Clergy play key role in veterans’ care

[rug]

Pastor Elizabeth M. Krentz-Wee says that as many as 10 of the 50 worshippers who attend Sunday services at St. Mark Lutheran Church in Norwich, Conn., are veterans.

But like many clergy, Krentz-Wee acknowledges that she has had little experience dealing with mental health problems that plague many of those who have served in Afghanistan, Iraq, and other conflicts.

Now, the military and psychiatrists are engaging spiritual leaders in the region, like Krentz-Wee, saying they are pivotal as first responders in helping soldiers and their families cope with issues like post-traumatic stress.

Though soldiers might refrain from seeing a military psychiatrist because of a stigma that seeking help suggests weakness, they may be comfortable approaching a clergy member, experts said. And reaching veterans sooner rather than later is imperative to recovery as they make the jarring transition from violent battle zones to quiet New England life.

http://articles.boston.com/2011-08-15/news/29889716_1_post-traumatic-stress-military-chaplains-clergy

[Adsos Letter]

1. Whatever helps.

[edhopper]

2. This is too bad in the last graph.

while I am sure some get some comfort out of going to church, if they have true psychological troubles they need the help of a doctor.
Hopefully if the Pastors see that any of their congregation are truly troubled, they won't rely just on prayer but urge them to seek help.

[rug]

3. Next paragraph.

“What can do that we can’t is actually take the first and most important major step and see the person,’’ said Dr. John A. Fromson, associate director of postgraduate medical education at Massachusetts General Hospital.

[Thats my opinion]

4. The last paragraph is great

All pastors are taught to deal within their limited capacity and to refer what is outside their capacity. Millions have been helped simply because a willing ear heard their cries. I've spend much of my life listening while people healed themselves.
Every well trained pastor can recite hundreds of non-psychiatric incidences where a good ear and an accepting community--called the church--have helped people regain their grasp on life.

[edhopper]

5. I can see that

I was referring to the PSD cases. I do think good Pastors will urge people to seek medical help in those cases.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

6. And they do

I had my first significant depressive episode when I was in graduate school (it was a reaction to various stresses), and when I went to talk to the chaplain about it, he said, "I'm willing to keep talking to you as you work out your problems, but I'm not a trained psychologist. You need to make an appointment the student mental health clinic, too."

So I did, and had individual and group therapy for the rest of the school year.

Sometimes people are not troubled enough to need a psychologist but just need a sympathetic listener who will not gossip about what they say.

And clergy take that part of it very seriously. My mother used to half-jokingly complain that my father knew all the good gossip in town before anyone else and would never tell her.