Question 5: How did you deal with gossip about your wife's situation?

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An Interview with Joe Padilla

Why are the brain's mental processes not always taken seriously when people are hurting? Where do those who are hurting go for help?

In order to help answer these questions, Joe Padilla started the Mental Health Grace Alliance. After 10 years of fighting personal struggles, Joe developed a life-changing recovery process and wellness plan that provides astounding hope for people who suffer from mental illness.

There is a doctor or specialist and a healing protocol for almost every ailment, broken bone, torn muscle, or nonfunctioning organ in the body. Yet many who suffer from mental health challenges find it difficult to obtain viable, practical plans for treatment and recovery. This is shocking, considering that one in four Americans will experience some form of a mental health struggle in their lifetime.1

In addition to sometimes unhelpful healthcare providers; friends, family members, and colleagues can be critical of those who suffer from mental health issues, believing their struggles are a result of unconfessed sin, a lack of faith, or demonic activity.2

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Here are some questions only you can answer:

  • How do you react to someone in need?
  • Why do you think those with mental illnesses sometimes are treated with judgment and not with the same kind of support and care that those with other illnesses receive?
  • Do you accept or reject one who is cutting, suicidal, diagnosed with a mental health issue, depressed, in need of medication?
  • Have you yourself been stigmatized because of a mental illness?
  • Numerous solid programs exist, purposed to bring restoration. There's also resources, planning tools, outlines, and people available to help you recover and find God's purpose for your life? What's holding you back from seeking your own restoration or helping others in need?

It's time to not only survive but THRIVE!

Join the conversation on our blog at www.reframingministries.com.

About Joe Padilla

Joe Padilla is a Baylor University graduate, a licensed and ordained minister, and a missionary with more than 12 years of overseas missions/ministry leadership experience. Joe has developed businesses and non-profits focused on national health campaigns, mentoring training programs, and organizational development. Joe cofounded Grace Alliance with Dr. Matthew Stanford in 2010 after extensive personal research in mental illness recovery and his longstanding success in guiding a family member through mental illness recovery. As CEO of Grace Alliance, Joe worked extensively with Dr. Stanford to develop all the Grace Alliance material resources and programs. With Joe's vast experience and insight into mental illness and faith, he is often a keynote presenter nationally and internationally. Joe continues to provide personal consulting and mental health coaching for families and individuals living with mental illness.

Joe Padilla Resources

  • Mental Health Grace Alliance Web site and Free Resources (mentalhealthgracealliance.org/)
  • Mental Health Grace Alliance Blog (mentalhealthgracealliance.org/christian-mental-health-and-mental-illness/)

Insight for Living Ministries Resources

Special Needs Ministries Resources

Other Resources

  • National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) (www.nami.org/)
  • National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) (www.nimh.nih.gov/index.shtml)
  • WebMD (www.webmd.com/)
  • Center for Parent Information and Resources (www.parentcenterhub.org/repository/mentalhealth/)
  • Healthy Place/Mental Health Hotline Numbers and Referral Resources (www.healthyplace.com/other-info/resources/mental-health-hotline-numbers-and-referral-resources/)

 

1 National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI), "Mental Illness Facts and Numbers," reviewed by Dr. Ken Duckworth, http://www2.nami.org/factsheets/mentalillness_factsheet.pdf, accessed May 19, 2015.

2 Bob Smietana, "Mental Illness Remains Taboo Topic for Many Pastors," LifeWay Research, http://www.lifewayresearch.com/2014/09/22/mental-illness-remains-taboo-topic-for-many-pastors/, accessed May 19, 2015.