MENTAL HEALTH CRISIS IN THE BLACK CHURCH: EXPERIENCE OF THE CLERGY

According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC, 2020), suicide

is the tenth leading cause of death in the United States. Researchers have demonstrated

the impact of the Black Church on Blacks’ health behavior (Lumpkins et al., 2013; Aten,

Topping, Denney, & Bayne, 2010; Williams, Gorman, & Hankerson, 2014). I completed

a transcendental phenomenological qualitative study (Moustakas, 1994) to describe the

experiences of twelve (8 male and 4 female) clergy of the Black Church responding to

mental health crises of their congregants. Each participant completed a demographic

questionnaire and a semi-structured interview to describe their experience with crisis and

suicide among members in their congregation. I analyzed the data using the Van Kaam

method (Moustakas, 1994) through the lens of critical race theory (Delagado & Stefancic,

1. and symbolic interactionism (Vejar, 2015). I identified six major themes with

subthemes from the interviews: (a) a definition of crisis (b) cultural expectations around

mental health, (b) causes of mental health crisis, (c) clergy response, (d) barriers to

responding, and (e) identified needs. The common factor was community or the sense of

connection with others through common attitudes, interests, and goals. Some of the

implications for practice were (a) Black clergy, faith-based organizations, and counselors

could partner and focus on crisis and suicide interventions through community-based

education; (b) counselors could partner with clergy to offer services within their church

to include counseling services and psychoeducational groups or trainings; and (c)

counselor educators could provide increased opportunities for training focused on

v

spirituality in counseling and collaborative treatment with religious and spiritual leaders

in the Black community. As Blacks have been socialized not to seek counseling, an

increased presence of professional counselors in the Black community may increase helpseeking behaviors through relationships and interactions which creates socialization

(Vejar, 2015).