Laura Howe 00:01
From Hope Made Strong,this is The Care Ministry Podcast, a show about equipping ministry leaders and transforming communities through care. Supporting those in your church and community not only changes individuals lives, but it grows and strengthens the church. But we want to do that without burning out. So listen in, as we learn both tools, strategies and resources that will equip your team and strengthen hope.
I'm Laura Howe, and welcome to The Care Ministry Podcast. Here at Hope Made Strong and on the podcast, we actually consider a broad view of care ministry, and includes things like benevolence, meals, grief, support, visitation, pastoral care, small groups, prayer ministry, I'm sure there's many more of those things that are just at the top of my mind, really, it's anything that fosters belonging, purpose and hope. These three things are the core pillars of care ministry, because that's how people receive care. And I'm sure it is not by accident, that these three areas are what the local church excels in. The local church is so good at offering belonging, purpose and hope. And what I mean by belonging is the acceptance or it's a safe community. It's the feeling that I'm welcome, I'm accepted, and I am loved. That's what belonging is all about.
Purpose is the sense of value that people receive. They know that they are gifted, they have skills and are created with intentionality, and they are a valuable part of something bigger than themselves.
Now hope this is having an expected future or that the future holds something better than what they may be facing right now. Having been a counselor for about 15 years, and I spoke with all different kinds of people from all walks of life, those facing homelessness, or even executives, and every human that I have ever encountered, wants to belong, be valued, and have hope.
Back in episode 18, I go into more depth about belonging, purpose and hope and, and how they translate into care ministry but I wanted to share the these core pillars at the outset of this episode, because I think mental health and supporting people is woven throughout all three of these areas.
Our mental health is negatively impacted or, or we start to struggle when these core pillars are challenged. Just think about it. When we feel isolated, rejected or unsafe it it often results in depression and anxiety or maybe even trauma and when someone is struggling, and they often describe themselves as having no value or or purpose or they have lost all hope. The local churches actually on the front lines of supporting people who are struggling. Research tells us that when people are part of a faith community, they are more likely to speak to a pastor or a ministry leader than they are to speak to a health care professional about their well being you know this, I know this, we see this every day.
But a lot of people don't realize this, that your church is the first stop for people finding support. Are you prepared for your these conversations? I'm curious are is your team? Is your staff ready to support or walk alongside people who are struggling in these emotional and mental health areas?
Now I'm sure that you are ready willing and you already pray for for those who who are facing physical health challenges or financial hardships. But I'm curious what about those emotional struggles? Or those mental health struggles? Does this topic or area intimidate you? Do you feel comfortable praying and supporting with someone who's struggling with their mental health? If yes, this is amazing. I love it and I'm so excited and thankful that you are doing this work, you are standing with people as they navigate some really difficult moments in their life and I am so grateful for you and your service to your community. If you don't feel comfortable supporting people who are struggling with their well-being or their mental or emotional health, you are not alone.
There are so many people who just don't know what to say when someone shares that they're struggling. I did a brief episode I believe it's called What to Say When You Don't Know What To Say back in episode 10 and it's in that episode that I shared five things that you can say when you're in those situations that you just don't know what to say. They're really simple and really practical. It's a little trick that has become my go to saying or my go to approach when people are coming for support and it fosters trust and connection.
So if you've ever caught yourself in those situations where you just don't know to know what to say, go back to Episode 10 and listen in to those really practical, simple, simple approaches.
Friend if you are connecting with people struggling day in and day out. You want something more than just a few key phrases that you would say with a neighbor or maybe on a prayer team, you want to know how you can help navigate these struggles with people as a supporter.
So I'm going to show share with you three different faith-based trainings around wellbeing supporting people in mental health. These trainings are for lay leaders, they start from an understanding that ministry leaders are not clinicians. You don't diagnose you know, treat or, or offer therapy, you're a supporter, and you're standing with people who are journeying through difficult situations. These trainings range in commitment, in depth and in price. And I often classify these trainings to be small, medium, or large.
So when someone comes to me and says, Hey, I need to find a training for my team. And I'm like, Well do you need small, medium or large. This small training takes the least amount of time and teaches the foundational skills of supporting people.
Medium is a bit more of a commitment and time and money, but it has more depth and introduces a framework of support. So that's really helpful and then the final training is the large training which has a significant time commitment, but it does offer the most most depth of knowledge and understanding of mental health struggles.
