\n<\/p>\n
Regina Hum was an 18-year-old student at Singapore Polytechnic when she began experiencing symptoms of depression.<\/p>\n
\u201cI started withdrawing from friends and family, feeling no need to share with them what I was feeling, and they also did not seem to notice,\u201d said Hum, who worships at Faith Community Baptist Church. \u201cWaking up feeling there was no purpose, having a sense of dread whenever I got up \u2026 It was unusual since I had finally started my dream arts course.\u201d<\/p>\n
An adult she trusted had once told her that if she was experiencing mental health problems, she would be treated differently by society. As a result, Hum did not tell anyone what she was going through for fear of being ostracized.<\/p>\n
Hum\u2019s experience of mental health struggles is an increasingly common one in Singapore. Students often contend with their mental health and well-being in an extremely competitive, success-oriented climate, which is often defined by clinching high academic results in nationwide exams like the Primary School Leaving Examinations (PSLE) and pre-university exams like the \u201cO\u201d, \u201cN\u201d, and \u201cA\u201d levels.<\/p>\n
And while academic stress can cause an adverse impact on mental health, conversations about the latter are rare in the Southeast Asian country and, until recently, even rarer in churches.<\/p>\n
Many youth feel like they have to live a \u201cvictorious Christian life\u201d to be accepted in church as \u201cblessings and successes are celebrated, but failures, struggles in faith, and doubts about God are usually shunned,\u201d said Wei Hao Ho, who led a nationwide study that identified and discussed generational gaps<\/a> in churches.<\/p>\n Nearly nine out of ten (86%) Singaporean students expressed<\/a> worry about poor grades at school, according to an Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) survey in 2015. A growing number of students from top Singapore schools have sought help<\/a> for school-related stress at the country\u2019s Institute of Mental Health. And almost 90 percent of undergraduates pinpoint study and work commitments as their greatest sources of stress, another survey by Singapore university unions revealed<\/a>.<\/p>\n Despite these sobering statistics, change is burgeoning in churches across the country. More Singaporean Christians are opening up about their struggles. Pastors and ministry leaders are providing people with safe spaces to speak up and seek help, while also scrutinizing ways in which Christians may better respond to the pressures of the education system.<\/p>\n Cindy Chua has a firsthand glimpse of how academic stress affects her children\u2019s well-being. Her seven-, eight-, and ten-year-old daughters have been experiencing mental health struggles in the form of angry outbursts.<\/p>\n The country\u2019s \u201coveremphasis on the importance of studies [is] hurting the mental health of our young people,\u201d said Chua, who attends a nondenominational church in eastern Singapore. \u201cInstead of rote learning from textbooks and worksheets, I hope that students can enjoy and love learning from real-life experiences.\u201d<\/p>\n Recognizing and rewarding talents on a broader spectrum of development, rather than basing it only on academic results, is one way that Singapore could have \u201cdone better as a nation,\u201d says Guo Yi Hor, a lecturer at the Biblical Graduate School of Theology.<\/p>\n Yet Hor thinks that Singapore\u2019s rigorous education system cannot be regarded as the only cause of academic stress and the mental health challenges that arise from it, because students often carry \u201cself-inflicted expectations\u201d to score good grades or face pressure from their peers and family to excel.<\/p>\n \u201cEach family and student\u2014once they are old enough\u2014needs to make a principled decision based on their values and priorities on how they want to live in this society. And, of course, many choose to exit the system if they can,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n Lois Kwan\u2019s family is one that\u2019s chosen to do just that\u00ad\u2014an anomaly in Singapore, as public school fees are kept extremely low<\/a>. Along with her husband Kuo Yong Lam, who pastors Katong Presbyterian Church, Kwan homeschooled their three children from ages 6 to 12 and sent them to an online Christian homeschooling program, The Potter\u2019s School, for secondary-level education (equivalent to high school in the US).<\/p>\n The couple\u2019s main motivation for homeschooling was to inculcate Christian virtues in their children and help them grow spiritually through going on mission trips and outreach efforts. But Kwan made it a point to create room for creativity, flexibility, and more opportunities for sleep and rest compared to other school-going children she observed.