Ryan:
Welcome to Community Connect Up Portland’s Uplifting 96 Three Way FMI Brian Trotter. Today’s guest is Armond Stevens. He is the executive director for his heart. What they love about his heart foundation. Bridge Builders Building bridges to mental wellness. And as I read the what you guys are all about our mind I’m looking at that says here serving the local church in the area of mental wellness through prevention, intervention and restoration.
Armand:
Yeah, that’s exactly right, Ryan. You know, we were founded before the mental health crises that have exploded the last couple of years. We were founded in 2015, and we saw a dire need for, well, actually just breaking a stigma around mental wellness and mental health within the church. And so, yeah, those are what you would refer to as our three pillars is prevention, intervention and restoration.
So that’s exactly right.
Ryan:
Now you yeah. One of the things that I know you’re new to his heart. Give me a little bit, a little bit of your background and how you came to be a part of this.
Armand:
Yeah, you bet. Ryan You know, for me, it was a journey coming from the world of finance and lending. So it was a leap of faith, so to speak, at the organization took on me, but also myself as well, leaving behind what they would call the golden handcuffs of lending. But I was drawn to this organization for its purpose.
There is such a need around this, and I think for me the most convicting aspect was that three of my white collar peers, spanning from the years of 2019 to 2022, ultimately took their own lives due to mental health issues. And these are white collar professionals that came from the world of banking. And so to me, I had felt that if you are hanging on in quiet desperation in this supposedly plush job where banker’s hours they hardly work.
Right. That’s the running joke around bankers. And I felt like, man, there’s something wrong here. And then obviously stigma around people like Antonio Brown or Simone Biles got me really considering what it looks like to discuss, honestly, mental wellness. And so knowing that there was a crisis center organization that was founded upon these principles and breaking the stigma around that to me was attractive.
And then also knowing that we want to help the helpers, help the pastors with issues that are beyond the scope of their expertize. I was just all in. And finally, we also have a preventative or preventive approach to mental wellness. It’s obviously the saying is an ounce of cure is worth more than a pound of prevention. Excuse me, I have that backwards.
An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. And so we feel that what we’re doing is groundbreaking, that we’re preventing we’re preventing mental health issues to rise later on. We also believe in healthy and holy intervention. We know that we have counselors who treat, but God heals. And then finally restoration. So that’s kind of my journey of how I got here and why I believe in it wholeheartedly.
Ryan:
Tell me what the stigma as you use that term, what what is the stigma you feel around mental health?
Armand:
Yeah. So there is a perception and this is a slippery slope talking about it. But there are there is a perception within the church that mental illness is different than, say, a condition like diabetes, for example. Is there a correlation between someone’s mental wellness and their spiritual walk? You might say, well, somebody who is, for example, bipolar, may therefore be suffering punishment from God due to a sin or offense.
And it’s God using it to get our attention. Well, I believe we’ve had a lot of strides in growth in this area, but my heart is troubled by this. And actually there is a fitting book called Troubled Minds, and it’s part of the inspiration behind how this organization was formed. Troubled Minds, where is the church? How is the church responding?
How are Christians responding to mental wellness? And the stigma is this If you raise your hand and state that you’re struggling with a physical ailment, you’re comfortable approaching the congregation. If you’re struggling in an area of mental wellness, anxiety, depression or other elements like schizophrenia, then there is a stigma around it because there is a correlation that says, first of all, we don’t know how to assess how to help.
And it also may be and this is generational bondage, a viewpoint among clergy, even perhaps that it’s a sign of spiritual weakness.
Ryan:
Yeah, that’s interesting. As you say, that some things just kind of formulate in my mind talking about the sickness, hey, you know, my my wife’s cousin has cancer. My mother in law has cancer, and everybody prays and that’s right thing to do. Right. But when it comes to something like mental wellness or a mental illness that somehow well, mind over just just push your way through it, you know, God’s got he’s got and those are, I guess, talking about God has the power to help you is the right thing.
