The Church: Building and Supporting Healing Communities

Abstract

This thesis targets our local, Seattle, churches and mental health system in the hopes of seeing a more productive and healing system take root. Mental illness has brought distress to our communities, and with this comes debates over the best ways in which to care and treat it. The local mental health system has gone from mental asylums, institutions, hospitals, streets, jails, and back again. Yet, we have failed to find a solution that is successful in offering healing and rehabilitation to the affected group. Funding, stigma, politics, religion, and fear have all plagued the advancement of a system moving forward towards a more successful model. Our society is in need of finding a better alternative for caring for people with a mental illness. I will offer that our local faith communities, such as the Church, should take more responsibility in caring for people with a mental illness through building residential healing communities.