annual conference
NAMI NH Virtual Annual Conference – May 10, 2023
Did you miss out on attending the 2023 NAMI NH conference or do you want a refresher on something that was presented? You can still catch all of our recorded sessions on our Annual Conference Playlist.
2023 Annual Conference
Welcome & Opening Remarks
Welcome to the 2023 NAMI NH Annual Conference! The day will kick off with Susan Stearns, Executive Director, NAMI New Hampshire and Lori Weaver, Commissioner, NH Department of Health and Human Services each sharing their perspectives on the state of mental health in New Hampshire.
Keynote – You Are Not Alone: The Journey to the NAMI Book
Join Ken Duckworth, MD and contributors of the first NAMI book, You Are Not Alone: The NAMI Guide to Mental Health in a panel discussion that will guide us on the journey of the creation of the first NAMI book. In the perfect combination of expert advice and personal stories of lived experience, Dr. Duckworth will be joined by Denise Paley, Drea Landry, Dante Murry, and Chastity Jacobs Murry who contributed their lived experience in navigating their and/or their family members mental health challenges will share how this book can guide families and individuals and show them that none of us are alone.
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Michele Watson, NAMI NH, she/her: Welcome everybody. We’re gonna wait a few minutes to let people join in. We’ve got lots of people joining already, Very excited to have you here today.
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Michele Watson, NAMI NH, she/her: Good morning. If you just joining us, we’re just giving people a chance to sign on. and then we’ll go ahead and get started. We have a great day plan for you.
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Michele Watson, NAMI NH, she/her: Okay, we’re gonna go ahead and get started. The numbers are slowing down a bit, so good morning, everyone, and welcome to the nomine New Hampshire Annual Conference. Hope Hope brings us together. Thank you for joining us. If you’re new to naming New Hampshire, we are so glad you’re here
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Michele Watson, NAMI NH, she/her: if you’re a long time member of the naming New Hampshire family, Thank you for coming back. Army. New Hampshire is a grassroots organization
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Michele Watson, NAMI NH, she/her: that provide support education and efficacy to individuals and their families impacted by mental illness and suicide. Here in the grant of State
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Michele Watson, NAMI NH, she/her: we do this by offering a variety of programs and events, including today’s conference. We will give everyone a chance to get logged in, and then we’re going to continue to begin.
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Michele Watson, NAMI NH, she/her: It’s a beautiful day here today. So if you’re joining us from the office at home, maybe outside, we really appreciate you.
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Michele Watson, NAMI NH, she/her: So this Year’s conference, same as I said, is hope brings us together, and at a recent volunteer and donor and support our appreciation event, we ask some folks to share what is bringing them. Hope
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Michele Watson, NAMI NH, she/her: We have shared a couple of these already in the Huva App. But here’s one from our friend Mo, which we thought would be a great way to start the day.
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Michele Watson, NAMI NH, she/her: Oh, sorry it’s doing real thing on my screen here. Hi! My name is Moe.
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I have done a few things with Nami. Actually, my name is here for the Cit. I
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I have done a few things with Nami. Actually, I’ve been a volunteer for the cit program, which is one of my favorites. I’ve also attended a few of their webinars. I have raised money through events.
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and i’m in full support of everything that Nami does, because folks like me folks like you need them. What gives me hope. knowing that you are here listening to me because I have spent a lifetime
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with no one listening. So thank you for listening
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Michele Watson, NAMI NH, she/her: and thank you, Moe. I hope she’s here listening to us today because we’re so appreciated, appreciative of Moe and all of our volunteers and supporters.
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Michele Watson, NAMI NH, she/her: If you would like to share what’s giving you hope, please feel free to comment in the who the app?
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Michele Watson, NAMI NH, she/her: So i’ll finally introduce myself down that I’ve been talking for a while. My name is Michelle Watson, and i’m the volunteer Engagement supervisor here at Nami, New Hampshire, and I coordinate this conference with Kimberly Samarita, who’s been so amazing and so helpful.
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Michele Watson, NAMI NH, she/her: You will see us throughout the day today and in the Hoover platform. We are here to help, and would love to connect with you in the discussion boards, which have been very, very active this year.
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Michele Watson, NAMI NH, she/her: We also have an amazing committee of staff and volunteers who we wanted to recognize for all the valuable contributions to this conference today.
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Michele Watson, NAMI NH, she/her: If you’re interested in being a part of next year’s conference, please do not hesitate to reach out to us. You can fill out the volunteer application on the nominee New Hampshire website. We welcome new members
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Michele Watson, NAMI NH, she/her: if you run into any technical difficulties. Today. Indeed, some support. We have help reach out to Emily Huff at the number on your screen today’s presentations are in Zoom Webinar, and there will not be an option for you to turn on your camera or your microphones. We welcome questions in the Q. A. And we’ll do our best to get to them all
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Michele Watson, NAMI NH, she/her: this morning’s welcome and keynote. Sessions are going to be back to back right here, and they are accessible through the same link that you use to get to
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Michele Watson, NAMI NH, she/her: to us right now. If for some reason you get kicked off.
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Michele Watson, NAMI NH, she/her: we’d like to express our thanks to our sponsors who have helped make today’s conference available and free of charge.
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Michele Watson, NAMI NH, she/her: So now i’d like to introduce Nami, New Hampshire’s executive director, Susan Stern, to say a few words, and to welcome New Hampshire’s Department of Health and Human Services, Commissioner
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Michele Watson, NAMI NH, she/her: Rory Weaver.
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Susan Stearns – NAMI NH (she/her): Thank you, Michelle.
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Susan Stearns – NAMI NH (she/her): Good morning, everyone. It’s so wonderful to be able to be with you on this beautiful morning. I’m sorry we’re not in person, but really thrilled to be able to welcome you to our annual conference and kick us off this morning.
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Susan Stearns – NAMI NH (she/her): Thank you for once again joining us. We had, I think, over 270 folks registered, and a number of you made donations to help support the conference and the work here at Nami, New Hampshire. We’re so incredibly grateful to you. Our nomi New Hampshire family.
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Susan Stearns – NAMI NH (she/her): Michelle, mentioned we have a number of great sponsors who help make sure that this event remains accessible and free for, so that anyone can join. Starting off with our education sponsor. Jansen.
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Susan Stearns – NAMI NH (she/her): Our supporter sponsors include Amara House, Caritas, New Hampshire Carol on Behavioral Health
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Susan Stearns – NAMI NH (she/her): at a healthcare comprised of Frisbee Memorial Hospital, Parkland Medical Center and Portsmouth regional hospitals here in New Hampshire.
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Susan Stearns – NAMI NH (she/her): Mom’s Rising and the New Hampshire Community Behavioral Health Association. We are so grateful to you all for your partnership.
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Susan Stearns – NAMI NH (she/her): I’ve also been asked to mention that Nami New Hampshire is once again a finalist for a Red Sox impact award. This year first prize is a $10,000 grant from the Red Sox Foundation, and you can help us become number one by voting for Nami, New Hampshire. Every day
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Susan Stearns – NAMI NH (she/her): you can do once a day per email address.
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Susan Stearns – NAMI NH (she/her): and until the end of the month. And if you go to Red sox.com slash impact, think someone’s dropping that in the chat here. You can vote every day just one time for email address, so would be thrilled if you would vote for us, and we would be able to achieve that first place and bring bring that award back home to New Hampshire.
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Susan Stearns – NAMI NH (she/her): So you know, in the in the past year we have seen
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Susan Stearns – NAMI NH (she/her): increased awareness and openness, it continues to grow. This willingness to talk about issues of mental illness, suicide.
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Susan Stearns – NAMI NH (she/her): Perhaps this misuse disorder, and really bring those issues out of the shadows and into the light.
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Susan Stearns – NAMI NH (she/her): We particularly notice that our young people are true leaders. In this effort I was have the distinct pleasure of getting to meet with a group of some of our connect youth leaders on Monday at Bedford High School, and I tell you
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Susan Stearns – NAMI NH (she/her): our future is bright when we look at these young people and their advocacy on these issues.
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Susan Stearns – NAMI NH (she/her): Here at New Nami, New Hampshire, we continue to see increased need and numbers of folks seeking to access our core programs from our support groups to our family, to family, peer, to peer Nami basics, our net connect suicide prevention and post-vention program, our side by side educational program.
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Susan Stearns – NAMI NH (she/her): we our crisis intervention team training for first responders that gold standard practice continues to grow with support across the State, and we’re incredibly grateful to our partners the police Standards and Training Council and the New Hampshire National Guard, who often offers their facility.
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Susan Stearns – NAMI NH (she/her): We actually have a cit training happening this week. So a number of our folks will be having to watch the this conference on the recording, because they are committed for a full week of training with our first responders.
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Susan Stearns – NAMI NH (she/her): We’ve seen the new initiative of the Nami ending the silence program compared to New Hampshire to provide opportunities for speakers and to engage with middle and high schoolers. We’re just so excited
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Susan Stearns – NAMI NH (she/her): on the advocacy round.
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Susan Stearns – NAMI NH (she/her): We have entered year 10, the emergency Department psychiatric boarding
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Susan Stearns – NAMI NH (she/her): issue here in New Hampshire Yesterday we had 33 adults and 16 kiddos waiting for a bed.
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Susan Stearns – NAMI NH (she/her): I am pleased to be able to report that the State has made significant investments the 10 Year mental health plan, and there is a broad array of partners and policymakers who are working, you know, dedicatedly, and we’re going to hear from Interim Commissioner Weaver today about some of those efforts and others happening at the Department of Health and Human Services.
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Susan Stearns – NAMI NH (she/her): in order to ensure that we have the robust array of community-based care and access to that care that folks need to avoid needing an inpatient psychiatric admission, and also to ensure people have access to the supported living arrangements they need upon discharge, to to be successful and live full lives in their communities.
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Susan Stearns – NAMI NH (she/her): I want to thank
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Susan Stearns – NAMI NH (she/her): all of you. I know many of you follow our public policy alerts that come out every Friday during legislative session, and it has been a busy one, and I also see how many of you submit testimony, sign in in support or opposition bills along the line along the lines of our legislative priorities, truly grateful to you, and for sharing your personal and deeply personal stories to try and educate our legislators and help them understand how important these issues are.
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Susan Stearns – NAMI NH (she/her): We had a attended a press conference yesterday for the re-authorization of medicaid expansion a high priority, as is
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Susan Stearns – NAMI NH (she/her): behavioral emergency behavioral health services medicaid coverage for new Moms postpartum for up to a year and increasing medicaid reimbursement rates, so that we can ensure that our providers are adequately compensated, and that we can make sure that New Hampshire attracts the very best talent.
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so our loved ones have the very best care.
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Susan Stearns – NAMI NH (she/her): We’ve greatly appreciated your help, because we’ve had to work on a number of beds that would have bills that would have potentially negative impacts on our youth, especially our Lgbtq youth and their mental health. So thank you for that.
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Susan Stearns – NAMI NH (she/her): We’re so grateful to you.
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Susan Stearns – NAMI NH (she/her): And finally, I do want to acknowledge that these last several years, and even particularly in in recent months, here at Nami, New Hampshire, we’ve had folks who have had profound losses in their lives.
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Susan Stearns – NAMI NH (she/her): and we know that heartache is a part of life and a part of the journey sometimes for us.
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Susan Stearns – NAMI NH (she/her): And here at Nami, New Hampshire. Please know that we carry you in our hearts, and when it gets hard to hold on to hope, we’re here to hold on to that hope for you.
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Susan Stearns – NAMI NH (she/her): We will get through this together.
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Susan Stearns – NAMI NH (she/her): I am have absolute faith in our Nomi, New Hampshire family, and your resilience and your ability to share love and hope.
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Susan Stearns – NAMI NH (she/her): So we did my great pleasure to now introduce Interim Commissioner Lori Weaver, the Department of Health and Human Services. Lori Weaver currently serves in that role, having come to it with more than 25 years of experience at the department and a strong focus of working collaboratively across all levels.
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Susan Stearns – NAMI NH (she/her): so that with other State agencies and external partners, Commissioner Weaver has demonstrated leadership and success in achieving shared organizational goals and objectives
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Susan Stearns – NAMI NH (she/her): prior to assuming her current role. She served as Deputy Commissioner of the Department, so she has a great deal of knowledge. She brings to that role.
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and has been able to really ensure continuity of operations. Throughout the last several years of the pandemic.
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Susan Stearns – NAMI NH (she/her): She had previously been the Associate Commissioner of Operations at the Department, overseeing the operational aspects of the it’s largest department.
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Susan Stearns – NAMI NH (she/her): During her tenure there she has served as director of organizational Development services and director of training Services. She initially worked for 10 years as the training administrator for the division of your children, youth and families.
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Susan Stearns – NAMI NH (she/her): and prior to working with the department.
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Susan Stearns – NAMI NH (she/her): she also worked for several nonprofit agencies, and served as director of residential Services for children and youth in both New Hampshire and May. Massachusetts.
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Susan Stearns – NAMI NH (she/her): Commissioner Weber is a graduate of the University of New Hampshire, with a bachelor’s in psychology, and has her master’s degree in human Service administration. From Antioch University
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Susan Stearns – NAMI NH (she/her): she has received a certificate organizational development from antioch and achieve 64 credits towards her masters of counseling. She lives locally with her husband and 2 boys.
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Susan Stearns – NAMI NH (she/her): I do want to say that within a month of taking on this role. Commissioner Weaver and her team laid out a new roadmap for the department, including a commitment to promote thriving communities with an initiative to increase access to services in the behavioral health continuum.
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Susan Stearns – NAMI NH (she/her): So welcome, Commissioner Weaver, we are so looking forward to hearing from you today.
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Lori Weaver, DHHS: Thank you, Susan. That was a great introduction. Thank you. Good morning. I I was really excited when I was asked earlier this year to be a part of the Nami New Hampshire Conference. I will be honest with you. I am Susan mentioned. I am a trader is in my bones. I’ve done it for really long time. So the technology was not around when I first started training. So it’s a little odd for me to talk to 270 people and only see, maybe 2, so i’ll just, you know. I hope, that you can bear with me as we get through that today. But i’m really excited to
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Lori Weaver, DHHS: here, so welcome to the conference. I was looking at the Conference brochure earlier this week, and the sessions are so timely and so relevant. I know it’s going to generate a rich and fruitful dialogue throughout the day. And I really also like how you have it structured that you not too long on one topic, so that people can stay engaged, which is always a a challenge with online conferences. So I hope you all make the most of today. Make new connections, meet new people learn new things and share.
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Lori Weaver, DHHS: Although, as Susan said, i’m not new to the Department, I am new to the role of Commissioner 6 months, but who is really counting? Probably me. I am counting. It was 6 months last week.
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Lori Weaver, DHHS: as Susan mentioned. I’ve been with the department for a significant portion of my 34 year career and human services prior to the State. I did work in the non profit world, running residential programs for children and youth
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Lori Weaver, DHHS: with mental illness in both Massachusetts and New Hampshire, and I actually even went to graduate school to become a therapist.
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Lori Weaver, DHHS: and my biggest lesson learned. There was. There are many different ways to make a difference in human services, and being a therapist was not for me. However, it gave me a great appreciation for those that do this most important and critical work.
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Lori Weaver, DHHS: that that is the explanation of almost a full degree, a master’s degree in counseling. So I’ve always had an interest in the human services, for as long as I can remember, so ultimately shifted my focus from clinical to administration and systems. However, I will tell you, my clinical skill sets. I use them every day
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along with my other skill sets.
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Lori Weaver, DHHS: as many of you know, the department in naming New Hampshire have been partners for many years I speak for all in the department. When I say that we are honored to partner with an organization that works tirelessly to build community, inspired hope and create important resource connections for people in need.
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Lori Weaver, DHHS: Now me stated vision of a future where people affected by mental illness have hope, health, and Ha! Help is a vision that Dhs fully supports and believes in
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Lori Weaver, DHHS: as the State navigated the 10 Year Mental Health plan nominees. She worked right alongside us together through Nit Nami, New Hampshire advocacy and partnerships. We have made strides in mental health, substance, use and suicide prevention efforts
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Lori Weaver, DHHS: working together with community members other state agencies, nonprofits and health and social service systems. We’ve created a vision for New Hampshire that serves all people with behavioral health needs when and where they need it
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Lori Weaver, DHHS: not? Surprisingly as we move forward, there’s challenges that remain there’s challenges at the front end of services. There’s challenges at the back end of services. There’s challenges with resources and systems coordination.
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Lori Weaver, DHHS: We are all too familiar with the challenge of a lack of resources, staffing to open up more beds, staffing for community mental health centers staffing for crisis response teams, transitional housing. The list goes on.
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Lori Weaver, DHHS: Then there is the additional challenge of striking the balance of creating the right amount of and the right type of resources.
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Lori Weaver, DHHS: Over the last year and a half the department’s been focused on finding ways to strike that balance, and I wanted to share with you today
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Lori Weaver, DHHS: a a high, level summer, some things that we’ve been working on, As you know. The department is huge, and there’s a lot here that we do so try. It was really hard for me to keep this, Susan said. I only have like 10 min, so I’ve tried to to keep it down and narrow it down, and and many of you are going to be familiar with this work. But I just wanted to go over, I I clumped it out to 3 major categories: really progress in inpatient or slash. Residential care, community care and some systems improvement.
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Lori Weaver, DHHS: Believe it or not, next month will be a year that the State purchased Hampstead Hospital. So we are getting ready to celebrate that milestone as well as another milestone. In 2 weeks we will open our first psychiatric residential treatment facility at Hampstead.
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Lori Weaver, DHHS: So that is a a humongous
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Lori Weaver, DHHS: accomplishment. That’s the first of it’s kind of in New Hampshire, and we were able to do that within even the the first year of the contract. So we will. You keep your eye out? You’ll see some up
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Lori Weaver, DHHS: some press on that coming up in the next 2 weeks solution. Health of some of me. May of you have heard about our States investment in solution, health and part of our rationale. There is really investing in that money to be able to for that bill, to be able to get something back. And what are we getting back? What’s the State getting back? We are getting guarantees that New Hampshire residents will take precedence and we’ll get services. We are taking.
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Lori Weaver, DHHS: getting back that certain certain
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Lori Weaver, DHHS: percentage of that population will be those of our most vulnerable, a lot of our Medicaid population and a guarantee of services for 10 years, so we’re in it for the long haul here to be able to stand up some systems and get something back. It’s going to serve adults and children, and it’s not only going to create just beds. We hear people talk all the time. We need that right just designated receiving facility beds, but it’s going to create a services inpatient and outpatient service. So it’s not a one. Stop that you go in for
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Lori Weaver, DHHS: a df, and then you then your discharge, you are able to continue care and get the care that you need substance. Use disorder, mental health, specialty services. We are looking, and had made Some ask for some eating disorder, services, and some developmental disability services as well. So we are very excited about that. We are working hand in hand with solution. Help right now, as we speak on shovel ready, getting ready to build as well as programming, staffing. Pr: All of that. The stable be working
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together, and that’s looking right now. There’s a tight timeframe for that to open up at the end of 2,025, and that does feel like a a a a long time away, but it does take a while to
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Lori Weaver, DHHS: build a hospital. It’s beginning Hospitals Forensic Hospital. This is
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Lori Weaver, DHHS: Susan has been, and and 10 year before you have been instrumental in helping the department
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Lori Weaver, DHHS: with the community. Here in Concord with the build of the Forensic hospital. We have battled stigma significantly, just even talking about this for years, and we are actually at a point where you’re gonna see a contract go through for the construction to start, which is going to happen in the next couple of weeks. So we have had at least a half a dozen meetings with the community, you know, challenges with with butters. As you can imagine, people have lots of questions and lots of fears and anxieties, and
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Lori Weaver, DHHS: we asked Nami, New Hampshire to come to the table to be able to help us work with the communities, because the State is often seen as the bad guy. Right? We’re the we’re the ones that are, you know it’s easy for us to be the scapegoat. But here it was a great partnership to say, Listen, we’re doing this, and and here’s why it is beneficial to the people in the State of New York.
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Lori Weaver, DHHS: Why, it’s going to meet the service. Need that we have there. So I am actually very excited about the forensic Hospital bill in terms of meeting the need, but also seeing the design. It is not going to look like
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Lori Weaver, DHHS: a prison, or it. It looks like an extra building like you. The common person walking by Isn’t gonna know necessarily what that is. So I was really pleased in terms of
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Lori Weaver, DHHS: building a secure facility that looks like has a home like feel to it so very excited about that, and that’s expected to open mid of 2,025. There are some supply chain issues and construction issues, as i’m sure many of you are aware.
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Lori Weaver, DHHS: our children’s system of care I had mentioned, adding the level 5 of the Prtf for the children’s system of care. This is something you know. We’re talking about. During Covid we were actually able to get this Rp. Out and get the services laid out level one through 4. Now having 5, which is great. It’s just in terms of staffing is one of our challenges to be able to utilize all of those services on slots that we have.
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Lori Weaver, DHHS: But we have the we continue to make progress there.
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Lori Weaver, DHHS: and a community focus, moving away a little bit from the inpatient acuity residential focus, but also the New Hampshire rapid response which i’m sure many are you familiar with and creating that centralized access within our behavioral health system. Someone to talk, to chat, talk, or text, which is that centralized access point someone to respond. Our mobile crisis teams
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Lori Weaver, DHHS: and somewhere to go, which is really location based services. And this is something also that you’ll see coming up shortly with contracts for crisis stabilization centers. So that’s really providing another level of care that may not be inpatient. But it is a higher level of care that is
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Lori Weaver, DHHS: below hospital, but between outpatient.
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Lori Weaver, DHHS: and it would serve ultimately as another spot to go other than an emergency room and providing care for up to 23 h. So we’re about to pilot those 2
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Lori Weaver, DHHS: us centers, and see if how that goes and hopefully create more 988 national suicide prevention like lifeline launched. I looked at the call volume for March. Of this year we had 1,740 calls.
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Lori Weaver, DHHS: Our answer rate was within 19 to 20 s. So people are calling. People are picking up the phone and work is happening there.
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Lori Weaver, DHHS: Critical time, intervention. Cti: right? So we use all these acronyms right in the beginning. It was cit training. Now it’s Cti training. So our critical time intervention. We started this program back in January of 2022, and the goal was to reduce hospital readmission rates and help. People stay in their communities, and although we got off to a slow start, we are now steady at about 10 plus referrals a week, and we have an active client, count of about 242 individuals
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Lori Weaver, DHHS: mit ctl, and served. So we’re very excited about the next couple of years we’re going to work to build out some of our data and reporting systems to assess impact and of course, correct as we go along, but a very critical program, 150,
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Lori Weaver, DHHS: and also the certified community behavioral health clinics in naming New Hampshire was again a driving force to help us get this grant to be able to stand up to clinics by early 2,024 integrated mental health and substance use disorder issues, creating some good access points, treatment standards, and also a different model for provider reimbursement. So we’re very excited little bit of innovation there, and looking forward to piloting those 2 as well as to see if that’s something that we can do
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across the State.
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Lori Weaver, DHHS: Some system improvements that Susan touched on a little bit, and is, you know, in terms of around medicaid rate, increases again. Thank you to all the advocates and to for everybody supporting that. It is much needed. As you all know, it’s currently in the in the budget process. We’ll see where it lands, but I think it was a really good voice of
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Lori Weaver, DHHS: why this is so important, and especially with our system as well as our Imd weaver. And basically the state’s been working with an Id waiver process for the last couple of years, but really for me, and it’s small, simple level to share. Today it’s one of those things again increasing access to beds for a lot of our Medicaid population as well. There was a limiting factor being able to serve with Medicaid.
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Lori Weaver, DHHS: Some additional accomplishments is the mentioned Already the continued expansion of mental health and suicide, prevention, training for law enforcement officers, first responders, court systems and doc
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Lori Weaver, DHHS: workforce initiatives to recruit train and talented dedicated people to work in our mental health system. Susan also mentioned our roadmap. We are also looking at creating a focus and on some training of opportunities there as Well, we have loan repayment programs that we’ve been able to launch as well
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Lori Weaver, DHHS: to help those peers in clinicians working in our system.
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Lori Weaver, DHHS: creating more supported housing options for adults with mental illness, to ensure that the stable, housing and access to treatment remain
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Lori Weaver, DHHS: and upstream prevention messaging. This is ready. This is on the precipice of launching. You’ll see it soon. I noticed some other States were already head launch. There’s a a way to instill hope and resiliency, reducing the stigma and normalize, helping help seeking. So we have spent the last year working on that with all of our partners and those that is messaging is about to launch as well.
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Lori Weaver, DHHS: We are learning more every day about the impact of the pandemic on mental health. As many of you know, during Covid we saw an increase in emotional and psychological distress, substance, misuse, and suicide like ideation. And as Susan mentioned, it continues today.
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Lori Weaver, DHHS: the prevalence and acuity is concerning about one in 4 of doubts are experiencing or mental health so given that it’s almost certain that we know somebody that’s experiencing it ourselves.
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Lori Weaver, DHHS: Although New Hampshire is in the top 10 states for children’s mental health access. We still have a ways to go. We have about 47 of our youth, who are look considered depressed, and not receiving treatment.
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Lori Weaver, DHHS: and the new Cdc data that nearly 3 and 5 us team girls feel persistently hopeless or sad. Double that a voice that’s about a 60% increase over the last decade.
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Lori Weaver, DHHS: None of the challenges we face stigma or force. Housing and security increased demand for acute care. Integration of care are small, and none have a so any obvious silver bullets. Although much work and major challenges lie ahead.
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Lori Weaver, DHHS: We will keep on improving and building together individuals, families, communities, providers, local state, and Federal government. It takes all of us to row in the same direction steadily and consistently over a period of time before we can see any significant changes in impacts of the systems. It’s my hope, and should be our hope that by working together purposefully, we can look back in years to come at a system that is transformed and meaning the current needs in our state.
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Lori Weaver, DHHS: and I look forward to working on those changes with you. So with that I will say Thank you, and I hope you have a wonderful conference today.
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Susan Stearns – NAMI NH (she/her): Well, thank you, Commissioner Weaver. I am impressed at how much you’re able to fit into such a short amount of time, not to mention how much you’ve accomplished in your short amount of time in the broke this role leading the team.
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Susan Stearns – NAMI NH (she/her): I don’t know if we have any questions that have come up yet. We’ll give folks a moment, but
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Susan Stearns – NAMI NH (she/her): I particularly wanted to mention how much we appreciate your leadership, that of the departments, in addressing the needs of our loved ones, who are particularly involved in the in the justice system. These are
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Susan Stearns – NAMI NH (she/her): I’m. I’m very struck when I talk to families of these folks, and about
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Susan Stearns – NAMI NH (she/her): how, indeed, they are often our most marginalized amongst our people, our folks that we serve. and
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Susan Stearns – NAMI NH (she/her): any thoughts for you in terms of things that might be done, if for us, or in terms of addressing the needs of this population in in the ensuing months, before a year and a half or so before we will see that opening of the
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Susan Stearns – NAMI NH (she/her): Forensic hospital.
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Lori Weaver, DHHS: You know it’s it’s a great, it’s a great question, and I know I know when I tell you what the ask is that you’ll be right there. I mean you have should be right there to help support us. I, you know, the minute the first construction vehicle drives onto the campus here it’s it’s going to create a a a reaction. And so there’s going to be a lot of buzz. So I would really like to be able to get ahead of that and and do some messaging together, and really educate and inform. And so a lot of it is bringing down people
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Lori Weaver, DHHS: anxiety and fears right. There’s a lot of people that Don’t understand. So can we work together. So we’ll be doing more public firms and Susan. We will definitely be inviting, inviting you and your team to that. We’re probably going to need to do more than that. What what kind of outreach can we be doing to be able to educate and form as well as if you can help us think of ways to make that facility feel less threatening to people. We are
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Lori Weaver, DHHS: completely open to that, so we will definitely be knocking on your door from where to come.
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Susan Stearns – NAMI NH (she/her): We we stand ready, as always, to partner with you on that endeavor, and i’m sure a lot of our folks would be willing to support that as well. I think we do have one question in the chat.
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Michele Watson, NAMI NH, she/her: Michelle. Did you want me to read that. No, that’s okay. I just grabbed it. I was looking at some from Hoover as well, so so the one that you just saw is, are there any moves to allow Peer support specialists to access the State long repayment program?
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Michele Watson, NAMI NH, she/her: They are not currently a listed qualifying provider category.
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Lori Weaver, DHHS: I I I can’t tell you for certain. If it’s that particular classification. I can tell you, though, that we continue to try to expand who is eligible for that.
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Lori Weaver, DHHS: and that is a voice that won’t Go away. It’s it’s really the deciding factors of people that approve that that will help the final say. But we will advocate, for that is as much as it’s needed to get to that end.
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Susan Stearns – NAMI NH (she/her): and then also made a note of folks to add that when we’re advocating around the slope. So thank you for that. That’s a great one. Yes.
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Michele Watson, NAMI NH, she/her: Is there a website that provides details on the expansion of the hospital?
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Lori Weaver, DHHS: There is there’s actually on the Dh website, Hs website. I think it’s on the New Hampshire Hospital page. We have listed all of the sessions that we have which have slide decks on them that have information about everything from sou to nuts of the program, and we’ll continue to post more there. There’s also, I believe, an email address and a phone number that people can call. If they have questions they can send them there as well. And and the the hospital respond.
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Michele Watson, NAMI NH, she/her: The next forum on our social media. We we do try to make sure when they’re scheduled to do that. So folks stay tuned
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Lori Weaver, DHHS: to social media, and we’ll make sure to share it when it’s when it’s scheduled. Wonderful! Thank you.
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Michele Watson, NAMI NH, she/her: Thank you. And we can put some of those details in one of the discussion boards as well, or
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Michele Watson, NAMI NH, she/her: part of it for this session. And then there’s one other quick question, I think, for you, Susan.
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Michele Watson, NAMI NH, she/her: can you talk a little bit more about the cit program and where we would find more details.
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Susan Stearns – NAMI NH (she/her): Oh, I believe we do have a cit page on our website now me and h.org, and we’ll try and see if we can find it and pop it in the chat to the link to the actual page.
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Susan Stearns – NAMI NH (she/her): I do. The cit is near and dear to all our hearts. It is a 40 h gold standard training for law enforcement and other first responders, and how to respond to people experiencing mental health crises
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Susan Stearns – NAMI NH (she/her): 30. Both the it page has popped up in the chat, and and
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Susan Stearns – NAMI NH (she/her): we part of that training is 2 days really of role playing. So we have some wonderful volunteers who come in to do that role playing. So the first responders can really have, You know, real interactions with folks and scenarios they might very well encounter in responding these types of calls. So if you’re interested, you can always reach out to us through volunteer@namiandh.or email us. If you’re interested in in becoming a C, it volunteer.
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Susan Stearns – NAMI NH (she/her): and if there’s some, if you know someone, a first responders interested in. Take in, you know, attending c. It training. You can send that along to us at info, at not me and H. Org.
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Michele Watson, NAMI NH, she/her: Great. Thank you so much.
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Michele Watson, NAMI NH, she/her: So thank you, Commissioner Weaver. We really appreciate the time that you took to share all your information with us this morning. If we see other things that pop up in the who, the chat
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Michele Watson, NAMI NH, she/her: that you might be interested, and we’ll make sure we let you know, so that we can respond to everybody, appropriately.
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Lori Weaver, DHHS: Right? Thank you. And I hope you all have a wonderful day.
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Oh.
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Michele Watson, NAMI NH, she/her: thank you so much. Thank you, Commissioner.
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Michele Watson, NAMI NH, she/her: Okay, Susan.
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Susan Stearns – NAMI NH (she/her): All right. So
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Susan Stearns – NAMI NH (she/her): it is truly my pleasure I get. I get to do a lot of the fun things this morning to introduce our our next speaker and panel.
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Susan Stearns – NAMI NH (she/her): Dr. Ken Duckworth is with us today along with Dante, Murray, Chastity, Jacobs, Murray.
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Susan Stearns – NAMI NH (she/her): Denise, Paley, and Dreya Landry to talk about Nami Nationals first book you are not alone. if you Haven’t had a chance yet to read the book I strongly encourage you to. It is truly a book full of hope and honestly love, and is truly written from a place of love.
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Susan Stearns – NAMI NH (she/her): and there’s so much information. It’s a wealth of resources. Frankly, I I’ve lost track of how many I have given away to folks. And just once you’ve mentioned that
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Susan Stearns – NAMI NH (she/her): Gibson’s bookstore, our local independent bookseller here in Concord, has given us a discount code for today that you can purchase the book with, and you will get, I think.
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Susan Stearns – NAMI NH (she/her): 25% off.
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Susan Stearns – NAMI NH (she/her): I’m looking at Michelle You will get it 2020% sorry sorry. Gibson is wonderful. You get 20 off if you purchase it with the code today, Dr. Duckworth will talk about some exciting news where the book is going in terms of having wide market appeal coming up. So let me just first introduce him, and then we’ll get started with our keynote.
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Susan Stearns – NAMI NH (she/her): Dr. Duck Horse journey into psychiatry started when he was a boy growing up with a dad who experienced severe bipolar disorder. His father was a loving kind, and periodically quite ill hospitalized for months at a time.
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Susan Stearns – NAMI NH (she/her): Ken became a psychiatrist in part to help his father. He talks about that journey in his book. He is the chief medical officer for Anami, and
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Susan Stearns – NAMI NH (she/her): very fortunate he feels to be part of this community the Tsunami family.
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Susan Stearns – NAMI NH (she/her): He had Ken’s book.
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Susan Stearns – NAMI NH (she/her): You are not alone the Nami guy to navigating mental health with advice from experts in wisdom for real people and families, is truly a a book of compassion and love, and offers an essential resource for individuals and families seeking expert invited advice on guidance, on diagnosis, treatment and recovery.
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Susan Stearns – NAMI NH (she/her): and featuring these inspiring true stories from real people in their own words. And you’re gonna hear from some of those folks today. We are so lucky to have them. Here. Ken is a double board sort of is double board certified an adult and child and adolescent psychiatry, and has completed a forensic psychiatry fellowship.
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Susan Stearns – NAMI NH (she/her): So we are so lucky to have Dr. Duckworth here from our broader alliance, and as well as the folks who have given their time, and been vulnerable in sharing their stories in this book, in order to offer Hope and Foster, you know
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Susan Stearns – NAMI NH (she/her): resilience. and
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Susan Stearns – NAMI NH (she/her): to help create true change. So welcome to you all, Dr. Duckworth. The stage is yours.
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Ken Duckworth MD: Thank you, Susan. And Hello, everybody! I had such a nice little visit in New Hampshire a few weeks back.
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Ken Duckworth MD: Your community is remarkable, and you’re doing great work.
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Ken Duckworth MD: I just want to say, having listen to the Commissioner. I’ve been the Commissioner of Mental Health. It’s a really hard job. I just want to acknowledge that, and you’ll be hearing from 4 people in the book.
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Ken Duckworth MD: The book is a collection of real people who use their names and share what they have learned. and 2 of them involved direct interactions with criminal justice and the impact
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Ken Duckworth MD: on them, and why they worked to improve police training. So, as you heard, Nami has a book. Now isn’t that fun 43 years as the biggest and best mental health grassroots organization in the world really I thought we really deserved a book.
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Ken Duckworth MD: and I’m delighted to say, we have a book. We Nami owned the copyright. We Nami, get all the royalties.
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Ken Duckworth MD: so I get paid to write the book, which was fun and to market the book, which is pretty good. All the sales go back to our mission and our vision for a better world.
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Ken Duckworth MD: So I had the great fortune to meet 130 people
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Ken Duckworth MD: who wanted to share their experience, and I could have done more. But I just ran out of time, because I was on the deadline, because the publisher correctly intuited that we would do better
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Ken Duckworth MD: if we had a book that came out during the mental health moment.
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Ken Duckworth MD: So the book basically is first person experience as expertise.
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Ken Duckworth MD: And you all know this from your own lives that you’ve learned something by living with something. You’ve learned something by loving someone
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Ken Duckworth MD: incredibly. There hadn’t been a mental health book that emphasized this idea.
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Ken Duckworth MD: I had had this idea about 15 years ago in my local bookstore in Boston, and i’m like there’s memoir after memoir, which Don’t help people, but are interesting. and there’s textbooks which no one reads, and I thought, that’s not really an optimal thing. I really could have used a book myself
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Ken Duckworth MD: that was practical, that had real people because shame and isolation were principal problems in my own family. My dad, as Susan mentioned, was loving and gregarious, but occasionally quite psychotic, called off by the police communicating with the microwave oven.
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Ken Duckworth MD: It was an unsettling and scary reality. He had very bad bipolar disorder, and was a very good person.
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Ken Duckworth MD: and we couldn’t talk about it.
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Ken Duckworth MD: So one of my favorite chapters in the book is family communication, and you’ll hear from Dante and Chastity Murray about family communication.
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Ken Duckworth MD: I also want to let you know that dre a Landry
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Ken Duckworth MD: graciously agreed to be part of the book, and she has a lot to teach, and Denise Paley is also gonna be on our panel. So what i’m gonna do is ask each of them to speak for 5 or 10 min, 5 or 7 min about why they wanted to be in the book what they hope people might get from the book. Then we’ll take your questions.
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Ken Duckworth MD: I should say, in addition to lived experiences expertise. I also asked the best researchers in America to answer all the questions I get at the Nami Convention.
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Ken Duckworth MD: Do I really have to take these meds forever? How do you get people to accept treatment when they don’t want it? What is Dbt: anyway? How do I find a therapist? These are the questions that people ask me.
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Ken Duckworth MD: So the book is at both end. Book. It’s first person. It’s family. It’s lived experience as expertise, and it’s old school experts, so
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Ken Duckworth MD: I don’t know who would like to start. Perhaps Dante and Chastity, who are in the family communication as a married couple. You know. I was so impressed at how they run their marriage
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Ken Duckworth MD: based on the principles of some Anami support program. So I want to thank you, Dante, and Chastity for joining us today virtually in New Hampshire, and ask you how you’re doing, and how’s your adventure going?
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Ken Duckworth MD: You know famous people now in Nami’s first book, which I should mention is so 35,000 36,000copies
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Ken Duckworth MD: is in every target in America.
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Ken Duckworth MD: It just keeps going, and the publisher is going to print another 50,000 copy. She just told me last week. The paper back is when they give up.
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Ken Duckworth MD: but the book keeps selling, so they’re going to keep going, so it’s kind of cool books been resold in the United Kingdom.
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Ken Duckworth MD: You are not alone with Scones is my preferred title, but they call you are not alone, and that’s been re-sold in mandarin. They’re looking for a Spanish public. So the project just keeps going. So Dante and Chastity, I want to ask you a little bit. I’m gonna have 2 kind of broad questions for you. I’ll be asking the same questions of
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Ken Duckworth MD: Andrea and of Denise. Why did you want to be in the book that shared who you really are, because every single book
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Dante & Chastity Murry: in mental health is everyone. Here is an anonymous, fictitious person. Any resemblance to any real people is purely fictitious.
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Ken Duckworth MD: I always felt that that promoted isolation, and I don’t want everybody to go on Channel 5 and tell their story, but I happen to know through my travels at Nami that there are thousands of people
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Ken Duckworth MD: that sees value in sharing what they have learned.
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Ken Duckworth MD: So I want to ask you the first question: what were you think? What what went through your mind when you heard about the book? Why did you volunteer for the book? And what do you hope people get from it, and thank you again.
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Dante & Chastity Murry: First and foremost, thanks to everybody who’s allowed my wife and I to be on here
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Dante & Chastity Murry: and the interview process. We appreciate that team as well, Dr. Duckworth and and others.
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Dante & Chastity Murry: and we we, we find it a blessing to be able to tell our story. And here’s Why? Because we were within our voice. Yes, and we did that quite a bit, and that’s one of the flagships for Nami
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Dante & Chastity Murry: to do that kind of program that kind of outreach I know they talked about Cit, and that’s what we did a lot of doing our personal stories as some of the trends they did at LCD. We’ve done some speeches, and I
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Dante & Chastity Murry: that’s a second nature for us. We love it. We do. We facilitate groups. Yeah. Fsg: tsunami connection. And so this was a great opportunity to
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Dante & Chastity Murry: to
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Dante & Chastity Murry: evangelize the good things Nami has the hold out for the community. After all, Nami is the largest grassroots organization in America, and what better way to to tell a message than to tell your personal impact is had on you.
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Dante & Chastity Murry: and that’s what we did. We we find it to to be rewarding to let people know what Nami’s done to help our Mountain family here in mobile and and broad. Yes.
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Ken Duckworth MD: isn’t it true that you use Nami as a dating app of I mean, that’s that’s a secret sauce of your success. Right? You met.
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Dante & Chastity Murry: And now what you don’t see every day.
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Dante & Chastity Murry: Now we get ready to start like chick fly down. Okay, I can tell you the secret sauce. Here
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Dante & Chastity Murry: we we met at the Non rally in Frankfurt, Kentucky. I was given a a speech at the Rotunda.
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Dante & Chastity Murry: and we’re advocating for some of the bills that’s supposed to be passed to to help out with insurance parity, with mental health services.
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Dante & Chastity Murry: And so I got a chance to make my rounds that she people do hob novel around in the lobby area before they do all this.
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Dante & Chastity Murry: This talks with the the representatives, and I happen to see this young lady here, and i’m like.
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Dante & Chastity Murry: Who’s that? And I look to the left, I said, oh, that’s Phyllis. She knows who this lady is, possibly, and so i’d be my shoes around and talking, and I i’m sly about
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Dante & Chastity Murry: shaking her hand, saying, hey, have you been a part of this interim voice process here, and other classes they have to offer? Because, after all. I’m: a train, the trainer. Okay. So i’m using every bit of skill set. I know some people talk about skill sets earlier. The easy skill sets to get the job done, and so
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she says, No, I haven’t been a part of any of those programs. I don’t like how I do that. So Well, if you give me your name, a number and a
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Dante & Chastity Murry: even i’d be able to send you this information to help you out in the or the trainings. I did a I did a warm hand off there. Didn’t that? Then I follow up. Pretty soon I was able to
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Ken Duckworth MD: to get a hold of her, and we rest. Is history lovely, and you both live with mental health conditions.
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Dante & Chastity Murry: Yes, yes, we do, and you integrate some of Nami’s teaching into your relationship.
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Ken Duckworth MD: I love that you talked about that.
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Ken Duckworth MD: and I wondered if you could share a little bit about that.
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Ken Duckworth MD: We never figured out how to communicate, and so I love people that have figured this out, and so just talk a little bit about that. If you don’t mind
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Dante & Chastity Murry: sure sure I can highlight some things we use. Check-ins are very useful. We’ve got a code word. We got green light, you know. We’re not trying to have a spin off of the green, light red light thing the kids used to do, but we use it because it’s
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Dante & Chastity Murry: It’s gotta let us know that this is the time to stop and check it on a good way. So we don’t use red to to denote a negative, but a green like to say, Look, we need to talk more about this, and that’s still in private, because we’ve we’ve got a young child when he’s 18 now, but he’s a young child and autistic, and it’s best to deal with adult topics in adult
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Dante & Chastity Murry: surroundings.
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Dante & Chastity Murry: You know we take a walk or we go outside the house somewhere. You know it’s just creating a environment for us to really
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Dante & Chastity Murry: tap into the logical side of our brains rather than the emotional, because the emotional is really going to get us in trouble with each other. If we don’t pump the breaks and then say, hey, let’s find a a neutral place to to talk about these hot topics. So yeah personal support help us. Sometimes
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Dante & Chastity Murry: some of the techniques we learned in some of the classes we take in the Fsg. And
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Dante & Chastity Murry: other trainings that Mountain has put on. We’ve used some of those skill sets to help us out, and we got marriage counseling. You know we find out what kind of a love language we have that helps tremendously having those kind of
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Dante & Chastity Murry: foundations already established, and how we best communicate. And once you know how each other communicates, and what what each desires to have. and that
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Dante & Chastity Murry: situation that we start looking for each other’s best interest when it comes to that now is, anybody can yell on the screen. Anybody can get upset, you know, and stuff around the house where.
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Dante & Chastity Murry: but it takes a lot of effort to say, let’s sit down and and negotiate this thing.
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Dante & Chastity Murry: and that’s where the relationship becomes model, responsible
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Dante & Chastity Murry: interchange of words, and and then go from there, and our spirituality. We can’t leave that out. You know Mental health is holistic, you know. Mental health includes everything for us.
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Dante & Chastity Murry: from
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the Bible to our spirituality. Higher power
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Dante & Chastity Murry: books that we’ve read. You know all other things that can help us be stronger, you know. No marriage is perfect, No?
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Dante & Chastity Murry: Well, like I said I’ve been with Nami for 14 years, promoting Nami, and it’s just been a rewarding and rewarding to be able to be here. Nami, for Nomi, Hampshire, New Hampshire. Excuse me for being able to do this the book
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Dante & Chastity Murry: promoting this book has just been such an honor to be able to do. This has been such an honor.
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Ken Duckworth MD: Well, thank you both.
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Ken Duckworth MD: So we’ll come back for questions at the end we could talk about.
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Ken Duckworth MD: You know a little bit more about your relationship and how you use communication strategies learned at Nami in the Q. A. You can, you know, really ask us anything. It does occur to me that everybody on this panel happens to be engaged with cit training based on an experiences that they’ve had.
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Ken Duckworth MD: So it’s highly German that I jumped on early to listen to your commission or talk about the importance of this work.
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Ken Duckworth MD: and of course Nami was central to the development of cit training with Major Sam Cochran in Memphis, Tennessee, Andrea Landry. I want to thank you for joining today and being part of our conversation, and so
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Ken Duckworth MD: tell me a little bit. You’ve helped me with several of these talks as well. I’m talking about your own recovery journey. Tell us a little bit about why you wanted to be in the book and share your story and thank you again.
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Andrea (Drea) Landry, CPRS, RPS, ALWF: Thank you for having me.
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Andrea (Drea) Landry, CPRS, RPS, ALWF: I remember how alone I felt when I was first diagnosed with a bipolar disorder, Ptsd. And anxiety, and just feeling like there was no cure, no way out, and
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Andrea (Drea) Landry, CPRS, RPS, ALWF: I didn’t want anyone else to feel that way. Once I saw my first in our own voice presentation I was like. Yes, I want to do that. I want to get out there. I want to spread the word, and if I can just reach one person I have touched many because one person spreads the word.
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Ken Duckworth MD: Andre, You’ve had some interactions with police.
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Ken Duckworth MD: and I know it’s not easy to talk about. But would you be willing to share your experience and what you learned from that
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Andrea (Drea) Landry, CPRS, RPS, ALWF: Sure, I actually grew up in a law Enforcement household. My mom was a parole officer and a prison guard. So I had an idea of exactly how law enforcement approaches certain situations.
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Andrea (Drea) Landry, CPRS, RPS, ALWF: When I engaged myself it was actually quite scary. I found myself in an disagreement with my ex husband.
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Andrea (Drea) Landry, CPRS, RPS, ALWF: We got into an argument, and sometimes I have anger management issues. So, in order to help me get through some things. I go on, ride a train or a bus, or whatever just get out alone, so that I can work out my feelings.
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Andrea (Drea) Landry, CPRS, RPS, ALWF: And this particular day I went out and about, and my husband did not know where I was, and call the police on me, and ordinarily
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Andrea (Drea) Landry, CPRS, RPS, ALWF: an adult person can go missing for 72 h before the police decided to come looking for you. However, if you have a mental health condition, they come looking for you immediately, and When the police asked him if I was a danger to myself or others, he said, I don’t know what a problem is. So they came to look for me immediately, and
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Andrea (Drea) Landry, CPRS, RPS, ALWF: when they called me and I told them where I was, the the young woman, she approached me with her gun, so i’m instantly with my hands in the air because she has her hand on her gun, and i’m saying, okay, i’m scared. I please.
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Andrea (Drea) Landry, CPRS, RPS, ALWF: Don’t hurt me. Don’t shoot. I’m good. I’m not armed, and I let her know who I was, and walked her through. As I reached for getting my Id you know. Yeah, i’m going to move my hand to grab my phone so that I can get my id, and you can see who I am. As she was asking me questions.
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Andrea (Drea) Landry, CPRS, RPS, ALWF: and as I walked her through
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Andrea (Drea) Landry, CPRS, RPS, ALWF: what I was reaching for, so that she didn’t think I was making any sad movements that helped her be able to talk with me, and to understand that I was not a threat, not only to her or to myself, and and being a part of the the C. I. T programs in in Maryland in Baltimore, and that was one of the things that I would tell our officers. You know.
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Andrea (Drea) Landry, CPRS, RPS, ALWF: I realized that you’re afraid, and that these situations are can be sometimes volatile, especially when someone is really symptomatic. But if you listen to what the person is saying, they may not be as well spoken as myself as to walk you through, hey? I’m reaching from my phone.
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But if you’re listening to what it is that they’re saying, even in their heavily symptomaticness you can get through
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Andrea (Drea) Landry, CPRS, RPS, ALWF: without the use of severe violence to to that could hurt someone that could kill someone that could get them to that point, and both of you can come up on top.
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Ken Duckworth MD: I’m impressed Drea, and how much presence you had when you were in a crisis. and you were thinking of the police officers response and experience.
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Ken Duckworth MD: I just want to say how extraordinary that is.
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Andrea (Drea) Landry, CPRS, RPS, ALWF: Thank you. I remember asking my mom a question Once, because I remember seeing this, I asked her, Why is it that 20 cops show up to one site.
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Andrea (Drea) Landry, CPRS, RPS, ALWF: whether there’s someone being pulled over, or you have a suspect that may you see running, and all of a sudden, you see all these 1 million cops coming towards this one person, and one of the things she said was that sometimes they’re sitting around in their board.
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Andrea (Drea) Landry, CPRS, RPS, ALWF: and so they all show up all at one time to give them something to do. But then, when things get heightened, it becomes over the top. And that made me think about okay. This can become over the top, and you know cops have a bad habit of shoot first. Ask questions never.
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Andrea (Drea) Landry, CPRS, RPS, ALWF: So if you take the time to walk them through and help them understand what you’re going through, even though you don’t understand what you’re going through. It makes the situation come out a lot better. And even as I have talked to law Enforcement officers
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Andrea (Drea) Landry, CPRS, RPS, ALWF: and the C. I. T. Trainings through this particular process.
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Andrea (Drea) Landry, CPRS, RPS, ALWF: I do the same thing for those of us who are living through mental health disorders, you know. Talk to the offices who are there on scene, even when you’re when it feels like you’re being delusional, even if it feels like. You’re not all there, Don’t, have all your faculties. Do the best you can to express yourself as best you can, because you may not be as reasonable as you are right now. But you’re still speaking your
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Ken Duckworth MD: Hmm. Well, thank you, Drea, so you’ll be available for questions later and thank you for everything you’re doing.
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Ken Duckworth MD: I gave a talk to Nami, Connecticut. Again. The process of finding people was fairly random. That is to say, I trusted that if I interviewed 100 or so people, I would capture the waterfront of Nami experience, and Denise Paley was kind enough
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Ken Duckworth MD: to volunteer from my little chat at Nami, Connecticut to share her story which again involves the police and her work in training police officers. So, Denise, I want to thank you for joining today’s conversation.
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Denise Paley: Thank you. Thanks for having me here.
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Denise Paley: So for first half, you know why I wanted to be in the book to begin with. it Really, it really centers around shame. So
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Denise Paley: you know my son had his first onset of psychosis that led to his interaction with
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Denise Paley: police.
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Denise Paley: And so here we have an incident where my son is, you know
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Denise Paley: now, living with a very serious mental illness which has its own umbrella, you know, wrap around sham associated with it, and he’s arrested
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Denise Paley: right? So I just felt like I had one of 2 2 choices. I could either go into hiding and let this cycle keep perpetuating itself over and over and over.
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Denise Paley: you know, or I could try and do something about it. So it doesn’t have to happen to anybody behind us. You know what one of the most common questions
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Denise Paley: I get, or the most common points that are made to me is that people are so shocked by my child. Despite Ellis’s experience, they can’t believe that this happened to him in the way the police interacted, and the fact that they were so
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Denise Paley: unwilling to listen, and did not have the training. and and people just assume that they that police officers have crisis, intervention, training. And this is the job that they have. So, of course they’re ready to do it.
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Denise Paley: and
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Denise Paley: it’s always enlightening for people to see that this is a this is a cycle. This is not, you know Ellis is not an isolated incident. He’s he’s part of a system, a cycle that has been going on for you know, years, and you know, for decades, and if people don’t step in and change it. It will go on for decades more behind him.
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Denise Paley: So I I just think it’s been a good. It’s been a good
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Denise Paley: point of education for others. It’s been a good point of education for myself. I was.
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Denise Paley: you know.
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Denise Paley: should be told. I was one of the masses that believed our criminal justice system worked a certain way, and that it was functioning as it should. And I’ve been very enlightened to
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Denise Paley: how it does not and how it does not serve especially people with mental illness in Connecticut. So we’ve been able to, you know. I I i’m relatively new. I’ve been with non me for about 3 and a half years. That’s how long my son has been incarcerated for.
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Denise Paley: and i’m on the board now, and one of the things that we did was.
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Denise Paley: we have cable in Connecticut, so it’s the Connecticut Alliance to benefit law enforcement, and they do all of the crisis intervention team training.
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Denise Paley: They do it for the city Connecticut. They also do it in Rhode Island. They’re an excellent organization, but it is voluntary for police officers to participate.
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Denise Paley: So, to encourage participation. Our Nami affiliate on the shoreline of Connecticut has offered to pay like we will, whatever the State doesn’t cover for their training, we will pick up the difference, and we’ll pay for the police officers to attend
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Denise Paley: you. Would you would think that would be enough.
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Ken Duckworth MD: and it has not been so. I’ve been advocating, as you know, Ken, with the Public Safety Committee in the State of Connecticut. Did you talk a little bit about your advocacy to these? Still, i’m so impressed that you’ve been through so much with your son, and in a relatively short period of time you’ve become
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Ken Duckworth MD: kind of the sinew unknown of the Nami advocate. Can you talk a little bit about what you’re working on in Connecticut?
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Denise Paley: Yeah. So I so I’ve advocated for
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Denise Paley: for a number of bills, some to improve
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Denise Paley: conditions for people who are living in incarceration, one to end the the abuse of solitary confinement and state it Regarding you know Ellis’s incident particularly because, you know, he had the the police was the police were his first point of contact
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Denise Paley: when he was having his break, and it’s the at that intersection where they had the opportunity to recognize he was having a crisis
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Denise Paley: we actually
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Denise Paley: set. We did not think he could possibly be in his right state of mind based on some of the things that he was doing, and I was actually told verbatim he was not having. He was not experiencing a a a psychotic break like verbatim.
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Denise Paley: And you know we all know how that ended. So
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Denise Paley: one of the one of the bills that’s actually going through right now, and i’m learning a lot about how long it takes to make a bill along. So. But this I’ve advocated to mandate crisis intervention team to training for police officers
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Denise Paley: and to allocate funding to support it. So just this session it’s through. There is a bill that is going to require that beginning July of next year.
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Denise Paley: and we’re 99% of the way there. So it it. It passed through a committee without any 100% votes. Yes, through the committee. It went through the Senate 100% votes. Yes, no one no knows. And now it’s going through the House, which is any day now.
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Denise Paley: and I’m, anticipating
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Denise Paley: another 100 votes. Yes, and then this will be part of their training curriculum.
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Ken Duckworth MD: That’s fantastic. Now you also had a police department that did better for your son, if I remember from a Could you talk a little bit about that?
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Denise Paley: Yes. So our local police department, who we were working with to
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Denise Paley: detain or to hold on to him, because they had found him at some point right, so
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Denise Paley: they did not have the training they lacked their training. When Alice was
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Denise Paley: arrested he was arrested by a police department where they did have the training.
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Denise Paley: and I think about it I mean, as also as it’s been. I I think, about how lucky we are, because the police officers that
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Denise Paley: when they had called when they had called in
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Denise Paley: the incident
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Denise Paley: because it was the middle of the day, and just you know it was just so, you know.
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Denise Paley: like I I don’t know just
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Denise Paley: lands and the way things were happening that they called in, and I guess as a code blue.
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Denise Paley: which is, which means that it’s somebody who is looking to die by suicide, so it could have gone really
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Denise Paley: poorly.
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Denise Paley: and the police officers that arrested him had the training.
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Denise Paley: and they knew exactly. I I seen the video of his arrest, and he was. Nobody handled him roughly. They were very calm. It was they were. They were very gentle with him. They knew exactly how to get him out of the car how to put him into the police car. They walked with him, and it was it was it’s nurturing
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Denise Paley: as an experience as you can imagine, considering it was an arrest.
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Denise Paley: Shortly after our child’s incident there was another incident where there was a child a year older than ours, who had a similar.
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Denise Paley: you know, had something similar happen, and
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Denise Paley: he was in his car, and you know I wasn’t there. I don’t know what you know.
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Denise Paley: but he was having a crisis. He was in his car. His family had called the police and said he, you know he had a known mental health
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Denise Paley: illness, and he was shot through the window
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Denise Paley: and and and died, and he know he didn’t even have the opportunity to like. Put his hands on the the car, so I know our story could have ended much more tragically than it already has, and I i’m very aware of that.
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Ken Duckworth MD: Well, Denise, I want to thank you for everything you’re doing. I’m so sorry you’ve been through all this.
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Ken Duckworth MD: and now it’s lucky to have you. So I think, Susan, at this point
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Ken Duckworth MD: we’ll open up for questions in conversation, all in a way organized around both Cit
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Ken Duckworth MD: and in Dante and Chastity’s case, you know communication strategies, and they’re teaching in C it.
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Ken Duckworth MD: So we could talk about anything you’d like, including how your book might go. Is not me having another book. What can you do with cit learning from what is being done in Connecticut. What Ray is doing in Maryland?
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Ken Duckworth MD: What Dante and Chastity are doing in Kentucky?
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Susan Stearns – NAMI NH (she/her): Great Michelle? Do we have some questions?
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Michele Watson, NAMI NH, she/her: Sure, I was just pulling them up from the so. The first one was, what are some of your favorite books that inspire one drive you. and I think this is open to anybody.
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Ken Duckworth MD: I’ll just start by saying in the back of our book I asked all 130 people their favorite resources.
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Ken Duckworth MD: and I listed them all by chapter so, and somebody said to me, the book that made a difference for me is.
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Ken Duckworth MD: I would include that in the back of the book. So just so, you know, there’s a lot of resources in our book.
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Ken Duckworth MD: because I know there’s no one book that captures everything.
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Ken Duckworth MD: So I just want to mention that if you happen to pick up the book or you next time you’re at Gib, since you look at the back of the book you’d like, oh, organization, book.
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Ken Duckworth MD: Blog Post Organization Book. So it’s very intentional that this should be kind of the definitive resource for people. But i’ll let other folks add to that.
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Denise Paley: Well, you know, i’m gonna say the number. One book that I recommend is yours can, because it’s just so comprehensive. And I I think it teaches people
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Denise Paley: that they don’t have to be a bystander. You know that there’s there’s hope, you know, Susan, I think that’s how you kicked it off. You know the book represents hope and it and it’s true it it. It teaches you resources, and it helps you feel less
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Denise Paley: alone and make sense of what’s happening, and teaches you how you can take action.
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Denise Paley: Another book that was that was given to me as a gift. When very early on with my child. It’s called Fix what you can, and it’s by Mindy Grieling, and she’s a she’s a former legislator, and she has a son who has serious mental illness, and the book is about as a legislator.
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Denise Paley: Her trying to make a ripple on the criminal justice system, and how hard it was for her when this was her job. You know, when this is literally what she did for a living. But how unpopular mental illness is.
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Denise Paley: or was for her as a topic, and I’ve lost a change, and that that’s a book that I leaned on a lot
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Ken Duckworth MD: Dreya, Jass City, Dante, any books or resources that have spoken to you.
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Dante & Chastity Murry: Yeah, I actually have 3, and i’ll make it fast the first one. Well, obviously, we’ll make it 4 h. Of course.
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Andrea (Drea) Landry, CPRS, RPS, ALWF: the the one that helped me come to acceptance with my diagnosis was a. K. K. James’s book, which is a the unquiet mind just in reading that I connected with her, and could relate to a lot of the things that she was doing, and and how she accepted
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Andrea (Drea) Landry, CPRS, RPS, ALWF: the second book, which really stuck me as a woman of color is Maya Angelou’s. I know why the cage bird sings.
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Andrea (Drea) Landry, CPRS, RPS, ALWF: and that really helped me come into terms and come into my own. And then the the last one which not only touch the kid in me, but also help me Remember how much I love to travel, and and just explore and do things, and that is all the places you will go by, Dr. Sis.
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Andrea (Drea) Landry, CPRS, RPS, ALWF: So those were very instrumental for me.
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Ken Duckworth MD: Dante. Chastity! How about you?
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Dante & Chastity Murry: Well, we had a book that was given to us when we got married, and that was like Gary Chapman, 5 love languages, and so that came in handy as we
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Dante & Chastity Murry: for progressing on in our marriage during Covid.
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Dante & Chastity Murry: And so here we are stuck together close quarters. We got this book on 5 5 1 5 love languages. We’re like this book came in the mail just in time. Yeah, we were not using lung languages stuck in those quarters, you know, so it’s
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Dante & Chastity Murry: It was really tough sometimes, but the book came in, Andy, you know we we called Ty a lot of time out. Let’s get the book we we’re trying to find the answers to these things, but we have plea time to to really meditate on the book. And another thing that came as a a really, sir, as a is really
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Dante & Chastity Murry: good support for us.
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Dante & Chastity Murry: was our spirituality, and we obviously, if you, if you have that kind of spiritfully about God and and your Savior. Your Bible is going to be essential. You know. The Bible helps quite a bit
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Dante & Chastity Murry: just finding the Scriptures that apply for the moment, and we
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Dante & Chastity Murry: prayer episode, and sometimes when we get upset
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Dante & Chastity Murry: she’ll say it’s praying. You cannot argue when your wife says, let’s pray, even if you’re right. You gotta say, oh.
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Dante & Chastity Murry: okay, that’s the print easy. It’s easy end to a conversation with you. Think you’re right at
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Ken Duckworth MD: right in the middle of that thing. I was like. No, okay, alright, Thank you both. Chastity. Any book speak to you.
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Dante & Chastity Murry: It’s basically the same book because of my aunt actually is the one who shipped the book to us, she said, this book will help keep your marriage completely for 60 years, because she’s an older lady, and she’s amazing. Yeah. And she said, You want to keep this book
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Dante & Chastity Murry: mit ctl and has a wonderful marriage, and it helped to have a father-in-law as a pastor. So he helped out quite a bit. Yeah. My father is a great man. He he does marriage counseling, and 101.
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Dante & Chastity Murry: He married us off on Zoom. So yeah, we were all in all the protocols, and it was great good experience.
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Michele Watson, NAMI NH, she/her: Sure. All right, Michelle, do you have another question for us? I sure do.
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Michele Watson, NAMI NH, she/her: was the biggest
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Michele Watson, NAMI NH, she/her: what was the biggest impact while writing this book. And this is for you can obviously from your own journey or hearing about other people’s journeys. So the biggest impact. Yeah. So I consider myself kind of a radical recovery community psychiatrist.
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Ken Duckworth MD: And if you were to hang out with other psychiatrists you would see that they don’t exactly fit. That is to say, I don’t do traditional outpatient care. I’ve always done public health jobs systems jobs.
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Ken Duckworth MD: But when I put together a book proposal, which again, I’m. A rookie Author. I’m a one-hit Wonder.
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Ken Duckworth MD: When I put together the book proposal, I had a chapter called the Power of community
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Ken Duckworth MD: because I had seen that, and I interviewed people from Fountain House, the first clubhouse in America. I interviewed people from the me, too, orchestra who were at our event a few weeks ago I interview people from the depressed cake shop people who had found each other, but I had to change the name of the chapter to the power of peers and community.
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Ken Duckworth MD: because, even as I was so far away towards from traditional psychiatry towards the peer experience and the value of peers.
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Ken Duckworth MD: and doing a 130 interviews. One person after another
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Ken Duckworth MD: said in different ways, different ways. It was all the same theme peers becoming a peer. helping others by being a peer in service.
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Ken Duckworth MD: was among the most valuable parts of people’s recovery journeys.
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Ken Duckworth MD: People would say they go into a State Hospital, and they say the person who helped me the most was the person next to me in the day room. I want to emphasize this. I was never taught this as a psychiatrist. I thought all the things we were doing in the treatment room were helpful. That’s what I was taught.
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Ken Duckworth MD: and he would say no. The guy next to me he was really the most helpful.
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Ken Duckworth MD: I met a man named Patrick Kaufman. I did a beautiful event in Calendar Zoom, Michigan.
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Ken Duckworth MD: and he said he had a lost decade of homelessness, psychosis, and addiction.
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Ken Duckworth MD: He’s all in the book. He and his dad are in the family communication chapter.
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Ken Duckworth MD: and he said I realized I wanted to become a peer, and that I thought becoming a peer specialist was the perfect job.
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Ken Duckworth MD: It took me a while to realize that that lost decade was part of my training.
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Ken Duckworth MD: that I had been psychotic, that I had used addiction as a way to Cope; that I had been homeless, that I had become a strange for a time for my family.
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Ken Duckworth MD: These were all exemplary qualifications for what I consider my dream job.
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Ken Duckworth MD: So to me. The power of peers was the biggest takeaway that I had.
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Ken Duckworth MD: and the second lesson I had was I was working with a 24 year old co-pilot named Jordan Miller.
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Ken Duckworth MD: and I learned that we couldn’t do 3 interviews a day we’re on quite a pace like we were. You know, they really wanted this book kicked out with a very tight deadline. and what I learned from her
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Ken Duckworth MD: was that we couldn’t do more than 2 interviews in a day, because some of them are quite point it powerful. and she had no training for this. So what we did is we would do an interview, and then we take a half an hour and talk about it.
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Ken Duckworth MD: What was that like for you, Jordan? What was that like for me, Ken that we take a couple of hours off. and i’d either write or worry about writing, and then we’d reconvene with another fabulous interview.
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Ken Duckworth MD: So those are 2 things I learned one is the power peers and 2 is. You need to respect the pace this lived Experience is powerful and beautiful.
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Ken Duckworth MD: but also has an impact on each of us. I interviewed 8 people who lost family members who died by suicide. and those interviews were hard to do. They were hard.
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Ken Duckworth MD: and those people were full of love. and had found a way to make meeting oven. And so that was a good lesson along the way to recognize that could only do 2 in a day, Max.
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Ken Duckworth MD: Not 3 in a day.
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Ken Duckworth MD: you know not. You know. The pace was intense, and I blew out both my elbow tendons. I went to see a physical therapist. It’s hilarious. I was typing so much so.
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Ken Duckworth MD: It was a great privilege, and I feel very fortunate
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Ken Duckworth MD: that Nami supported me in helping us to have our first book and bring all these amazing people to life.
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Ken Duckworth MD: I gave a talk in Oklahoma City to their little affiliate, and on a virtual chat the night that I was in New Hampshire. Actually.
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Ken Duckworth MD: I don’t have an admin, and I completely screwed up the timing, so I went from a to B. And so, you know, Michelle and her team had a range for me to have a little conference room.
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Ken Duckworth MD: and I asked them how it was going. Oklahoma City, and a woman raised her hand and said, I work at the local library
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Ken Duckworth MD: all 20 copies, if you are not alone or checked out. and I thought to myself, we did it.
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Ken Duckworth MD: We did it where people don’t have to learn about Nami too late. They don’t have to learn after they’ve lost their relationship or their marriage.
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Ken Duckworth MD: or anything. So it was really a great privilege, and while I knew that going into it, traveling across the country
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Ken Duckworth MD: and meeting with people. That’s the other big takeaway
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Ken Duckworth MD: is just how lucky I was to do this. People are high-fiving me and Rhode Island last night. I never thought stories like ours would matter.
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Ken Duckworth MD: I don’t know it’s really beautiful. I want to give this to my son. My son needs this book so badly, so just how lucky I was.
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Ken Duckworth MD: you know, to have my one hit. Wonder be something that I think our community values, and i’m grateful for that. So? Those are my 3 takeaways. Here’s a more powerful than I thought. You got to pace yourself. And what an incredible privilege that I have had! Writing our first book.
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Michele Watson, NAMI NH, she/her: Great, thank you. And we had comments after the you know the event that you were up here for saying, I don’t think he’s going to be a one hit. Wonder there’s way too much that’s gonna come from this.
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Michele Watson, NAMI NH, she/her: So the next question similar, but I think if we pose it to the panelists, maybe instead. So the question was, what’s the most impactful thing you’ve learned from your experience in writing this book? Maybe we would change it to as being a part. This book
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Michele Watson, NAMI NH, she/her: and any of you can go first
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Ken Duckworth MD: as stardom gone to your heads.
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Ken Duckworth MD: Another way to answer the question, like now that you’re rock stars in Kentucky, Connecticut, and Maryland resp.
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Dante & Chastity Murry: Well, oh, absolutely Can’t you see how big it is? It? It’s all right here, and everything. It’s i’m the opposite. It’s very. It’s very humbling
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Dante & Chastity Murry: to be.
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Denise Paley: because the the whole book is so important. The fact that
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Denise Paley: that for me the fact that i’m included in it, or that this, you know, our story is included in it. It’s just so humbling.
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Denise Paley: you know. I I just think it’s
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Denise Paley: It’s such an important book and I get to be in it. It’s hard for me to make the association that i’m part of it.
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Dante & Chastity Murry: I think that we ought to make a docu-series on Dr. Duckworth. Take all these clippings and put them together on Netflix. And yeah. Yes, yeah, Dr. Duckworth Jana community. Yes, you are now things about that
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Ken Duckworth MD: of Emory University in Atlanta, reached out to me and said, You got the people from Georgia. I get people from 38 States. Let’s go so I have 3 amazing people from Georgia.
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Ken Duckworth MD: The Georgia Pbs program called Your Fantastic mind is running tonight in Georgia.
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Dante & Chastity Murry: I want to run nationally. I’ll. I’ll get the mark on team in the fall.
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Ken Duckworth MD: You know it’s gonna run on every TV station. It’s simply 3 people in the book who happen to be from Georgia.
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Ken Duckworth MD: One is Tara Carter, who is a mobile crisis peer, specialist, who is Kenya Phillips, who’s really done work in her faith community to integrate her faith
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Ken Duckworth MD: and her experience of living with bipolar disorder, and one is a Lisa Norman who has spent a lot of her own time sorting her own experience of what’s for her, and what’s part of her faith in terms of the
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Ken Duckworth MD: hallucinatory experiences? She has had 3 amazing people.
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Ken Duckworth MD: but it could have been any 3 people. The people in the book are amazing because the people in Nami are amazing.
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Ken Duckworth MD: And so the people who volunteered are good representations. I have a question for you which is related to Michelle’s question. Has anybody contacted you with 36,000 copies out there
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Ken Duckworth MD: The book is out there? It’s happening. Has anybody reached out to either of you or any of you.
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Ken Duckworth MD: and said, I saw you, you know, problem solid a, B or C, because this is what I hoped was to create a series of role models in the world.
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Andrea (Drea) Landry, CPRS, RPS, ALWF: I haven’t had anyone reach out to me as of yet, except for when I’ve mentioned it myself that the book is available and the interesting stories and everything. So I’ve had people comment on account of that, but on an individual basis I haven’t.
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Ken Duckworth MD: So we have work to do to promote our efforts. Still
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Dante & Chastity Murry: to you.
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Dante & Chastity Murry: There’s always more work to be done, because the message is so powerful that it needs to go
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Dante & Chastity Murry: tall parts of the world, all possible communities, and I think, as mental health goes beyond just. you know. superpowers like United States or Canada or
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Dante & Chastity Murry: or Great Britain somewhere. We have to get to Federal countries who don’t have as much of a interaction with mental health education.
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Dante & Chastity Murry: So i’m talking about like Third World countries. We may not have those books available. I mean, maybe get some audios, some audio books to people, or I don’t know. How how do we reach out to people with sign language? I mean, do we have a a market for that? Or do we have an audio book? Yeah.
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Ken Duckworth MD: we do have an audio book, but we don’t have, you know anything in Braille yet? And again, the publisher, we’re all new with this. Not me. Never had a book. It’s a lot of room for me. It’s a lot of room for me. It’s a lot of room for loves us because we delivered a book that’s a best seller, the U.S.A. Today. Best seller less on time.
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Ken Duckworth MD: and they notice he keeps selling, so they’re happy with us, and they commissioned a second book for Parents Guide. That’ll be out a year from now, and happily I am not writing that book
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Ken Duckworth MD: for the preservation of my marriage. I am not writing a second, so I just want to emphasize spouses. Go through a lot. If you see an author it’s like, Think of the spouse because they go through a lot, too. But Christine Crawford is working on that book.
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Ken Duckworth MD: I’m sure she curses my name every single day, but the book will be out in about a year again a copyrighted book
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Ken Duckworth MD: that is owned by Nami.
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Ken Duckworth MD: and she interviewed a bunch of people and talked to a bunch of experts like, you know, using the same model.
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Dante & Chastity Murry: Yeah.
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Dante & Chastity Murry: I still want to vote for docuseries for Dr. Dr. That word. That’s my vote. If we want to do a docuseries on that. There we go. There we go.
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Dante & Chastity Murry: Yeah, you’re gonna go for 7 seasons. My my children will watch it. That’s about it. I think.
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Ken Duckworth MD: Michelle, do you have other questions for us?
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Michele Watson, NAMI NH, she/her: Oh, I have. There are a lot of questions coming in. This one is what is the hardest topic you had to write about Ken.
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Ken Duckworth MD: So there is a chapter called the Hardest Family Questions. This is a really hard chapter to write.
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Ken Duckworth MD: and in that chapter I interviewed people who took on some of the hardest questions that I’ve ever been asked.
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Ken Duckworth MD: How do you handle it? If your family member doesn’t see that they’re sick. This, of course, can be part and parcel of a psychosis. And how did you communicate with that person? I interviewed a man named Carlos Larari.
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Ken Duckworth MD: who describes psychosis, not as a break, but as a fog. and then he can see reality. Then he can’t see it, and then he’s lost it again.
481
01:25:09.600 –> 01:25:14.210
Ken Duckworth MD: and to me. I wanted that experience to be clear
482
01:25:14.250 –> 01:25:31.910
Ken Duckworth MD: then how family members work. Then I had Javier, Amador discuss his work in leap model, and I am not sick. I don’t need help in the expert section. The other part that was hard was a family member named Mark de Gorio, from Connecticut, who again just randomly joined.
483
01:25:32.040 –> 01:25:34.750
Ken Duckworth MD: you know, to sign up. I was the Nami Connecticut.
484
01:25:35.230 –> 01:25:38.500
Ken Duckworth MD: and he said, Ken, my daughter is never going to get better.
485
01:25:39.610 –> 01:25:42.820
Ken Duckworth MD: and she lives in a nursing home she’s on close of
486
01:25:43.160 –> 01:25:45.060
Ken Duckworth MD: now. He talks about recovery.
487
01:25:45.150 –> 01:25:49.610
Ken Duckworth MD: She doesn’t have recovery. She has lulls in the intensity of her symptoms.
488
01:25:50.050 –> 01:25:56.490
Ken Duckworth MD: and I have to get to the place where my life is devoted to making her life have meaning.
489
01:25:56.850 –> 01:26:01.650
Ken Duckworth MD: It’s very beautiful. I teach family to family not to make my daughter better
490
01:26:01.730 –> 01:26:04.590
Ken Duckworth MD: to make me better for her.
491
01:26:05.200 –> 01:26:20.870
Ken Duckworth MD: So this is a man who represents a whole swath of the Nami community. Scientific tools are limited. but love is pretty unlimited. and this man is a coastal worker. I had no idea what we’re going to talk about. When we did the zoom interview we just signed up to be on it.
492
01:26:21.070 –> 01:26:34.990
Ken Duckworth MD: And when we ended that call, I said to Jordan, my co-pilot. this is such an important conversation. because the truth is, it’s not all easy stories in the mental illness space, and no matter how much you love.
493
01:26:35.340 –> 01:26:39.300
Ken Duckworth MD: obviously interviewing people who’d lost family members who died by suicide.
494
01:26:39.790 –> 01:26:46.050
Ken Duckworth MD: That was an intentional decision I made, because I feel that Nami has underserved people who have been through that.
495
01:26:46.600 –> 01:26:56.240
Ken Duckworth MD: And so, as the author, you get to make up what you want. Right? Nobody, said Ken. You can’t discuss co-occurring disorders or trauma or people who’ve lost family members.
496
01:26:56.310 –> 01:27:03.290
Ken Duckworth MD: I did those 3 intentionally because i’m trying to help Nami integrate those topics into our work. More
497
01:27:03.350 –> 01:27:11.430
Ken Duckworth MD: because I think they’re important. So each of those you know it’s just, you know, heartbreaking because these family members were loved.
498
01:27:11.920 –> 01:27:15.350
Ken Duckworth MD: and the family members are all left with questions.
499
01:27:15.600 –> 01:27:22.150
Ken Duckworth MD: So it’s a good question. It was an intense journey, and the other thing i’ll just add as an aside is, I went back into therapy
500
01:27:22.380 –> 01:27:27.410
Ken Duckworth MD: because I would spend weekends trying to remember everything I could about my own life and my own childhood.
501
01:27:27.560 –> 01:27:42.080
Ken Duckworth MD: and you know i’m 60. I’m not a kid. So it’s all kind of memories, but what I learned is the excavation process of my own little story, which is one of the book I want to emphasize, not my memoir.
502
01:27:42.150 –> 01:27:44.970
Ken Duckworth MD: but i’m part of this, as all of you are too.
503
01:27:45.790 –> 01:27:52.440
Ken Duckworth MD: and I got so upset by thinking about some of these things. I contacted my old therapist, and I said, hey, and i’m back.
504
01:27:52.700 –> 01:27:56.850
Ken Duckworth MD: I need to see you again. So An unexpected side effect of the book
505
01:27:57.700 –> 01:28:02.070
Ken Duckworth MD: was that I had to go through my own little process
506
01:28:02.480 –> 01:28:07.710
Ken Duckworth MD: of re-examining my own memories. And of course, the love I have for my father.
507
01:28:07.720 –> 01:28:17.320
Ken Duckworth MD: Is it measurable? My siblings both died of cancer, and that’s a big heartache for me. So the last person on earth who knew my father as a boy is my cousin.
508
01:28:17.510 –> 01:28:25.160
Ken Duckworth MD: and he and I have nothing in common except a love for our fathers and mothers, and I would call him almost every day.
509
01:28:25.200 –> 01:28:27.560
Ken Duckworth MD: His name is Jim Duckworth, and i’d say, Jimmy Duck.
510
01:28:27.620 –> 01:28:43.270
Ken Duckworth MD: tell me something positive about my dad, and he would give me a he had so many stories for me. So it also improved a relationship because I was looking for someone who could help me balance some of the hard stories which I I was excavating. A long answer.
511
01:28:44.160 –> 01:28:50.250
Michele Watson, NAMI NH, she/her: That was a great answer, though. Denise, I saw you unmute it. Did you have something that you would wanted to share.
512
01:28:50.580 –> 01:28:52.240
Denise Paley: I it. Well.
513
01:28:52.650 –> 01:29:06.760
Denise Paley: I I happen to know, Mark, he, we’re not in the same. We’re not in the same affiliate. But you know Ken had spoken about his devotion to his daughter, and he really just I I I know him because
514
01:29:07.490 –> 01:29:16.620
Denise Paley: just sort of naming Connecticut in general, and his story really is remarkable. He had adopted his daughter, and he is never.
515
01:29:16.840 –> 01:29:22.850
Denise Paley: I mean. And now she’s, you know, a an adult, and he just has not given up.
516
01:29:23.100 –> 01:29:35.490
Denise Paley: you know, unheard on it’s just it. Amazing. The same site also the point on death by suicide. Since I’ve been more active with not me. I. It always shocks me that
517
01:29:35.960 –> 01:29:42.940
Denise Paley: generally in the what people don’t make the association between mental illness and death by suicide. How many people don’t
518
01:29:43.390 –> 01:29:44.580
Denise Paley: see that.
519
01:29:44.740 –> 01:29:57.950
Denise Paley: you know. See the connection there. So i’m glad that Nami is doing more, and we’ve been more active in Connecticut to in raising awareness. And also we have the and promoting 980 in our local affiliate.
520
01:29:59.420 –> 01:30:10.220
Michele Watson, NAMI NH, she/her: Thank you for sharing that. And Susan did put in the chat some resources that we have here not in New Hampshire, has been one of the strongest States on this.
521
01:30:10.440 –> 01:30:20.810
Ken Duckworth MD: and I had your legend, Ken Norton Review that chapter for me, and he provided a lot of the resources, because I was aware that Nami, New Hampshire had been so advanced
522
01:30:21.040 –> 01:30:25.170
Ken Duckworth MD: in this area. So I want to thank you all for the work you’re doing.
523
01:30:26.540 –> 01:30:29.600
Susan Stearns – NAMI NH (she/her): and it does seem to be in the audience, David, but we can’t see him.
524
01:30:31.360 –> 01:30:38.570
Ken Duckworth MD: He’s he’s listed as a participant.
525
01:30:39.940 –> 01:30:45.620
Ken Duckworth MD: He turned around a week chapter in 7 days, and he made it better. So I just want to thank him.
526
01:30:45.930 –> 01:30:48.680
Ken Duckworth MD: Not easy, being part of the orchestra.
527
01:30:51.090 –> 01:30:53.050
Michele Watson, NAMI NH, she/her: Great. Thank you.
528
01:30:53.140 –> 01:31:09.330
Michele Watson, NAMI NH, she/her: and thank you, Denise, for bringing up 9 8 8, and then here we have here in New Hampshire. We have the rapid response access point. And so we will be sharing those resources as well in the chats and in the different discussion boards on the hoof. App
529
01:31:09.650 –> 01:31:15.670
Michele Watson, NAMI NH, she/her: Next question for you, Ken, is. Where did you find the people to share their experiences?
530
01:31:16.100 –> 01:31:20.640
Ken Duckworth MD: Yeah. So it was fairly random. I give a talk to Nami Wisconsin.
531
01:31:20.820 –> 01:31:33.050
Ken Duckworth MD: you know just people say, Ken, would you give a keynote address? And i’m like i’m their doctor? Let’s go. So I would just give an address on the greatest hits of science, or the greatest hits of what I saw happening at Nami.
532
01:31:33.160 –> 01:31:42.360
Ken Duckworth MD: These are mostly virtual talks. It was all during the pandemic. and at the end i’d say, you know i’m writing these first book. and I don’t know if this is of interest to you.
533
01:31:42.470 –> 01:31:46.920
Ken Duckworth MD: But I want you to know that if you want to be in Nami’s first book.
534
01:31:47.130 –> 01:31:54.320
Ken Duckworth MD: send me an email. I’m. Taking all commerce you have to be in a place where you’re willing to use your name and say where you’re from.
535
01:31:54.360 –> 01:32:05.150
Ken Duckworth MD: because I find anonymity and isolation to have been a principal problem in my own little life, and is the reason a kid who is not particularly good at science became a psychiatrist
536
01:32:05.400 –> 01:32:14.180
Ken Duckworth MD: right like, you know. To me I was trying to address both the Nami story, the Nami resources, but also to get it. The idea Real people have this.
537
01:32:14.450 –> 01:32:16.690
Ken Duckworth MD: Millions of real people have this.
538
01:32:16.800 –> 01:32:25.220
Ken Duckworth MD: And so Nami, Georgia, Nami, Connecticut, where you just met Denise and her colleague Mark, who I just mentioned.
539
01:32:25.290 –> 01:32:33.980
Ken Duckworth MD: I think Dante and Chastity. It might have been through the Peer Leadership Council. I let the Peer Leadership Council at Nami. Know.
540
01:32:34.050 –> 01:32:41.480
Ken Duckworth MD: Hey, guys, right now? He’s first book. You want to be part of it. Feel free. Don’t worry. The ship is leaving.
541
01:32:41.520 –> 01:32:50.910
Ken Duckworth MD: You know the planes fly. You know I got a 100 seats. It was actually 130 people, because I just couldn’t stop because it was so interesting, and I kept learning things
542
01:32:51.070 –> 01:32:57.490
Ken Duckworth MD: every single time. It was kind of amazing. Yeah. But the Peer Leadership Council people just volunteered.
543
01:32:57.690 –> 01:33:04.400
Ken Duckworth MD: and I took all comers I didn’t exclude anyone. So basically the first 130 people hopped on the plane.
544
01:33:04.470 –> 01:33:08.080
Ken Duckworth MD: I think our somewhat representative people were from
545
01:33:08.330 –> 01:33:18.320
Ken Duckworth MD: 11 self-identified race and ethnicities. 38 States, 25 religions, 50 occupations.
546
01:33:18.550 –> 01:33:25.070
Ken Duckworth MD: and I did hear about Kumi Macdonald in Hawaii from a person anami staffer
547
01:33:25.310 –> 01:33:40.370
Ken Duckworth MD: and I thought it would be fun to go to Hawaii, so I I asked him with Mcdonald’s. She like to be in the book, so there were a few ringers, but relatively few. One of the best public health students I ever had in my 20 years of teaching at the Bee School of Public Health lives with bipolar disorder
548
01:33:40.850 –> 01:33:47.580
Ken Duckworth MD: she’s from, you know the South Asian community, and really feels that nobody talks about this.
549
01:33:47.880 –> 01:33:53.740
Ken Duckworth MD: And so I said to our soup, would you be willing to be in our books. There’s a few people I asked.
550
01:33:53.770 –> 01:33:56.180
Ken Duckworth MD: but the vast majority of people found me.
551
01:33:59.950 –> 01:34:02.430
Michele Watson, NAMI NH, she/her: and actually a question
552
01:34:02.480 –> 01:34:21.310
Michele Watson, NAMI NH, she/her: that I have is, and you talk about this, and you just mentioned it right that you wanted people to be able, you know, to identify themselves in this book. So for the panelists. Did any of you hesitate, you know, was that concerning for you to have your name published along with all of this? Or was that maybe what drew you to be a part of it.
553
01:34:21.900 –> 01:34:26.990
Dante & Chastity Murry: I will say something. It was for me, because of the
554
01:34:27.410 –> 01:34:34.120
Dante & Chastity Murry: with my situation, of what happened to me with my mental health. So it was. I was a little
555
01:34:34.960 –> 01:34:45.190
Dante & Chastity Murry: apprehensive because of my story, and how it’s going to. I mean it’s going to affect everyone in a good way, but I was still afraid to get it out there, because of
556
01:34:45.330 –> 01:34:46.280
how
557
01:34:46.700 –> 01:34:49.830
Dante & Chastity Murry: in depth my story is in.
558
01:34:51.370 –> 01:35:04.030
Dante & Chastity Murry: It was really hard for me, but it was great because to help someone with that with the mental health is just of rewarding. Being able to advocate and support people
559
01:35:04.200 –> 01:35:06.250
Dante & Chastity Murry: is a a blessing. Yeah.
560
01:35:06.870 –> 01:35:11.840
Dante & Chastity Murry: And my wife has made my advocacy much stronger. Thank you.
561
01:35:12.890 –> 01:35:15.460
Michele Watson, NAMI NH, she/her: I I will say, yeah.
562
01:35:15.770 –> 01:35:21.810
Denise Paley: I found myself in a in a unique situation, where our community was very supportive.
563
01:35:22.010 –> 01:35:23.440
Denise Paley: So we
564
01:35:23.470 –> 01:35:27.310
Denise Paley: and and I know a lot of people
565
01:35:27.360 –> 01:35:33.500
Denise Paley: suffer what sort of being shunned when mental illness kind of bubbles to the surface, and I’ve had many.
566
01:35:33.560 –> 01:35:52.040
Denise Paley: I mean many. Many people reach out to me privately about their own experiences with living with mental illness, whether their own or a loved one or their family member, and I think that’s part of why the community was so supportive. I got a lot of private notes, you know that indicated that.
567
01:35:53.980 –> 01:35:54.720
Denise Paley: But
568
01:35:54.940 –> 01:36:04.050
Denise Paley: I I, I I I plot everyone who had the courage to give their names and come forward because I I truly believe this is how we end the stigma.
569
01:36:04.170 –> 01:36:13.120
Denise Paley: So, unless we’re willing to have a conversation, the stigma is going to continue, and and and it’s difficult, and it’s hard, but
570
01:36:13.810 –> 01:36:26.430
Denise Paley: you know, and you do. You need things in place, you know, like job Security when you’re gonna do when you’re gonna do that. But it’s true I mean mental illness is one of those things where you like You do you need to like.
571
01:36:26.600 –> 01:36:46.230
Denise Paley: You know. I I went to my company first before agreeing to be in the book and just said, hey, I just want you to know. I’m doing this, you know. Are you okay with it? And I do think that we need to have the conversation, and and and we should fight against the stigma, and not let it be a source of shame
572
01:36:46.230 –> 01:36:50.840
Denise Paley: because mental illness is only a tiny piece of who anybody is
573
01:36:51.240 –> 01:36:56.490
Dante & Chastity Murry: on the editorial side that I should add.
574
01:36:56.800 –> 01:37:04.000
Ken Duckworth MD: My team sent people their quotes and said, is this okay? To attach to your name
575
01:37:04.680 –> 01:37:09.400
Ken Duckworth MD: like you can edit out anything you want. You’re allowed to change your mind.
576
01:37:09.630 –> 01:37:21.180
Ken Duckworth MD: You can jump off the plane with a parachute at any time, the plane’s flying. We we have a critical mass of people. and I wanted people to be able to read their exact quotes: Are you okay? With this?
577
01:37:21.280 –> 01:37:25.930
Ken Duckworth MD: And the other editorial decision I made is, we don’t mention anybody else
578
01:37:26.300 –> 01:37:28.550
Ken Duckworth MD: who Hasn’t signed a consent form.
579
01:37:29.120 –> 01:37:35.050
Ken Duckworth MD: So if you had a problem with your ex-wife, and her name was Joan. Joan is not mentioned in the book.
580
01:37:35.250 –> 01:37:37.310
Ken Duckworth MD: The word Joan does not appear.
581
01:37:37.460 –> 01:37:41.530
Ken Duckworth MD: So. The idea is, These are real people who
582
01:37:41.660 –> 01:37:51.190
Ken Duckworth MD: thought about this, or in a place that they want to talk about. But no one else is revealed in the stories you could say
583
01:37:51.300 –> 01:37:58.020
Ken Duckworth MD: Annette, her Anita Heron talks about Nami homefront and transforming her relationship with her father.
584
01:37:58.310 –> 01:38:04.450
Ken Duckworth MD: and how that communication helped her to become much closer to her dead.
585
01:38:04.510 –> 01:38:11.260
Ken Duckworth MD: I don’t mention her dad’s name. That’s an editorial decision. I said to Anita, Would you please review this idea with your dad
586
01:38:11.930 –> 01:38:14.980
Dante & Chastity Murry: before we publish it. There’s a 100,000 of these
587
01:38:15.320 –> 01:38:19.890
Ken Duckworth MD: I know he’s not named, but you know I just want you to know
588
01:38:19.910 –> 01:38:28.070
Ken Duckworth MD: that if you want your dad’s story about how much you transformed your communication. I would love for you to discuss it with your dad.
589
01:38:28.330 –> 01:38:30.900
Ken Duckworth MD: So that’s kind of the strategy
590
01:38:31.070 –> 01:38:34.810
Ken Duckworth MD: we use, and then giving people the permission to say.
591
01:38:35.260 –> 01:38:38.190
Ken Duckworth MD: I don’t want this quote or don’t use that quote, or
592
01:38:38.200 –> 01:38:42.960
Ken Duckworth MD: whatever I think we went for maximal collaboration
593
01:38:43.050 –> 01:38:46.750
Ken Duckworth MD: and consent in the process of the book.
594
01:38:47.040 –> 01:39:03.770
Ken Duckworth MD: which is why I went gray. I had black hair before the book began. I want to emphasize that I was a young man in my thirtys. When I began I woke up a gray-haired man in my sixtys with bad joints how did that happen? I can’t explain it. But the idea was.
595
01:39:03.870 –> 01:39:17.790
Ken Duckworth MD: this became a virtual community that I began to just love and cherish. and the last thing I wanted to do was to hurt anyone. so I didn’t sleep all that. Well, actually, I would be anxious. Are you sure this is okay?
596
01:39:18.170 –> 01:39:28.800
Ken Duckworth MD: A drummer named Snake Sabo, who played with John Bon job, and he discussed being molested as a boy by neighbors. and I actually reached out to him. And I said, Snake. you okay with this.
597
01:39:29.020 –> 01:39:33.090
Ken Duckworth MD: because I just want you to. You know it’s not some famous musician.
598
01:39:33.370 –> 01:39:40.140
Ken Duckworth MD: and he points to all his grammys or emmys behind him. I think it’s Grammys, he said. Can I? I’m. 58 years old.
599
01:39:40.240 –> 01:39:43.930
Ken Duckworth MD: I got 16 grammys or 6 grammys. I don’t remember the answer
600
01:39:44.060 –> 01:39:54.640
Ken Duckworth MD: ken nobody can hurt me now and think about it. If this happened to me. it’s happening to other people, and I turn to addiction to deal with my trauma, and that cost me a lot of heartache
601
01:39:54.680 –> 01:40:05.610
Ken Duckworth MD: and relationships. Let us talk to myself. I just love this community. If people made a decision, they’re going to share what they went through in order to serve other people.
602
01:40:05.680 –> 01:40:06.240
Dante & Chastity Murry: Hmm.
603
01:40:06.280 –> 01:40:17.560
Ken Duckworth MD: Which is really kind of the highest form of art. and it’s also the reason I gave all the royalties and the copyright to Nami is. I didn’t want to benefit from people’s stories.
604
01:40:17.820 –> 01:40:20.960
Ken Duckworth MD: That is to say, I just I couldn’t live with that
605
01:40:21.190 –> 01:40:26.060
Ken Duckworth MD: as a possibility. So I just felt like this is bigger than all of us.
606
01:40:26.160 –> 01:40:30.570
Dante & Chastity Murry: and that’s why. If any of you buy a book and you want a book plate.
607
01:40:30.680 –> 01:40:32.550
Ken Duckworth MD: you know, Michelle just
608
01:40:32.890 –> 01:40:44.320
Ken Duckworth MD: gather. You know how many book plates you want to mail 65 to Ohio last Friday, and 65 to chico California, and unfortunately we’re not in person or everyone
609
01:40:44.860 –> 01:40:51.630
Ken Duckworth MD: on this panel would be signing a book with me as I did in Rhode Island. But if you want, you know a signed book.
610
01:40:51.670 –> 01:40:57.050
Ken Duckworth MD: This is all about a love gift, you know, from all of us to everyone in the world.
611
01:40:57.070 –> 01:40:59.000
Ken Duckworth MD: And so I like signing
612
01:40:59.040 –> 01:41:05.420
Ken Duckworth MD: book plates, because other than my daughter’s asking me to sign checks. Nobody ever wanted my autograph.
613
01:41:08.300 –> 01:41:11.800
Michele Watson, NAMI NH, she/her: Thank you, and we will definitely take care of that. Go ahead.
614
01:41:11.810 –> 01:41:30.500
Dante & Chastity Murry: I just wanted to say one thing really fast, and the reason why I wanted to put my name on it is because I believe one of the other panelists mentioned stigma. Whenever you hear about any school shooting or or anything that has to do with mental health.
615
01:41:30.580 –> 01:41:48.880
Andrea (Drea) Landry, CPRS, RPS, ALWF: the first thing people do is give you this: You look like the monster under the bed. There’s this big Charlie Manson look alike. You know that all of us, those of us who live with mental health issues. We. We look like the monsters that’s going to attack you. That’s going to do all of these mean, nasty, crazy things.
616
01:41:49.120 –> 01:41:53.170
Andrea (Drea) Landry, CPRS, RPS, ALWF: But I look like a regular human being.
617
01:41:53.460 –> 01:42:19.230
Andrea (Drea) Landry, CPRS, RPS, ALWF: I look like your grandma next door. Well, maybe not somebody’s grandma, even though I am. But I look like a a regular person. and that’s why I wanted to put my name on it. We are not the monsters under the bed. We are people who have lives, who have families who have businesses who work, who thrive, who are out there in the community, who are walking right next to you on the
618
01:42:19.230 –> 01:42:33.230
Andrea (Drea) Landry, CPRS, RPS, ALWF: taking the train, the bus driving our cars everything. We are regular, everyday human beings, and not the monsters that everyone likes to presume us to be. That’s why I was important.
619
01:42:33.390 –> 01:42:36.080
Ken Duckworth MD: We could just drop Mike on that comment.
620
01:42:36.120 –> 01:42:42.650
Ken Duckworth MD: That’s right. There’s a literature that shows if you meet people who are like you. This is Patrick Corgan.
621
01:42:42.880 –> 01:42:44.600
Ken Duckworth MD: University of Illinois.
622
01:42:44.720 –> 01:42:56.860
Ken Duckworth MD: He’s done this work on improving attitudes. The idea is, if you meet people that are like you. your attitude is likely to improve, which is why that in our own voice is so successful.
623
01:42:57.080 –> 01:43:06.030
Ken Duckworth MD: ending. The silence is so successful, and why I went for such a diverse group of people in the book that I wanted anybody who picked up this book to be able to say, oh, there, somebody just like me!
624
01:43:07.070 –> 01:43:15.180
Ken Duckworth MD: A person does sound like my grandmother right? That person does sound like my sister. and that was the hope. But Andrea said it quite beautifully.
625
01:43:17.430 –> 01:43:18.130
Did.
626
01:43:23.880 –> 01:43:24.830
Michele Watson, NAMI NH, she/her: Are you good?
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01:43:25.840 –> 01:43:41.890
Michele Watson, NAMI NH, she/her: Okay, we have another question about do you have a book that you could recommend for younger children. And I know you said that Dr. Crawford’s working on a book similar to this for about it in about a year. But are there any books? In the meantime you could recommend?
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Ken Duckworth MD: I like a book called the School of Hard Talks. That is motivational interviewing with your teenager by Dr. Emily Klein.
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Ken Duckworth MD: I’ve now got into the blurb business. I blurb other people’s books right. I seem to have figured out how to write one book, and people like, hey Ken, will you read my book?
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Ken Duckworth MD: I read this book, and it knocked my socks off
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Ken Duckworth MD: the School of Hard talks. It’s on Amazon, Emily Klein. It’s in paper back. It’s 12 bucks or something. It’s short money.
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Ken Duckworth MD: and
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Ken Duckworth MD: it’s a great strategy. And how do you talk to your teenager. I just think it’s so compelling. Just came out about a month ago.
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Ken Duckworth MD: and you know, I just think the world of motivational interviewing, which is a technique on how to do communication. I had Bill Miller, who invented motivational interviewing at the back of the book.
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Ken Duckworth MD: Discuss, how do you talk to people who aren’t really ready to get help. And Emily Klein
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Ken Duckworth MD: has taken this to the Teenage audience.
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Ken Duckworth MD: and she’s also a lovely person. So that’s like my new favorite resource. That’s up there.
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Michele Watson, NAMI NH, she/her: That’s a great one. And Kimberly did put it in the chat for those of you that are interested.
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Michele Watson, NAMI NH, she/her: Anybody else have any thoughts on books that for children or teenagers or young adults that you think might be helpful.
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Michele Watson, NAMI NH, she/her: And it’s okay, if not
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Michele Watson, NAMI NH, she/her: okay.
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Michele Watson, NAMI NH, she/her: And this is another great question, and it’s be really interested from the panelists to see. You know your perspectives on this. I know we offer a lot of this here in New Hampshire. Is there a place to connect with others in similar situations to yours? Where where did you all go
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Michele Watson, NAMI NH, she/her: to connect with people?
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Michele Watson, NAMI NH, she/her: I know you reached out to Nami.
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Are you guys talking about
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Dante & Chastity Murry: how to have a network of people?
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Dante & Chastity Murry: I think so. I mean, that was a quick, simple question. Well. for prior to Covid crisis. you know a lot of times i’ll meet people who are my peers, either at rallies or
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Dante & Chastity Murry: conferences.
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Dante & Chastity Murry: conventions, things like that, and and broad, your network beyond your your local affiliates. That’s how I would, you know, keep my network going, being a part of those kind of programs or public events.
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Dante & Chastity Murry: But since you know, Covid has coming and gone slightly. now we have Zoom, which was able to help me
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Dante & Chastity Murry: broaden my network even better. So this. This zoom outreach program has really done wonders for
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Dante & Chastity Murry: our advocacy in our outreach to people about mental health concerns and the education about the book and about other resources people can use in our support groups. Yeah. So i’d say that these different platforms have been great for us and teaching, and and i’ll share. Spread the word about.
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Dante & Chastity Murry: Yes.
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Michele Watson, NAMI NH, she/her: thank you.
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Dante & Chastity Murry: is it?
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Andrea (Drea) Landry, CPRS, RPS, ALWF: And the same for me? I got him. I wouldn’t.
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Denise Paley: I love that
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Michele Watson, NAMI NH, she/her: you cut in and out just a little bit, but you were fine, so my end
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Susan Stearns – NAMI NH (she/her): go ahead.
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Andrea (Drea) Landry, CPRS, RPS, ALWF: Am I freezing, too?
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Michele Watson, NAMI NH, she/her: I don’t think so.
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Andrea (Drea) Landry, CPRS, RPS, ALWF: Okay, now, I was going to say the same thing. What do you and Chastity was saying? Yeah, I did
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Andrea (Drea) Landry, CPRS, RPS, ALWF: retail tunami when I was working at Catholic charities. That’s how I first learned about it. I watched my first in our own voice presentation, and I just literally jumped in. Head person was gone, and then I had managed to get involved with the Copeland Center, and learned about the wellness, recovery, action plan, which is the rap.
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Andrea (Drea) Landry, CPRS, RPS, ALWF: and in learning that I, too, am an author, i’m. An author and a publisher, and I put my PIN in the paper and started writing books. I started writing mental health books. I started teaching across the country. I started speaking
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where anyone would listen to me, or where I would be there to to.
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Andrea (Drea) Landry, CPRS, RPS, ALWF: you know, help eliminate the stigma, and grew a lot of my networking through mommy and becoming what it
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Andrea (Drea) Landry, CPRS, RPS, ALWF: that Dante say earlier train a trainer and and a peer and a peer leader, and and wanting to educate and really get out there, and not so much to swell my head, but more, as Denise said earlier, to be humbled by those that you could touch, and let them know that you know
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Andrea (Drea) Landry, CPRS, RPS, ALWF: it doesn’t matter what walk of life you’re in, you can do anything that you put your mind to, that. You put your heart to, and walk your road of recovery, and be the person you want to be, no matter what. So that is how I I broaden my network.
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Michele Watson, NAMI NH, she/her: Thank you so much. I love that
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Denise Paley: you know I I Nami, is such a
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Denise Paley: it’s such a source of nurturing and strength, you know. So I do a lot of advocacy, and I and I need people across the State that have the same interest in changing the criminal justice system or changing.
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Denise Paley: you know, changing some of our laws.
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Denise Paley: The people that I’ve had the greatest connection with are people I’ve been through Nami, who are also advocates in this way, and there aren’t a lot of us. I’ll tell you that. But but there are a few of us. But there, there’s something to
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Denise Paley: having a connection with somebody who understands your. You know where you have that shared experience. So while there may be many people who can offer support because they they believe in the mission. There is something to be said for somebody who’s lived it, or has a direct connection, and I have only found that
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Denise Paley: you know I find that most strongly with people from now
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Michele Watson, NAMI NH, she/her: great. Thank you, Denise.
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Michele Watson, NAMI NH, she/her: So we have. It’s a comment that it kind of relates. or it definitely relates to one of your 3 things they can that you’re trying to push Nami national towards.
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Michele Watson, NAMI NH, she/her: So it says, I would like to see support provided to people who are innocent bystanders, and and witness traumatic things like accidents.
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Michele Watson, NAMI NH, she/her: It happens daily, but no support is offered or available at the time of, and then waiting months for an appointment with a mental health, professional. And I know you had spoken about
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Michele Watson, NAMI NH, she/her: really trying to, You know, broaden our look at trauma-informed care and response.
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Ken Duckworth MD: Yeah, so one of my teachers, with Bessel Vanderk, who wrote the mega bestseller. The body keeps the score.
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Ken Duckworth MD: and he would give us lectures in the first floor. Then my beeper would go off, and i’d be putting people in restraints on the fourth floor. I would be signing that they were still breathing.
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Ken Duckworth MD: and I thought to myself, we are so disconnected between theory and action as a mental health field. Tommy had people like me, psychiatrists blaming mothers for their children’s schizophrenia.
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Ken Duckworth MD: and when I first started to talk about trauma at Nami, people would fold their arms, thinking that I was part of the army of psychiatrists who, through misguided Mumbo Jumbo had decided that mothers were to blame
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Ken Duckworth MD: for schizophrenia. So
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Ken Duckworth MD: the reason I wanted to have a trauma chapter was to bring Nami into the modern era.
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Ken Duckworth MD: the adverse child of experience. Study has taught us that people who have trauma experiences have a lot of mental health and physical concerns. Later in life.
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Ken Duckworth MD: We have work to do in that.
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Ken Duckworth MD: So that was the reason I specifically wrote a chapter on the impact to Trauma, because I want Nami to get with this program in an active way. I don’t want us to be trauma deniers, which I understand was a natural response to it version 10, blame.
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Ken Duckworth MD: But people still describe being blamed in the book. I just want to emphasize that
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Ken Duckworth MD: both by professionals and by their neighbors. So I understand the reticence to talk about trauma so innocent bystander support. It’s a good question.
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Ken Duckworth MD: you know. Ken Norton might have thoughts about that. Susan might have thoughts in New Hampshire mental health. First aid
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Ken Duckworth MD: might be one resource for people to consider.
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Ken Duckworth MD: but a lot of people witnessed traumatic things in life. It’s absolutely true. and there is not a coordinated support or resource network that I am aware of.
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Ken Duckworth MD: For that
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Susan Stearns – NAMI NH (she/her): I I will add a couple of things there. I think it’s a a great point we do have on our website under the section for gun violence.
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Susan Stearns – NAMI NH (she/her): some resources for folks who have experience trauma, including mass, mass, casualty events, such as a a mass shooting. We also, on our connect program website with You can also get to this link through our survivors of suicide Loss Page on the Nami at New Hampshire website
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Susan Stearns – NAMI NH (she/her): information for people who have witnessed a suicide death or found someone. After that the State has, out of the Department of health and human services, a disaster behavioral health response team. We’ll make sure we share that link as well.
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Susan Stearns – NAMI NH (she/her): And then I do want to emphasize that New Hampshire’s rapid response is available. 24, over 7 365 days a year the website is Nh. 9 8 8.com. You can chat or you can call or text t08337106477. Don’t worry all that information will be posted.
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Susan Stearns – NAMI NH (she/her): and if you’re outside New Hampshire. 908 is a great resource. The only reason we don’t recommend it inside New Hampshire is, if you don’t have a 6 or 3 area code. You won’t have access to New Hampshire based services because, and I know Nami national is working on this we need geolocation for 988, instead of routing by area code. So keep that New Hampshire rapid response number handy still but 9 8 8 is also a great resource.
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Susan Stearns – NAMI NH (she/her): Great question and
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Susan Stearns – NAMI NH (she/her): something that we are continuing to work on and expanding our resources. So I appreciate the question.
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Susan Stearns – NAMI NH (she/her): and we’ll get some of those that that information in the chat.
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Denise Paley: Yeah, I I don’t go ahead. A lot of what I do is
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Denise Paley: advocating for a crisis intervention team training for police officers to have it. But on the flip side of that I’ve done some advocating for the mental health support for police officers
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Denise Paley: who
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Denise Paley: experience, you know, who witnessed these traumatic events, because it does. It takes it takes toll on them, and
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Denise Paley: you know it. It is also important. It it’s very important for them to have the support that they need. And
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Denise Paley: within the police force there’s been a little bit of a stigma about seeking mental health support, so to sort of quell that a little bit, and make that part of our legislation to have.
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Denise Paley: you know, to ensure. People can safely seek out that support and help, and not have to deal with any backlash from their, you know, from their job, placement or their community.
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Michele Watson, NAMI NH, she/her: Thank you, Denise, so we only have a few minutes left, and I didn’t know if
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Michele Watson, NAMI NH, she/her: each of you panelists would be interested in just, you know, saying a couple of more words before we wrap up. And can you as well
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Dante & Chastity Murry: jazz you first. I’m trying to get a better chance to talk because I talk to you like. If you let me talk i’ll talk to the whole show. But well keep that in mind for future. This is not the Dante show. This is the New Hampshire show.
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Dante & Chastity Murry: So we actually done on our stories on Associate Press, and it’s in actually what Yahoo!
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Dante & Chastity Murry: And been the mental health part of the New York Post. Yes, the New York Post. Also she’s talking about their story. Yeah, my story is on there. Mental recovery stories in the New York Post, and a few other places
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Dante & Chastity Murry: that were so sent by the Associated Press. Yes, yeah.
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Michele Watson, NAMI NH, she/her: great. We’ll definitely make sure we share those. Thank you.
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Dante & Chastity Murry: Denise.
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Dante & Chastity Murry: Oh, sorry, Dante. Did you want to say something? I’m: sorry. Oh, no, me, that’s a that’s a blank check right there
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Dante & Chastity Murry: here. I appreciate the energy level here. I appreciate it so much, guys. It’s a blessing, and, in fact, you know, being able to tell our family and friends about this experience has really helped us to to bond closer people who are truly advocates of mental health recovery.
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Dante & Chastity Murry: And this is just refreshing because think about it, guys. If I went back 15 years ago
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Dante & Chastity Murry: and and someone told me that there’s gonna be this wonderful so staff of people at dummy, and they’re going to do all they they can to promote this recovering process or a book. And this can be.
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Dante & Chastity Murry: This kind of outreach is going to exist. I would have said, that’s not possible.
