Paul Sajban is the lead pastor at the Lutheran Church of Our Savior in Windom. He recognizes that there is sometimes more need for mental health support than is available in our current culture, and Sajban’s church is now working on providing some online counseling to members, as well as multiple, regular opportunities to gather together in person.
He sees the family as the basic unit that has to be strengthened and supported, and then the growth seen there can have a broader impact.
“I think the depressions and things people are facing are a real problem,” said Sajban, “especially with teenage young adults as far as developing close friends and relationships.”
Sajban recognizes heredity factors in mental health and has witnessed this in his own family and thus understands individual needs and choices for medications and treatments. He also thinks that more generally there is quite a bit of widespread depression and anxiety due to the condition of the county.
“I think most of the depression we’re seeing out in our society today,” said Sajban, “it’s not a mental illness type of depression. I think it’s a societal depression caused by the society in which we live. It’s cultural. It’s societal amongst almost all age groups and classes of people. That’s the only way I can really describe it.”
For more details and insights on this story, please see the May 31 edition of the Citizen.
