Faith leaders must speak up for people with mental health problems | Francis Davis

It's not Christians being persecuted who need our advocacy but those struggling with mental ill health and their carers

For two decades I have campaigned for the right of people of faith to have their voices heard in the public square. And yet this week I was silenced not by some strident secularist but by those who endure at the outer realms of human experience. Meeting carers of those who face severe mental ill health I encountered families whose stresses are being enhanced because those they look after are being assessed for the Work Programme by staff at the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) who simply do not have a clue what they are doing. As I listened to their anguish I could not help but think that as the archbishop of Canterbury retires, and a third of Roman Catholic bishops... [via Guardian - Politics]