Tag Archives: Key Ministry

The Ferrini’s Do Focus on the Family!

We’re pleased to share that our friends and colleagues Cindi and Joe Ferrini will be featured this coming Thursday (May 31) and Friday (June 1) as guests of Jim Daly and John Fuller on the Focus on the Family radio broadcast. Cindi and Joe will be speaking on the topic Unexpected Journey-When Special Needs Change Our Course. Continue reading

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The Burden…and the Paradox

Yet I’m powerless to effectively communicate the burden I’ve been given because it’s absolutely essential for the world (and the Church) to know if this movement happens and the walls come crashing down that keep families who struggle with mental illness and developmental disabilities from connecting with the church that the work was unmistakably of God’s doing, and not that of a bunch of gifted people. Continue reading

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A Great Mother’s Day Gift

The pressures that kids are under in our community are incredible and unlike anything that my wife and I ever encountered growing up. It seems as if every thought, behavior and idea they encounter in school, online and with friends is at work to undermine the values we’ve sought to impart to them. I showed up for our ministry team on Wednesday in a sleep-deprived state after contemplating for much of the night whether we’d done enough to prepare them to make the right choices in the months and years ahead. As our girls have gotten older and become more private about some of the issues they deal with on a daily basis, I worry that I don’t have the relationship with them necessary to be a positive influence when they need to make difficult decisions. I also worry I haven’t done enough to promote relationships between them and other like-minded adults who can provide wisdom and reinforce our values when stuff comes up that they’re not comfortable discussing with my wife or myself. I do know that being a part of a church has helped my wife and myself to be a far more positive influence to our kids than we could have been without that experience.
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Hot Topics: What’s Causing the Epidemic of Mental Illness in Kids?

As a child and adolescent psychiatrist, I frequently encounter parents and skeptics who freely share their opinions that much of the reported crisis in children’s mental health is fabricated…a marketing scheme of the pharmaceutical industry, a consequence of poor parenting or misplaced priorities on the part of families.
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Hot Topics: New Data on Foster Kids and Medication

The proportion of children in foster care who were prescribed psychotropic drugs remained much higher than all Medicaid-­‐enrolled children. Continue reading

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Hot Topics: Money and Children’s Mental Health: An Insurance Parable

We’ll kick off Children’s Mental Health Week by focusing on the challenges families face when seeking to access services for their kids through their health insurance benefits. Continue reading

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Hot Topics: Why is effective mental health care for kids so hard to find?

Reflecting upon these observations, one barrier to kids receiving effective mental health care is that parents often lack an appreciation of the standard of care they should expect for their children. Another barrier is that many parents don’t know the right questions to ask to ensure that their kids get the treatment they need. Parents may be intimidated by the prospect of questioning professionals about their child’s care, especially when access to other qualified professionals is limited by geography or finances. An additional reality is that too many professionals treating kids aren’t especially competent or effective, but continue because the need is so great and alternatives are scarce in many communities.
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Square Pegs and Round Holes…The Bottom Line on Helping Kids With Asperger’s Disorder Grow Spiritually

Today’s post concludes our series on helping kids with Asperger’s Disorder and other social disabilities to grow spiritually. We’ll finish by looking at some general principles to help church staff, parents and volunteers to minister more effectively to very unique kids made in the image of God who tend to defy categorization.
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May Series…Hot Topics in Children’s Mental Health

If kids and teens affected by mental illness and their families are to be successfully welcomed and fully included in our churches, the church will need to make great strides in its’ understanding of mental illness. That’s where I hope we can help.

May is designated as National Mental Health Month, and the week of May 6-12 is officially designated as Children’s Mental Health Awareness Week. In order to promote better understanding of common mental disorders in children and teens and the challenges faced their families, we’ll spend the month looking in depth at some of the more controversial topics in the field of child and adolescent mental health.
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Strategies For Promoting Spiritual Growth in Kids With Asperger’s Disorder

Today, we’ll look at potential strategies for promoting spiritual growth in kids with Asperger’s and speculate about ways in which the condition might provide advantages to a Christ-follower.
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