Friday August 13th: Together forever
August 13, 2021
Fr Stephan continues to journey with his flock
August 13, 2021

The Cleric and Covid-19

The pandemic is affecting everyone in different ways. What’s it like for our clergy, faced since early March with seeing to the spiritual needs of their congregations during a lockdown? How difficult has it been for them to minister during the pandemic? Fr Dwight Black OP gives an insight and offers a few coping strategies for his brother priests.

Fr Dwight Black

The first reported case of Covid-19 in Trinidad and Tobago was on  March 12, 2020. Since then, our way of life has changed dramatically due to our local and global push back of this invisible enemy. These changes are what we of the clergy of this Archdiocese refer to as the “new normal”.

As a result of this new way of being normal, many of our clergy members here in Trinidad and Tobago may be exposed to a new type of burnout. This is because the clergy as well as the rest of the world have experienced disruptions in personal health habits, social connectivity, family life, and economic stability.

At the heart of “clergy-burnout” is trauma. During this Covid-19 season is the constant reality of trauma which adversely affect the psychological well-being of our clergy as well as parishioners.

What is trauma? Trauma is the response to a deeply distressing or disturbing event that overwhelms an individual’s ability to cope, causes feelings of helplessness, diminished their sense of self and their ability to feel a full range of emotions and experiences.

Mental health and the Clergy

Mental health is vital during this Covid-19 crisis, not only because it is extremely necessary for quality human life but also due to the notion that “mental illness has been called the pandemic of the 21st century.”

As Church, we at times fail to take into consideration the psychological well-being of the clergy and by so doing, we may just be ignoring their humanity.

This is why it is of paramount importance to circle the wagons around the mental health issues of the clergy. It goes without saying that there can be no true health without mental health. The big question in the room is, how are our clerics taking care of their psychological health during the current pandemic?

According to the American Psychiatric Association, “Mental disorders are usually associated with significant distress in social, occupational, or other important activities.”

Covid-19 has noticeably produced significant distress. Clerics need to be aware that they too can be affected by mental illness. Clerics need to be aware that mental illness is no respecter of religion, age, gender, disability, colour, race, nationality, marital status, or any other categories or characteristics. In other words, mental illness is no respecter of persons.

Strategies for mental

well-being

As professionals, clerics need to recognise that if they do not care for their mental health, they will not have the psychological strength to adequately care for anyone else.

In other words, if clerics fail to protect themselves, they will lack the quality of health to help others.

While the negative impact of Covid-19 is a unique type of burnout or psychological stress, there are eight strategies that can reduce its adverse effects and improve overall psychological well-being.

Maintain a work-life balance

The fact that clerics often put the needs of others above their own is a clear indicator that they require work to life balance. Work-to-life balance reduces medical costs, builds commitment, enhances job satisfaction, and improves productivity, which will likely reduce the clerics’ stress level and improve their psychological well-being.

Manage stress and crises effectively

Proper stress and crisis management includes adaptability, admitting to and seeking help with problems, seeing crises as challenges and opportunities, growth through crises, openness to change, and resilience. Stress handled effectively can lead to happiness, optimal health, effectiveness at work, and less mental illness.

Find a ministry buddy

Having a colleague in ministry that you can talk with openly and safely is extremely important for a clerics’ mental well-being. Social support from a trusted colleague is a possible safeguard against stressors. I have personally found this to be extremely important for stress management, brainstorming, constructive feedback, and peer-to-peer support.

Practise the attitude of gratitude

The Bible encourages us to give thanks in every circumstance (1 Thess 5:18). Thankfulness is associated with better mood and sleep, less fatigue, and more self-efficacy, as well as better mental well-being, greater social support, and adaptive coping.

Gratitude is essentially “a positive emotion beneficial for positive functioning, as well as broadening and building other positive emotions, which, in turn, result in an increase in emotional well-being.”

Exercise

A physical workout of 30 to 60 minutes is a stress reliever and producer of endorphins, the happy hormone. Clerics who exercise at least three times weekly reduced their risk of high emotional exhaustion by 25 per cent. A study on exercise and mental health found that individuals who exercise had about 1.5 fewer days of poor mental health in the previous month compared to those who did not exercise. All forms of exercise have shown links to a lower mental-health burden than no exercise.

Taking time out to rest and sleep

Rest and sleep help you stay mentally and emotionally fit. Having a healthy mental and emotional health depends largely on how well you sleep. In fact, when people don’t get enough sleep, they tend to get moody and entertain negativity.

Harvard Health has a more detailed explanation of how this goes: “The brain basis of a mutual relationship between sleep and mental health is not yet completely understood. But neuroimaging and neurochemistry studies suggest that a good night’s sleep helps foster both mental and emotional resilience. On the other hand, chronic sleep disruptions set the stage for negative thinking and emotional vulnerability.”

Seek mental health services

Talking with a mental health provider is essential to our clerics’ psychological health. Psychological distress is to mental health professionals as pain in the body is to medical doctors.

If clerics’ psychological distress interferes with their relational, occupational, and social functioning or other important activities, they are probably overdue to see a mental health professional.

It is imperative to note that mental health services are not just for a person with a mental disorder but also for all those who need help dealing with issues such as life transitions, grief and loss, parenting concerns, and personal goals.

Be hopeful

Hope is defined as the belief that your future can be better than your past and you play a role in making it so. Such hope is linked to overall psychological well-being and resilience. It buffers stress and adversity, mitigates the negative effects of trauma, and is the best predictor for a life well-lived.

Clerics can find hope in God (Ps 71:5), His Word (Ps 119:114), His mercy (Ps 147:11), and ultimately in the eucharistic meal.

It is essential for clergy members to understand that they can live without food for three weeks, water for three days, and oxygen for three minutes, but they will not be able to live a second without hope in God.

Hence, I say to clerics, speak hope, walk in hope, think hope, preach hope, and immerse yourselves in the hope of God.

As we face this Covid-19 challenge, we are reminded by Pope Francis to look out for each other. As he said: “We have realised that we are on the same boat, all of us fragile and disoriented, but at the same time important and needed, all of us called to row together, each of us in need of comforting the other.”

True togetherness is the mark of mental health to clerics and all in the Church alike.