This story discusses suicide. If you or someone you know is having thoughts of suicide, please contact the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline at 988 or 1-800-273-TALK . May is Mental Health Awareness Month, a needed spotlight because the most recent data show nearly 50,000 people died by suicide in America in 2022. This is heartbreaking, nearly 17 times the number of people killed from the 9/11 terrorist attacks.
Yet Harvard School of Public Health and Harvard Medical School researchers found 'spiritual needs of patients with serious illness are frequently unaddressed within medical care' and 'unaddressed spiritual needs can be associated with poorer patient quality of life.
This cavernous cultural blind spot manifests in mental health treatment. It’s partially why we’ve created the 'Anxious Generation' deluged with the 'Bad Therapy' . A faith-based worldview, often correlated with 'conservative' or 'traditional' religious values, is highly underrepresented among psychiatrists. Yale researchers reported psychiatrists ranked 23rd among 24 medical specialists in their low Republican Party registration – far below the general population.