A Conversation for Those Standing at the
Intersection of Faith and Mental Health |
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I’ve been thinking a lot about teaching hospitals these days. Not only has my wife recently finished her months long journey of watching all 15 seasons of ER, a show depicting a teaching hospital in Chicago (I’ll never get the theme song out of my head), but my daughter has also been working at a teaching hospital all summer. A teaching hospital is a healthcare institution that provides medical education and training to future healthcare professionals. They are places where the education being given is informed by the services being offered. While all hospitals do important work, I’ve always found teaching hospitals to be especially fascinating places. In an era of information overload where anyone can self-publish, create their own website, and host their own podcast, teaching hospitals are places where those who teach are those who’ve truly done the work.
It is this vision of a teaching hospital that has inspired a core part of Intersect’s mission at the intersection of faith and mental health. The training we offer is based on lessons learned by people doing work on the ground. For some of our trainings, the ground is Access Services, a social service organization in which Intersect is embedded, and for others, it is the faith communities where several of our staff have ministered. Our aim is to develop and deliver workshops based on what we’ve discovered doing life with those who’ve had a lived experience of mental illness.
We encourage you to check out the Recommended Resources section below, containing the Intersect Training Page and a list of the various workshops we’ve put together over the years. Most of them were created in response to a request from a faith community or mental health service organization looking to better support people with mental illness. Whether you are interested in one of these courses or would like us to develop a workshop tailored to your specific needs, let us know. If we aren’t the best people to offer the training, we’ll point you to those in our extensive Intersect Network who are. Over the next year Intersect will begin offering several opportunities to sign up for trainings so that those in our community would learn not only from cutting edge research, but from people doing the work. In short, we invite you to begin taking classes at our teaching hospital for those at the intersection of faith and mental health.
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Dave Eckert, Senior Director of Intersect |
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As homelessness rises and service coordination gaps persist, faith leaders and community connectors are eager to act but need tools to do so effectively. Leaders from our Housing & Homeless Services and Intersect network are hosting conversations with community and faith leaders to help amplify efforts and drive systems-level change for the unhoused. By empowering faith communities as catalysts for change, we hope to strengthen local capacity for coordinated, community-driven action!
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Topics of Discussion: Creative Housing Solutions Friday, September 5th, 2025
1:00PM - 3:00 PM Cost: Free
Where: Online |
| Can't attend this event?
See our future monthly events! |
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Because spirituality is at the center of existence for many people and its reach is so broad, it is ideally suited to be integrated into responsible, respectful and ethical approaches to therapeutic intervention with clients. Offered by Bryn Mawr School of Social Work, this training will provide practitioners/supporters/workers with a way of navigating the faith and spirituality of those they serve within an overall context of integrated health. Particular attention will be given to the practices of spiritual assessment, spiritual support/skill building, and connecting people to external resources. David Eckert, MDIV CPRP, will be the instructor for this training.
Friday, November 21st, 2025 9:00 AM - 12:00 PM Cost: $70 Where: Online via Zoom |
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| Search through and learn about the trainings that Intersect has to offer to faith communities and human service providers. |
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| Workshop Certificate Course Information:
The Spiritual First Aid Workshop is a one-day training that teaches frontline peer-to-peer spiritual and emotional care and trauma-informed best practices through our proven step-by-step BLESS CPR helping framework. Learn from our team in-person or through livestream. Contact Dave Eckert at deckert@accessservices.org to schedule an on-site or live virtual workshop for your group.
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| On-Demand Certificate Course Information:
The On-Demand Spiritual First Aid Certificate Course teaches frontline peer-to-peer spiritual and emotional care and trauma-informed best practices using our step-by-step BLESS CPR framework. Learn our proven helping approach whenever and wherever works best for you. |
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We have part-time opportunities for you to work with Intersect! |
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Intersect Chaplains provide spiritual care to people with mental health struggles as well as connect individuals to a faith community of their choice. |
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| The Multi-Faith Coalition Coordinator leads a team of volunteers representing faith communities, human services organizations, and Montgomery County government. |
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| The Intersect Project Director assists a Project Leadership Team consisting of individuals from Intersect, the University of Pennsylvania and an Interdisciplinary Advisory Board. |
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Looking for a way to help those in your community? |
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The Intersect Care Portal recognizes the need that all individuals have to be, and feel, safe and secure. For a hearty quality of life, sometimes it is an item that brings safety or comfort. Over the past year, the Intersect Care Portal has been able to connect those we serve with a wheelchair, mattress, bike, kitchen chairs, loveseat, dresser, hanging rack with hangers for clothes, and a Bible to name a few. Most often, these items are donated by someone who wants their gently-used item to go to good use.
Driver's Needed!
While it is often possible to match the need with an available item, the challenge we often face is transporting the item from the donor to the recipient. If you or someone you know has a truck or a van and a little time, we would love to add you to a list of volunteers willing to help with loading and transporting donations. Please message intersectneeds@accessservices.org if this is a way you would like to support the Intersect Care Portal. Join the Care Portal to learn more about the needs of the people we serve. |
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Contribute to the Work of Intersect |
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Supporters can designate their contributions to the following program provisions: -
Consultation to ministry leaders and mental health professionals.
- Community trainings on faith and mental health.
- Spiritual support and collaboration between faith communities and human service providers.
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- What training does your faith community need to better support those with mental illness in your congregation and community?
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What training does your social service organization need to better navigate the spiritual dimension of those you serve?
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Do you have something to contribute or a question to ask? | |
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| Intersect is brought to you by: |
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