Mental Health Ministry: A healing presence in the lives of people living with mental illness

Mental health ministers walk with people living with a mental illness to help them find the spiritual support that they need. They have much to offer the Church because living with an illness gives them unique insights into suffering, compassion, and love. We work to educate parish communities and eliminate the discrimination that people living with a mental illness encounter in the Church and society. Resources that are available to confidently minister to people with a mental illness without fear or prejudice and how to start a mental health ministry in your diocese or parish will be discussed.

Deacon Ed Shoener is President of the Association of Catholic Mental Health Ministers and a founding member of the Catholic Institute for Mental Health Ministry at the University of San Diego. Deacon Shoener is coauthor of the book Responding to Suicide: A Pastoral Handbook for Catholic Leaders (Ave Maria Press, 2020). His daughter, Katie, died by suicide in 2016. Katie’s obituary went viral because it spoke to the needs and concerns of people who live with mental illness.