Soul Sustenance - Chatham Student Asks How Black Pastors Handle Worshipers’ Mental Health Concerns

 Parham hopes to recognize the Black Christian population to which she has such a strong connection, and to show the barriers that exist between them and access to mental healthcare. “It just makes me very grateful that my passion is coming before many different people who may not have even known this was an issue or that this population was facing these barriers"

 

PITTSBURGH - Montaya Parham, MAP ’21, is not just a student at Chatham University pursuing her Doctor of Psychology (PsyD) in Counseling Psychology, but she is also an ordained elder at Shekinah House of Prayer Ministries in Kennedy Township.

 

It’s at the convergence of those two worlds where Parham has focused her research, hoping to bring insight into the need for mental healthcare in her community and to help those in need overcome barriers to access it.

 

“My main research question is wondering how African American pastors handle mental health issues when they arise in their churches,” she said. “Are they referring out to mental health providers, or are they trying to deal with it themselves?”

 

One barrier, Parham said, is mistrust of mental healthcare and the medical field in general by Black Americans, stemming in part from the historic mistreatment of Black people by the medical establishment.

 

Parham pointed to examples like the infamous Tuskegee Institute syphilis study, where hundreds of infected Black men were observed by researchers to see the effects of the disease when untreated. The men in the study were deceived for decades; over a hundred of them died from syphilis or related complications as a result. This story still impacts Black Americans’ views of the medical establishment. A 2022 study by the Pew Research Center found nearly three-quarters of Black Americans were familiar with the Tuskegee study. More than 60 percent of those respondents said they believed misconduct in medical research is just as likely today as in the past.

 

How those views impact Black Christians’ access to mental health is just part of what Parham is trying to learn. Now in her third year of her doctoral program, she received a grant for her dissertation from the American Psychological Association’s (APA) Society for the Psychology of Religion and Spirituality.

 

“My goal is to see what is influencing the pastors’ decisions to refer their congregants out for mental healthcare,” she continued. “If they’re not referring people to mental health resources, what are their reasons behind that?”

 

Parham’s expertise includes a broad range of topics, including:

• Historical Role of Black Churches: Black churches have historically been central to African American communities, serving as key institutions for community support and activism.
• Clergy’s Multifaceted Role: African American pastors often provide critical services, including community outreach, grief support, and premarital counseling.
• Gap in Mental Health Referrals: Despite being primary sources of help, little is known about how African American clergy handle mental health issues as they arise in their congregations, including their referral practices to mental health services.
• Study Focus: Her research is investigating how African American clergy’s possible mistrust of the healthcare system, knowledge and awareness of mental health, and race-related stress may influence their referral practices for congregants seeking mental health support. 

The research has only gotten started as Parham surveys church leaders around the country.

 

“I’m looking to see, what are pastors actually doing? What are their actual behaviors?” she said. “There are studies that measure pastors’ perspectives or the likelihood of them doing something, but I did not find anything that measures their behaviors.”