?Religious communities need to be linked with psychologists who are trained to provide preventive interventions for at-risk couples and families, and who are skilled in working collaboratively,? says Weaver at Hawaii State Hospital in Kaneohe, Hawaii. The review appears in the Professional Psychology Research and Practice (Vol. 28, No. 5, p. 471?474).

Such a collaboration would benefit both professions. Psychologists could train the clergy in crisis intervention and preventive mental health care. Of surveyed clergy, 70 percent to 90 percent indicated the need and desire to have additional training in mental health issues.

Psychologists might have a few things to learn from the clergy, say Weaver and his co-authors. The clergy were ranked higher in interpersonal skills than psychologists and psychiatrists and were also viewed as more accessible, available and trustworthy. The clergy, says Weaver, also are well positioned to detect distress in individuals over time and to gain access to family members in crisis who would otherwise not receive care.

The clergy spend an average of 15 percent of their work week on pastoral counseling, says Weaver, a United Methodist minister who served 10 years as a pastor in California.

Working with the clergy is a way to reach groups such as those in rural locations and inner cities as well as Latin- and African-Americans, Weaver says. ?These people need support and help. Psychologists could offer to do workshops for congregations, do some pro bono work and begin building trust,? he says.

Building such relationships may pay off in terms of client referrals, the review indicates. A recent national survey of marriage and family therapists shows that they were as likely to have referrals from the clergy as they were from a physician, employment-assistance program or managed-care organization.

Lack of education in clinical training on religious issues or the role of the clergy in mental health care may account for the limited collaboration between psychological and religious communities, the review says. In a survey of 409 clinical psychologists, only 5 percent had religious or spiritual issues addressed in their professional training, although as of January 1996, all psychiatric residency programs in the United States are required to address spiritual and religious issues in their formal training.

?Psychologists have viewed religion as an unsophisticated way of thinking and have extrapolated that all religion is bad,? Weaver says. ?But among the elderly, eight of 10 people attend church or synagogue, an activity that has been linked to lower rates of depression, alcoholism, suicide and even blood pressure.?