministry leaders support one another? Pastors and church leaders need to be better connected with disability ministry leaders. The people of the church need more connection with one another. If church were more like a family, far fewer people would be leaving.

Making high quality, live disability ministry training is at the top of our “to-do” list when the pandemic is over. If we do #IFL2021, it will look different than in the past and be designed as an “in-person” event. The small “c” church is doing a pretty good job of disability ministry on Sunday. How might we help churches see what it means to be connected to families from Monday to Saturday?

That’s what the churches and families we serve and the generous people who pray for and fund our ministry can expect in the year ahead.

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Speaking of the year ahead, our team would very much appreciate your prayers and financial support. Inclusion Fusion Live represented approximately a third of our ministry’s annual budget. That disappeared when everything closed down last Spring. Our team has done an incredible job in responding to needs this year, while controlling costs, but we’re currently running about $15,000 behind our expenses this year. Please consider a gift to our ministry after meeting your responsibilities to your local church.

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Caring well for persons with mental health struggles in our churches

Posted on September 27, 2020 by Dr. G

The past six months have presented extraordinary challenges to the church – not the least of which has been caring for all of the people who are hurting as a result of social and economic disruptions associated with the coronavirus.

Last month, the CDC released a report describing mental health challenges experienced by U.S. adults during COVID-19. The statistics presented below represent a a four-fold increase in the prevalence of depressive symptoms and a three-fold increase in the prevalence of anxiety symptoms compared to a similar time in 2019. Rates of suicidal ideation in the preceding thirty days were more than double than reported in 2018.

Overall, 40.9% of 5,470 respondents who completed surveys during June reported an adverse mental or behavioral health condition, including those who reported symptoms of anxiety disorder or depressive disorder (30.9%), those with TSRD symptoms related to COVID-19 (26.3%), those who reported having started or increased substance use to cope with stress or emotions related to COVID-19 (13.3%), and those who reported having seriously considered suicide in the preceding 30 days (10.7%)

Among some demographics, the numbers are truly staggering.

  • 74.9% of 18-24 year-olds and 51.9% of 25-44 year-olds reported at least one adverse mental or behavioral health symptom, as well as 52.1% of Hispanic respondents, 54.0% of essential workers, 66.2% who held less than a high school diploma and 66.6% of unpaid caregivers for adults at the time of the survey.
  • Essential workers had a 42% higher prevalence of mental health symptoms than non-essential workers, and adult caregivers were over 2.5 times more likely to report symptoms than non-caregivers.
  • One in four adults between the ages of 18-24 and 16% of adults ages 25-44 reported seriously considering suicide in the past thirty days. These numbers were 15.1% for Blacks, 18.6% for Hispanics, 21.7% for essential workers and 30.7% for unpaid caregivers of adults.
  • 21.9% of Hispanics, 24.7% of essential workers and 32.9% of unpaid adult caregivers started or increased substance use to cope with stress or emotions related to COVID-19.

You wouldn’t know from the title, but our team has pulled together some remarkable resources for pastors and church leaders interested in supporting the emotional well-being of their people under the banner of our upcoming Online Pastors’ Retreat (OPR). Here’s a sneak preview of some of the content being made available under the banner of the OPR.

Heather Sells (CBN News) will interview prominent pastors and ministry leaders who discuss their personal experiences with mental health and share their observations about the best ways to minister to those navigating mental and emotional health issues. Guests include Dr. Jack Graham (Prestonwood Baptist Church), Amy Simpson (Author of Troubled Minds), Joe Padilla, (Mental Health Grace Alliance), Brad Hoefs, Founder of Fresh Hope for Mental Health and Dylan Dodson, (New City Church, Raleigh, NC). In a separate presentation, Pastor Dodson discusses practical strategies for walking through tragedies with people in your church.

Brad Hambrick (Pastor of Counseling at The Summit Church in Durham, NC) will be discussing how to use the Bible effectively with someone who has experienced trauma. His presentation has been designed for anyone who provides pastoral care with victims of abuse, first responders (police officers, medical professionals, etc.), persons serving in the military or couples who have lost a child.

