MENTAL health campaigners warned the Church of Scotland yesterday that a group set up to help people who believe they are possessed by the devil could increase the stigma of psychiatric illness.

A panel of ministers and psychiatrists, known as the Deliverance group, has reconvened for the first time in 15 years to address concerns that the Kirk is not doing enough to help members who feel “possessed”.

The group will look into methods of helping people through exorcism and establish guidelines for ministers who encounter people who believe they are suffering from demonic possession.

Mental health campaigners claimed that the move suggests a medieval demonisation of people suffering from psychiatric illness. Richard Norris, from the Scottish Association of Mental Health, said: “To talk about devil possession conjures up some quite disturbing and medieval images about mental health which will not be welcome to many.”

Douglas Irvine, convener of the Deliverance group, said he believed it was time for the subject to be revisited. Mr Irvine, a former solicitor, said that the Kirk’s current understanding of the field of demonic possession was wanting.

Growing problems of child abuse and cult activity had made the work of the Deliverance group all the more important.

“We would recognise that in a lot of cases people are mentally ill, but there are situations we do affirm in the Church where people are not sick in the mind but they are diseased in the spirit,” he said.

A spokeswoman for the Royal College of Psychiatrists said yesterday that delusions about demonic possession were common among psychotic patients, and that it was a condition that was treatable with drugs.

She admitted, however, that psychotic patients occasionally had “strange experiences” that might be better helped with care and empathy.

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