Addressing mental health issues requires a detailed analysis of the factors that affect the manta development of an individual, including not only the cognitive aspect of the brain’s functioning but also the emotional one. The necessity to appeal to the emotional state of the patient often serves as the justification for introducing the concept of faith into the process of therapy (Gonçalves, Lucchetti, Menezes, & Vallada, 2015). Although faith is sometimes viewed as a rather unreliable element of therapy for at-risk youth, the incorporation of faith-related values and the impact of an influential leader may enhance the process of therapy and increase its chances of success.
The analysis of the patient’s personal beliefs and the incorporation thereof into the development of the therapy strategy will help one design the fastest path to recovery through the meta-cognition process (Wagener, Furrow, King, Leffert, & Benson, 2003). By recognizing one’s needs, including both physical and psychological, one will be able to strive to achieve recovery. As a result, cooperation between the patient and the therapist may be achieved (Gonçalves et al., 2015).
In addition, the idea of providing young people at risk with a spiritual leader, who will provide a set of values and moral standards for the target demographics to comply with: “can be played by a religious mentor for at-risk youth” (Wagener et al., 2003, p. 275), seems to have potential. II other words, Christian leaders may contribute to the recovery of people with drug-inhibited mental health issues and the prevention of instances of drug abuse by providing a behavioral model for them to comply with and using the method of positive reinforcement.
Faith may also help educational and healthcare leaders to fight and prevent adversity in a very efficient manner. Specifically, young people will be shielded from the risk factors that they would be otherwise exposed to unless they had Christian leaders as their instructors and spiritual mentors. In other words, the spiritual leader will offer the target people a behavioral model, which they will follow. Once motivated with the help of convincing arguments concerning the need to foster particular values, such as sobriety, humbleness, etc., young people will assume the model proposed to them (Wagener et al., 2003).
Needless to say, the abuse of the tool in question or the misunderstanding of the concept of faith by the adolescents may backfire in a rather drastic way. For instance, the target population may perceive the adoption of faith as the means of taking the burden of responsibility for their actions off. Hence, the young people, which the program is targeted at, will have to realize that the acceptance of faith does not lift the weight of responsibility for them; quite on the contrary, they will possess the knowledge that will make their choice of the wrongful actions a conscious choice.
Despite the above-mentioned issues, the overall prognosis for adopting the concept of faith as one of the instruments for correcting the behavior of adolescents with mental issues, as well as preventing the development thereof among the young people at risk can be considered fairly positive. In other words, the adoption of faith-related tools into the therapy and the promotion of a positive behavioral model will help both reach the people with mental issues and prevent the instances of health disorders development among young people at risk.
Reference List
Gonçalves, J. P. B., Lucchetti, G., Menezes, P. R., & Vallada, H. (2015). Religious and spiritual interventions in mental health care: a systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled clinical trials. Psychological Medicine, 45(1), 2937–2949.
Wagener, L. M., Furrow, L. L., King, P. E., Leffert, N., & Benson, P. (2003). Religious involvement and developmental resources in youth. Review of Religious Research, 44(3), 271–284.