Ryan:
Yes, but yeah, that’s I get what you’re saying. It’s like you think that somehow you’ve done something wrong. Well, we could say that about anything every time you get a cold. Well, God’s punishing me. I mean, you can’t think that way, but I get why with mental health, if that could.
Armand:
Happen. Precisely. You know, Amy Simpson goes on to say that when the church is silent to a person in crisis, it can sound remarkably like silence from God. And so how we respond to this issue is critical. And I often think about this and there’s even a few skits by one of my favorite comedians name is John Krist, and he talks about the holy trinity of chords found in worship, songs to me, Christians used to lead the way in terms of arts, in terms of music, in terms of science.
And at some point it became reversed because there is such a sense of distrust among science and misinformation that the work of psychology and counselors is that, well, we can’t believe necessarily everything we believe from this community, because certainly there have been instances where they have abused or misguided the public for example. But the danger in that is that we’re risking throwing the baby out with the bathwater.
And so for us, I think it’s fitting to refer to a quick quote, and I’d like to read it here. The other issue among many Christians, including some pastors and other church leaders, is that they deny there is such a thing as mental illness entirely. And this is closely related to the spiritual position of the problem. And it goes beyond assuming the problem has spiritual origins and claims that illness does not exist.
So there is this perception, again, that Christians are stuffy and stoic and they don’t really roll up their sleeves and get real about issues. But what I have found so encouraging, Ryan, is that we have a coalition of church partners who are wanting to be on the forefront of this and they’re wanting to be part of the solution.
And that’s where I’m really encouraged to connect with you today, is that we can all agree that there is a problem in our approach, especially as Christians, is to lead the way towards healing. And so for us to sign on more coalition partners, more people who are energized and educated around how to respond. Building bridges is what we do.
We ultimately are connecting, hurting people, individuals, couples, families, clergy, pastors, teachers, students. We’re trying to help bring them a connection to Christian vetted counselors. So without trying to hijack your entire program, I’d like to focus a little bit on our three pillars. You talked a little bit about prevention. There’s also this intervention aspect and then finally restoration.
Ryan:
We’re talking with our man, Stevens. He’s the executive director for His Heart Foundation. And here on Community Connector, Portland’s uplifting 96 three way F.M.. Let’s let’s get into that, Armand. Tell us about those.
Armand:
Yeah. So it’s important for the public to know that our founder is a unique and generous man. So while some other wealthy business people might buy up farmland in the Midwest and experiment with pharmaceuticals, and I’m just trying to say that tongue firmly in cheek, our founder is a retired professional businessman. He was a dentist and so his viewpoint on mental wellness is that prevention is better than intervention.
And so he explores that metaphor through dentistry for example, in our practice, in his practice of being a dentist, it’s better to prevent cavities than to deal with a root canal. And so he has incorporated that as one of the foundational blocks in our program. And so how we look at that is we start young, we win from the beginning.
And so what we’ve done, we created a program called Mentor Success, and we are in the school system, not exclusively in Christian private schools, but also in the public school sector. And we are bringing on more and more interest to mentor kids, giving them the skills to relate and connect. I don’t know if you, Ryan, are a parent.
I’m a parent of three kids.
Ryan:
I have four. Yeah. Yeah. And not to upstage you but yeah.
Armand:
Yeah, I think yeah, I think that you’re, you’re, you’re taking the fruitful and multiply thing to a better extent. So for me, when you consider, you know, what we’re seeing today in kids is not a harsh criticism of their use of technology like iPads or iPhones. What we’re seeing here is that kids are failing to make regular connections with people.
And so what we’re trying to do is establish confidence and life skills in the Lord with leadership tenets that are biblical in nature and helping equip them with life skills. We want to make caring connections and so we have a dedicated group of mentors, a curated program that is ahead of its curve. We talked earlier about how Christians sometimes don’t lead the way.
