{"id":122985,"date":"2021-09-14T10:00:33","date_gmt":"2021-09-14T14:00:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/?p=122985"},"modified":"2021-09-13T13:42:11","modified_gmt":"2021-09-13T17:42:11","slug":"helping-those-who-help-others-deal-with-pandemic-stress","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/helping-those-who-help-others-deal-with-pandemic-stress\/","title":{"rendered":"Helping Those Who Help Others Deal with Pandemic Stress"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>During times of uncertainty, loss and trauma, people often turn to their religious leaders for comfort. But\u00a0\u00a0more than 18 months into the COVID-19 pandemic, many clergy find themselves counseling their communities without adequate training or resources.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe needed help for the helpers, who help others, and so they can also help themselves,\u201d says Pastor Keith Tower of HighPoint Church in Orlando.<\/p>\n<p>That\u2019s why he turned to the <a href=\"https:\/\/med.ucf.edu\">UCF\u00a0College of Medicine<\/a>\u2019s Marcy Verduin, a nationally recognized psychiatrist who also serves as associate dean for students.<\/p>\n<p>Tower helped organize the Every Nation Church Conference this summer that addressed the pandemic\u2019s emotional impact on clergy and their congregants. He invited Verduin to speak. For two hours and in front of 500 attendees, she used clinical examples to explain what happens to the brain during depression and the changes that can happen after therapy. She says her goal was to illustrate the importance of good mental health and help clergy understand that a mental health condition \u2014 like a physical illness \u2014 \u00a0is a disease. Verduin\u2019s presentation was so impactful, she has been invited to speak at other conferences worldwide, so far reaching 4,000 clergy who minister to a quarter of a million people,<\/p>\n<p>\u201cPastors are overwhelmed with the mental health issues they are seeing in their communities and are not sure where to turn,\u201d she says. \u201cWe talked about the signs to look for in depression \u2014 to look at it as an illness with symptoms, such as loss of energy, appetite, sleep, and persistent sadness that can be caused by genetics and the environment and how to support people who were suicidal.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In July, Verduin spoke via Zoom to pastors in Asia. Many clergy were from the Philippines and spoke about how the nation\u2019s financial woes and extended lockdowns have contributed to anxiety and depression.<\/p>\n<p>During the session, Verduin saw pastors recognizing their own need for mental health support. Others identified signs of depression in their own family members.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe pastors are not trained to diagnose mental illness,\u201d says Verduin, who offered step-by-step guidance on how clergy can identify signs of depression, as well as how to identify and\u00a0\u00a0acknowledge their own self-care needs.\u00a0\u201cWe covered strategies for burnout, how to deal with compassion fatigue and how to implement a self-care plan to really give themselves permission to take care of themselves.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Tower believes the sessions are having a global impact and is planning more.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe need is great and people are hurting,\u201d he says. \u201cChurches are divided, by race, economics and COVID, and it\u2019s incredibly demanding on our pastors. They needed to hear from an expert that they can relate to.\u00a0After one session, a pastor who ministers to college students said the session gave him hope. &#8230; He even admitted he previously had suicidal thoughts,\u201d Towers says.<\/p>\n<p>Verduin hopes the sessions will encourage pastors to recognize warning signs of mental illness and reduce the stigma of seeking professional help. She has been invited to speak at another conference later this year for clergy in Europe.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI loved it,\u201d she says of the experience. \u201cI love to teach and it was exciting to see how much they wanted to learn and help their communities.\u201d she says.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>College of Medicine&#8217;s Associate Dean of Students Marcy Verduin has recently helped educate clergy in North America on mental health issues, such as depression, and how to recognize symptoms in themselves and others.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":57,"featured_media":122986,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"lazy_load_responsive_images_disabled":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":"","_wp_rev_ctl_limit":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[979],"tu_author":[],"class_list":["post-122985","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-health","tag-college-of-medicine"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v22.3 (Yoast SEO v27.3) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Helping Those Who Help Others Deal with Pandemic Stress | University of Central Florida News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"College of Medicine&#039;s Associate Dean of Students Marcy Verduin has recently helped educate clergy in North America on mental health issues, such as depression, 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