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Dante & Chastity Murry: you know. So this I don’t see that happening, you know, but now it’s a reality. And now I can say that there is. There is no limit to how Nami could reach out to people and help people in recovery. There is no excuse now for not getting the kind of support and resources you ever need
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Dante & Chastity Murry: to to move forward. There’s no excuse now the the network
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Dante & Chastity Murry: is there, the presence is there. the the energy, and the people who love to help people get better and stronger is there.
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and so
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Dante & Chastity Murry: keep carrying the torch. Dr. Duckworth. There’s other people who want to who want to do that. Olympic run with you on the Mental Health Recovery Education process. We’re there to support you, to break the stigma and break that stigma.
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Michele Watson, NAMI NH, she/her: Thank you. Go ahead, Denise.
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Denise Paley: I I just want to say thank you for allowing us to be part of the you know this presentation today. and to have a conversation.
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Michele Watson, NAMI NH, she/her: Thank you, Tria. Is there anything you’d like it to add.
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Andrea (Drea) Landry, CPRS, RPS, ALWF: I say, did all to everything, you know it’s just. I am so thankful to be a part of an army family, and you know it’s funny. I always thought like kin said I was gonna be a one hit. Wonder. You know I was in the State of California, and then in the state of Maryland, and just sharing my voice and and trying to help and move above, and just to be nationwide, and being able to not only share my story within this book, but within the the the different classes of the peer to peer, and
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Andrea (Drea) Landry, CPRS, RPS, ALWF: some of the other things that I’ve led my voice to. I am just so thankful to have this as a platform not just nationwide, but apparently around the world, because we are reaching mighty mighty milestones, and this is not going to end here. You know my model is that light at the end of the tunnel is not a train. It’s Hope, and we need to embrace and love on it, just like we embrace and love on ourselves.
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Ken Duckworth MD: I just want to thank Nami, New Hampshire for having us. I want to thank Denise, Dreya, Dante, and Chastity
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Ken Duckworth MD: for sharing your lift experience which is expertise. My final comment would be, this is our book.
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Ken Duckworth MD: and if you go to your local bookstore. That’s not Gibson’s, and you don’t see our book say, hey, how about our book?
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Ken Duckworth MD: And if you like the book, write a nice review on Amazon.
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Ken Duckworth MD: You don’t like the book, take a vacation right? Do not dis our book. It’s our book like that is to say, the Marketing Communications Army is kind of over book is selling based on word of mouth and personal advocacy. So that’s what I would leave you with
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Ken Duckworth MD: is, you know, go when you’re next time you go to the library don’t make a special trip, but the next time you go to the library to pick up a book, ask him, do. They have an army book, and they’ll say, what are you talking about? Or they’ll say, hey, it’s already checked out.
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Ken Duckworth MD: You’ll say, Well, do you need another copy or 2, because it’s really our effort to communicate what we’re about.
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Ken Duckworth MD: what we’re doing, and the remarkable people who live with mental health conditions and those who love them.
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Ken Duckworth MD: and I just want to say, thank you for having us
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Ken Duckworth MD: today.
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Ken Duckworth MD: Give us a lot of time. And that was very kind of you a lot of times, you know. We have to talk in 17 min. So this was leisurely that we could get to know some of our panelists and talk a little bit more. So thank you for that as well.
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Susan Stearns – NAMI NH (she/her): Well, all of us here at Mommy New Hampshire want to thank
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Susan Stearns – NAMI NH (she/her): you, Dr. Duckworth, Denise, Dreya, Dante, and Chastity.
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Susan Stearns – NAMI NH (she/her): We, 1 one of the
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Susan Stearns – NAMI NH (she/her): added bonuses beyond talking about the book is having
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Susan Stearns – NAMI NH (she/her): folks from our broader Nami alliance be here, and I am so heartened and reminded that our alliance is strong, and it goes far beyond New Hampshire. So thank you for sharing with us today.
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Susan Stearns – NAMI NH (she/her): And truly, thank you so much for this book. You are not alone. We talk a lot about Hope.
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Susan Stearns – NAMI NH (she/her): and that surely comes through this book.
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Susan Stearns – NAMI NH (she/her): But I was so struck when I read it about how much love is in this book, and we’ve talked about that today. So thank you for this love letter
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Susan Stearns – NAMI NH (she/her): to all, to everyone.
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Susan Stearns – NAMI NH (she/her): It truly means the world, and we’re really grateful to you for sharing your time today.
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Michele Watson, NAMI NH, she/her: Yes, thank you. Thank you, Susan. Thank you for all of our panelists.
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Michele Watson, NAMI NH, she/her: So on the screen, which of course, got moved around for me. We want to continue this conversation on our community boards and Hoover, and we will keep an eye on that
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Michele Watson, NAMI NH, she/her: for those of you that maybe this is the only session you can do right now. I hope not. I hope you can stay with us. An evaluation will be emailed out tomorrow, and at the end of that is when you would receive the certificate of attendance. If you so need that
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Michele Watson, NAMI NH, she/her: a recording of this session will be available in Hula for 30 days, and then can be found on the Nami, New Hampshire, Youtube Channel.
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Michele Watson, NAMI NH, she/her: If you’d like to support and get a copy of this book at Concords Local Independent bookstore, Gibson’s. As we’ve talked about. The QR. Code is up there on the screen.
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Michele Watson, NAMI NH, she/her: and then to get the 20% discount. But the code in not alone. And we found out that this is good for another week. So we’re really excited about that.
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Michele Watson, NAMI NH, she/her: Coming up next at 1115, we have the Reverend Carol Moorhead and Dr. Daniel Moorhead presenting. Why can’t we be friends a conversation about science and spirituality, and we hope we’ll see you all there.
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Michele Watson, NAMI NH, she/her: So thank you all very much again. Thank you to Dr. Duckworth and all of our panelists, and we hope you have a great day. I’ll see you on another session. Session soon. Come twisted bye, bye.
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Dante & Chastity Murry: bye, bye, thank you take care of you guys. Take care! Take care.
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Andrea (Drea) Landry, CPRS, RPS, ALWF: hey, Karen.
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Good job!
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Susan Stearns – NAMI NH (she/her): Very good job.
Why Can’t We Be Friends? A Conversation about Science and Spirituality
Daniel Morehead, MD and the Reverend Carol Morehead discuss the connection between science and spirituality. How might one’s faith impact their health? Can spirituality and science work together for our physical and mental wellbeing? How might faith communities shape attitudes and outlooks towards mental health for better or for worse? Are psychiatrists anti-religion and ministers anti-science? Daniel and Carol will bring their experiences from the world of psychiatry and of faith as they explore what it means to embrace both science and spirituality along our journey of mental health.
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Kimberly Somarriba, she/her, NAMI NH: Welcome everyone. We’re going to give it just a minute
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Kimberly Somarriba, she/her, NAMI NH: to let people
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Kimberly Somarriba, she/her, NAMI NH: come on in, Michelle. Can you make sure that we have the closed captioning enabled.
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Kimberly Somarriba, she/her, NAMI NH: Make sure.
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Do that.
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Michele Watson, NAMI NH, she/her: Okay.
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Kimberly Somarriba, she/her, NAMI NH: So welcome. If you’re not singing, why can’t we be friends in your head yet?
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Kimberly Somarriba, she/her, NAMI NH: You might be by the end of this session. We’re super excited to have the Reverend Carol Morehead and Dr. Daniel Moore Head with us
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Kimberly Somarriba, she/her, NAMI NH: today. It looks like we’ve got some more people just
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Kimberly Somarriba, she/her, NAMI NH: entering. But i’m gonna go ahead and start an introduction, and then
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Kimberly Somarriba, she/her, NAMI NH: i’ll turn it on over. So thank you so much. I’m Kimberly. So Mariva I co-ordinate the annual conference with Michelle Watson, and we’re we’re thrilled to be offering this workshop. Today we have the reverend carol moorhead she’s a a a pistol priest
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Kimberly Somarriba, she/her, NAMI NH: serving in the Boston area. She grew up in the midwest.
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Kimberly Somarriba, she/her, NAMI NH: but it’s lived on both coasts, Texas, Europe, and New England.
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Kimberly Somarriba, she/her, NAMI NH: Over the years Carol has been a passionate advocate for mental health and wellness, including being the co-founder of pathways to hope
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Kimberly Somarriba, she/her, NAMI NH: just a mental health Conference in San Antonio
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Kimberly Somarriba, she/her, NAMI NH: She loves to travel, adores the color Red often reads poetry, thinks in terms of big ideas.
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Kimberly Somarriba, she/her, NAMI NH: and I hope for deep connections and seeks to experience art in all its forms.
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Kimberly Somarriba, she/her, NAMI NH: Often, though, she finds herself curious about her world, and wondering about what comes next. She’s married with 3 Sons and now a daughter-in-law.
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Kimberly Somarriba, she/her, NAMI NH: and Dr. Daniel Moorhead is a psychiatrist who speaks widely for mental health advocacy.
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Kimberly Somarriba, she/her, NAMI NH: He’s the author of science over stigma. education, and advocacy for mental health the regular contributor to the psychiatric time. He’s an award, winning, winning teacher
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Kimberly Somarriba, she/her, NAMI NH: and a board board certified in both general psychiatry and neurop psychiatry.
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Kimberly Somarriba, she/her, NAMI NH: He maintains interest in psychotherapy. neuroscience and spirituality.
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Kimberly Somarriba, she/her, NAMI NH: Thank you both for being here today.
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Daniel Morehead, MD: Thank you, Kimberly. Everybody we’re we are grateful to be here.
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Daniel Morehead, MD: Carol and I are grateful to have a chance to to talk together as a team.
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Daniel Morehead, MD: and we love Nami. We love the incredible work that Nami has done, and the 50 odd years of its existence.
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Daniel Morehead, MD: I think it’s made as much change in our culture as probably any any organization or any cost in the last 50 years.
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Daniel Morehead, MD: and although there is a long way to go. The progress is mind blowing. And so we’re. We’re grateful and excited to be a part of that, and to be a part of that with you.
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Daniel Morehead, MD: Spirituality tells us that we’re all connected, and so we like having this chance to be connected with you. We we wish we were all together in person; but but barring that, it’s pretty great to be together in this way. So thank you for your time.
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Daniel Morehead, MD: Carol and I are obviously approaching mental health from from 2 sides.
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Daniel Morehead, MD: Mine is more from the psychiatry side. I’ve been trained in the scientific tradition Carols is from the spirituality side with her training and experience as a minister and Faith community leader. And so what we’re gonna say is, the title implies that these things
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Daniel Morehead, MD: come together very beautifully in the way that many, many people experience every day. And so we we realize we’re not telling you a bunch of stuff
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Daniel Morehead, MD: you don’t know we’re preaching to the choir, but we also think it’s it’s stimulating, inspiring to get together and and remind each other of how how beautifully these can go together, and what a difference they can make.
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Daniel Morehead, MD: So I will share my screen for the obligatory Powerpoint, and talk for 15 min or so, and then Carol will do the same, and then we’ll leave time for discussion.
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Daniel Morehead, MD: So
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Daniel Morehead, MD: well. I think most of us that are here probably feel like there is a a kinship and a synergy between these 2 things, mental health on one side and spirituality on the other. It was not always this way.
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Daniel Morehead, MD: Many of us who have a few gray hairs can remember where these 2 sides were somewhat suspicious of each other. We.
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Daniel Morehead, MD: or when sometimes speaking for the mental health side, there. There were people in the mental health field in decades past. You believe that you didn’t you? You didn’t or shouldn’t need religion or spirituality once you got the benefits of science and mental health and psychotherapy and the like. And of course there’s there’s a tradition of this dating back to Sigmund Freud, who was a a great psychiatrist and heavily influential.
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Daniel Morehead, MD: But one of his hang ups was that he didn’t like religion very much, and so he wrote a book called the future of an illusion describing religion ironically. One of his friends was a Protestant pastor named Oscar Fister, and Oscar Fister wrote a book called the Illusion of a future.
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Daniel Morehead, MD: Because, Freud said in his book, basically, I don’t need religion. I have science, and science is going to make the world better and a good place, and that’s that’s that was Freud’s Vision of the future with science would take us there not spirituality.
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Daniel Morehead, MD: So Oscar Fister wrote this thing called the Illusion of a future, saying, Well, you might not. He might not want to depend exclusively on science.
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Daniel Morehead, MD: and there were many who agreed with him, and one was Freud’s protege, who later went out on his own, and Carl young Carl Young was descended from a long line of pastors in Switzerland.
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Daniel Morehead, MD: and while he himself was sort of vague on religion and something of an agnostic. He also believed that spirituality and faith, and even God were parts of the human psyche; that were, they were more or less hardwired. That are just parts of who we are.
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Daniel Morehead, MD: And he had this sign above his his doorway that, said Biden, or unbidden. God will be present in Latin, as you can see there. So he, unlike Freud, did recognize that faith and spirituality were things that were normal and healthy for human beings.
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Daniel Morehead, MD: Later on mid-century America, Karl and William Meniger were incredibly influential psychiatrists and I trained at a at a hospital. They founded
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Daniel Morehead, MD: they were not overtly Christian, but they were sympathetic to faith, because their mother flow vinegar in the middle of that picture had a series of Bible studies that she had written herself and published, and these were famous nationwide.
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Daniel Morehead, MD: And so the the men her boys were were heavily influenced by their mother flow, and the importance of faith in her life. and she was such a dominant figure that the story is, the Mengers have this very big psychiatric hospital that they had found in
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Daniel Morehead, MD: William Vinegar was on the cover of Time Magazine. They were Titans of American psychiatry. They spoke to Presidents and senators.
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Daniel Morehead, MD: but whenever word came that their mother flow, was visiting them at their own vinegar clinic, they would hurriedly put out their cigarettes and hide the ashtrays and open the windows, and and fumigate the rooms, because their mother didn’t know that they smoked, and would not have approved.
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Daniel Morehead, MD: So, lest I I digress too much. I apologize for the busyness of this time, but the point of the sorry I pause, apologize for the busyness of this slide, but the point of it is that traditionally, psychiatrists and psychologists and social workers have been
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Daniel Morehead, MD: less religious than the general population, and, as you can see from these recent polling numbers, that’s still true.
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Daniel Morehead, MD: The general public overwhelmingly is interested in spirituality, confesses some kind of a belief in higher power, says that religion is somewhat or very important to them. It’s less so among mental health treaters. But what you can see these days is that spirituality is still of high or moderate importance to the vast majority of of mental health. Professionals like psychiatrists.
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Daniel Morehead, MD: and also, as you can see in the third point down there, 93% of psychiatrists. Say it is appropriate to ask about religion and spirituality and discuss these things
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Daniel Morehead, MD: farther down. At the bottom you can see among psychologists, 82% say that religion is beneficial for mental health. So these days of this big tension between mental health and psychiatry and psychology on one side and faith on the other, are over.
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Daniel Morehead, MD: And that’s a happy thing, because they have a lot to learn from each other, and a lot to gain from each other. And there’s a reason now why why, in general mental health professionals like me are very sympathetic of, and even supportive of people, spirituality and religion, and that reason is research.
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Daniel Morehead, MD: And so what this is, is a graph of studies on the subject of how religion and spirituality relate to health
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Daniel Morehead, MD: in general as well as mental health, and what you can see is in the late nineties. This line started started moving upwards, and it’s moved up drastically in the last 2 decades, such that by now there’s probably close to 2,000 studies a year published in legitimate
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Daniel Morehead, MD: prominent scientific journals on this subject alone. So there’s thousands and thousands of studies that have accumulated over time, and what they show is fundamentally with some reservations
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Daniel Morehead, MD: that when people are spiritually and religiously interested that practicing those things is actually good for their health and specifically good for their mental health.
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Daniel Morehead, MD: So i’m just gonna touch on that. A few aspects of that before Carol begins to talk about things from the spirituality and Faith community side.
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Daniel Morehead, MD: So this is a list of very, very well substantiated health and mental health benefits that go with religious participation.
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Daniel Morehead, MD: People who are active in their faith community and say that they believe or practice their religion or spirituality.
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Daniel Morehead, MD: Better outcomes in major depression, less suicide, less substance, abuse, better overall, well, being greater resilience, greater ability to handle stress.
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Daniel Morehead, MD: There are some some ways that there’s a mixed picture, for instance, with anxiety. Some of you like me are waiting for more research to come out about spirituality and religion.
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Daniel Morehead, MD: When people are dealing with things like schizophrenia or bipolar disorder, some of these severe chronic illnesses, and we don’t have a full picture on that yet. But the picture we have so far is that religion and spirituality are actually powerful supports for people’s health.
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Daniel Morehead, MD: and this is not meant to replace all the other things we can do for our health, you know, exercise, good sleep, medicine when we need it, or talk therapy, but it does seem to augment it in a powerful way.
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Daniel Morehead, MD: The same is true with some spiritual disciplines that have begun to be studied. Meditation especially has been a big, big focus in mental health research.
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Daniel Morehead, MD: And, as you probably have heard, there is a lot of good research piling up hundreds and hundreds of studies suggesting that something like meditation is likely to be helpful for things like depression and anxiety and and chronic pain.
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Daniel Morehead, MD: but also for for for our, you know, day to day functioning of our concentration, our problems with anger and irritability, our ability to enjoy positive emotions or be empathic with others.
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Daniel Morehead, MD: Meditation is powerful when people practice it on a regular basis.
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Daniel Morehead, MD: Prayer looks to be the same way, although I I have to say a note of caution. There are not nearly as many studies on prayer, so we’re not as sure about the ways that it may support mental and physical health, but the indications so far are completely in line with studies of meditation and studies of religious participation in general, which is that these things, if people want to do them, and if people practice them regularly. These things are good for health, good for physical health.
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Daniel Morehead, MD: good for mental health. They’re synergistic. They work well with other treatments and practices. People do for their health. So why is this the case? Well, just just to touch on the fact that the argument that’s being made is not that people practice a religion, and so they’re miraculously
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Daniel Morehead, MD: made more healthy. Right? We we, we all are prone to getting sick. Whether we’re religious or not. We’re all prone to dealing with mental illness. Whether we’re religious or not, I know I have. So it’s not that there’s some kind of guarantee of perfect health.
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Daniel Morehead, MD: The idea is that that spiritualities and religions have these things built into them that are very good for health.
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Daniel Morehead, MD: Alright, They help us make sense of life and give us meeting and purpose, and that actually is proven to be good for your health. They help us deal with suffering and reorient ourselves in a positive way, and that’s good for our health.
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Daniel Morehead, MD: They offer us social support. If we’re part of groups or friendships or faith communities. Social support is a massive factor in health, and I don’t want to belabor this, and you may have seen charts like this, but this is.
