Chaplaincy and Mental Health: It’s Healthy to Get Help

By Renee Owen

Spiritual Care Week is celebrated the last week of October and offers the opportunity to highlight the sacred work of chaplains and pastoral counselors. It was first designated in 1985 by the Network on Ministry in Specialized Settings (COMISS). This year’s theme is “Chaplaincy and Mental Health: It’s Healthy to Get Help” and invites us to recognize and uplift our CBF-Endorsed Chaplains and Pastoral Counselors as they minister in specialized settings, serving as an extension of the ministry of our local CBF congregations.

Spirituality and mental health are interconnected. Our spirituality has a direct impact on our mental well-being, and visa versa. Our chaplains serving in all specialized settings, such as healthcare, the military, long-term care, first responders, law enforcement, corrections and universities, work closely with mental health professionals to ensure that holistic care is offered. Similarly, our pastoral counselors, serving in counseling centers or in their own private practice, are licensed mental health professionals who intergrate the offering of spiritual care into the mental health care they offer.

It is common for chaplains to be asked to support individuals who are experiecing a mental health crisis.  Chaplains are often seen as the “safe person” to talk to, creating a confidential space to confide fears, anxieties and struggles. As chaplains, it is also our responsibility to “stay in our lane” by offering spiritual health care and emotional support, while serving as the bridge to assist the individual to connect with a mental health professional for long term counseling and thereauptic care.

When I was actively serving as a hospital chaplain, I worked closely with our mental health professionals. Early in my chaplaincy career, after one particallarly challenging encounter with a patient who was struggling with his own well-being and in a mental health crisis, I asked for advice from a mental health colleague. “Given that I am not trained nor qualified to enter into a therapeutic relationship with a patient, how can I support them until I can get them to a professional counselor or therapist?” She offered me some of the best professional advice I have ever received. “Ask the person, ‘What do you need to get through the next hour? What do you need to get through the rest of today? Through the rest of this week?”

Ah-Ha! Yes – my role as a chaplain is to care for that person, at that moment, in that space. To meet them where they are in their journey, to offer spiritual care and emotional support, spiritual health care interventions and to be that “bridge” to help them identify healthy and sustainable ways to get through the next moments, hours, days until they can connect with a mental health professional.

The intergration of spiritutal care and emotional support with mental health care is essential. Tending to one’s spiritual, emotional and mental health care in tandem promotes the healing process and increases the peace that individuals seek, thus leading to a fuller and more balanced life. Many of our CBF-Endorsed Chaplains hold credentialing and speciality certifications in mental health, thus increasing their expertise in supporting individuals who are experiencing mental health crises.

Chaplains are important allies in providing religious and spiritual interventions for patients, families, staff and individuals experiencing mental health crises, while providing a critical connection to mental health professionals and community resources. Our CBF-Endorsed Pastoral Counselors are licensed mental health professionals and are “life-lines” for those experiencing mental health crises and challenges. They are essential partners in caring for the overall well-being of individuals and their families.

It is important for our chaplains and pastoral counselors to care for themselves as they care for others.

Throughout 2023 we have been celebrating 25 years of endorsing chaplains and pastoral counselors. Over these 25 years, CBF has endorsed over 1,200 chaplains and pastoral counselors to serve in specialized settings, with 877 currently active in ministries representing CBF in all 50 States plus D.C. and in nine foreign countries, serving in an excellent manner to share the hope of Christ and embody the love of God with all persons.

During this global celebration of Spiritual Care Week, we invite you to take a moment to celebrate, thank and pray for our CBF-Endorsed Chaplains and Pastoral Counselors. Pray that they will be refilled, refreshed and renewed, that they will be able to care for their own spiritual and mental well-being as they continue to live out their calling to enter into holy moments and sacred spaces with all persons.

To learn more about the work of CBF Chaplains and Pastoral Counselors, please visit our webpage at https://cbf.net/chaplaincy-pastoral-counseling.

To pray for our CBF-Endorsed Chaplains and Pastoral Counselors by name, please access a copy of “Prayers of the People” at https://cbf.net/prayers-of-the-people.

You can support the work of our CBF Chaplaincy and Pastoral Counseling Ministries with gifts to the George Pickle Fund and Chaplaincy Assistance Fund.

Renée Owen oversees the chaplaincy and pastoral counseling ministries endorsement process, including coaching and mentoring seminary students and ministers through the process, as well as providing ongoing professional and emotional/spiritual support to our endorsed chaplains and pastoral counselors, serving as a “chaplain to the chaplains.” Connect with her at rowen@cbf.net.