BALTIMORE (CNS) -- From the American Psychiatric Association to the average Catholic in the pew, awareness is growing that the faith community has a role to play in helping those with mental illness and their families.

"Because religion and spirituality often play a vital role in healing, people experiencing mental health concerns often turn first to a faith leader," the APA said in a 28-page guide for faith leaders published earlier this year.

"From a public-health perspective, faith community leaders are gatekeepers or 'first responders' when individuals and families face mental health or substance use problems," the guide added. "In that role they can help dispel misunderstandings, reduce stigma associated with mental illness and treatment, and facilitate access to treatment for those in need."

The National Institute of Mental Health and Substance Abuse estimates that 19 percent of all adult Americans -- or one in five people -- experiences some form of mental illness in a given year. That means at least one in four families is affected by mental illness in some way.

The guide was prepared by a 16-member working group of the APA's Mental Health and Faith Community Partnership Steering Committee, which included Sister Nancy Kehoe, a Religious of the Sacred Heart who teaches psychology at Harvard Medical School, and Jesuit Father Patrick Howell of the Institute for Catholic Thought and Culture at Seattle University.

Deacon Tom Lambert, who chairs the National Catholic Partnership on Disability's Council on Mental Illness and the Archdiocese of Chicago's Commission on Mental Illness, also serves on the APA steering committee.

He sees some progress in raising awareness about mental illness, but "it is painfully slow and people's lives are at risk."

"In the 30 years I've been involved in this, we are making progress, but are we where we should be? No, we've got a long, long way to go," Deacon Lambert told Catholic News Service in a telephone interview from Chicago.

He would like to see some kind of document from the U.S. bishops on mental illness.

"We are the only major religion in the United States that does not have a statement on mental illness," Deacon Lambert said. "It doesn't have to be a major pastoral letter, just a statement acknowledging what our people are going through."

At the urging of the National Advisory Council, the U.S. bishops' Committee on Domestic Justice and Human Development has taken up the mental health issue, inviting Deacon Lambert and other experts to address the committee. But no document is currently in the works for consideration by the full body of bishops.

The deacon praised the work of Mental Health First Aid at the parish level and in other community settings. The program is doing "a wonderful job in raising awareness" of mental illness and the resources available for those affected, he said.

"The idea is to equip mainly laypeople in communities to be able to recognize and then offer some kind of care for people struggling with mental health issues," said Barbara Mosser, a faith community nurse at St. Francis of Assisi Parish in Colorado Springs, Colorado, and a certified Mental Health First Aid instructor.

When Mosser first brought the idea of Mental Health First Aid to her parish, it was shortly after the suicide death of comedian Robin Williams in 2014. Speaking at each of the weekend Masses, she told parishioners to "look around you, down the pew, across the aisle" and they would see several people affected by mental illness.

"Right here in our faith community we have a built-in support system," Mosser told CNS. She also hopes the training serves to reduce some of the stigma of mental illness. "People who need help need to be able to say so openly," she said.

The international program was founded in 2001 in Australia and came to the United States in 2008. The eight-hour program includes interactive exercises designed to put participants in the shoes of those with mental illness.

In groups of three, for example, one person will converse with another person while the third person whispers into the ear of the first person, mimicking the experience of a schizophrenic person.

The Mental Health First Aid Act of 2015, a bipartisan bill now pending before the House, would provide federal grants to train more people in the program. A similar bill is awaiting action in the Senate and also has received bipartisan sponsorship.

That is just one of the bills before Congress dealing with mental health. The Mental Health Reform Act, the Comprehensive Justice and Mental Health Act, the Helping Families in Mental Health Crisis Act, the Mental Health Awareness and Improvement Act and the Mental Health and Safe Communities Act each take different approaches to the problem.

Deacon Lambert, whose daughter has a mental illness, said progress needs to be made not only in terms of public awareness but in restoring many state services that have been cut during lean budgetary times.

"The awareness is increasing but the services are still lacking," he said. "It is extremely difficult to go through this alone. But people need to know that they have the support of the church."