Building Relationships With People With Mental Illnesses

From Disability Concerns Inclusion Handbook, here are some ideas for ministry with people who have mental illnesses. Please feel free to share these with your congregation in a newsletter, from the pulpit, or some other way.

• Greet the person normally, making brief eye contact with “Hello” and the person’s name.
• Avoid asking, “How are you doing?” or “How do you feel?” These phrases are extremely painful, especially when other people are present.
• Don’t be afraid to make “small talk.”
• “I’m glad to see you,” is one of the most helpful phrases.
• Do not push or pressure other people when they say they cannot do something you ask them to do.
• Listen when they try to talk about their difficulty. It's important to them that you know and care.
• Do not try to make light of the difficulty. It may seem like a small problem to you, but it is a big problem to them.
• Do not try to determine what people can or cannot do from what you observe them doing. Sometimes people can do things in one environment that they cannot do in another.
• Above all, realize that most people are doing the best they can at any given moment with the abilities they have and in the environment surrounding them.