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Do Mormon Missionaries Get Shafted on Health Care?

Do Mormon Missionaries Get Shafted on Health Care?

Last updated on: October 14, 2015 at 7:37 pm by J. Paul Valley

Do Mormon Missionaries Get Shafted on Health Care? 2015-10-14T19:37:39+00:00 J. Paul Valley

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Mark Joseph Stern over at Slate just published an interesting article about the state of health care — or lack thereof — for Mormon missionaries. Stern reports that there is a large number of missionaries who “face serious obstacles in obtaining quality health care” and that this has led those on the receiving end of these oversights to become frustrated with the Church, even doubting its truthfulness.

It’s an interesting piece that highlights some of the dangers associated with serving a mission for the LDS Church, especially for those serving in South American countries. Stern relies on “two dozen former missionaries and other sources with knowledge of missionary life, including active church members” to support his story, most of which, he explains, spoke on the condition of anonymity.

You can read the whole thing over at Slate, which I recommend you do.

I have a few hesitations about the article itself, mostly that some of its observations concerning the nature of missionary work doesn’t remind me much of my own experience — health care included. But I don’t want to dismiss it. I’m curious to know if this is truly a large, overlooked problem or simply the unfortunate experience of a small group. Either way, it appears to be something the Church needs to pay attention to.

For my part, I experienced basically the opposite of what this article implies while I was serving in Brazil. My mission president was quick to prescribe medicine or tell a missionary to take it easy/visit a doctor if necessary. We received very specific health instructions (which doesn’t mean missionaries were always super great at following those instructions) and I never personally felt like those needs were neglected.

But as I mentioned earlier, the fact that my experience doesn’t mirror the article doesn’t mean this isn’t a problem. I’d be curious to know how members at large — anonymous or otherwise — feel about this.

One of the most interesting observations that Stern makes is that mental health is especially neglected. He states in the article that:

The Mormon church does not oppose psychiatry or question the effectiveness of therapy—except when it comes to missionaries. When missionaries experience depression, anxiety, and other psychological disorders, they are sometimes told they are “devoid of the spirit.” The solution for these problems is not therapy but to “forget yourself and go to work.”

While I didn’t personally experience any issues with mental health on my mission, I knew (and know) plenty that did. While I wonder about the issues surrounding health care in general, there’s little doubt in my mind that we aren’t doing enough to help those in the mission field experiencing emotional and mental difficulties.

[Update: 10/14/2015]

One of our bloggers, Stephanie Asalone, directed me to an article by Religious News Service’s Jana Riess that takes aim at some of the journalistic failings of the Slate article. Riess essentially argues that Stern relied on anecdotes instead of data to paint a wide brush over the entire missionary health program. She cites an article by the Salt Lake Tribune from 2013 which examines missionary access to health care in much greater detail, relying on data and statistics and not just anecdotes.

Riess is pretty condemnatory of what she sees as Slate’s shoddy journalism in this story. She also sees it as a missed opportunity to possibly uncover something real and important to the Mormon community. But she also stresses that the experiences of the people quoted in the story shouldn’t be completely dismissed:

Even though its total reliance on one kind of personal story can’t pass for responsible journalism, that doesn’t mean the interviewees’ experiences aren’t true and important. They don’t represent the whole picture, but they deserve a wide hearing.

I know that when I read it, I had some pretty strong doubts, but I didn’t want to dismiss it without looking deeper. From what I gather in our comments section, that seemed to be a common reaction. I’m glad Riess was able to clear some of this up for us.

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