Memorandum by Marylebone Healing and Counselling
Centre
A statement prepared by the Reverend Christopher
MacKenna, Director of St Marylebone Healing and Counselling Centre,
London, and Chair of the Westminster Christian Mental Health Forum.
1. I welcome the publication of the Green
Paper. It rightly highlights the importance of mental health for
the well-being of individuals, communities, and nations, and—given
the high incidence of mental illness within the EU—the need
for strategic thinking in this area.
2. The Green paper suggests that "There
is widespread agreement that the human, social and economic dimension
of mental health need wider recognition by policy makers and greater
public awareness". (p 13, paragraph 8). My contention is
that the spiritual dimension of mental health needs also to be
recognised in public policy and mental health care.
3. The "spiritual dimension" may
manifest in religious, or non-religious forms. Either way, it
has to do with achieving a sense of meaning and purpose in life.
Human beings need to have something to live for. Excellent medical
care and social provision are both crucial but, in themselves,
are not enough: human beings do not live by bread alone. This
has long been recognised within the broad tradition of European
psychiatry, for example in the work of Dr Viktor Frankli and Dr
Carl Jung. ii A growing body of research evidence now supports
this contention.
4. The Handbook of Religion and Health (edited
by Koenig, McCullough, and Larson. Oxford University Press: Oxford
& New York. 2001) helpfully draws together a large body of
medical research on the effects of religious belief on all forms
of health, including mental health. The overall findings are that
those who believe in a higher power, who pray regularly, and associate
with others for worship are statistically likely to enjoy better
health and longevity than those who do not.
5. The findings of the Somerset Project,
conducted by the Mental Health Foundation among mental health
service users, revealed that a large percentage of people living
with chronic mental illness report that their faith/spirituality
is the most important factor in enabling them to cope with their
condition.
6. The importance of spirituality in mental
health care is recognised and endorsed by the English Royal College
of Psychiatrists: see their documents Spirituality and Mental
Health Care: Advice for NHS Trusts, and Spirituality and Mental
Health, both prepared by the Spirituality and Psychiatry Special
Interest Group of the Royal College of Psychiatrists.
7. Croydon MIND has recently commissioned
a DVD/video Hard to Believe, which allows three mental health
service users to explain how their spirituality was (too often
mis-)understood by mental health services, and the role which
it has played in their recovery. The film also features work being
undertaken at the South London and Maudsley NHS Trust, and by
Dr Andrew Copsey and his Multi-Faith Team, in East London, to
incorporate spirituality/religious adherence in their overall
care for their patients. Given the tensions between many ethnic/religious
minorities and majority populations in different parts of Europe
this approach can only become more necessary, as well as contributing
directly to the integration and improvement of spiritual and professional
mental health care.
8. Many faith communities are already seeking
to play a part in mental health care and education. For example,
at the St Marylebone Healing and Counselling Centre, we have a
team of 16 professional counsellors and psychotherapists, all
equipped to work in the interface between spirituality and mental
health. We also run a mental health support group, for service
users, which explicitly allows discussion of religious and spiritual
issues. And we run a rolling programme of conferences and seminars
for mental health professionals, which address different aspects
of the spirituality/mental health divide.
9. I trust that these points are sufficient
to support my contention that the European Commission Green Paper
on European Union Mental Health Strategy ought to make explicit
reference to the importance of spirituality and liaision with
Faith Communities in mental health provision and care.
REFERENCES:
i For example, in 1961 Frankl wrote, "A
psychiatrist today is confronted more and more with a new type
of patient, a new class of neurosis, a new sort of suffering,
the most remarkable characteristic of which is the fact that it
does not represent a disease in the proper sense of the term.
This phenomenon has brought about a change in the function—or
should I say mission?—of present-day psychiatry. In such
cases, the traditional techniques of treatment available to the
psychiatrist prove themselves to be less and less applicable:
"I have called this phenomenon, which the
psychiatrist now has to deal with so frequently, `the existential
vacuum'. What I mean thereby is the experience of a total lack,
or loss, of an ultimate meaning to one's existence that would
make life worthwhile. The consequent void, the state of inner
emptiness, is at present one of the main challenges to psychiatry."
Psychiatry and Man's Quest for Meaning, p 71. Reprinted in Psychotherapy
and Existentialism, Selected Papers on Logotherapy, by Viktor
E Frankl Simon and Schuster: New York, 1967.
Of course, in our health system, many patients
suffering in this way do not get as far as seeing a psychiatrist.
Instead, they clog the GP's surgery, presenting many vague psychosomatic
type symptoms.
ii For example, in 1932 Jung wrote, "I
should like to call attention to the following facts. During the
past thirty years, people from all the civilized countries of
the earth have consulted me. Many hundreds of patients have passed
through my hands, the greater number being Protestants, a lesser
number Jews, and not more than five or six believing Catholics.
Among all my patients in the second half of life—that is
to say, over thirty-five—there has not been one whose problem
in the last resort was not that of finding a religious outlook
on life. It is safe to say that every one of them fell ill because
he had lost what the living religions of every age have given
to their followers, and none of them has been really healed who
did not regain his religious outlook. This of course has nothing
whatever to do with a particular creed or membership of a church".
(Psychotherapists or the Clergy, reprinted in C G Jung, The Collected
Works, vol.xi, Psychology and Religion West and East, paragraph
509. (Edited by Read, Fordham, and Adler. Routledge and Kegan
Paul: London, second edition, 1969).
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