Being Examples to the Flock: The Role of Church Leaders and African American Families Seeking Mental Health Care Services

Abstract

Within the context of Black churches, African American clergy have a significant role in the delivery of mental health care services for parishioners and their families. Working toward better linkages between faith-based communities and more formal mental health care could help to provide more culturally sensitive and timely mental health care for African American families. Using a salient part of an integrative model (Davey and Watson in Contemp Fam Ther 30:31-47, 2008), the roles Black church leaders have historically played for African American families seeking outside mental health care services are considered. We additionally provide an example of a recent collaborative partnership with a Black church that points toward some promising directions for future research and clinical collaborations between the field of couple and family therapy and the Black church community.

Dimensions of Religion, Depression Symptomatology, and Substance Use Among Rural African American Cocaine Users

“…Additionally, due to the influential role of religious leaders in their communities and their potential influence on depression symptoms, these findings also support efforts to provide religious leaders with training to recognize depression and refer parishioners for depression treatment, especially among African American cocaine users (Allen, Davey, & Davey, 2010; Kramer et al, 2007; Molock, Matlin, Barksdale, Puri, & Lyles, 2008). Previous qualitative research supports this assertion and has found that religious leaders were interested in receiving additional training in mental health care (Kramer, et al, 2007).…”

African American College Students, the Black Church, and Counseling

“…The Black Church is an integral part of the spiritual, social, and political lives of African Americans (Blank, Mahmood, Fox, & Guterbock, 2002). For many African Americans, the Black Church is also integral to mental health issues (Allen, Davey, & Davey, 2010;Newhill & Harris, 2007). Thus, it is likely that many African Americans receive messages about counseling and help-seeking from within their churches.…”

Who is David and who is Goliath? The Eddie Long scandal and the black mega-church

“…In general, black churches were regarded as key sites for HIV/AIDS education and support (Khosrovani, Poudeh, & Parks-Yancy, 2008), the seeking of professional mental health services (Allen, Davey, & Davey, 2010;Clansy, 1998;Taylor, Ellison, Chatters, Levin, & Lincoln, 2000), and heightened religiosity and spirituality (Johnson, 2008). Quantitative research in this area has also revealed blacks with high degrees of Christian Orthodoxy Mental Health, Religion & Culture 59 exhibit fewer mental-health problems than other ethnicities (Randolph-Seng, Nielsen, Bottoms, & Filipas, 2008).…”

“…Quantitative research in this area has also revealed blacks with high degrees of Christian Orthodoxy Mental Health, Religion & Culture 59 exhibit fewer mental-health problems than other ethnicities (Randolph-Seng, Nielsen, Bottoms, & Filipas, 2008). Other quantitative research has found blacks to be more likely to seek help from clergy than obtain professional psychological services (Allen et al, 2010;Ezemenari & Frederick, 2009;Kane, 2010;Lesniak, Rudman, Rector, & Elkin, 2006;Lewis-Coles & Constantine, 2006); forgiveness to be strongly related to the mental health of African American women (Faison, 2007); their perceived relationship with God (Hatcher, 2001); and spirituality to be strong indicators of mental health for African Americans (Ojelade, McCray, Ashby, & Meyers, 2011).…”