Supports
Mental Health Promotion Initiative
Clergy and pastoral carers are often the first people approached by those experiencing mental health difficulties, and their day-to-day activity brings them in contact with people experiencing anxiety, illness, bereavement, the search for meaning, and suicide or self-harm. Research has shown that the COI clergy require additional supports to provide mental health guidance to their parishioners, so this project will provide training and information supports that respond to the needs identified in the research.
It is critical that clergy are properly equipped to engage with such approaches and respond appropriately. Clergy need to be supported to recognise, acknowledge and manage the impact on themselves of working with people struggling with mental health issues.
In our recent survey, MindMatters COI asked clergy whether they felt that the Church was doing enough to support their own mental health. The response was very clear, with more than twice as many respondents answering in the negative than in the positive.
In response to this finding, we have contracted with a major independent EAP1 provider, Health Assured, to provide a comprehensive range of mental health supports to members of the Clergy and their families. You will find more details including how to access this support in the downloadable documents below, but key features include:
- Comprehensive telephone helplines available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week offering practical information and emotional support including:
- Counselling and emotional support
- Tax information
- Money management and debt support
- Personal legal information
- Medical information (available Monday to Friday, between 9am and 5pm)
- Up to six face-to-face counselling sessions, per issue per member of the Clergy, including applied cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) techniques
- Up to six structured telephone counselling sessions, per issue, for a member of the Clergy, their partner or spouse, and dependents (between the ages of 16- 24 in full-time education)
- Crisis management and critical incident support
- Online health and wellbeing portal: www.healthassuredeap.com
- Monthly wellbeing newsletter
We would like to express our thanks to Benefact Trust. Their generous financial support has made it possible for us to provide this service free of charge to all Church of Ireland clergy for three years. On behalf of the entire MindMatters COI team I’d like to say once again how grateful we are for the full and honest engagement of so many clergy in the project. I hope that you will find this programme beneficial and of practical support to you and your family, and we would welcome your comments and feedback on mhp@rcbdub.org.
Links
The Church of Ireland is working in partnership with existing community and statutory services. Information, support and assistance can be found following the links provided: