Mental Health Ministries e-Spotlight
January, 2007 

Notes on Resources:   

  • FEATURED RESOURCE:  As we celebrate the New Year and the beginning of the Christian liturgical year, the featured resource this month is Susan’s book, Prayers for a Sojourning People:  A Collection of Pastoral Prayers.  While not directly related to mental illness, this collection of pastoral prayers is divided into sections of the liturgical year with over 100 prayers and a scriptural index.  The publisher is no longer in business and Susan purchased the remaining inventory.  The books are autographed.

 

  • Our very popular Creating Caring Congregations is now available in video or DVD format with close captioning.  When you order the complete set of ten videos, you can designate whether you want Creating Caring Congregations in VHS or DVD format at no extra cost.

 

  • Stigma Brought Home is an article written by Susan as a recent breast biopsy.  It highlights the difference in care and support for persons dealing with a physical illness and persons dealing with a mental illness.

 

  • Inspiration Section – This section of the website includes devotions, prayers and quotations with photographs.  You are encouraged to use this section for yourself or to share with others.

 Postpartum Depression resource:  The taping of the interviews for our postpartum depression resource is complete and the interviews are excellent.  Our production partner, Pacific Media Ministry, is currently editing the tape to be shown on the Hallmark Channel and other cable networks.  We need an additional $1500 to “re-purpose” this material for use as a Mental Health Ministries resource.  This amount includes such things as editing, graphic design, printing of a discussion guide (which we include in all our resources), replication of the resource and other expenses.  You can help us complete this project!  All tax deductible donations are welcome but donations of $500 or more will be included in the credits so that we can educate our churches on how to recognize the signs of PPD and provide appropriate support.

 Spanish Translators Needed: As part of our ministry, Mental Health Ministries provides a variety of free, downloadable brochures, articles and other resources.  We get many requests to offer those resources in Spanish.  If you are able to translate any of these resources into Spanish, we will put them on the website for free download.  This is a wonderful opportunity for you to be involved in our mission and to expand our outreach.  We are not financially able to provide Spanish language translation for our media resources but we hope to do so in the future.

 Grant Applications:  Mental Health Ministries has been very limited in applying for grants because, while this is a national ministry, we are officially a committee with the California-Pacific Conference of the United Methodist Church. In November the Board of Directors of Pacific Media Ministry voted to act as a grant administrator for grants awarded to Mental Health Ministries under their 501c3 status.  We also have connections with a number of other non profit groups working to educate about the importance of including a person’s faith and spirituality in the treatment and recovery process.  Our hope is that by partnering with other groups working in this area, we might be able to be part of a larger grant to provide “hands on” educational resources on the important connection between spirituality and mental illness.

 Speaking Engagements and Other Events 2007

         

  • February 24, 2007 – The First United Methodist Church of Orange is sponsoring a one day workshop on the Spiritual Journey of Coping with Mental Illness   Registration begins @ 9:30 a.m. with Juice & Muffins.  The featured speakers will be Rev. Susan Gregg-Schroeder “Mental Illness as a Spiritual Journey” and “Models of Ministry,” Ken Agress with NAMI will present on local resources, and Barry Kendall, PsyD will present “An Introduction to the Benefits of Neurofeedback in Treating Mental Illness.”  A healthy box lunch will be provided and the day to conclude by 2:00 p.m.  The church is located at 161 S. Orange Street, Orange, CA 92866.  Childcare will be provided.  The suggested donation is $10.00.  For further information contact Brenda Spencer @ (714) 532-6363, ext. 108. 

 

  • NAMI National Convention comes to San Diego June 20-24, 2007!  You can register for this national convention on the NAMI website at www.NAMI.org.  There will be a FaithNet Special Interest Workshop and Susan will be coordinating the closing inter-faith worship service.  Resources and information from groups dedicated to addressing faith issues will be available at the FaithNet NAMI booth in NAMI Land.  You can sign up to receive the FaithNet NAMI newsletter at faithnet@nami.org.

 We wish you all a new year filled with hope as we work together to erase the stigma of mental illness in our faith communities and as we encourage mental health providers to treat the WHOLE person…mind, body and spirit.

 Susan

 Rev. Susan Gregg-Schroeder
Coordinator of Mental Health Ministries
6707 Monte Verde Dr.
San Diego, CA 92119 www.MentalHealthMinistries.net sgschroed@cox.net