By Mylika Scatliffe,
AFRO Women’s Health Writer
For centuries, church has been the pillar of the Black community with members and non members coming to the church and its leaders for solace, refuge, prayer and respite.
With increasing rates of suidice among people of color and historical taboos and stigma surrounding suicide among Black people in particular, we must think differently about access to mental health care.
“We recognize that suicides are trending upward in the Black and Brown communities, even while they have started to trend downward in other communities,” said Vic Armstrong, vice president for Health Equity and Engagement at the American Foundation for Suidice Prevention (AFSP).
Soul Shop for Black Churches is a one-day training workshop designed to instruct members of the Black faith community on the impact of suicide as a health outcome, and to provide training on how to address suicide related issues. The AFSP is committed to health equity for underserved communities and addressing the increased rate of suicide among Black people. The creation of Soul Shop for Black Churches was driven by this commitment.
“We need to think differently about how we reach people in underserved communities for a number of different reasons. One is that we have to consider how we create access to services and think differently about what access means,” said Armstrong.
Access is about providing resources that are relatable to lived experiences, culturally relevant, and that you are willing to utilize.
“When we think about access to resources of the Black community, one of the most effective ways to reach Black people is to utilize the church. We know that faith based organizations traditionally have been the gateway to the Black community,” Armstrong continued.
Most Black people grew up hearing suicide was not a Black problem and that African-American people are resilient for having survived slavery. However, the Pew Research Center states that a little over 50 percent of any church congregation has been impacted by suicide in some way.
“There are people sitting in the church pews that have been impacted but have not been able to talk about it because we don’t create space in our faith based settings; so they carry the pain around with them, “ said Armstrong.
According to the AFSP website, Soul Shop for Black Churches is aimed at leaders in the faith community, whether clergy or laypeople, that are on the front lines of the mental health crisis to minister to those impacted by all the faces and struggles with regard to suicide. The workshop leverages the prominent position of the church in the Black community for a positive impact on suicide prevention and focus on loss and healing for those whose lives have been affected by suicide in some way.
Talking to someone about suicide is difficult, especially in a culture where the subject is taboo. The eight hour training provides practical skills on how to help make talking about suicide easier.
“We do some role paying, to get them comfortable enough to learn how to have a conversation with someone experiencing suicidal desperation,” said Armstrong.
Armstrong makes it very clear to workshop attendees that they are not expected to be clinicians as a result of the training.
“We want you to know what steps to take if someone comes to you, or you recognize warning signs that someone may be thinking about suicide or making a suicide plan that you feel able to talk to them and intervene,” added Armstrong.
The ultimate goal for Soul Shop for Black Churches is when encountered with someone experiencing suicidal desperation in that moment to help move them from a point of desperation and connect them with resources for professional help.
Attendees of the training are taught the acronym CALL:
- C – commit to talking someone if you are experiencing suicidal desperation or if you think someone else is considering ending their life.
- A – ask. Be willing to ask an individual if they are thinking about killing themselves. We provide language to help you have the ability to actually ask those questions.
- L – listen. Be willing to listen to what the person is sharing and not interject yourself. Listening provides you with opportunities to know what and how to connect that person with services.
- L – lead. To lead someone to safety so that they are in a position where they either no longer want to kill themselves or remove them from the risk of harm.
Armstrong emphasized that in that moment of helping someone it is not your job to cure them. “Your role is not to try and fix them, but to lead that individual to safe and good hands,” said Armstrong.
To Armstrong, one of the most important distinctions about Soul Shop for Black Churches is that while there is no lack of secular training, this is the only one he’s aware of designed specifically for Black faith leaders
“There is still some stigma attached to this because often faith leaders often struggle with the message that suicide is an unforgivable sin, and are not sure where to start with the conversation,” said Armstrong. “There’s still some stigma that’s probably not going away, but I think that little by little we can chip away at the negative connotation and faith leaders can see this as something they can fold into their ministry.”
Soul Shop for Black Churches is about thinking about suicide prevention in a new way: reaching people before they get to the point of wanting to die.
The goal is to learn to recognize the risks and warning signs before an individual reaches that point, and to be able to minister to family and community members impacted when someone dies by suicide.
For more information on Soul Shop for Black Churches can be found at socialmovement.org or afsp.org.
