Jenan Taylor
18 October 2023
Christian and church aid initiatives could be the key to easing some mental health anxieties caused by cost-of-living pressures, experts say.
Social and political turmoil overseas and in Australia were also among the many issues adding to many people’s anxiety, they said speaking at the final Archbishop’s Conversation for 2023 about mental health impacts amid the cost-of-living crisis.
Panel member, Anglicare Australia executive director Kasy Chambers said placing people at the centre of efforts to ease daily living pressures was something that many churches and Christian organisations did well.
Ms Chambers said more people were asking for more material aid and emergency services more often.
She said many churches also ran those services, and sometimes did life changing work because their approach supported people’s dignity.
Ms Chambers said public discourse that held people responsible for their circumstances often stigmatised them and potentially worsened their psychological outlook.
Changing the language around this discourse was a policy that various governments could adopt to tackle declining mental health, she said.
Read more: Cut spending, raise taxes, lower public expectations for better society: Experts
Ridley College mental health and wellbeing lecturer Dr Scott Harrower said aside from feeling shame about their situation, people lost a sense of safety, self, and community connection, and that could cause profound mental health conditions including suicidal ideation.
Dr Harrower said there was evidence that deep, sustained relationships were vital for people’s sense of agency, and giving them love, friendship and encouragement, helped them regain that.
He said secular solutions for poor mental health included quick dopamine fixes, but Christianity invited people into something far bigger than a quick dopamine fix.
Dr Harrower said churches and Christian agencies could enrich the aid space by increasing access to simple initiatives that helped ease loneliness, didn’t diminish people, and unlocked their empathy so that they might want to help others, too.
He said one successful church initiative that was being rolled out at other places, was a free, monthly board game project that provided people with opportunities to socialise with others.
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