Ben O’Dell (Mental Health Liaison for the HHS Center for Faith and Opportunity Initiatives) will introduce the Partnership Center’s Compassion in Action Guide – a compendium of resources, “best practices,” and innovative services to help pastors and other church staff to address mental illness in their churches and communities. The guide presents seven key principles to implementation of mental health support.

Evan Owens (Reboot Recovery) will be sharing a presentation for pastors and church leaders designed to help those who minister with first responders and their loved ones assist them in healing from the moral and spiritual wounds associated with service-related trauma during a time in which COVID-19, civil unrest and a barrage of economic challenges have pushed many heroes to the brink

Dr. Matthew Stanford  (Hope and Healing Institute, Houston TX) will be providing an overview of their Gateway to Hope (GTH) training – an interactive, evidence-based, mental health awareness training and education program offered online free of charge to interested churches. GTH training equips pastors, ministry staff, and volunteers to identify mental health problems early, refer distressed individuals to professional care, offer evidence-based psychoeducational services on site, and provide a therapeutic community to support recovery. He will discuss how churches might use the training to enhance their ability to minister to those living with serious mental illness and their families.

We’re blessed to be able to share these resources, along with a comprehensive series of videos on developing a mental health inclusion strategy and interventions common among mental health-friendly churches. They accompany an extensive series of resources of self-care for pastors and church staff that compose the “retreat” portion of the OPR. We were blown away by the the willingness of so many prominent church leaders to contribute their time and wisdom to the retreat. Some of the speakers and their topics include:

Kay Warren – Truth, Sorrow and Hope in Mental Illness

Pete Scazzaro – The Emotionally Healthy Pastor

William Vanderbloemen – Rebuilding Your Broken World

Michael Lyles, MD – How to be a Mary in a Martha World

More speakers and content will be announced throughout this week. The content and interactive discussions will be initially be made available on October 5-7, but all resources will be available for years to come. There’s no expiration date for access to the OPR.

Thanks to our partners at Amplify Social Media, the OPR is being made available at a very modest cost. Click here to learn more about the retreat, or here if you’re ready to register.

We’d love for you to learn more about caring for the people of your church who are hurting while getting yourself and your ministry colleagues support for your own mental health and the mental health of your family during a challenging season of ministry.

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In Mental Health and the Church: A Ministry Handbook for Including Children and Adults with ADHD, Anxiety, Mood Disorders, and Other Common Mental Health Conditions, Dr. Stephen Grcevich presents a simple and flexible model for mental health inclusion ministry for implementation by churches of all sizes, denominations, and organizational styles. The book is also designed to be a useful resource for parents, grandparents and spouses seeking to promote the spiritual growth of loved ones with mental illness. Available now at Amazon, Barnes and Noble, ChristianBook and other fine retailers everywhere.

 

 

 

 

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The best at what she does

Posted on September 15, 2020 by Dr. G

Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things. What you have learned and received and heard and seen in me—practice these things, and the God of peace will be with you.

Philippians 4:8-9 (ESV)

Barb Newman is very sick. I want her to know how much our team appreciates the ministry she’s provided for many years to the kids and families of Zeeland Christian School, to churches and Christian schools through the work of All Belong, and to the entire field of disability ministry through her writing, speaking and teaching. I’m writing today because I want our friend to know how much we value her and the gifts she’s given to us and everyone else serving in the disability ministry field.

I felt very unsettled in the early days of our team getting out to conferences and networking in the children’s and family ministry communities after observing the extent to which ministry leaders in those areas were engaged in ruthless self-promotion and discovering that a lot of the teaching and content available at that time wasn’t very good. I came into ministry from a medical world in which excellence was demanded. I’d expected excellence would be a given in work being done in the name of God, but that wasn’t in many instances what I found. With regard to the practical, “how-to” of doing ministry with families of kids with severe disabilities, Barb’s writing and teaching was the first content that reflected a level of excellence in caring for and supporting individuals and families impacted by disabilities consistent with what I’d come to expect from my exposure to academic medicine.

