In the Gospel of John, we are told that Jesus charged Peter, one of His disciples to take care of His (Jesus) sheep shortly after His resurrection. “Again, Jesus said, “Simon son of John, do you love me?” He answered, “Yes, Lord, you know that I love you,” Jesus said, “Then take care of my sheep” John 21:16.
The phrase, take care of my sheep depicts the kind of faithful, vigilance, and patience that a shepherd uses to guide the flock and to make provision against their wants and dangers. By extension, to take care of the Lord’s sheep requires a certain level of faithfulness and vigilance and should be discharged in a manner that reflects the ministry of our Lord Jesus Christ who is the good shepherd.
For years, the church has actively and visibly been involved in taking care of the Lord’s sheep in diverse ways. It is on record that churches have built schools, hospitals, and prisons as well as engaged in humanitarian services such as providing scholarship opportunities for needy students, providing for orphans and widows, etc. Notwithstanding, one of the critical areas that may not have received adequate attention is the ministry to alcohol and other drug addicts. In his work entitled, The Church and Alcoholism in Ghana, Hilliard Dogbe shockingly reveals that the congregation sees addict behavior as embarrassing to its identity. According to Dogbe, Christian congregations have not been able to provide an adequate response toward the prevention and healing of alcoholism. This lack of response, according to Dogbe, reflects how the congregation experience, feel about, and live with alcoholics and their families. Dogbe posits that the church is in denial of the reality of the problem (alcoholism) and it does not want to be associated with what they consider an immoral and shameful habit.
Consequently, I have outlined some guidelines I consider helpful to guide the church in its quest to provide a holistic response to the challenges and threats posed by alcoholism among members of most Ghanaian societies. But before we delve into the issues, we may want to engage in some empirical tasks by trying to identify what is actually going on within contemporary society and how to mitigate these challenges.
What is going on?
The high incidence of alcohol use and misuse among the youth in Ghana is an open secret that has been affirmed by many reporters. Evidence is that the use of alcohol and other drugs among the youth in Ghana is on the rise with devastating effects on individual addicts as well as families. A Daily Graphic report on February 19, 2021, indicates that about 36% of Ghanaian youth are addicted to alcohol and other drugs. Again, a study conducted by Ishmael Norman on the topic, “Prevalence of Alcohol Consumption and Factors Influencing Alcohol Use Among the Youth of Tokorni –Hohoe, Volta Region,” on 316 youth discloses that 73.7% of males were currently consuming alcohol and 26.3% of females were also currently drinking. Most of the respondents who consume alcohol according to the study were their active age of 20-25, which accounts for approximately 45%, and the least was recorded among the age group of 31-35. In Another study by A. M Tampah-Naa on some 894 SHS students in Accra, the findings were that 46.2% of the respondents were currently using alcohol. Another study by Oti Boateng Nana Yaw also entitled, “Alcohol Consumption among University of Ghana students on Legon campus” shockingly discloses that about 55.6% of students in Legon between the ages of 20-24 used alcohol and about 25. 81% of the study population were problem drinkers whiles 29.79% are former drinkers with the most preferred alcohol type being wine, followed by beer and spirits.
Although data on alcohol use and misuse among the youth is alarming, what could be more disturbing is that public perception of drug use continues to be framed in religious rhetoric of morality and associated with mental illness and that people who use drugs continue to be ostracized in Ghana.
Again, health facilities are unable to offer quality and adequate healthcare for people who use drugs given the continual increase in the number of afflicted patients in Ghana. As of 2019, there were no rehab centers for women in Ghana, thereby imposing a great challenge for women who are afflicted with drug addiction.
What is drug addiction?
“Addiction could be defined as a disease which is primary, chronic, hereditary, eventually fatal and may progress from an early psychological susceptibility into a condition characterized by tolerance changes, physiological dependence and loss of control over a mood-altering substance.”
First, it should be considered that alcoholism is a disease. However, this type of disease is a condition from which all other symptoms are derived—psychological, social, and behavioral symptoms are caused by or are the consequences of the primary disease, not the other way around. Recovery from addiction is therefore a lifetime process. Although alcoholism is a complex disease, for years, many have erroneously viewed alcoholism through the lenses of morality by suggesting that alcohol addicts have a weak will or distorted moral values. According to Hilliard Dogbe, the reason the moral argument describes alcoholism as a sin and the alcoholic as a moral weakling is often due to the many “sinful” effects of drunkenness, which also characterize alcoholism. However, it has been proven that sons of alcoholic parents for example were four times more likely to become alcoholics, even if raised in an alcohol-free environment and that pregnant women could also pass on heightened vulnerability, leading to the child being born addicted, or later onset of instant alcoholism.