All right, so enough of me just doing the intro the prologue, let me introduce these training options to you and we're going to go from largest to smallest now the largest training option is The Mental Health Coaching Training Through Light University and through the ACE ACC. ACC stands for American Association of Christian Counselors. Now this is a certified mental health coach first responder training. This is a robust training that offers participants 40 hours of On Demand training by leading mental health experts and the training because it's so largest split into three different modules. The first one is foundations of mental health coaching, second one is mental health skills like coaching skills and the third one is mental and behavioral health disorders.
Now at the end of this 40-hour training, you will receive a certificate as a mental health coach. Mental health coaches are not like licensed mental health care providers, and that coaches don't diagnose or offer professional care, like trauma therapy or therapy in general, or addiction treatment. But coaches do support positive changes, they support people as they work towards recovery, and work on life goals or maybe navigation, Link system navigation support and mental health coaching you receive skills, as well as a in depth knowledge of the serious mental health illnesses.
So this coaching program is great for those who are wanting deeper training of specific illnesses and see themselves as a coach, mentor or caregiver with those with mental health struggles. And when I think of those roles, I think of the pastoral care provider, the chaplain recovery mentor, mental health advocate, though, for those roles, this would be an ideal training. At the time of this recording, there are scholarships actually readily available for this training, making it free of cost, which is an incredible value. I'll link to the coaching program in the show notes but if you google Mental Health Coaching Light University, I am pretty sure that it will be at the top of the list.
Okay, so now let's move on to the medium-sized training and this is called Spiritual First Aid, and it's out of Wheaton College. Spiritual First Aid is an eight-session certificate course that teaches peer to peer, spiritual and emotional care, and is trauma informed with best practices from the trauma informed approach. This is a lower time commitment and participants are led through a support framework that teaches them how to recognize respond and resource and refer those who are experiencing struggles such as anxiety, depression, substance use work problems and relationships.
This is much more general approach. Participants are equipped to walk alongside others through trauma caused by grief, crisis, abuse, violence and disasters. Now there's a big difference between walking alongside others and treating others who've experienced trauma. So this is a really great program for those in your church that offer one to one support for individuals, like your visitation team, your pastoral staff are those mentors, because it gives you the skills to walk alongside trauma, not treat or provide therapy, but have the conversations to recognize resource and respond to those who are struggling. Now the Spiritual First Aid program is offered on demand. Actually, all three courses are offered on demand, meaning that you can access the pre-recorded training at your own convenience you can do it anytime on your own schedule. Now there is a cost of this training, but the team of spiritual first aid recognize that churches are likely to train multiple people We'll through this so bulk pricing is available. And I'll put the link to their website and where to refer register for this training within the show notes and that link that I have is an affiliate link. So you actually pay the same price, but they're just notified that the referral came from myself.
Okay, so the final and smallest training is The Caregiver Toolbox and this was developed by myself and the team at Hope Made Strong, and this is only a 90-minute training split into five sessions five short sessions. The Caregiver Toolbox is an online self-guided course that offers ministry caregivers, foundational skills and strategies to support and care for their community. Participants walk away with an understanding of support frameworks, boundaries, ethics and tools to engage in ministry caregiving.
This course teaches foundational skills and focuses on the basic skills of active listening, the difference between being a supporter and savior, enabling versus empowering boundaries, ethical guidelines, crisis de-escalation, and how to end those support relationships and know when it's time to refer. This course is perfect for your teams, your prayer teams, your small group facilitators, team leaders, and youth volunteers, anyone that's really engaged with people and want to know, okay, how can I have the supportive conversations, and have these just real foundation basic skills of support and knowing how to refer, it's quite a manageable course that teaches volunteers the basics of supporting others and recognizing when more support is needed.
And because this course is created by our team, I'm able to offer a discount code for all of our podcasts friends, if you use the code podcast, you're going to receive a 15% discount on The Caregiver Toolbox. And I will link all of that in the show notes or you can go to the caregivertoolbox.org and use the coupon code podcast to get that discount.
Now all of these training programs are available online. All are focused on equipping churches and ministry leaders, and are based on best practices, researched approaches, and our trauma-informed. So I encourage you to take a look at all three and see which one serves your community and your need.
You maybe you're looking for a robust in depth training or you're looking for support framework or a step by step approach to spiritual and emotional care or you need an accessible training for your volunteers that sets a strong foundation of caregiving skills. I am thrilled that there are three options for you. So hopefully your needs will be met in these trainings, and you will find one that is best suited for your church.
So make sure you go to the show notes and get those links on all of them, the show notes are hopemadestrong.org/episode 90.
Well, I hope this has been helpful for you. I hope it gives you some great ideas on how you can train your staff, your partners, your team, and you will be able to feel equipped and confident in your support work with your church community. Thank you so much and take care.
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