I came to recognize Barb’s superior abilities as a teacher and have seen the ways in which God has used her extraordinary gifts to bless the disability community. Barb is able to talk about kids with incredibly complex conditions such as autism in such a way that pastors, ministry leaders, fellow educators and Sunday school volunteers are able to grasp the best ways to lend support while communicating the love of Christ. Her work has provided a foundation to others in the disability ministry field who have continued to build upon it. When I was working on Mental Health and the Church, I wanted the book to be as good as Accessible Gospel, Inclusive Worship and Autism and Your Church. She’s set the standard for the field.

Some indeed preach Christ from envy and rivalry, but others from good will. The latter do it out of love, knowing that I am put here for the defense of the gospel. The former proclaim Christ out of selfish ambition, not sincerely but thinking to afflict me in my imprisonment. What then? Only that in every way, whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is proclaimed, and in that I rejoice.

Philippians 1:15-18 (ESV)

Barb has always been extraordinarily generous with her time and talents and actively sought to collaborate in any opportunity to advance the field of disability ministry and disability inclusion. She’s been a great encouragement to emerging authors and leaders. Her humility and willingness to work with others despite her superior abilities has greatly contributed to the spirit of collaboration throughout the disability ministry movement and served as an authentic reflection of Christ.

To Live Is Christ

Yes, and I will rejoice, for I know that through your prayers and the help of the Spirit of Jesus Christ this will turn out for my deliverance, as it is my eager expectation and hope that I will not be at all ashamed, but that with full courage now as always Christ will be honored in my body, whether by life or by death. For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain. If I am to live in the flesh, that means fruitful labor for me. Yet which I shall choose I cannot tell. I am hard pressed between the two. My desire is to depart and be with Christ, for that is far better. But to remain in the flesh is more necessary on your account.

Philippians 1:18b-26 (ESV)

With all that said, I think Barb has done some of her most impactful ministry in the last three months, since being diagnosed with leiomyosarcoma of the uterus – a very aggressive form of cancer that metastasized to her brain. I’d encourage everyone to check out the journal Barb and her family have maintained since her cancer was identified nearly three months ago. In mental health ministry, we often find ourselves wresting with the implications of Philippians 4:6-7. Through her illness, Barb has been the embodiment of what Paul described as “the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding.” I’ll pray that if given the opportunity, the Holy Spirit will enable me to finish my race as well as Barb is finishing hers.

Here’s my favorite talk of Barb’s, from our Inclusion Fusion Live conference in 2018. She shared the idea of “puzzle piece learning” – a wonderful vision of what inclusion might look like in the church and in Christ’s kingdom.

While we’ll continue to pray that God would glorify himself through healing Barb completely of her cancer and giving her many more years of serving families with disabilities and the church, if he chooses not to do so we’ll be happy for our friend that she’ll be with Jesus forever in his kingdom along with many, many people who came to know him through churches and schools Barb trained to welcome them. We’ll also be comforted thanks to Barb’s generosity with her wisdom and knowledge, there are many gifted teachers and leaders prepared to continue her work.

Thanks Barb! We’ll see you soon.

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An event promoting mentally healthy pastors and churches

Posted on September 1, 2020 by Dr. G

Church always has been a place where people can act foolish with little consequence — where people have the space to act out toward clergy in ways that aren’t safe to do toward their bosses or their spouses. Being a pastor never has been easy, but this is a new level of hell that pastors are living.

I came across the above quote in this article written by a pastor about the struggles of his fellow pastors in a Facebook post from a pastor who used to serve at my church highlighting the burdens that pastors and church staff have been experiencing while doing ministry in the middle of a pandemic. A study from the Barna Group in the early days of COVID-19 noted three in ten pastors (31%) say they are currently struggling the most with their emotional well-being, while a quarter (26%) say this about their relational well-being.