This program, Mentor Success, is a trailblazing effort that looks at mentoring in a much deeper and richer way. And so we’re very happy to say that we’re deployed currently in six schools and more coming on board. And so that’s kind of the tenet of that prevention piece is we we need to get with these children while they’re young and in their formative years so that they have the life skills to handle challenges as they arise.
Ryan:
And combining the biblical concepts with that.
Armand:
Absolutely. Oh, it’s central to what we do. It’s not just a part of what we do. Let’s slap a Jesus fish sticker on it and call it Christian. It’s foundational to what we’re doing. Absolutely.
Ryan:
Well, let’s see. We’ve got a couple more minutes left here in the show with with with His Heart Foundation. How do you go? What’s spiritual and what’s clinical? I guess would be the question, like what? What can be, you know, do you guys connect people in churches with certified counselors? Do they get spiritual counseling? Is there both? How does that work?
Armand:
I’m so glad you asked. Let’s demystify that right away. So what we do is we connect individuals, couples, families with Christian counselors who have been vetted. And so what we mean by that is when you get certified and licensed as a counselor, well, you can have faith and confidence that they’ve gone through the work that’s necessary to be licensed.
But what we do is we have a much deeper and richer vetting process that is based on biblical truths, that when when a pastor who is delivering pastoral care is referring somebody to one of our counselors, they have confidence to know that the same core values will be present in that treatment of that client. We also are passionate about providing scholarships, so for those who don’t do not have the means, are underemployed or unemployed, or are in a time of financial difficulty, we make arrangements to partner with Christian counselors who have been vetted and also with churches to make sure that people are getting the care and treatment that they need.
So we want people to know that you are not alone. And I want to I want to just shout for the mountaintops that we are here to serve in this important time. You will for such a time as this. This is what we do.
Ryan:
Yeah, that’s great. Well, how could somebody get in touch, whether they they have or having mental health issues or they know someone that is, how could somebody contact you to help build those bridges?
Armand:
We have wonderful intake team. These are such compassionate and heartfelt individuals who have poured their they start out every day with a prayer that says, Lord, show us how to treat and receive these clients with care and compassion. They have the skill set and the knowledge to again take inbound referrals. So anybody who wants to get help, I would advise them to go to our website, which is his Heart Foundation dot org and to fill out request we called an intake request and you can fill it out for yourself or for a loved one.
And that’s where we start learning more about the needs. And then ultimately we make the connection with counselors.
Ryan:
Real quick, before I let you go, how much has the pandemic we’ve come out of it? We feel like in a lot of ways, obviously waves of change. It reminds me of nine, 11 after that happened, how everything changed in the way we approach it, security and things like that. Now it’s it’s changed with as we come out of the pandemic and all that.
What are you seeing right now? And this is probably a longer question answer than we have time for. But just in a general sense, a quick overview. How has the pandemic and now coming out of the pandemic, how is that affecting mental health in general?
Armand:
You know, it’s in some respects such a and amount it’s such an overwhelming explosion of mental health issues that it’s hard to quantify and ratios. We’re looking at one in four adults now dealing with some form of mental condition that includes but is not limited to anxiety or depression. And the numbers are staggeringly worse. Year over year since 2020, the pandemic.
And so it’s hard to measure truly what the aftermath has been from COVID lockdowns, shutdowns. We know that God is bigger, he has a plan, and he’s equipping us with the tools necessarily necessary to get the help. And so akin to somebody who struggles with diabetes, we want people to not be held by the stigma of a mental condition.
We want them to have the courage to reach out and say, I need some help, where can I go? Or to Christian based counseling. And that’s where we step in.
Ryan:
His Heart Foundation website again.
Armand:
Yes, it’s HisHeartFoundation.com and we believe again in prevention, intervention and finally restoration.
Ryan:
Armand Stevens, He is the executive director for his Heart Foundation, Vermont. Appreciate you coming on today.
Armand:
Thanks so much for having me.
