Thursday, June 13, 2019

Report on Mental Health in the U.K.

Mental Health in the U.K.

from the report above authored by Ben Ryan of  https://www.theosthinktank.co.uk/

"There is a need for a re-appraisal of how we use the Bible on this topic. Rather than focusing on limited accounts of explicit mental illness within the biblical story, or on demonic possession as a growing number of UK Christians appear to be doing, we need to develop an authentic Christian language of mental health from the perspective of sufferers."

"Where many Christian resources currently focus on raising awareness of different mental health issues there is more to be done in terms of helping sufferers find a biblical language to verbalise their own experiences."

"There is need for an analysis of the burgeoning exorcism scene in the UK in the light of concerns over how it is being used and its possible negative consequences."

"There is space for biblical resources that allow for Christians to embrace medical science and prevent the danger of “over-spiritualising” problems. There is some evidence of projects in this space already (see chapter 3 )."

This is the need in Canada as well.
We seem to be far behind both the U.K. and the U.S.A. in these conversations.

Friday, June 7, 2019

The ethical nightmare

https://unherd.com/2019/06/the-ethical-nightmare-we-wont-confront/?tl_inbound=1&tl_groups[0]=18743&tl_period_type=3

Some excerpts:
"In most Western European countries, there is an increasing drive to view physical and mental illness as having parity. In the UK, the government has repeatedly said that it wishes to take mental illness issues as seriously as physical illness issues. Everywhere the melding of the two is (rightly or wrongly) going on. But in a society which permits euthanasia, things get more complicated; the bomb explodes. For who is to say that a severely depressed person in their 20s is not to be judged to be in as serious a condition as somebody with cancer of the same age?"
"I have yet to find anyone willing to explore this boundary. Most look away, postpone or try to find false consolation in mocking reporting errors like those in the Pothoven case."
"In the long-term, this is a mistake. Such serious ethical matters must be addressed at length as well as in depth. It might be fake news today, but tomorrow it could be a reality. Yes, the factual errors of this case need to be corrected. But to simply dismiss the case, without acknowledging its desperate possibilities, is a reckless move which will have long and severe consequences. There’ll be little schadenfreude if we get this one wrong."