When I think about the families I work with through my practice and the leaders I come in contact with through our ministry, few professions have faced more adversity during the pandemic than folks serving on staff at church. I’ve previously referenced the Social Readjustment Rating Scale – a tool used to calculate the risk of medical illness based upon the individual’s experience of 43 potentially stressful life events in the past year.  The higher the score, and the larger the weight of each event, the more likely the individual was was to become ill. Consider what many in ministry have experienced so far during 2020 from the list of stressful events…

  • Business readjustment (39 “stress points”)
  • Change in financial state (38)
  • Change in responsibilities at work (29)
  • Spouse begins or stops work (26)
  • Revision of personal habits (24)
  • Change in work hours or conditions (20)
  • Change in church activities (19)

A recent study from the City College of New York and Duke University demonstrated that higher levels of spiritual well-being were protective against increased depressive symptoms in pastors, even when controlling for perceived emotional support.

Our team had been wrestling with what we might do to be supportive of our brothers and sisters involved in ministry while helping them care for individuals and families inside and outside of their churches who are struggling during this time. We came up with the idea of an event focusing on pastors, mental health and the church combining an online retreat with a mental health ministry conference. We’re planning the event in partnership with a pastor and media consultant (Nils Smith) who has an established track record of success in creating events similar to this one  and has worked with our ministry in the past.

Our Online Pastors’ Retreat seeks to:

  • Provide resources and support to pastors and church staff to help them attend to their mental health needs and the needs of their families.
  • Promote the development of mental health ministry strategies guiding care and support to persons inside the church and outreach to individuals and families with mental health concerns without a church.

We reached out to colleagues involved with mental health ministry along with pastors and other church leaders recognized for their concern for clergy well-being when we came up with the idea for the retreat. We were blown away – and very blessed by the willingness of leaders of churches and ministries far more prominent than ours to participate in the event. Some of the folks who will be participating (in alphabetical order) include…

  • DJ Chuang (Erasing Shame Podcast)
  • Jack Graham (Prestonwood Baptist Church)
  • Brad Hambrick (The Summit Church)
  • Craig Johnson (Lakewood Church)
  • Pete Scazzaro (Emotionally Healthy Discipleship)
  • Heather Sells (Christian Broadcasting Network)
  • Greg Surratt (Seacoast Church)
  • William Vanderbloemen (Vandebloemen Search Group)
  • Kay Warren (Saddleback Church)

You’ll also recognize a number of prominent mental health ministry leaders who have been part of Key Ministry events in the past, including Jermine Alberty, Brad Hoefs, Joe Padilla, Shannon Royce, Amy Simpson and members of our Key Ministry team. We expect to finalize a few additional presenters leading up to the retreat.

The retreat content will first be made available on October 5th-7th. All of the sessions are pre-recorded and will become available to you on those dates. There’s no expiration date so participants may take as much or as little time to watch as you need. We’ve also set the retreat up to be accessed “on-demand,” whenever it’s most convenient for you to do so.  Binge watch like you would a series on Netflix, watch a little in the morning or over your lunch break, or take part of a morning each week to go through it a few sessions at a time.

While the content for the retreat will be available on-demand to be consumed in any order, the event is organized as if it were a three day conference.

Day One presentations are focused on self-care – how to recognize when you need help; how to maintain emotional health in ministry and how to do self-care with a pastor’s schedule.

The Day Two focus is on church care – basics on mental health for pastors and church leaders, understanding the need for staff and volunteers to be trained in Mental Health First Aid and supporting ministry colleagues and individuals and families within your church impacted by mental illness.

Day Three presentations address becoming a mental health-friendly church – introducing a model for developing a mental health inclusion strategy, three models of Christian-based mental health support groups, mental health ministry success stories and emerging mental health ministry models.

Since one of the things we miss the most about live conferences are the connections with the other speakers and attendees, we’ll be building opportunities for interaction into the retreat. There will be discussion questions for some presentations and opportunities to chat via Zoom with the speakers for others. We’ll have a section for comments associated with each presentation similar to the boards commonly used with online college courses. We hope the comments section for each presentation fills up with great insights, questions and engagement.

