Archdiocese of Baltimore helps provide mental health first aid training

In her role as director of community affairs for the Archdiocese of Baltimore, Yvonne Wenger is constantly hearing from parish office managers about how mental health is affecting their communities.

One parish office manager told Wenger about speaking with a parishioner whose son died by suicide. 

“Was there something more that I could have done to be more supportive?” the parishioner asked. 

Another office manager shared a time she received a call from a desperate mother asking for help for a child suffering from substance abuse and expressing suicidal thoughts. 

Wenger said parish office managers feel they are the first line of defense and do not always know what to say or what to do when they receive calls from people in crisis.

The Archdiocese of Baltimore, as part of the Mental Wellness Initiative launched by Archbishop William E. Lori, has been providing mental health first aid training to parishioners throughout the archdiocese over the last few months. Nearly 1,000 people will be certified through the program, which helps equip office managers and other parish employees with some basic skills for addressing signs of mental illness, self-harm, alcoholism, drug addiction and other other challenges. 

The training takes about eight hours, providing a three-year certification for those who complete it.

“One woman was practically in tears when she learned this training was available to her so she could be prepared when these calls came in,” Wenger said.

Mary Ellen Russell, former archdiocesan director of community affairs, helped get the mental health initiative off the ground. After Russell retired, Wenger built on her work. In addition to mental health first aid training, the archdiocese provides a comprehensive page on its website with mental health resources for individuals, parishes and institutions. 

Wenger said demand for the archdiocese’s free mental health first aid training has been overwhelming. Many classes, offered in English and Spanish online and in-person at parishes around the archdiocese, fill up immediately, with many people even getting wait-listed. 

The training sessions focus on two groups: adults and youths. The purpose of the training sessions is to teach ordinary people how to react and assess a situation when someone is in crisis. The training model is a similar model to CPR certification. 

Those certified in mental health first aid are not qualified to diagnose, give consultation or direct treatment for someone in crisis, but are trained to approach someone in crisis with a meaningful conversation.   

A significant component of mental health first aid training is to break the stigma regarding mental health, creating better awareness within the church and community.

“My parents’ generation was like, ‘we don’t talk about it (mental health),’” said Heather Huppmann, certified adult and youth mental health first aid instructor and a parishioner of Church of Resurrection in Ellicott City.

If a person was injured at work, good Catholics would typically rally together and bring casseroles to the person’s home, she noted. But if a person has a panic attack, no one knows how to talk about that.

“In mental health first aid we practice getting uncomfortable. We actually ask the entire room to say, ‘Are you thinking about suicide?’ Some people have never heard those words before, but we have to ask people to be able to provide support,” she added.

St. John the Evangelist in Severna Park is among those parishes that offered in person training to parishioners. Two instructors and 30 participants registered for a training April 23-24 at the parish.

The Anne Arundel County parish offers two mental health ministries, the Mental Health Companions, in which individuals share their direct or indirect experiences with mental illness, and the St. Dymphna Prayer Group, where individuals gather to pray to the patron saint of mental illness.

Cathy Sitzwohl, coordinator of the Mental Health Companions and a parishioner of St. John in Severna Park, attended the April 23 training and said sometimes people ask her a question about her wellbeing and she doesn’t know how to answer.

“Twenty-eight years ago when I was diagnosed (with bipolar disorder), I forbade my mom to talk about it to friends,” she said. “I thought that if somebody knew something, it would shut me down and so I tried to hide it even more.”

She said sharing her experiences at the Mental Health Companions made her stronger and more comfortable with who she is.

“Mental health first aid is proof that God brings good out of bad situations,” she added.   

“I myself have experienced depression and had family members suffering from suicidal thoughts,” said Bradley Fish, a parishioner of the National Shrine of St. Alphonsus Ligouri in Baltimore, who attended the April 23 training.

He said comments such as “just get over it,” “be a man,” and “grow up” are counterproductive.

“Mental illness is a potentially life-or-death situation so we need to treat it just like we do with physical illnesses,” he noted. “I hope to gain from this training a better ability to listen and gain receptivity to those suffering from mental illness.”

Participants came from different backgrounds and parishes across the archdiocese. Some were concerned about depression, substance abuse, anxiety, loss of a loved one and suicide regarding themselves, a family member or their community.  

Hillevi Flores, a parishioner of the pastorate of St. Rose of Lima in Brooklyn and St. Athanasius in Baltimore, leads most Spanish training across the archdiocese as a certified adult and youth mental health first aid instructor, including a Spanish training at St. John the Evangelist in Columbia May 14.

She said the Hispanic community is in great need of the training sessions because many are immigrants who come with traumatic experiences from their home countries and experience isolation from their families and their culture in this country.

Not only parishes are receiving training, but also Catholic Schools. Up to 200 teachers, principals and school counselors from the archdiocese are receiving youth mental health first aid training during the summer.

For more information or to sign up for mental health first aid training, click here. 

For Mental Wellness Resources, click here.

Email Priscila González de Doran at pdoran@CatholicReview.org

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