The Bethsaida Team

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• Best of Bethsaida Conference
• Our Savior - Secaucus Makes the Blogs
• Our Savior, Secaucus Accessibility Web Page
• Mystery and Brain Injury
• People with disabilities as volunteers
• News Story - Autistic High School Senior Scores 20 Points in Waning Moments of His Only Game
• Bethsaida Team to Update List of Accessible Facilities in the Diocese
• Accessibility for People Living with Mental Illness
• Children with Disabilities Need a Place in the Life of the Church – and the Church needs them, too
• Results of Bethsaida Team Mini-Conference "They Won't Come if They Can't Go"
• BETHSAIDA TEAM MEMBERS SPEAK.
• "They Won't Come if They Can't Go " Conference on Funding for Accessibility
• Workshop on Sound Systems to Accommodate the Hard of Hearing
• Historic Resolution on Diocesan Accessibility Passed by 2005 Convention of the Diocese of Newark

Accessibility for People Living with Mental Illness

By Elizabeth Griffin Lannigan, PhD, OTR

St John’s Church, Montclair

For people living with schizophrenia and depression, mental illnesses create difficulties in all aspects of daily living including participation in worship and parish life. Joining a new church or attending a familiar church becomes a challenge when individuals are experiencing the symptoms of mental illness. Sadness or fatigue may result in the person living with depression feeling overwhelmed by the effort of participating in church activities. The person with schizophrenia may be confused by the sights and sounds of the service or communicating with others. In addition, individuals with mental illness speak of struggles to be accepted by others in social environments.

Have you wondered how best to reach out to a person living with mental illness? Church should be the one environment in which these individuals find comfort and accessibility. But our own feelings of discomfort often cause us to put up barriers. Understanding the experiences of individuals living with mental illnesses enables us to better include these persons into parish life.

The Bethsaida Team will present a workshop on Wednesday, November 9, 2005 focusing on the inclusion of individuals living with mental illness into worship and parish life. This workshop is designed to assist clergy and lay persons to gain an understanding the effects of mental illness on the lives of persons with schizophrenia and depression. Through the exploration of the experiences and feelings of these individuals, workshop participants will gain an understanding of interaction styles helpful with individuals living with mental illnesses. The format of the program will include time for discussion of our own questions of how best to be inclusive of these individuals.

Please join the Bethsaida Team at 5:30 pm for a light supper and presentation or at 6:30 pm for the presentation at St. Elizabeth’s Church, Ridgewood. For directions, please go to St. Elizabeth’s website at www.dioceseofnewark.org/StEsRidgewood. To RSVP by November 2, 2005, please call Liz Lannigan at 973-744-4948 or email her at lglannigan@aol.com.