Sick and Far From Home
Slate’s Mark Joseph Stern writes that some young Mormons are struggling to receive medical attention for serious illness and injury while serving their missions abroad. “The church declined to describe its approach to providing health care to its missionaries and declined to comment at all on this article,” he reports. “But two dozen former missionaries and other sources with knowledge of missionary life, including active church members, recount the same disturbing story: Missionary culture counsels strongly against seeking medical help. Injuries are downplayed. Authority figures block access to care. Psychological disorders are stigmatized.”