Mental Health Initiative Keeps Growing to Educate, Assist People to Find Help

An initiative that Adventist Health Ministries (AHM) from the General Conference launched in 2021 to provide resources on mental health keeps growing and improving, Seventh-day Adventist Church leaders recently reported. The ReMindEd^TM initiative, which seeks to underpin the church’s global efforts for its members and the public to enjoy better mental health, is increasing its footprint as more people become aware of the resources available, leaders said.

On November 15, during the 2025 Global Adventist Internet Network (GAiN) Europe convention in Pravets, Bulgaria, Adrian Duré, producer and director of documentaries and coordinator of network projects for Hope Media Europe, provided an update on ReMindEd^TM on behalf of AHM and shared about the next steps.

ReMindEdTM is a service of the Health Ministries Department of the General Conference.

General Conference Health Ministries

Brave Enough to Be Vulnerable

To introduce the discussion during his November 15 presentation, Duré showed several questions to help convention attendees think and reflect on the issue of mental health, especially as it relates to the Adventist Church and people’s reality across their regions. He included such questions as “How has the Adventist Church addressed mental health issues so far?” and “What is the reality of mental health in your culture?” Then Duré brought the topic to a more personal level. “Are you brave enough to be vulnerable?” he asked.

Duré explained that discussing such topics as suicide (or suicidal ideation) makes us extremely vulnerable. “It fills us with fears, so we find it very difficult to talk about it in our churches, our institutions, and even with our friends,” he said.

Adrian Duré, producer and director of documentaries and coordinator of network projects for Hope Media Europe, provided an update on the ReMindEdTM initiative, including explaining what the service is not.

Marcos Paseggi, Adventist Review

Content Creation and Sharing as a Tool

With this in mind, Duré explained how Hope Media Europe began to work together with AHM to put resources out there for people to use and share. Hope Media Europe helped produce some content, including short films and documentaries on relevant topics, he reported.

“Most of the content on ReMindEd^TM are human-centered stories,” Duré reported. In fact, ReMindEd^TM includes information on at least a dozen topics, including films, animations, documentaries, and articles on addiction, anxiety, attachment, and burnout, as well as discussions on loneliness, resilience, suicide, and trauma, its website reports.

The site also includes articles of general interest on topics that can contribute to greater knowledge and awareness about mental health and its challenges. Visitors to the ReMindEd^TM site can read, among other titles, “Alcohol and Mental Health,” “Benefits of Doing Sports,” and “The Symptoms of Depression.” Also “Mental Health for Children,” “The Traumatized Brain,” and “Attached to God.”

Duré shared some video snippets of the kind of material offered; these zero in on various mental health challenges.

“I had felt that I was a shadow of myself; I didn’t really recognize myself anymore,” a young woman shared in a video. “It’s not just a thought; it’s not just a fear. Your heart is pounding, you’re sweating. . . . Maybe you are nauseous or have a headache. You start thinking, Now I’m going to gain a lot of weight; I’ll never weigh this again. You even feel it’s morally wrong . . . to eat food.”

A Change of Paradigm

After the brief video, Duré emphasized that it is certainly “time to start walking alongside people and break the stigma. This is one of the goals that we have in this project—to open the conversation, to create spaces, starting with the first step,” which is beginning to talk about it.

In that regard Duré took some time to explain what ReMindEd^TM is and what it is not. “ReMindEd^TM is like a table on which you put all your content and many, many resources,” he explained. It’s a place to encourage openness, which allows people in need to ask for help. ReMindEd^TM also seeks to bring the discussion of mental health to churches, schools, and communities, he said.

At the same time Duré emphasized, “ReMindEd^TM is not a clinic . . . a hospital . . . [nor] a mental health provider. It’s not a self-help kit, but just a platform—a place where you go to get information.” At the same time, “it’s not a multimedia project to introduce specific beliefs or doctrines,” he said.

Seeking Help

Duré shared that among the developments for the next few months, there are plans to launch an application and to include content in languages other than English. He also mentioned exclusive content to be shared on social media channels, and the plan to include topics that haven’t yet been covered.

The ultimate goal, Duré said, is that as people get information and listen to stories of others who have struggled with various mental health challenges, they might feel motivated to seek help. “They might be doctors, therapists, psychologists, pastors, or friends, but seeking help is the first step,” he said.

The original article was published on the Adventist Review site.