Critical Collaboration
Pastors and mental health professionals as partners in care to urban African American communities
by
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There are three types of helping professionals typically called upon in times of crisis by the urban African American community. Medical professionals are called upon when physical health is threatened. Law enforcement professionals are called upon when personal or public safety is threatened. And the faith leader is called upon to address basically all issues of spiritual or emotional trauma. Historically absent from this culturally instinctive "call list" is the mental health professional. If counseling has not been court mandated or highly recommended as part of a legal defense strategy, the African American and mental health communities seldom meet. In the African American community, the church and pastor serve as the leading social services and mental health providers (Blank, Mahmood, and Guterbock 2002). The reason for this cultural practice has historical, political, and socioeconomic precursors. But a strong argument can be made for the dire need for a change of perspective and practice that establishes and sustains partnership between the ecclesiastical and mental health professions. Recent studies report that persons in the African American demographic are twenty percent more likely than the general population to experience serious mental health problems, including major depression, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, and posttraumatic stress disorder (National Alliance on Mental Illness [NAMI] 2016). The reasons for this increased likelihood of mental health problems are largely cultural and call for the church to once again serve as an agent of cultural transformation both within and beyond the African American community. Transforming the mental health culture and practices within the African American community will require urban churches and mental health institutions to work together. But such a partnership will ultimately change existing perceptions and practices of the pastor and church from the currently combined roles of first responder, general practitioner, and specialist to that of first responder, general practitioner, and when necessary, agent of referral for specialized care in mental health concerns.
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About the Book
Critical Collaboration is about the critical need for partnership between pastors and mental health professionals in service to urban African American communities. While the historically African American church has done commendable work in its virtually exclusive role as emotional caregiver, there is a disproportionate susceptibility to certain mental illnesses in the African American community, which calls for a collaborative effort to advance the cause of holistic health. Critical Collaboration provides historical, socioeconomic, theological, and psychological contexts that serve to increase the awareness and cultural competence needed to bridge the gap between the professional communities of faith and mental health.
About the Author
C. Guy Robinson is a bishop, pastor, and musician with decades of experience in serving the kingdom of God. He serves as pastor of the Tabernacle of the Lord Church in Baltimore, Maryland. He also serves as Maryland State Bishop in the Full Gospel Baptist Church Fellowship. As a composer, his music has been recorded by numerous gospel music artists, including the Edwin Hawkins Music and Arts Seminar Mass Choir, Bishop T. D. Jakes and the Potter's House Choir, the Wilmington-Chester Mass Choir, the Gospel Music Workshop's Women of Worship, the Full Gospel Baptist Church Fellowship's Daughters of the Promise Choir, and Eric Waddell and the Abundant Life Singers. Bishop Robinson has earned a bachelor of arts degree in music (piano) from Morgan State University, a master of divinity degree from Howard University, and a doctor of ministry degree in marriage and family counseling from Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary. He also serves as an adjunct professor/lecturer in the School of Social Work at Morgan State University in Baltimore, Maryland, specializing in critical analysis of the impact of spirituality and religious disciplines in the helping professions and upon social constructs. Bishop Robinson and his wife Sandra are the parents of four children: Candice, Cameron, Sydney, and Lauryn.