We’d like to encourage everyone we know who is actively engaged in ministry – pastors, church staff members and their spouses, parachurch ministry leaders and high capacity volunteers to join us as we seek to better understand how to care for ourselves, our families and the people we’re meant to serve in ministry in the midst of a pandemic, economic crisis, a highly divisive culture and social unrest. We’ve sought to keep the cost as modest as possible so that as many pastors and ministry leaders as possible may take part. Check out the retreat website or click here through September 23rd for a $39 “early-bird” rate to access all of the presentations and resources our gifted leaders and speakers have assembled.

Hope you’ll be able to join us in October!
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In Mental Health and the Church: A Ministry Handbook for Including Children and Adults with ADHD, Anxiety, Mood Disorders, and Other Common Mental Health Conditions, Dr. Stephen Grcevich presents a simple and flexible model for mental health inclusion ministry for implementation by churches of all sizes, denominations, and organizational styles. The book is also designed to be a useful resource for parents, grandparents and spouses seeking to promote the spiritual growth of loved ones with mental illness. Available now at Amazon, Barnes and Noble, ChristianBook and other fine retailers everywhere.

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The five kids I’m most concerned about this fall

Posted on August 24, 2020 by Dr. G

Sad boy, sitting alone, gazing out a window

While much uncertainty remains about the status of sports and other extracurricular activities in our home region, most districts have announced back to school plans. Only 38% of Ohio students will be returning to school for full-time, live instruction as the new academic year begins. A quarter of all students will be 100% remote at the beginning of the year – disproportionately kids in urban school districts whose learning was most severely impacted when in-person instruction ended this past March. Others will be engaged in “hybrid models” in which they’ll attend school in person on select days of the week and engage in virtual learning from home on others. The bottom line is that over 60% of kids will be spending part if not all of their time at school online when classes start in the next few weeks.

We see kids with a wide range of presenting problems in our child and adolescent psychiatry practice. Some of our patients actually did better emotionally after schools closed last Spring. Kids with social anxiety were much happier when everyone was encouraged to stay at home and isolate themselves from others. Some patients with academic problems were happier because performance expectations went out the window in most school districts when the pandemic hit. Homework became optional and grading was often extraordinarily generous. School closures and social distancing reduced opportunities for the relationship drama that often leads to depression, self-injury and suicide attempts.

With that said, I’m anticipating the coming school year will be much, much worse when it comes to children, teens and mental health concerns. The reality is beginning to set in that the pandemic is going to be with us for a long time. Our practice expects many kids won’t set foot in a classroom for the entire school year. Parents and public officials are going to demand higher academic standards. We have no research on the impact of such prolonged school closures on an entire generation of kids. The strain on families to support their children’s education while maintaining their jobs will be immense – if they still have jobs. Consider the grief so many kids will experience this year – not simply the loss of family members to COVID-19, but grief from lost experiences. Opportunities to participate in sports, play the lead in the musical, go to homecoming or prom, visit prospective colleges, host or attend birthday parties or take school trips. Missing out on Sunday school, youth group, family vacations and time with grandparents. The list is endless.

Boy wearing a mask while doing school from home on a computer

Photo by Julia M Cameron from Pexels

Based upon my observations from thirty years as a child psychiatrist and experiences with kids and families, here are five groups of kids I’m most concerned about this school year.

Kids with OCD. My patients with OCD need to be busy. With greatly shortened school days, elimination of extracurricular activities and lack of access to friends they had far too much time to obsess on negative thoughts and fewer distractions from their perseveration. Many spiraled down into intense episodes of depression. Over 60% of teens with OCD will experience at least one episode of depression by age 18. I’m most concerned about suicide in my patients with OCD. They will likely require more aggressive treatment if in-person school and extracurricular activities are shut down for an extended time. Some patients who have responded well to therapy alone may need medication. Others may need more frequent or intensive therapy.