<\/p>\n She also made a conscious decision not to emphasize test scores. While most students begin preparing for the PSLE a few years before it takes place at the primary-six level (seventh grade in the US), she only did so in her children\u2019s final year of school to prevent them from experiencing burnout, which she noticed often happened to students of the same age group.<\/p>\n While the government is taking steps<\/a> toward education reform, such as scrapping mid-year examinations in schools this year, church leaders and pastors recognize the accompanying needs for greater pastoral support and care of young believers.<\/p>\n Singaporean Christians need to have a better theological understanding of mental illness and mental health challenges, say the pastors CT interviewed. \u201cWe need to have a healthy theology of suffering and brokenness. Jesus did not promise complete deliverance from our problems on this side of eternity,\u201d said Zhi Wen Ng, a pastor at Zion Bishan Bible-Presbyterian Church.<\/p>\n Seng Lee Chua, senior pastor of Bethesda Bedok-Tampines Church, holds a holistic view of mental health. \u201cThose who think it\u2019s a spiritual issue think that praying and reading your Bible will fix it, but that\u2019s too simplistic. Others who believe it\u2019s purely physical think that just going to the doctor will fix it.<\/p>\n \u201cBut it\u2019s actually more than that. It\u2019s also about renewing your mind. My recommendation is that we need to approach this from the medical, social and spiritual, because we are holistic beings,\u201d Chua said<\/a>.<\/p>\n Chua has been advocating for mental health care in Singapore churches since 2010, when a youth leader he knew died by suicide. \u201cMental health is never a comfortable subject in Asia and certainly in churches too,\u201d Chua told CT. \u201cBut we are seeing the trend changing, with many churches speaking on this subject now. Many have asked for training for their leaders and members in recent years.\u201d<\/p>\n Chua has set up various nationwide initiatives that equip pastors to address the topic in their congregations. They include Christian Mental Health Advocates, a group established in 2018 that meets monthly to pray over Singapore\u2019s mental health landscape, and the yearly Christian Mental Health Conference<\/a>, which connects mental health professionals with churches.<\/p>\n Since 2020, he\u2019s also initiated a survey that assesses the mental well-being of those serving in ministry and examines how church leaders respond to mental health issues.<\/p>\n This year\u2019s survey revealed that churches are becoming more equipped to respond to congregants\u2019 mental health struggles. Over two-thirds (72.8%) of respondents said they know of at least three health professionals they can refer someone to, a slight increase from the 2020 figure (64.1%). Just over one-third (38.4%) agreed that their church \u201chas sufficiently equipped them to help a person who is facing mental health issues,\u201d up from one-quarter (27.7%) in 2020.<\/p>\n Awareness and understanding of mental health challenges among Singaporean Christians have also improved. A majority (83.3%) said that they could discern if someone was living with a mental health issue based on visible signs and symptoms, compared to around three-quarters (77.8%) of respondents in 2020.<\/p>\n Apart from organizing and participating in larger, inter-denominational events, local churches are recognizing that creating arenas for conversations on mental health within their congregations is equally crucial.<\/p>\n \u201cThe first step toward healing is acknowledging what\u2019s happening to you \u2026 sharing and asking for help lets other people who care know what\u2019s going on and how to better serve you in the struggle,\u201d Hum said.<\/p>\n Chua, the mother of three daughters, asked her community at a nondenominational church to pray for her family. Her pastor visited them, while friends sent gifts to her children and offered to babysit.<\/p>\n Nevertheless, although people are increasingly able to distinguish mental illnesses without simply stigmatizing a person as \u201cmad\u201d or \u201cinsane,\u201d it is still not easy for a person to come forward, be vulnerable, and talk about their mental health struggles, said Ng, the pastor.<\/p>\n \u201cSo the burden is on church leaders, so to speak. \u2026 The pastor has to go first and model authenticity and vulnerability,\u201d he said.<\/p>\nUnder pressure<\/h5>\n
Breaking barriers<\/h5>\n
Life together<\/h5>\n