Shaping Families

VIDEO
Fierce Goodbye: Living in the Shadow of Suicide DVD. Dr. Sherry Mollock appears in this documentary telling the stories of five loving and courageous families, taking you to the innermost depths of their heartbreak and pain to bring hope and healing to others.

Shadow Voices: Finding Hope in Mental Illness DVD. Families, experts and persons of faith share stories and insights on living with mental illness. The bonus material on the DVD contains extra content on faith and mental illness.

ONLINE
Anabaptist Disabilities Network. The Anabaptist Disabilities Network works on mental health issues among others in addressing faith issues in relation to disabilities. Includes books on mental illness written for the Christian faith community.  

You’ll find Sherry Davis Molock’s warning signs of suicide in the transcript for this Shaping Families program.

Another good list of warning signs is from the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention:  A list especially for teens.

BOOKS
Darkness Is My Only Companion: A Christian Response to Mental Illness. Where is God in the suffering of a mentally ill person? What happens to the soul when the mind is ill? How are Christians to respond in the face of mental illness? In this book Kathryn Greene-McCreight confronts these difficult questions raised by her own mental illness—bi-polar disorder. Brazos Press, 2006.

Wrestling with Our Inner Angels: Faith, Mental Illness, and the Journey to Wholeness, by Nancy Kehoe. The author is both a nun and a clinician, and draws on both her psychological and religious training to approach with insight and sensitivity the role of belief and motivation in the lives of people troubled by mental illness. Jossey-Bass, 2009.

Sanity & Grace: A Journey of Suicide, Survival, and Strength – Judy Collins. A memoir.

SUPPORT
National Suicide Prevention hotline: Call 1-800-273-TALK or Chat. A 24/7 hotline for those in crisis.
Survivors of Suicide. 
American Foundation for Suicide Prevention: Survivor Support Groups
National Board of Certified Counselors. Find a Licensed Professional Counselor
American Psychological Association. Find a Psychologist

RADIO
Unsung: Family Voices on Mental Illness radio spots – winner of Gracie and Gabriel awards. Twelve radio spots celebrating the heroic valor of families and friends supporting those with mental illness amid an appalling amount of societal ignorance and stigma and a difficult-to-navigate mental health system.

ONLINE – DVDs and other resources
Mental Health Ministries. Susan Gregg Schroeder’s faith-based organization for reducing the stigma of mental illness.
FaithNet is a network of people of faith working for understanding and interaction on mental health and faith issues.
MedlinePlus website from U.S. National Library of Medicine and National Institutes of Health
Resources Web page and Internet Links for Faith Communities