Has anyone heard of this group before? apparantly they came from America some 25 years ago and have houses all over the world now. They minister to young women who are self harming and have body image issues and suffer with depression. The young women stay in thier house for 6 months and are basically "healed". I have had a very concerned mother on the phone to me about her daughter, and wondered if anyone on here has heard of them before and could give me some more information. Thanks.... oh here is thier website.... mercyministries.co.uk

Mercy has enjoyed a reasonably good reputation and has been credited with some success, until recently.

There have been some negative stories in the Australian press regarding Mercy Ministeries. They appear to stem from about three former residents. Although, only one appears to have been named.

These reports can be Googled.

There was some hype to the stories, including Mercy being described as, a "secretive ministry". It's hardly secretive, although it probably doesn't discuss personal matters pertaining to clients.

The stories also negatively reported that the residents were required to sign over their Centrelink benefits to the Ministry. This is actually fairly common practice for long term drug treatment and homeless Centres. Although, not all support the practice or utilise the strategy.

However, the main complaints appear to be the use of Bible studies and what were described as "exorcisms" to treat residents. There were also some issues in regards to there being no TV, radio, excessive cleaning and concerns regarding the training of the staff.

Given this is a Christian Pentecostal based programme, I guess people would have a fair idea of the type of programme they are getting involved in. These type of treatment programmes generally explain their rules fairly rigorously. They have to be fairly strict in order to prevent people smuggling drugs in, committing self harm, etc. They are dealing with quite "troubled" people.

The main critic herself, says she was in the programme nine months ( a fairly long time, given her disatisfaction) and tried to commit suicide several times. She appears to have been expelled after allegedly being caught with cigarettes.

Mercy looks like a group that may require further investigation, however, critics need to be carefully assessed and people need to have an understanding of how residential programmes work and what residents can get up to ie residents with anorexia pretending to eat food, but actually concealing it.

If there isn't already, there should be full transparency from Mercy fully explaning it is a Christian, Pentecostal Ministry and residents will be asked to take part in Bible studies, etc.

Hopefully, the negative press may give Mercy a wake up call to look at its programme and address any concerns.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/11/2008 02:07PM by private eyes.

Thank you very much for that info

Hi, I was involved in Mercy Ministries. I hope it's not too late to answer you barbiedoll?

In my experience, I was promised treatment and 24/7 care by staff qualified to treat mental illness. They said that girls didn't need to be a Christian to go into their program, and that it was free to go there. I discussed the program with my doctor and counsellor and family, they thought it might be a good thing because I would be getting 24/7 care by qualified staff.

When I got there, I found that none of the staff were actually qualified. Some of them had done Bible College and that was it. I was not allowed to see my own doctor and counsellor anymore, I had to see Mercy Ministries' counsellor and doctor. The counsellor they provided me with was not qualified, and the 'counselling sessions' were once a weeek most weeks (some weeks there was no counselling). The counselling consisted of prayer readings and exorcism. These are the counselling materials that are used [www.phw.org] called Restoring The Foundations.

Whenever had symptoms of my illness, the staff would scold me and say tell me that it was a sign of demonic activity. They used to say that what the 'world' calls mental illness is actually demonic activity and that the professionals of the world can't help, only Mercy staff can help because they have been appointed by God. I think that is why I wasn't allowed to see professionals during my time at Mercy.

I think that is probably why I left Mercy much worse than I had ever been. Before Mercy, I was able to access doctors or psychs or counsellors or family when I needed them. But while I was at Mercy I wasn't able to see any of those people when I needed them (because 'only Mercy can help'.) I did see a GP of Mercy's choice once or twice, to get my presription updated, but that was it. And even then, they had a staff member or volunteer with me the whole time, so I wasn't able to talk to the doctor about what was going on at Mercy and how it was affecting me.

I also found that although I believed in God and was a Christian before Mercy (which is another reason I thought Mercy would be good, because they said they were a Christian program), as soon as I got to Mercy they started telling me I was praying all wrong, they tried to force me to raise my hands up/clap/jump during Christian songs, and tried to force me to pray with them 'again' to be a 'real Christian.' They told me that if I wouldn't do that, then I was obviously not serious about getting help and would be sent home. I had had contact with other Christian organisations in the past who have been a great help to me, but I have never experienced the kind of manipulation and control that I did at Mercy. Along with the forced exorcisms because I 'wasn't sick, but had demons', it was a real shock because it turned out to be nothing like the sort of program they advertised and I thought I was signing up for at all.

When I got to Mercy, they told me that all of my sickness benefits from Centrelink would now go to them, so I had to sign something to say that the money was to go straight into their account now. Sometimes I was given $30 out of it to buy things I needed like soap and shampoo.

Here is some more information about what happens to girls in their program [news.google.com.au]

[www.theage.com.au]

Dear Taylor1,

i am so sorry to hear about what happened with you in Mercy, i am just so glad that this girl didnt get involved with them. It sounds just awful. I mean i am all for God healing and i know he does, but honestly some of thier practises sound just too far off of the wall. Thanks for sharing

Hi barbiedoll, I am so glad to hear that the girl didn't get involved with Mercy too. Thank you for letting me know.
It would be ok if somebody was expecting a Bible retreat, but they advertise (in Australia) that they provide professional psychiatric care by qualified staff, and in my experience that just wasn't the case.

Most of the rules are not made known to girls until they arrive.



Edited 4 time(s). Last edit at 04/16/2008 01:02AM by taylor1.

Unfortunately, we have lost a daughter (she’s now 19) due having false memories of sexual abuse (initially by some schoolmates which eventually expanded to include her father) due to “recovered memory therapy” by two of the therapists at Mercy Ministries, as she has cut off all contact with us. We are not interested in suing (even though the therapists sure deserve to be!) , we just want our daughter back and pray that someday she come to realize that these memories are false. The place she was treated by these therapists at seems to be a cleverly-disguised cult…I corresponded recently with someone who was her roommate and that’s what she claims it was and they use “recovered memory therapy” as a way of control and an effective way of separating them from their "family of origin".

Dear concerneddad - we are going through a similar experience with our daughter who has also cut off ties with us after spending time in a Mercy facility. I'd like to discuss this with you -
Lynn

Sure, you can reach me at the following email address:

(e-mail address deleted by moderator: To preserve your anonymity, the safest thing is to private message each other using this message board. It is free and secure-Moderator)

or if you want to call all you can email me and if you like we can talk over the phone.

I'm very sorry to hear that you are going through the same experience, and I'm sure it will be helpful for you (as it was for me) to speak with someone who can relate.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/07/2012 10:21AM by corboy.