Tulips at Keukenhof Gardens in Holland

LIVING ROOM’S OPEN DOOR –

All members of the Living Room Open Door faith-based peer support groups, including the facilitator, have suffered, or are suffering from mental health issues. It’s this commonality that pulls them together. Groups are not led by professionals and don’t offer clinical therapy.

They don’t only receive social support, but they also share ideas on strategies to use that will help them cope with their mental health. Spiritual topics introduced by the facilitator and explored as a group are designed to strengthen their faith life.

Peer support groups are an important element in the needs of those living with mental health issues. Support by peers has been shown to be more effective than support from healthy individuals.

Peer support focuses on health and recovery rather than illness and disability.

Studies by researchers like Phyllis Solomon, have shown that peer support is more effective than support given by people who have never experienced such issues. Her research has been on the forefront of consumer rights and capabilities, having conducted one of the first and most influential studies on consumer provided mental health services in the 1990s. She showed the following outcomes as promising:

“They include increased self esteem, sense of control, empowerment, hope. belief in bringing about change in their lives, sense of belonging, social support, engagement in self management services, treatment, and community, and improved social functioning, quality of life and life satisfaction.” (Psychiatric Quarterly 2022)

Where else can a group of individuals with mental illness gather to talk about both—their emotional struggles and their faith? Where else can they share with others who understand their pain? Those who don’t have lived experience can’t hope to empathize in the way peers can empathize.

One of the most important ways in which people with mental health challenges can support each other is by assuring each other of the unconditional love of Jesus and of how he values them, despite the way the world might be treating them. Those for whom life is easier, could never understand that message in the same way.

This is the picture of Jesus that people with mental health issues most need to see and hear. Knowing such a Jesus is their unique spiritual need, a message that is not always as clearly conveyed in churches. When that understanding of the love of Jesus is taught, and then shown by people who share their faith, healing can occur.

Such an understanding of Jesus can be hard to fathom by those who are emotionally healthy—those who don’t face rejection in the way people with mental health issues do. This picture of Jesus who was accepting, kind, and showing his unconditional love to outcasts during his life on earth, is the most significant view of him for those who are rejected by the world today. They are hungry for Someone who would care that much for them. Jesus cares.

Through my experiences in psychiatric facilities and my support of individuals in crisis, I have learned how great the need for love is in people who are struggling mentally and emotionally. As a person who herself has struggled in such ways, I recognize the need in a way healthier supporters might not. Although I was undergoing some of the most painful periods in my life, I experienced joy in the midst of it when I talked with other patients about faith.

Why?

It was because I was with others who had needs that were similar to mine. We understood each other. We heard each other in ways the world outside did not. It was the best kind of support we could have asked for—support from our peers. Doctors and nurses could not help us as much as we helped each other.

Being with others who share our needs is not always possible in the community. The only place where such peer support could take place and our faith expressed, would be within a group of people where everyone shares such needs. Together, in the company of others who can relate, we find out we’re not alone.

Peer support groups like the Living Room’s Open Door are specifically designed to address the kind of needs people with mental health challenges have. Nothing can compare with such a sanctuary where they can spend time with those who are best able to understand. A place to gather with others who long for the love that Jesus Christ promises.

marja