25% of pastors experience mental health illness – Mental health clinician says

A mental health Dr Kwame Frimpong has disclosed that twenty-five percent of pastors are experiencing mental health illness.

According to the Ghanaian who practices in the USA, the burden of running the church combined with addressing the challenges of church members puts so much stress on the men of God.

Myjoyonline.com reports him as saying this among other things during ‘A Walk with Jesus’ with Pastor Ato Acquah on Accra-based Joy FM. The topic for discussion was ‘Christian and Mental Health’.

“You can be spiritually powerful and mentally weak if you do not take care of yourself and your soul. Pastors will be overwhelmed if they do not take care of themselves,” Dr Frimpong is quoted as saying.

He added that the situation has compelled some pastors to acquire knowledge in clinical psychology to enable them to handle the pressures of their responsibilities.

“Pastors must not turn themselves into counsellors or psychologists.

“They must employ clinical psychologists or professional counsellors to partner with them in their work,” he advised.

Dr Frimpong cautioned against ascribing spirituality to every case of mental health illness.

“As typical Ghanaians, we associate every mental health disorder as spiritual and coming from the devil, and we become ineffective this way in our thinking to help our people. Some of these cases, however, could be demonic.”

Mental health illness is on the rise in Ghana as many people have economic, marital, and emotional among other issues that they grapple with. Just a couple of days ago, during Joy FM’s ‘Drive Time’, a man phoned in to disclose that he was on his way to commit suicide because of personal challenges.

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