RICHMOND, Va. (WRIC) — You can find the spirit high on any given Sunday morning at Cedar Street Baptist Church of God in Richmond’s predominately Black Church Hill community. Now the historic church led by Pastor Anthony Chandler, Sr. is about to do a new thing, ministering to the mind and emotions as well as the soul.
“I think we just need to get rid of the stigma that therapy is bad,” Chandler said.
The Lilly Endowment has awarded the church a grant for nearly $1.25 million to spearhead mental health services at the church, free of charge.
Anika Hines is an Assistant Professor in Health, Behavior and Policy at Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU). She’s also a member at Cedar Street and took the lead in writing the grant application.
“This is about the area, this is not about Cedar Street,” Hines said.
She says Cedar Street will partner with smaller churches in the area to meet this critical need in the surrounding community.
“To do mental health first aid training,” Hines said. “So that’s basically how to recognize signs and symptoms and how to be a good listener and a good friend to someone who might be going through a mental health challenge. And also, to point them to resources.”
The need is significant. According to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration’s 2018 National Survey on Drug Use and Health, 16%, or 4.8 million, Black people reported having a mental illness over the past year. Of that, 22.4%, or 1.1 million, people reported a “serious mental illness” over the past year.
“Particularly in the African American community, even in the church setting, there has been a resistance to addressing mental healthcare,” Hines said. “Individuals, even when they think they have depressive symptoms or something like that, they’re more likely to go to their pastor or to a spiritual leader rather than going to a place that might be equipped.”
“Your pastor is doing a good job, but your pastor has limitations,” said Denisha Smith, a licensed counselor who has practiced in the greater Richmond area for nearly a decade.
“When we talk about when individuals have experienced traumas that can be clinically diagnosed, they need to be seen by a licensed professional,” Smith said.
“And one of the things I try to tell my congregation is that it’s okay to talk to somebody,” Chandler said.
It’s a message he lives by. He’s been seeing a therapist since around 2017, while his wife, Taleshia, was battling breast cancer. She ultimately passed away in 2022.
“And I knew that if I did not speak to someone, I was going to lose my mind,” Chandler said. “Once I kind of admitted that I was seeing a therapist others came to say ‘I’m seeing a therapist too,’ or ‘I need to go back.'”
The pastor hopes his example coupled with the unique opportunity the grant provides will encourage those who need help, especially in the African American community, to confidently seek it out.
“I don’t know where it’s going to go or how it’s going to end, but I know someone is going to be helped,” Chandler said.
This is all brand new. The church was just awarded the four-year mental healthcare grant in December and leaders are now in the planning stages of rolling it out. They hope to have a soft launch of the program by the end of the year, a time when a lot of people deal with seasonal depression.
A full launch will likely come early next year. Services will be available to the community at large, not just those affiliated with the local churches involved.