How alcohol use and misuse affect individual alcoholics and families
In examining, how pastoral care ministry could be effectively applied to individuals and families caught up in alcohol and other drug addiction, we may want to identify some of the impact of addiction on the family. It would be agreed that extent of impact determines or influence the scope of care. Therefore, to what extent does a drinking problem of a father, for example, affects his children and the entire household? It is important to note that alcoholism is a family disease. As a result, the family responds several ways to alcoholism, and that one significant form of manifestation of the crises that both family members and alcoholics go through is the process of denial and its associated phenomenon of conspiracy of silence and isolation within the family and the larger social system. According to Nancy and Moss, a drinking problem isolates both the individual alcoholic and his family from the church. Also, in his book entitled, Help and Hope for the Alcoholic, Alex Dejong, affirms that alcoholism is a family disease and not a single family member can escape its devastating power. In the words of Dejong, when a husband or wife, parent or child, becomes an alcoholic, no one in the family can avoid the agony inflicted by this wretched illness. Furthermore, alcohol addicts and their families go through a series of negative shame and guilt. Negative shame results in people feeling bad about themselves emotionally and physically. It destroys potential and does not give the urge to press on. It controls growth, inhibits the possibilities of wholeness, and tends to be more self–centered. Therefore, for the alcohol addict, the shame keeps on alerting her/him that s/he is defective, worthless, and improper.
Again, family members can become sick like the individual alcoholic because they try to organize their lives around helping the addicted by attempting to control or protect them from the painful consequences of their actions, and taking responsibility for their destructive behavior. This cycle makes family members become as sick as the individual alcoholic as they strive to maintain the family’s sense of identity.
Finally, a drinking problem in a family significantly impacts adult children. According to Janet Geringer, adult children of alcoholics have no idea about normalcy and can only guess at what is “normal”. They have difficulty with intimate relationships, constantly seeking approval and affirmation, have difficulty in following a project through from the beginning and they lie when it would be just easy, to tell the truth.
Why pastoral care?
Although there are several forms of care, however, within the context of Christianity, I consider pastoral care as an ideal ministry for individuals and families afflicted with alcohol and other drug addictions. The term pastoral in pastoral care resonates powerfully with the experience of shepherding— a term, which depicts the idea of leading, guiding, and directing. In ancient Israel, Shepherds were also responsible for keeping their flock intact by protecting them from predators and guiding them to market areas in time for shearing. Thus, the work of a pastoral caregiver requires that he leads, guides, protects, directs, and even ensures that the flocks are properly kept in a manner that reduces the risk of parasitic infestation and disease. Within the context of Christianity, it has been fairly posited that pastoral care is in the cure-of-souls—a term that suggests that the ultimate goal of pastoral care is to bring healing to others who may be hurting in one or more areas of their lives.
Again, pastoral care involves the use by persons in ministry of one-to-one or small group relationships to enable healing, empowerment, and growth to take place within individuals and their relationships. Therefore, we can deduce that pastoral care is not just about attending to individual drug addicts but also relationships—Relationships with themselves, others, and ultimately, God! Pastoral care is a golden instrument by which the church stays relevant to the needs of people in distress—Relevance to the places in their lives where they hurt the most, hope, pray, hunger for meaning, and thirst for significant relationships. The pastoral care ministry is a beautiful gift from God for mankind to come to that place of belonging. A pastoral ministry is a place where humanity encounters the divine providence of God.
Pastoral care to alcohol addicts and their families
- The church must understand and recognize the unique role of the pastoral care ministry in fostering the healing processes of individuals and families caught up in alcohol and other drug addictions. Consequently, the church should make efforts to train, empower and resource more pastoral caregivers in order to make them readily available and accessible.
- As already established, alcoholism is a family disease and in family system therapy, dysfunctional systems in an individual are often viewed as an expression of dysfunction within the family. Consequently, it will be inaccurate to assess the concerns of individuals without observing the interaction of other family members and the larger context in which the person and family live. This explains why in providing pastoral care interventions to an individual addict, other family members should also be included.
- Third, pastoral caregivers must acknowledge the medical and psychological dimensions of the disease of alcoholism. Therefore, they must ensure that appropriate referrals are made where necessary.
- Pastoral caregivers and all who come into contact with individuals afflicted with alcohol and other drug addictions must avoid talking down to such persons, as well as avoid making any form of moral pronouncement since such an attitude could trigger a sense of shame and may lead to self-destructive behaviors.
- Any intervention process, irrespective of the situation, will evoke more often than not anxiety, fear, reluctance, and resistance at almost every level. Therefore, caregivers must be prepared for the emotional tension that is created by fear and anxiety.
