- Later this month,Prestonwood Baptist Church

in Plano, Texas will sponsor a conference

on the church and mental health.

This first time eventis open to the public,

and will feature experts talkingabout a variety of topics

including mental health disorders,

stigma, abuse and addiction.

And here now with moreis Pastor Michael Perron,

Minister of Life Recoveryat Prestonwood Baptist.

Pastor Michael, thanks for joining us.

- You're very welcome,thank you for having me.

- Mental health is atopic that many churches

are just beginning to talk about.

Why did you decide tohost this conference?

- Well we figured thatbecause one in four people

suffer the chaos of a mental health issue,

and one in three people aregoing through the bondage

of a substance abuse or misuse,

that it's not people out in the community,

it's actually people in our churches

that are going through this.

And what we decided to do is partner

with the American Associationof Christian Counselors

and the Health and HumanServices Department

of the federal government,

in order to form a collaborative effort,

so that we can equipthe people in the church

to deal with the chaos ofmental health crisises.

You know, every one ofus, no matter who we are,

is going to encounter someone

who is going through amental health crisis,

with the recent statistics.

- Yeah, I know it's so important,

because those numbersdo continue to go up.

You're gonna be talking aboutstigma at this conference.

What are some of themyths about mental health,

that you hope to debunk,

or at least help people tounderstand and think through?

- Well for such a long time,

the church has done a fretful job

of dealing with the mental health crisis.

For instance, many times people believe,

or have heard it said,

that you just need to have more faith,

or that you have demon, Imean it even goes that far.

But what we're realizingnow, through neurobiology,

is that the brain is damaged,

and that there is a necessity then

for us to come in and help people

recover a healthy brain.

You know, depression andanxiety is created by

what is called the lowerloop in the brain's system,

in which the executive functiondoesn't even come online.

But that stigma within thechurch has wounded people,

and what we're trying todo with this conference

is to encourage people toshow up and participate,

if they know someone,

or if they're going through

a mental health crisis right now,

we wanna communicate to themthat the church is for them.

We're not against them, and we wanna help

in whatever way that we possibly can.

- So powerful, your seniorpastor, Jack Graham,

has been open in talking abouthis journey with depression,

from the pulpit.

I know you have a journey of your own.

How has that helped your congregation

begin to think moreclearly about this issue?

- Well I think, it all begins,

there's three steps basically,

in dealing with any topic like this.

The first one is awareness.

We need to make people aware

that individuals are going through it,

and as our pastor freely has shared,

he battled a period of depression.

My personal journeythrough substance abuse,

I'm 21 years sober this weekend,

from a methamphetamine addiction.

But we're making people aware of that,

and that also removes the stigma as well.

So awareness is first,the next step is action.

We need to tell peoplewhat they should do.

Having somebody come into the church,

and then basically referring them out,

doesn't do them a lot of good.

You know, statistics showthat about 80% of people

going through a problemgo to clergy first,

and so we wanna trainclergy in order how to help

those who are hurting whenthey come into the church.

And then the third step there is advocacy.

And that's what thisconference is trying to do.

We're trying to advocate for people

who are going through the very real,

the struggle is real.

And we're trying to help people understand

that we, well we might notunderstand all the details,

we understand that there is hope

in the message of Jesus Christ.

And we, as a church body,should do a better job

of stepping up and helping those people.

- Well, it's great tohear about the conference.

As we know, so many are struggling.

Pastor Michael, thanksfor sharing with us today.

- Thank you.