Keeping the Faith in Frontline Mental Health (Season 2, Episode 6)
Keeping the Faith in Frontline Mental Health (Season 2, Episode 6)
Khaiah Thomson is a hospital social worker, the author of the Blackwood series, and one of our regular writers at Stories I’d Tell You at Dinner. Khaiah, Rach and Bec deep dive into some of the temptations we face as Christians working in frontline mental health and discuss what helps us to reconcile our faith with what we see in the world.
This banger of a question came from our end of year survey, “How do I retain my faith while being a first responder (i.e., frontline mental health, health, child protection) when the workplace culture demands dissonance from Christian values (i.e., black humour, seeing Christians as perpetrators of abuse etc). I personally and others I know in front line work struggle to reconcile their core values and faith with what they see in the world.”
Khaiah Thomson is a hospital social worker, the author of the Blackwood series, and one of our regular writers at Stories I’d Tell You at Dinner. Khaiah, Rach and Bec deep dive into some of the temptations we face as Christians working in frontline mental health and discuss what helps us to reconcile our faith with what we see in the world.
In this episode, we explore:
🎧 The temptations we face as Christians working in frontline mental health (see: detachment, overwhelm, burnout, and seeing people as problems to be solved rather than made in the image of God).
🎧 Gospel truths that help us to reconcile our faith with what we see in the world
🎧 The nitty gritty practical stuff that helps us to navigate working in this area wisely.
Mentioned in today’s episode:
“The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?” Jeremiah 17:9
“A cheerful heart is good medicine, but a crushed spirit dries up the bones,” Proverbs 17:22
Bec’s interview with Khaiah in Season 1, which explored how she grappled with the question of evil after working in social work.
If you want to deep dive into the beliefs that underpin burnout, including, “I’m high capacity,” check out my interview with Amy Stopher, What I Learned When I Burned Out in Ministry and When You Are Drowning in Good Works.
If you want to explore the idea of seeing people as tasks, inconveniences and problems to be solved rather than being made in the image of God, check out When You are The Only Christian at Work and my interview with Jill, a cross-cultural worker and GP in the Middle-East: When You are Angry You’re the One to Fix Everything.
About Khaiah
West Australian Author Khaiah Thomson pens the Blackwood series. The first book Welcome to Blackwood won the Hawkeye Publishing Manuscript Development Prize in 2020. Khaiah first decided to write young adult fiction novels as a way to exercise her brain while on maternity leave. She wanted to create a magical escape for young readers, all the while gently weaving in themes of God’s love through the timeless battles of good versus evil, unconditional love and the power of redemption.
Khaiah lives in Perth with her husband and two sons. When she isn't working or in her home office writing, Khaiah can usually be found nose-deep in a book, gaming or at the nearest cafe, hovering close to the coffee machine. Khaiah’s Welcome to Blackwood series can be found in all good bookstores and Hawkeye Books.