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Mental Health Training for Churches, Ministries and Christian organisations -
Pastor Mark Topp
Introducing you to Evexia Life Ministries.
This ministry serves as part of the faithful mission and ministry of
The Storehouse Church Dorchester
The word Evexia means “wellness” in Greek.
Our Goal and mission is to help you find Wellness in your Life.
Jesus said that
We believe that Jesus has promised us life in abundance in every area of our lives Spiritually, Emotionally, Mentally and Physically. A complete holistic approach to our lives.
Evexia Life Ministries serves as the start of a conversation for Churches, Ministries and Christian Charities and Non-Profits into the vast ever expanding world of Mental Health.
When you hear the words Mental Health it can cause lots of imagery in our minds. Both positive and negative. We might have an understanding as some of us might have grown up with loved-ones who had mental health struggles or we jump to think of those with severe mental health conditions, or some of us might be living with poor mental wellness. We use the term mental wellness as the language is softer and less thought provoking.
The reality is that we all have Mental Health / Mental Wellness
The World Health Organisation (WHO) says this about Mental Health
Concepts in mental health
Mental health is a state of mental well-being that enables people to cope with the stresses of life, realise their abilities, learn well and work well, and contribute to their community. It is an integral component of health and well-being that underpins our individual and collective abilities to make decisions, build relationships and shape the world we live in. Mental health is a basic human right. And it is crucial to personal, community and socio-economic development.
Mental health is more than the absence of mental disorders. It exists on a complex continuum, which is experienced differently from one person to the next, with varying degrees of difficulty and distress and potentially very different social and clinical outcomes.
Mental health conditions include mental disorders and psychosocial disabilities as well as other mental states associated with significant distress, impairment in functioning, or risk of self-harm. People with mental health conditions are more likely to experience lower levels of mental well-being, but this is not always or necessarily the case.
https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/mental-health-strengthening-our-response
Anxiety, Stress and Depression are the three main mental health conditions that people struggle with. As Christians we can’t deny that fact that people have mental wellness. We can have good or poor mental wellness and diagnosed or undiagnosed conditions but as believers we know that we don’t struggle alone with these. Having the conversation around Mental Health is so important. The stats around Mental Health in the UK are breathtaking.
https://www.forthwithlife.co.uk/blog/mental-health-statistics-uk/
The Mental Health Continuum Introduction
Mental health and illness has sometime been described as a spectrum.
People at one end of the line or spectrum are very well, and those at the other end are very unwell with a serious mental illness.
In the middle might be people who have minor mental health problems.
This idea is not a very helpful method to understand mental health, as it can lead us to make false assumptions.
For example, one may falsely assume that most people are ‘well’ and that a few people, who are a long way removed at the other end of the spectrum, are ‘ill’ or ‘mad’.
This assumption creates a distance between people and causes fear. Another assumption is that once you know your place on the spectrum, it is where you will stay unless something dramatic happens to change it.
This denies the fact that we can make a big difference to our own mental health, both positively and negatively.
It also does not take account of the fact that our mental health changes a lot over relatively short periods of time.
https://mental-health-matters.org/about-mental-health/attitudes-to-mh-issues/the-mental-health-continuum/
So as Church leaders, Pastors, Youth Pastors, Pastoral teams, volunteers we will come into contact with people everyday on average 1 in 4 will have a mental wellness condition. (25%)
Just on average a quarter of your congregation, a quarter of your food provision clients (easily more as we know that those struggling with food poverty have higher levels of mental wellness issues.) Young people in our churches aged 16-24 are the most affected by mental health struggles, with nearly a quarter (23.5%) describing their mental health as either bad or the worst it’s ever been.
Evexia Life Ministries serves you to help start the conversation around this complex issue that affects so many.
Meet the Founder of Evexia Life Ministries
Pastor Mark Topp has served at The Storehouse Church in Dorchester for 17 years and since July 2017 he has served as The Pastor and has over 20 years Pastoral ministry experience and during the COVID-19 Pandemic he co-founded Community Share as a practical response to those who were struggling for food during the uncertainty or job losses and the furlough scheme. Quickly realising that those who were struggling for food had highest levels of mental wellness issues that he trained to become a First Aid for Mental Health Instructor. With his college Marcus Frith and as part of Community Share Wellness CIC they have trained nearly 200 people in 2 years. From Teachers of a special needs school to Pastors and Youth Pastors and Street pastors and Prison, hospital and community chaplains.
Evexia Life Ministries was birthed after these past 2 years of training and talking to churches and charities and ministries still not sure if Mental Health training was really needed.
Scriptures and stats to help us
1 Peter 5:5-7 (NIV) 5 In the same way, you who are younger, submit yourselves to your elders. All of you, clothe yourselves with humility toward one another, because,
“God opposes the proud
but shows favour to the humble.”
6 Humble yourselves, therefore, under God’s mighty hand, that he may lift you up in due time. 7 Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you.
Proverbs 12:25 (NKJV) 25 Anxiety in the heart of man causes depression,But a good word makes it glad.
In a recent survey on Anxiety Statistics from the UK show that
Psalms 119:143-144 (NLT) says
As pressure and stress bear down on me,I find joy in your commands.144 Your laws are always right; help me to understand them so I may live.
Stress can simply be described as things that happen in life. Some things that cause stress are; finances, family and relationship issues, work pressures, longterm health issues, going on holiday or moving house and many other things can cause stress.
Stress statistics
Stress has a larger impact on our society than many might think. Read on for our top picks of the latest stress statistics for the entire UK population:
https://championhealth.co.uk/insights/stress-statistics/
Job 30:16 (NLT) 16 “And now my life seeps away.
Depression haunts my days.
Psalms 143:7 (NLT) 7 Come quickly, LORD, and answer me,
for my depression deepens.
Don’t turn away from me,
or I will die.
Depression statistics UK
Depression is one of the most prevalent mental health disorders, affecting around 1 in 6 adults in the UK. It is also associated with other mental health issues, such as anxiety, stress and loneliness.
Research shows that women are twice as likely to experience depression than men. However, 15% of women receive treatment for depression, compared to only 9% of men.
Across the UK, rates of depression are still significantly higher than prior to the pandemic. Around 17% of adults in the UK experienced some form of depression in summer 2021, compared to just 10% before the pandemic.
And depression is not just a public health issue. It also presents significant challenges for organisations.
Exevia Life Ministries wants to encourage churches, Christian ministries and organisations and charities in a response to this Mental Wellness crisis. To encourage people struggling with their mental wellness that they are not on your own and we are here rot serve the body of Christ in a practical way and start the conversation around training people in First Aid for Mental Health.
Our heart and passion is to equip the body of Christ to be a trained and informed to support to their communities that they serve Jesus in.
Jesus has come to give us life and life in abundance (paraphrase John 10:10)
Exevia Life Ministries is available to offer initial training and support into Why we need to talk about and be made aware of Mental Wellness and start a positive conversation around Mental Wellness in your church and community and if interested we can over a full range of FAHM courses.
Contact us for more details.
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