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Guest House Institute
Guest House Institute Created to Assist The Church
Just as Guest House's treatment services have grown within the last decade, so too has its service to the Church's leadership in the area of education. Recently, in an effort to consolidate, focus and accelerate our education efforts, our Board of Trustees created the Guest House Institute.
The mission of the Guest House Institute is to promote health and spiritual wellness of Catholics by providing educational services regarding alcoholism and other addictions, and by promoting and providing research in alcoholism and other addictions affecting the Catholic Church.
Part of the reason we created the Institute is the fact that clergy and religious are often "first responders" with individuals and families who are experiencing significant problems related to substance abuse, like alcoholism. In fact, research has shown that 94% of Catholic clergy recognize substance abuse as a major issue among their parishioners— and almost 38% believe that alcohol abuse is involved in half or more of the family problems they confront!
The Guest House Institute is responding to the needs of the Catholic community by:
- Developing training and educational opportunities for Church hierarchy, clergy, religious and laity regarding addiction;
- Working with seminarians, universities and dioceses and religious institutions to facilitate on-going education and training for those who are studying for ministry;
- Engaging in research to help prevent addiction among those who minister, as well as providing professional intervention while improving treatment for impaired clergy and religious;
- Offering retreats, seminars, and family seminars for those impacted by addiction;
- Providing a resource for information, educational materials, curriculum development, both online and in printed materials and audio-visuals;
- Providing confidential consultation to those in leadership and ministry who are dealing with potential or actual addiction concerns;
- Working with those in parish ministry to implement programs that address the needs of parishioners, becoming welcoming communities for those afflicted by addiction;
- Facilitating education and training for Catholic professionals who are faced with the complications of addiction in their work and ministry;
- Developing and implementing affordable continuing education experiences for addiction counselors and ministers to improve skills and understanding.
Today, Institute staff are involved in a great deal of activity, providing education to Church leadership and other interested groups about the realities of chemically-related addictions, such as alcoholism, and the realities of sobriety and recovery. Woven throughout our presentations is the spiritual aspect related to addictions, sobriety and recovery.
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