Healing Together: The Church’s Role in Social Prescribing

The world's longest-standing mental health ministry is rooted in the tale of a young Irish princess named Dymphna, who dedicated herself to Christ when she was still a teenager.

In the 7th century, Dymphna fled her unstable father, a feudal king, who wanted to marry her, and sought refuge in the small Belgian town of Geel. There, she served those on the margins, performing many prayerful healing miracles, until her father tracked her down and she was tragically martyred.

Canonized in the 13th century as the patron Saint of “those suffering with mental illness”, people began pilgrimages to Geel to pray for healing in the Church of Saint Dymphna. In response, local families opened their homes to these pilgrims, offering love and hospitality.

For seven centuries, this unconditional love and radical hospitality for people seeking God’s help with their mental health has never ceased. Today, the Geel approach to mental health care is fully integrated with the public health system. Pilgrims arrive and are placed with a family as a ‘boarder’. Some stay a matter of weeks. Many stay for years. The family is not told the person’s diagnosis; they simply know that the person needs love, care and community.

The example of Geel invites us to recognise the unique role of the Church in addressing mental health: to care for people, not cure them; to slow down in order to be present with the Spirit and with others; to let God be God and the professionals be the professionals, so we can simply ‘walk alongside’ those in need – nothing more and nothing less.

This was the key recommendation of NAYBA's recent research report, The Church & Mental Health in Australia. As the name suggests, NAYBA (pronounced “neighbour”) exists to help churches love their neighbours and transform neighbourhoods.

Our interest in the topic of mental health has emerged from the findings of our NAYBA Impact Audits, which have engaged over 600 churches across four states and captured the impact of more than 1,000 faith-based community service activities. The latest of these, a statewide audit of Tasmania, revealed mental health and social isolation as the top two social issues that churches are seeking to address in their local communities.

This should come as no surprise. According to the ABS, more than two in five Australians will experience a mental health issue at some point in their lives. The statistics are particularly alarming among young people, with nearly 40% of those aged 16 to 24 reporting mental disorders in the past year.

The results of the NAYBA Impact Audits have shown that while a range of incredible church-led community services already exist – from social groups to community meals

to chaplaincy support – they often remain disconnected from those who need them most. Meanwhile, healthcare and other professionals are left to carry much of the burden alone, despite already being stretched to capacity and limited in the type of support they can provide.

Thankfully, the concept of ‘social prescribing’ could help to change all that.

Already implemented in the UK and the Netherlands with enormous success, social prescribing enables professionals to refer people to activities, groups, and services in their community that can help meet the practical, social and emotional needs that impact their health and wellbeing.

There is increasing support for pursuing a similar approach Down Under, and we believe there is a huge opportunity for the Church to help build out the preliminarily infrastructure required. In doing so, we could dramatically enhance the care for Australians suffering from mental ill-health by bridging the gap between social needs and available resources.

There is much work already happening that we can and should learn from – like the world-leading social prescribing network in Mt Gravatt, initiated by the Queensland Community Alliance. We also need to recognise the limitations of social prescribing when restricted to the health sector. As Publica's latest publication highlights, Gen Z is the loneliest generation but also the least likely to self-present to their local GP, so we need to find other touch points, like schools and sporting clubs, where youth who are struggling can be identified and connected to the support they need.

Building on the findings of our recent Impact Audit, NAYBA is delighted to be convening a range of stakeholders from across the faith and civic sectors to pilot a model of social prescribing in Tasmania in which churches and faith groups play a critical role – first in local regions, and then across the state and, hopefully, the nation.

We see a future in which the Australian Church is once again recognised as a trusted ally in the community, with professionals actively referring individuals to church-led initiatives that foster health, connection, and wellbeing.

We see a future in which the Church embodies the message of hope and healing that lies at the heart of our faith and models a culture of care and compassion that uplifts those who are struggling – much like the community of Geel in Belgium has done for centuries.

Achieving this will require the courage and humility to seek God’s direction and embrace our common humanity.

As global church mental health expert, Laura Howe, puts it:

“... just being human beings with other human beings. If we can simply do that, we will transform communities.”

Nic Mackay National Director, NAYBA Australia