Medicine Hat, AB

Re: Mental Wellness, April/May, p. 10
The material dealing with mental health was very moving. I have had a concern in this area for many years. My seminary thesis in 1952 was on Religion and Mental Health. At the time there was very little written material as to how one may affect the other. That summer I did summer supply at the provincial hospital at Battleford, Sask. where patients lived with Alzheimer’s, dementia, schizophrenia and severe depression. At the time shock treatments were used much more than now.

Now medications can help in lots of these cases. Having wards in local hospitals is a much-needed change that is now often taken for granted.

A long time ago, I read an article about clergy burnout. The author said it was not so much over-work as it was a dearth of local support and encouragement by people of the parish. A neighbour pastor who went through burnout said, “I thought I could please everybody and it just doesn’t work. From now on I do what I can and let the chips fall where they may.”