Saron Lutheran Church
Resources
Suicide and Crisis Lifeline:
call, text, or chat 988
Mental Health & Addiction Connection line: 866-603-0016
Minnesota Warmline, for a safe, anonymous, and confidential person to listen and help. Monday – Saturday 12 noon to 10pm: 651-288-0400 or text “support” to 85511
Parent Email Warmline:
Find resources, answers to your questions, a support network, and you will know that you are not alone.
First Call for Help:
800-543-7709 or
www.211unitedway.org, for questions about services, assistance, housing and other areas of need.
Children and Divorce
https://www.milavetzlaw.com/children-and-divorce/
An extensive guide about helping children through a divorce, which is sadly a very common thing kids have to go through.
Conversation Starters
https://seizetheawkward.org/conversation/starting-the-conversation
To help lead you through before, during, and after a conversation with someone that you are concerned about. It also has scenarios and self-care ideas.
The mission of Saron's Mental Health Ministry is to encourage each other with support and compassion.
The goal: to provide mental health awareness information and resources to the Saron congregation and the community at large.
Saron’s Mental Health Ministry will explore
a different topic each month.
This month’s topic is:
Empathy
There are a lot of words that describe how we react
to the suffering of others. Sympathy, empathy are
among those.
Sympathy is a feeling of pity or sorrow for the
suffering of another person. “I’m sorry for your loss”
is often said at the passing of an acquaintance or
friend. Sympathy is a feeling FOR someone and can
be a thoughtful response.
Empathy is the ability to feel WITH someone. It is a
choice to join with the other person in what they are
feeling by deeply listening to learn what they are
going through and not offering judgements or fix-it
ideas or stories about when “something like that happened to my cousin and they came our okay”. Empathy is recognizing the emotions of the other person and validating their feelings and experience. Empathy goes beyond a response to an understanding and connection with the person. “It sounds like you are in a hard place now. Tell me more about it.”
The feeling of empathy makes a connection between people. It takes additional time and effort and vulnerability because we are connecting with the other person to share that feeling and be present for them. The other person is no longer alone in their feelings. Empathy builds relationships and community that last.
Click HERE for a three-minute video on how this might work in a real situation.
Rejoice with those who rejoice; mourn with those who mourn (Romans 12:15 NIV).
ABOUT 988
Suicide and Crisis Lifeline
988 offers 24/7 access to trained crisis counselors who can help people experiencing mental health-related distress. That could be:
· Thoughts of suicide
· Mental health or substance use crisis, or
· Any other kind of emotion distress
People can call or text 988 or chat 988lifeline.org for themselves or if they are worried about a loved one who may need crisis support. With 988, no matter where you live in the United States, you can reach a trained crisis counselor who can help.