In this edition of Fresh Hope for Mental Health Pastor Brad interviews Dr. Steve Grcevich. Dr. Grcevich is the author of Mental Health and the Church: A Ministry Handbook for Including Children and Adults with ADHD, Anxiety, Mood Disorders, and Other Common Mental Health Conditions, which be released this week (February of 2017). Pastor Brad believes that this book is a must read and must use book for any church that wants to include people who struggle with mental health issues.
The church across North America does a weak job of welcoming and including families of children, teens, and adults with common mental health conditions or trauma. One obstacle is the absence of a widely accepted model for mental health inclusion ministries for kids, teens, adults, and their families.
In Mental Health and the Church, Dr. Stephen Grcevich seeks to put forth a model for a mental health/trauma inclusion ministry of sufficient flexibility to be implemented by churches of all sizes, denominations, and organizational styles. This model is based upon an understanding of seven barriers that families of kids, teens, and adults with common mental health conditions face if they seek to regularly attend a local church: ADHD, anxiety disorders, attachment disorders, mood disorders, post-traumatic stress disorder, and difficulties with social communication/interaction. The model includes seven broad inclusion strategies for helping persons with common mental health conditions and their families to overcome barriers to active engagement in the full range of ministries offered by the local church.
Dr. Grcevich is the principal author of Church4EveryChild, recognized among the Top 15 children’s ministry blogs in 2013 by Ministry-To-Children.com, and serves as the Program Committee Chairman for Inclusion Fusion, Key Ministry’s Disability Ministry Web Summit. In March of 2013, he was recognized by Sharecare as one of the top ten online influencers in children’s mental health.
Dr. Grcevich is a physician specializing in Child and Adolescent Psychiatry in practice in Chagrin Falls, OH. He is a graduate of Northeastern Ohio Medical University (NEOMED) and trained at the Cleveland Clinic Foundation and Case Western Reserve University. He is a faculty member at both Case Western and NEOMED and has extensive research experience evaluating the safety and effectiveness of medications prescribed to children and teens for ADHD, anxiety and depression. He has been a featured speaker or presenter at over 35 national and international medical conferences and is a past recipient of the Exemplary Psychiatrist Award from the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI), and the “Psychiatrist of the Year” award from the Ohio Chapter of NAMI.
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Pastor Brad Hoefs, the host of Fresh Hope for Mental Health, is the founder of Fresh Hope Ministries, a network of Christian mental health support groups for those who have a diagnosis and their loved ones. In other words, Fresh Hope is a Christian mental health support group.
Brad was diagnosed with bipolar disorder in 1995. He is a weekly blogger for www.bphope.com (Bipolar Magazine). He is also a certified peer specialist and has been doing pastoral counseling since 1985. Brad is also the author of Fresh Hope: Living Well in Spite of a Mental Health Diagnosis, which is available on Amazon or at www.FreshHopeBook.com
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