The Situation

Mental Illness in Asia is a massive and largely ignored problem. Many factors combine to exacerbate the already complex issues.

· Attachment and relationship challenges – parents frequently living separated for work reasons, poor parenting, neglect or abuse of children, many orphans, street and trafficked children and teens, marital conflict, violence, divorce.

· Poor nutrition and underlying concomitant disease.

· Trauma from frequent natural and manmade disasters, wars, genocide, oppression.

· Poverty in itself (the constant stress of living without adequate finance) and its many implications as below.

· Limited access to reasonable care, including trained personnel, medications, client and family support, and commonly inability to pay even if there were services or medicines. With mental illness many people need medicines long term which becomes unaffordable compared to say a course of antibiotics to cure a pneumonia.

· Strong stigma/labelling of such people so frequently a reluctance to present for help until the situation is dire. Less access to care means people with conditions which might have been more easily managed present in end or chronic phase meaning treatment is less effective. Many communities don’t practice confidentiality so sharing of personal struggles is a rare option because of the high risk of public shame.

The Objectives

Living Wholeness seeks to work by invitation from local people within a society who are aware of this situation and see the essential need for counselling training to strengthen and preserve this sector of society.

The project is currently operative in Mongolia, Nepal, India, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Philippines, Indonesia, Thailand and Cambodia.

The project operates across these domains:

· Training of local counsellors at various levels (volunteer to professional level including educators) then supported as they train their own people groups in their own language with materials translated into that language.

· Resource Development so training is undergirded with books and materials to supplement the educational process. These need translation into the local languages.

· Research and evaluation is vital to assess how relevant and effective such training and resources are, both on the ground in each location and on a wider scale, evaluating the whole intervention, and fine tuning as required.

· Community is integral to this project in that those trained continue to be able to access support, professional supervision and professional development.

Specifically now six courses are available in 2025. These will be available on the ground and online on various combinations.

More About Living Wholeness

Vision

God-centered transformation of the whole person, within relationships, within communities.

Mission

The Living Wholeness Community is a community of people who learn, live and servant lead people in the Christian Wholeness Framework. This community invites and facilitates God centered transformation of the whole person, within the whole Body of Christ, through the whole gospel.

Christian Wholeness Framework

This Framework provides a Biblical understanding of humanity, and God’s redemptive plan for this world. It is comprehensive, cohesive, broad and balanced, effectively integrating theology and psychology.

It offers a uniting picture language which is transferable across cultures, languages, age, and gender. The Christian Wholeness Framework is foundational across the evangelism, transformational discipleship, pastoral care, counselling and coaching space

Other Links

Living Wholeness Website: www.livingwholeness.org

Living Wholeness Courses more info: www.livingwholeness.org/training/

Link to admin@livingwholeness.org

Projects

Fiji Preschools Development Project

Empowerment Means Hope Fiji

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