A panel during the GC2 Summit allowed for a discussion of these topics with several members of the Wheaton College School of Psychology, Counseling, and Family Therapy.
Question 1: Is there a simple inventory to screen for personality disorders in potential staff or board members?
This is related to something called “secondary prevention.” In health-related fields, such as psychology, there are three types of prevention, including primary, secondary, and tertiary prevention. Primary prevention is when someone or an organization is attempting to prevent people from getting sick. Secondary prevention is concerned with quickly noticing when people are becoming sick and trying to prevent it from getting any worse. Finally, tertiary prevention is concerned with trying to improve the quality of a person’s life who is already living with the sickness.
Simply put, church staff, board members, pastors, and/or church leaders are not qualified to partake in secondary prevention practices—the detection of sickness and trying to prevent it from worsening a person’s quality of life. Assessment and diagnosis of psychological disorders, including personality disorders, is reserved for mental health professionals only.
However, this does not mean that pastors and church leaders cannot assist in the other two aspects of prevention—primary and tertiary prevention. For example, although pastors and church leaders cannot assess for psychological disorders, they can encourage potential staff or board members to engage in intentional self-care (primary prevention) and seek a mental health professional’s help if they are struggling with a preexisting and voluntarily disclosed psychological disorder (tertiary prevention).
It is important to note that if pastors or church leaders suspect any psychological disorders in potential staff candidates, that they must not violate the ...
from Christianity Today Magazine https://ift.tt/3eKzPsN
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