In rural areas specially, churches provide informal services in the de facto mental health delivery system. The importance of churches is well understood by lay and professional health care providers, but it is not well understood by everyone. It is a place known for relaxation i. e. it offers guidance and shows the correct path in a spiritual manner. “This spiritual polarity recognizes the most vital personal interests of the individual without abandoning or avoiding the interests of the collectivity to which the individual is attached by bonds that include faith but may also transcend it.
While this concept does not exhaust the catalog of possible interpretations for the private/public duality of the faith, it does offer valuable insights for understanding black religion as a response to a bastion of grace recognized and shared by millions of Americans whose underlying cultural roots are as varied as the first convocation at Pentecost” (1999, xix-xx) The relationship between churches and other providers is structural and based on its past events. In many regions churches have been divided into racial and ethnic lines.
Black churches are only welcoming Blacks and some Whites, while White churches are only for Whites. There are few churches that are meant for both Blacks and Whites. During the middle part of the previous centuries, churches played a quasi-political role- they served for both Blacks and Whites alike and continued the same pattern. The second problem that arises between formal providers and churches is the dissimilarity of concepts of cause and treatment with the element of nature and treatment of mental health problems in the light of religious beliefs.
Conflicts between the mental health professionals and church leaders arose. Clergy did not allow individuals to participate in formal health services. In response specialists of mental health did not either included Clergy or any church members in making any decisions to the individual’s mental treatment. Day to day life of rural population started contracting and expanding in interaction between informal networks that include many church leaders and posters.
Soon the mental health service research moved out of its childhood, it was summarized that specialty providers and formal system of health care is changing with time. And if we see a broader aspect we would realize that people from diverse backgrounds seek help for the same problem but in their own respective way. In the Black community, a central institution was considered the church. In the 1950s and 1960s, the civil rights movement was organized, and 1990s observed the civic participation since the time of slavery.
The education, business, and political activism were promoted within the Black community throughout the 20th century by the Black church at its organizational level. Furthermore, an important cultural role has been played by the Black church regarding the organizational structures and social networks for the Black community. Another study indicated that secular activities were also supported with the help of earthly affairs and collective ethos of the Black church within the Black community.
In addition, health promotion activities are offered to the African American in the church, which highlights its historical roles within the Black community. The necessity of these activities is important, as lower life expectancies, lower birth weights, and higher infant mortality rates have been observed in the Black, as compared with the Whites. It has also been observed that fewer primary care visits are performed by the Black, and health insurance is less likely to be made by them.
In fact, preventive healthcare measures can be informed and delivered to the racial and ethnic minorities with the help of a church, which can play its role as an important conduit, as found in several studies. Church-level and pastor-level factors have been less examined by the experts, even a crucial site for the promotion of health and the welfare of the undeserved populations has been played by the Black churches. For instance, outside health programs have often been mistrusted by the minority communities due to the underserved and discriminated history against each other.
In this regard, the success and implementation of community health-promotion programs depend on the pivotal role that is particularly played by the respected gatekeepers of the Black churches, pastors. In this regard, a 3-year health promotion program was organized from the year 1996 to 1998, in order to evaluate the responses of lead pastors regarding the involvement of church in the health-promotion programs. Two main objectives were kept in mind during the designing of the Los Angeles Mammography Promotion in Churches Program.
The National Cancer Institute is responsible for the funding of this program, which is located at RAND within the Santa Monica. Firstly, the feasibility of the churches was evaluated regarding their role as a community resource center for the various health-promotion programs. Secondly, the effectiveness of the churches and its interventions was tested regarding the women from ethnic backgrounds, who were using mammography increasingly. In other papers, the factors that were related to the mammography and its use among the traditional women were discussed in the study.
In the future, differences between the churches will be explored. Some of the differences are race, ethnicity, denomination, cultural background, etc. Here, the church-based health-promotion programs that are organized by the Black churches and the factors, which have been affecting the participation has been focused. It has been hoped that the broader sociological scholarship on the Black church will be contributed by this study. In addition, the role of public health research regarding the relationship of faith and health will also be contributed during the study.
Particularly, the role of Black churches as health alliances will also be highlighted by the study. In this regard, various contradictions have been identified during the study, which were being confronted during the implementation of the different health-promotion programs with the collaboration of Black churches during the research on the Los Angeles Mammography Promotion in Churches Program. It was observed that abovementioned such efforts were being impeded and facilitated simultaneously by the identified factors.