Samaritan therapist Doug Bisbee and NAMI Fox Valley community engagement director Ann Jadin teamed up to present “Creating Hope: The Power of Faith Communities in Mental Health Recovery” during the Green Bay Diocese’s Leadership Convocation on Oct. 29. The workshop, featured in this article from the Nov. 6 edition of The Compass, was one of 14 offered to the 425 convocation attendees.

Its focus: encouraging the 35 faith leaders at the workshop to equip themselves to minister to the mental health of their parishioners and their communities. “Twenty-five percent of people with mental illness turn to their clergy person first, so there’s a trusting relationship,” Bisbee says in the article.

For the past eight months, Bisbee, Jadin and others, including representatives of the NEW Mental Health Connection and LEAVEN, have collaborated on the Mental Health Ministry Initiative. The initiative explores whether faith leaders see themselves as “first responders” in the mental health of those they serve, and how best to equip those faith leaders to fill that role. The planning stage of this initiative has been funded in part by a grant from the Basic Needs Giving Partnership Fund within the Community Foundation for the Fox Valley Region supported by the J. J. Keller Foundation, the U.S. Venture Fund for Basic Needs and other community partners.

Therapist Doug Bisbee