Let’s start with this: we are all on a spectrum when it comes to mental health. I believe that mental health is not a point in time, but ongoing during the journey of our temporal lives. I have seen this in various ways as a pastor, and now even more acutely as Executive Director of Hope Rescue Mission, but I’m getting ahead of myself. There was a certain God-driven turn in our ministry path that caused for me a painful disruption in my mental health. Personal questions of identity, life-purpose, subsequent life-value, heightened anxiety, and deepened depression accompanied me through a “valley of the shadow of death”. To cut to the point, I was helped out of that dark valley and continued on in this life-adventure: but many have not found the exit from the cave of mental health issues.
The standard manual for mental health is called Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, or known as DSM. DSM was published in 1952 as a manual for those struggling with mental health, it was 32 pages long. DSM-TR 5 was published in 2022 and is 1,142 pages. This is mentioned because of the growing awareness and challenge of mental health. A simple AI Google Search reveals “One in five adults, or 23.1% of the U.S. adult population, live with a diagnosable mental illness”. One in five, let that sink in. Further, in Montana, 31% had a mental health diagnosis! For a period of time, I was one of those five, and if I’m honest, I may drift in and out of the percentage.
At Hope Rescue Mission, we are privileged to serve those within the 1 in 5 group. In this, we agree with the late author and speaker Henri Nouwen, and I will paraphrase him. Hospitality is creating a safe space for someone, and then not being quick to jump into that space. Nouwen’s intent was to allow God to do His work while a community of people held them in care.
We are here to provide that hospitable community where God, the creator of all, through all of us, can serve and walk with our neighbors struggling with mental health. Do we pray? Yes! And we listen, navigate to resources, see what we can do to prevent eviction, listen some more, give directional help when we can, and endeavor to walk a forward path. Are some beyond our capacity? Absolutely! Our heart is to provide a warm handoff to the right people who will continue to travel with them.
Homelessness is an intractable trifecta of affordable housing, substance use, and yes, mental health. May we all show hospitality and create space for those homeless to find real, forward, eternal help. That eternal help starts through us by the transforming power of the Gospel. This is noteworthy: Every New Testament letter of the Apostle Paul includes a prayer of “grace and peace” be to you. The Apostle Peter says the same in his two letters. The Apostle John states this in his 2nd and 3rd letters, and Jude as well. This is mentioned because God’s grace and peace are the foundation of mental health, and the exodus (path) out of any of the pages of the DSM-TR 5. May grace and peace be multiplied to you through Christ Jesus our Lord.
Jim Hicks
Executive Director
Montana Health Foundation’s 2024 Issue Brief. Page 4