We study and implement an integrative lifespan-development and prevention-science based program of Community Outreach & Professional Engagement (COPE), which facilitates the de facto continuum of care between community clergy and mental health clinicians. COPE investigates responses to emotional distress and mental disorders by religious communities, as well as responses to religiosity by clinicians. Our community-based participatory research includes people with lived experience and their families.

Culture and Health

Culture is developmentally biological.  Each healthy human brain born today could be nurtured into any culture, learn any language, receive any religion.  The language(s) we learn, and the culture(s) we integrate are mediated by our interpersonal relationships across the lifespan. 

 The foundation of Dr. Milstein’s work is the study of how beliefs are imbued in us through our cultural milieus. His bilingual (Spanish & English) research follows three paths:

 Religion and Mental Health:
Implement prevention science models to facilitate the continuity of mental health care, through collaboration between clergy and clinicians.

 Immigration & Psychological Resilience:
Identify variables that promote resiliency, in response to the developmental disruptions caused by migration.

 Culture Ontogeny:
Through interpersonal relationships the abstract ideas that are culture become material in the neurophysiology of the developing human brain.

Selected Recent Presentations:

To Chaplains from the Departments of Defense & Veterans Affairs
(Presentation Slides):   

One Nation, Many Faiths: The Chaplain's Balance & The Continuity of Mental Health Care.

 To Community Hospital Chaplains
(Presentation Description): 

Responding to the Mental Health Needs of Multicultural Faith Communities:  The Chaplain's Balance.

1.   Identity Formation across Culture Frontiers:  Enculturation, Immigration, Acculturation

2.   Prevention/Promotion Science to Change Risk/Resilience of Mental Health

3.   Human Creativity and the Development of Religion

4.   The Peopling of New York City and the Civic Engagement of their Religions (Macaulay Honors Class)

Religion and Mental Health
 

Continuity of Mental Health Care through – 

COPE:  Clergy Outreach & Professional Engagement –

 COPE Diagrams (Click for PDF)

 Peer Reviewed Publications:
(Click Citation to Download PDF)

 COPE Model:

Trios:

 Milstein, G., Manierre, A., & Yali, A. M. (2010).  Psychological Care for Persons of Diverse Religions: A Collaborative Continuum.  Professional Psychology:  Research and Practice, 41(5),  371-381.

 Milstein, G., Manierre, A., Susman, V., & Bruce, M. L. (2008). Implementation of a Program to Improve the Continuity of Mental Health Care through Clergy Outreach and Professional Engagement (C.O.P.E.). Professional Psychology: Research and Practice, 39(2), 218-228.

 Clergy:

>  Rabbis 

Milstein, G., Midlarsky, E., Link, B. G., Raue, P. J., & Bruce, M. L. (2000). Assessing problems with religious content: a comparison of rabbis and psychologists. Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease, 188(9), 608-615.

 >   Imams  

Ali, O., Milstein, G., & Marzuk, P. (2005). The Imam's Role in Meeting the Counseling Needs of Muslim Communities in the United States. Psychiatric Services, 56(2), 202-205.

 Consumers:

>  Stigma

Milstein, G., Kennedy, G. J., Bruce, M. L., Flannelly, K., Chelchowski, N., & Bone, L. (2005). The Clergy's Role in Reducing Stigma: Elder Patients' Views. World Psychiatry, 4(S1), 26-32.

 >   Gender Difference

Milstein, G., Bruce, M. L., Gargon, N., Brown, E., Raue, P. J., & McAvay, G. (2003). Religious practice and depression among geriatric homecare patients. The International Journal of Psychiatry in Medicine, 33(1), 71-83.

 >    Ethnic Difference

Guarnaccia, P. J., Parra, P., Deschamps, A., Milstein, G., & Argiles, N. (1992). Si dios quiere: Hispanic families' experiences of caring for a seriously mentally ill family member. Culture Medicine and Psychiatry, 16(2), 187-215.

 Milstein, G., Guarnaccia, P. J., & Midlarsky, E. (1995). Ethnic Differences in the Interpretation of Mental Illness: Perspectives of Caregivers. In J. R. Greenley (Ed.), Research in Community and Mental Health: the Family and Mental Illness(Vol. 8, pp. 155-178). Greenwich, CT: JAI Press, Inc.

Immigration & Psychological Resilience

 Milstein, G., & Lucić, L. (2004). Young Immigrants: A Psychosocial Development Perspective. ENCOUNTER: Education for Meaning and Social Justice, 17(3), 24-29.

Community Mental Health & Religion Manuals —

Milstein, G., Dugan, T., Siegel, C., & Haugland, G. (2011). A Pastoral Education Guide: Responding to the Mental Health Needs of Multicultural Faith Communities: Center of Excellence in Culturally Competent Mental Health, The Nathan Kline Institute for Psychiatric Research, New York State Office of Mental Health, http://ssrdqst.rfmh.org/cecc/sites/ssrdqst.rfmh.org.cecc/UserFiles/mentalhealthclergyguide101711A.pdf .

Milstein, G., Dugan, T., Siegel, C., & Haugland, G. (2011). A Pastoral Education Workbook: Responding to the Mental Health Needs of Multicultural Faith Communities: Center of Excellence in Culturally Competent Mental Health, The Nathan Kline Institute for Psychiatric Research, New York State Office of Mental Health, http://ssrdqst.rfmh.org/cecc/sites/ssrdqst.rfmh.org.cecc/UserFiles/mentalhealthworkbook101711A.pdf .