Kids with autism spectrum disorders. My patients with autism are most dependent upon an established routine. School is also essential for acquisition of social skills. Consider a few challenges students with autism will experience as school begins…

  • Sensory issues with PPE – masks, shields and other protective equipment.
  • Processing social cues when teachers and classmates are wearing masks.
  • Getting adequate preparation for entering back into a very different school routine at a time when educators are still figuring out the school routine. Opportunities to visit schools and meet teachers prior to the first day of class and social stories will be especially important for successful transitioning.

They often experience challenges similar to kids with OCD with perseveration on negative thoughts when they have too much free time. Significant regression developmentally or more frequent or severe episodes of aggression are two signs that their educational and mental health treatment needs should be re-evaluated.

Kids with ADHD. Most of my patients with ADHD had significantly more difficulty maintaining focus for school on a computer screen last Spring than they did in a classroom. They’re exposed to far more potential distractions at home. Schools struggled to provide support with organization and planning remotely that many of our kids with ADHD and their families depend upon. More importantly, the structure (predictable expectations, rules and routine that enable them to devote more cognitive resources to important tasks at hand) they depend upon will be non-existent in too many school districts at the beginning of they year. Too much free time was a challenge for them back in April and May. Procrastination became a larger problem. With a shortened school day and no extracurricular activities many kids from our practice sensed less urgency to  do homework at a specific time. Many struggled greatly with not knowing where to find their assignments or how to turn them in when the transition to online school took place.

Parents of kids with ADHD need to recognize that the treatment needs of their children may be very different if they’re attending school from home and are encouraged to discuss the issue with professionals serving their child. I have patients who will have different medication plans this fall for virtual school and in-person instruction because their needs are so different at home as opposed to a classroom.

Kids with dyslexia or other learning disorders. Without the one-to-one and small group instruction with specially trained teachers or private tutoring (where available and affordable), they’ll likely fall further behind their peers educationally and struggle more with self-confidence.

Kids with anxiety disorders. Children and adults with anxiety tend to overestimate the level of risk in new or unfamiliar situations – a situation that clearly applies this fall whether the child will be going back to a bricks and mortar school or doing school from home. The more kids can visualize of how school will be different this fall, through in-person tours, videos from teachers, and video or pictures of what to expect on the bus, during recess, lunchtime, gym, transitions from class to class and during their actual classes, the easier re-entry into school is likely to be. Kids with a history of separation anxiety are likely to have a more difficult time returning to in-person school the longer they’re away.

What do parents need to keep in mind this Fall in looking after children with a history of mental health treatment or vulnerability to emotional, behavioral or academic concerns? Here are three thoughts:

  1. Treatment approaches that worked in the past may not work this year. There are too many psychological and environmental factors at play. Our practice expects to see a lot of kids who had been effectively managed to this point by their pediatrician or primary care physician.
  2. Parents need to be diligent about addressing their personal mental health. We see this all the time – parents attend to the needs of their children when they won’t take care of themselves. Your kids learn how to manage difficult times by watching YOU. You’re best able to care for and support your children when you’re the best you can be.
  3. Kids who haven’t needed mental health services prior to this year may need them now. Here’s list of eleven simple signs that a child may be suffering from a mental illness, developed by the Mayo Clinic with support from the National Institute of Mental Health. The list aims to help separate warning signs of illness from typical moodiness and occasional disruptive behavior like defiance, aggression, and impulsivity. Presence of one or more of these signs indicates a child or teen is in need of care.
  • Feeling very sad or withdrawn for two or more weeks
  • Seriously trying to harm or kill himself, or making plans to do so
  • Sudden overwhelming fear for no reason, sometimes with a racing heart or fast breathing
  • Involved in multiple fights, using a weapon, or wanting badly to hurt others
  • Severe, out-of-control behavior that can hurt himself or others
  • Not eating, throwing up or using laxatives to make herself lose weight
  • Intensive worries or fears that get in the way of daily activities
  • Extreme difficulty in concentrating or staying still that puts her in physical danger or causes school failure
  • Repeated use of drugs or alcohol
  • Severe mood swings that cause problems in relationships
  • Drastic changes in her behavior or personality

 

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