Here are five things worth paying attention to this week. These are designed to expose you to a perspective you may not normally come across in your daily lives.

What’s on my mind? Mental health. Mental illness includes ADHD, anxiety disorders, bipolar disorder, borderline personality disorder, depression, PTSD and much more. Let’s learn more and talk more. If our churches (and our homes) are truly going to be places of healing and hope, we need to be a place for those with mental health challenges and their families to belong and gain the support they need. Here are some places to start:

1. Troubled Minds: Mental Illness and the Church’s Mission by Amy Simpson. Statistics show that one out of four people suffers from some kind of mental illness—from depression to schizophrenia and beyond. Simpson reminds us that these folks are our neighbors and our brothers and sisters in Christ, and Christ calls us to love everyone.
2. Darkness Is My Only Companion by Kathryn Greene-McCreight. The author, who has suffered from bipolar disorder, offers poignant and raw glimpses into the mind of a mentally ill person and practical and forthright advice for their friends, family and clergy.
3. The Turning Point : How Persons of Conscience Brought About Major Change in the Care of America’s Mentally Ill by Alex Sareyan. The most comprehensive chronicle of contributions made by conscientious objectors who volunteered for service in America’s mental hospitals and state institutions for the developmentally disabled during World War II. The Civilian Public Service mental hospital experience triggered the most significant crusade on behalf of the mentally ill that has occurred in this country.
4. Mommy Stayed in Bed This Morning : Helping Children Understand Depression by Mary Wenger Weaver, illustrated by Mary Chambers. A children’s picture book from Herald Press in which David confronts the trauma of his mother’s depression and its effects on the family.
5. Check out the great resources from the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) for both those who live with mental illness and their loved ones.

Jennie Wintermote is a native Kansan, an interim pastor, a graduate student and director of the Western District Conference Resource Library. She loves reading, scrapbooking and trying to figure out what it means to live out her faith every day. She also tries to remember to blog at prairieroseramblings.weebly.com.