National Alliance on Mental Illness
page printed from FaithNet NAMI
NAMI FaithNet Newsletter: August 2009
Welcome to the August issue of the NAMI FaithNet Newsletter.
Pathways to Promise, an interfaith, mental illness ministries organization is sponsoring a national summit, Companions on the Road to Recovery from Mental Illness: Pathways for the 21st Century - Models of Ministry and Collaboration in Belleville, Ill., Sept. 29 - Oct. 01.
The conference is designed to equip congregations and clergy for effective ministry with individuals and families facing serious mental illness by offering mental illness ministry models and resources. The basic aim is to lay the foundation for a network of local mental illness ministry training centers and programs around the country. For more details and to register, go to the Pathways to Promise Web site.
In This Issue:
- Ministries Pave a Spiritual Path to Help Veterans
- Faith and the Brain
- Faith Community Nursing Thrives in Virginia
Ministries Pave a Spiritual Path to Help Veterans
As soldiers return home from Iraq and Afghanistan, congregations are discovering how spirituality can help veterans living with postwar stress, but many pastors remain unsure how to help. Through Point Man International Ministries, an independent nonprofit, a retired U.S. Army infantryman with posttraumatic stress disorder is studying for ministry and leading a veteran support group.
Faith and the Brain
Dr. Andrew Newberg of the University of Pennsylvania has been studying the effects of meditation and prayer on the brain for several years and is considered one of the leading experts in a new field called neurotheology.
Faith Community Nursing Thrives in Virginia
Parish nursing has morphed into faith community nursing. The name has changed to make it more inclusive of diverse congregations, but the mission's still the same -- to expand the delivery of preventive and supportive health care through trained medical professionals in a congregational setting.