Becky St. Clair, and Adventist Review
April 11, 2022
The 2022 North American Division (NAD) Virtual Mental Health Summit took place March 31-April 3 at the NAD headquarters in Columbia, Maryland, United States.
The event, which was themed “Restored,” provided a forum for discussion of mental health and wellness from various angles, providing tips and suggestions for the mental health of church members and communities in general.
“With this summit,” NAD health ministries director Angeline Brauer said, the “Health Ministries [Department] launches a laser focus on the topic of mental health and wellness.” Registered participants attended general plenary sessions, workshops, and worships that concentrated on various aspects of mental health.
NAD president G. Alexander Bryant opened the first day of the mental health summit with a devotional thought centered on Jesus’ personal health ministry.
“There were crowds around Jesus when He preached, willing to listen and interested in what He had to say,” Bryant said. “But it started when He went to their communities and healed and helped them. This is a formula that still works today.”
Between March 31 and April 1, more than 40 concurrent sessions were held on various topics related to mental health and well-being: addiction, aging and dementia, community-based interventions, children and youth, grief, anxiety and depression, emotional healing, spirituality and mental health, suicide prevention, trauma, and wholistic approaches to mental health.
Many participants registered on Zoom to attend the event. The daily average of viewers in general session plenaries on Facebook on Thursday and Friday was close to 2,000 people. Saturday (Sabbath) programs were offered for download, and specialized sessions on Sunday were made available for an additional fee.
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