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Daniel Morehead, MD: and summarizing hundreds and hundreds of studies, and the bottom line is social support does more for your health, long-term even than important things like taking your blood pressure, medicine, or exercising or cutting down on alcohol or tobacco use social support, which is built in 150
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Daniel Morehead, MD: to to religion. And spirituality. actually is looking like an even more powerful factor in your long-term health and well-being.
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Daniel Morehead, MD: So there’s there’s a lot packed into religious and spiritual life probably more than than most of us can take in, even when we’re practicing them.
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Daniel Morehead, MD: Everything that has an upside or a positive side or a powerful side can have a downside in the case of religion and spirituality. If people are in a state of deep struggle or distress.
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Daniel Morehead, MD: or even worried that they’re cursed or rejected, or condemned. This can actually be bad for their health. So there’s there’s some details from from one very well done. Study about that subject.
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Daniel Morehead, MD: so we don’t need to portray and presenting this information that it can only be a positive experience for someone. Many people have felt hurt or disappointed, or let down in their spiritual lives or in faith communities, and we have to be and want to be sensitive to that.
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Daniel Morehead, MD: So when we say these things are powerful for health.
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Daniel Morehead, MD: we’re saying they can be powerful in a negative way as well as a positive way, and so like with any medicine or talk there after your treatment we want to be. We want to be mindful about how we do them
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Daniel Morehead, MD: So how do we? How do we know how to do them in a way that’s healthy? Well, that’s a big question.
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Daniel Morehead, MD: But the general agreement right now. If you’re if you’re coming at it like me from the mental health side, is it’s not my job as a therapist or psychiatrist to look at someone’s belief for spirituality or faith, and say, Well, this is right, but that’s not right, or you need to change that belief. It’s not even for me to really have to evaluate. Well, is this belief have anything to do with the illness you’re dealing with
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Daniel Morehead, MD: as a pro as a mental health professional. I’m supposed to look at fruits, not roots, and not to judge someone else, but to think and talk together Is this helping me? Is this: is this bearing the kind of fruit that I want in terms of my health and my well being, in my sense of happiness and satisfaction of life, so that i’m i’m. I’m off the hook as I should be as a psychiatrist that it’s it’s not for me to judge anybody else’s religion.
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Daniel Morehead, MD: It’s for me as much as people want to help people discuss and think about and reflect on how they want their spiritual lives to be a part of things. And If so, how that might benefit their health.
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Daniel Morehead, MD: So again, coming at it from a psych psychiatric point of view. it’s not for me to decide whether religion or spirituality is right for somebody else, or important to them.
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Daniel Morehead, MD: And none of these studies that we have amongst all these thousands of studies. Not one of them says we should force people to go to church or be in faith, communities, or be religious and spiritual.
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Daniel Morehead, MD: They all study people who are attracted to these things and want to do them. And so, if somebody is attracted and wants to talk about it. that actually is relevant to their physical and mental health and as a psychiatrist and mental health professional. I take it that way in a very positive way, and I think everybody in my field can and should do that.
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Daniel Morehead, MD: And then, finally, i’m especially happy to hear if people feel some connection to a faith, community, or spiritual group of any any kind.
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Daniel Morehead, MD: because those are the groups more than any other, where you don’t
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Daniel Morehead, MD: necessarily have to pay a bunch of money to be part of it. You don’t have to pass a test. Most of these groups you don’t you don’t have to sign anything. You don’t even have to believe exactly the same way, although sometimes that’s an issue. Most of these groups you can just show up.
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Daniel Morehead, MD: and although not every group is as welcoming as it should be, the idea of spiritual groups is that we’re we’re all in this together. We’re all one on some level. And so if you want to be here, whether around the periphery or to participate more deeply.
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Daniel Morehead, MD: You’re welcome, and there’s not very many places as a psychiatrist that I can send somebody who is in need of that kind of social support and understanding and deep connection.
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Daniel Morehead, MD: So i’m very, very grateful for our faith, communities and and for People’s interest in spirituality, and people like my wife, who helped help sustain it in our communities. So over to you, Carol.
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The Reverend Carol Morehead: Thank you there
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The Reverend Carol Morehead: and thanks everyone. So i’m gonna share also.
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The Reverend Carol Morehead: And I think there was a question about whether these would. Our slides would be made available. I think we’re we’re happy to make them available. We’ll put them together into one thing. Is that right? Then?
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The Reverend Carol Morehead: All right. let me change it.
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The Reverend Carol Morehead: Let’s see.
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The Reverend Carol Morehead: Why is that
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The Reverend Carol Morehead: okay? How’s that?
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The Reverend Carol Morehead: It’s dark there it is perfect.
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The Reverend Carol Morehead: So just to kind of at restate kind of who I am. So I am an Episcopal priest
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The Reverend Carol Morehead: in the Boston area, Medford, Massachusetts, and so my specific perspective is from a Christian community. But I think a lot. The majority of what I’m going to say really
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The Reverend Carol Morehead: is true for what I might call communities of practice, so it it can include religious communities, spiritual practicing communities. Most of the major world religions would fall into a lot of these same kinds of
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The Reverend Carol Morehead: of things. So
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The Reverend Carol Morehead: so what in the world? Let’s see.
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The Reverend Carol Morehead: I got too many controls here.
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The Reverend Carol Morehead: What does it mean to be a person of faith or of spiritual inclination when you’re thinking about seeking help. So one of the one of the very interesting troops is, and some studies say that up to about 70
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The Reverend Carol Morehead: percent of people, when they experience some kind of crisis in their life, whether it be a mental health crisis or a a health crisis in general. or in the life of one of their loved ones. They will often first reach out to a spiritual leader, a priest and a man, a Rabbi shaman, Someone, even if they’re not part of a religious community. Interestingly so. There’s something pretty deep in our human experience that
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The Reverend Carol Morehead: that invites us to consider the spiritual nature of
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The Reverend Carol Morehead: what’s going on in our life, and often what I find, and what other spiritual leaders that I’m. In communication with and from the studies that I’ve read and and anecdotally people of all different religious traditions are often really afraid to seek help.
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The Reverend Carol Morehead: They’re afraid of therapy in particular, and I think the reason for that is really because they’re afraid that if a therapist is going to challenge their faith, misunderstand their faith, Judge them in a harsh way. And, as Dan, I think, really said: Well.
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The Reverend Carol Morehead: the therapists, treaters, doctors, mental health professionals really want to use every piece of who we are to kind of. Look at.
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The Reverend Carol Morehead: How what are the pieces of our life that can help
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The Reverend Carol Morehead: for healing, help us become whole. So, starting with the religious leaders, I think, is a really good place to start as long as we remember the limitations of that. So one of the things I I like to say is.
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The Reverend Carol Morehead: you know, when people well, I don’t see it quite like this. This is a little long tongue in cheek. But I I you know i’ll say to people, you know we’ll have you considered therapy because the reality is that therapy allows people, whether it’s whatever kind of therapy it is, it can be short time, short term, like behavioral or a depth
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The Reverend Carol Morehead: therapy or analysis, or psychodynamic therapy. There’s all different
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The Reverend Carol Morehead: modalities for that, but it it can really be a catalyst
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The Reverend Carol Morehead: for moving ahead and figuring out some of these crisis moments, and
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The Reverend Carol Morehead: and of course, seeing a doctor also, because there may be the need for medications to deal with these things. And I always like to tell people i’m in therapy, and I have to tell you. People always are amazed that i’m so open about that. I’m like, yeah, absolutely. I’m in therapy.
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The Reverend Carol Morehead: I don’t know how you can go through life without being in therapy, so I always say, you know, do that because through those kinds of relationships I could be in conversation with people, but a therapist, a therapeutic relationship can help untangle a lot of tangled things that are in us and help us
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The Reverend Carol Morehead: see things more clearly, see ourselves more clearly.
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The Reverend Carol Morehead: and as just a spiritual leader, we we care about people. We want to help people, whether they’re in our community of practice, or from coming from outside of that we want to help. We want to see people get help.
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The Reverend Carol Morehead: but we are also human, and we recognize all of our humanity we are in perfect.
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The Reverend Carol Morehead: and that means that we have limitations. And so we’re limited in our time. We’re certainly limited in what we can do, and we’re limited in our expertise. So one of the things I think safe leaders can do spiritual leaders can do
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The Reverend Carol Morehead: is to work is to partner with the scientific side of things, because we are the experts in that we are the experts and the kind of spiritual lens. But in order to be a whole person. You have to kind of think in a broader
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The Reverend Carol Morehead: way, and so I always encourage people to do that.
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The Reverend Carol Morehead: Another thing that I like to remind people is, is Don’t have bad theology, or perhaps philosophy, because not everyone, is theistic.
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The Reverend Carol Morehead: Often I find that this is one of the kind of detriment to people’s understanding the relationship between science and spirituality is, they have these really kind of
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The Reverend Carol Morehead: ideas in the spiritual realm or the theological realm which are really not helpful.
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The Reverend Carol Morehead: And so I I I say to people, you know don’t have that to stop believing those things because they’re really hurting you. So just like Buzz what your tells, Woody. You know bad theology everywhere.
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The Reverend Carol Morehead: So what is an example of bad theology? Well.
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The Reverend Carol Morehead: there’s always a little kernel of of truth, and some of these that lead us to kind of believe them. So one example in the Christian world, and perhaps in some of the other major religions is, there’s a kind of bad theology that says that sickness is due to sin or sickness is due to some kind of imperfection.
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The Reverend Carol Morehead: or some kind of character flaw. and and this is really. in in most
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The Reverend Carol Morehead: most religions that I can find, and certainly in the spiritual realm. This is a really really unsupported kind of way of thinking about it’s really a bad reading, I would say, and certainly in the Christian world I would. I would argue pretty strongly
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The Reverend Carol Morehead: that that’s like saying, you know, if you, if you just believed better, you wouldn’t, you know, get cancer, or you
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The Reverend Carol Morehead: wouldn’t, you know, have diabetes, you know you just don’t have enough faith, and I think people apply that to mental health.
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The Reverend Carol Morehead: and we just think, oh, gosh! If I would just pray better, or talk to the right person, or if I was living my life in a different way, that I would be free from depression or anxiety. And you know it. It’s true that our faith might
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The Reverend Carol Morehead: enhance our physical health. It may be a support to it, as I think Dan was talking about. It’s a real fallacy. To think that we’re somehow bringing something on ourselves, because we live in an imperfect world
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The Reverend Carol Morehead: and a world where there is death and sickness and brokenness, and our religious traditions and our spiritual traditions
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The Reverend Carol Morehead: help attest to the the universality of those kinds of experiences, and
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The Reverend Carol Morehead: trying to find the connections between our spiritual life and and the science scientific realm really help kind of eradicate this kind of thinking. Another bad theology is kind of that
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The Reverend Carol Morehead: belief that God is like a genie, that if you just rub it, rub the lamp the right way, that God will grant your wishes; and if, if you’re not getting your wishes, you must not be getting the right. You’re not rubbing the lamp the right way, or it’s kind of the the cousin to that is, God is like Santa Claus, that you know.
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The Reverend Carol Morehead: gives us our our good wish list. If we’re good. That gives us a coal, you know a lump of coal. If we’re naughty. And you know, when people have mental health challenges in themselves or someone they love
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The Reverend Carol Morehead: faith leaders. Don’t believe that faith will take away suffering.
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The Reverend Carol Morehead: and I think sometimes that
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The Reverend Carol Morehead: thinking more in terms of how we can partner.
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The Reverend Carol Morehead: and with the the tools we have through science is really a better place to be than trying to think of how God will take away all these kinds of things. One. the other thing that we, I think faith leaders like we have a role in trying to say is, you know, if you need medicine, take your medicine
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The Reverend Carol Morehead: that theology says that you know if I were, you know, doing some something different. I wouldn’t need my medicine, and we I think we have to kind of stand and say, wait a minute. Another thing is, don’t do it yourself too often people try to go it alone. I think this has to go with some of what Dan was saying with.
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The Reverend Carol Morehead: We kind of become overwhelmed with stressors, and and being having community around us, gives us some insulation against feeling like we are totally alone. I’m going to talk about that just a little bit in a minute.
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The Reverend Carol Morehead: So another thing I, that I think, is a real important piece to think about both, and from the science side, and from the the spirituality, size, reductionism.
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The Reverend Carol Morehead: So when science and spirituality mix. we often try to reduce one or the other, or both to the simplest of terms, because we want to try to make them mesh in some kind of way.
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The Reverend Carol Morehead: But really that’s that’s a mistake, because both science and spirituality are complex. And there’s great beauty in that.
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The Reverend Carol Morehead: And when we can see and appreciate the complexity
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The Reverend Carol Morehead: and of our spiritual lives of our lives as humans and the all that science brings to it. It really helps us. So we’re called really to dwell in the deep mystery. And this is where I think our spiritual lives can really ground us, because a deep spirituality recognizes the mystery in the world
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The Reverend Carol Morehead: and have a sense of awe. I was just reading something this morning about how science there’s actually studies about, and what the what is on. How can science kind of a test to that experience as a human experience? And I like this quote from Francis Collins, who was the leader of the team that decoded the human genome.
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The Reverend Carol Morehead: he said. For me the experience of sequencing the genome was both a stunning scientific achievement and an occasion of worship.
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The Reverend Carol Morehead: I love how that sense of aw that doesn’t reduce either one to try to make it. You know easy, because neither one is really easy. It’s it’s much more complex than that.
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The Reverend Carol Morehead: Self-care is really important.
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The Reverend Carol Morehead: I think we we sometimes in the religious world, in the spiritual world. Think self care. We confuse that with being self centered, I think in particular, the Christian world does this. And
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The Reverend Carol Morehead: here’s where I think what Dan was talking about. There’s some really beautiful studies that show that self-compassion
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The Reverend Carol Morehead: which is really important. And scientifically proven is also important from our spiritual kind of lens
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The Reverend Carol Morehead: and that can entail self kindness, our common humanity and mindfulness. I’m going through these really fast, because I don’t want to run out of time. But self-compassion.
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The Reverend Carol Morehead: It’s really an important piece, and it’s a binding piece, because it’s important
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The Reverend Carol Morehead: for that conversation between spirituality and science to work together because we both sides of that conversation really acknowledged, and value self compassion as being really important.
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The Reverend Carol Morehead: I think it’s really important to deal with reality.
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The Reverend Carol Morehead: Sometimes our spiritual life, if we’re. I think, if we’re really doing some depth work with our spiritual life, we we acknowledge the reality that we are imperfect. and we accept and embrace that because it’s transformative when we can start with where we are, and that’s a place where we really join with science is. This is the reality of human experience is that
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The Reverend Carol Morehead: there is imperfection. and we we are called to embrace that
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The Reverend Carol Morehead: and let that transform us. And through that process we become more whole and more able to kind of show up in our lives. And I I just as a quote from Friedrich Bignner, who is a Christian thinker. He he has this great quote: here’s the world
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The Reverend Carol Morehead: beautiful, terrible things will happen. Do not be afraid. I’m with you, and I think that sense of having a community that’s with you. So
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The Reverend Carol Morehead: And then finally, I think faith leaders really want to say. You know we will stand with you
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The Reverend Carol Morehead: if you are going to the doctor. If you are going through a health crisis, if you don’t understand, we don’t necessarily understand either. But we want to partner with you. We want to
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The Reverend Carol Morehead: join with people in these communities of practices as we seek those connections with science as we work together for homeless and healing.
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The Reverend Carol Morehead: And so, finally, you know, friends help friends face whatever comes. That’s kind of that kind of deep
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The Reverend Carol Morehead: acceptance of reality. And so science and faith can be the same way, and should be friends and should work together in our lives. So
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Daniel Morehead, MD: we said, Carol, that reminds me, and we’re we’re going into discussion time now. So if you have, if you have questions, you could put them in the chat.
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Daniel Morehead, MD: I think that’s the most efficient way to ask them. I don’t know if people can unmute and ask or not. But you’ve put me in mind, Carol, of one of the many things I forgot to say which I but but I think you expressed beautifully. And I feel this way, too.
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Daniel Morehead, MD: You’re somebody who’s who’s clergy. You have a church you get up in front of and lead every you know, every Sunday every day of the week. I’m. In the position of being the doctor, you know I don’t know. I’m not sure what’s going on, but I’m supposed to know.
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Daniel Morehead, MD: and but we’re also in the position of people we struggle. We have problems. I
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Daniel Morehead, MD: I deal with mental illness in my own life. So we’re not, you know, when we’re trying to fill a role of being someone’s doctor or priest or clergy, we’re doing the best we can to really fill that role and do a good job, but also behind the behind the scenes. We’re not thinking of ourselves as above it.
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Daniel Morehead, MD: And I I to really like the way you express that.
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Daniel Morehead, MD: And I can tell you from the mental health professional side. We’re not in this as mental health professionals, because we’re above it.
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Daniel Morehead, MD: We’re in the same. Think of it! The same fight, same struggles as everybody else, and we get. We get sick and have problems, too. So if if that’s if that’s the only thing that comes across from our little time here, I I would be very, very happy with that. Yeah.
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The Reverend Carol Morehead: it’s cool Cambridge. Are there some questions for us.
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Kimberly Somarriba, she/her, NAMI NH: We do that. A couple of come in Here’s a good one. Has there been any discussion about
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Kimberly Somarriba, she/her, NAMI NH: assigning baby the therapist
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Kimberly Somarriba, she/her, NAMI NH: from birth, so they’re just as they are, like a pediatrician or a primary care provider.
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Daniel Morehead, MD: I don’t I I’ve never asked heard that question before, but I don’t know if you had 30 years of psychiatry? I have not heard that question. That is, it’s an intriguing idea, because you’re right. We give people a pediatrician from birth I mean literally from the first days of life.
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Daniel Morehead, MD: One challenge we have in mental health is, as as you know, is that we do not have enough
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Daniel Morehead, MD: therapists and psychiatrists right now. We don’t have enough nurses, nurse practitioners for the people that are that are desperately trying to get help. And I bet you’ve most of you have been in the situation of trying to get help or or help somebody else
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Daniel Morehead, MD: find a mental health professional, so that would be the biggest obstacle right now. And so that’s that’s one thing that drew me back into the training of psychiatrists instead of just practicing psychiatry. I want to help make more.
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Daniel Morehead, MD: But we don’t, we don’t have enough, and that’s also segue
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Daniel Morehead, MD: part of what makes not me so great, and the peer to peer groups, and and you know, family to family, is that the the mental health professionals Don’t, need to do everything. We all we all need to do it together in our different roles, so I like your idea. I think everybody benefits from therapy.
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Daniel Morehead, MD: but i’m pretty sure we’re not a place where we can afford it yet.
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The Reverend Carol Morehead: But you know
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The Reverend Carol Morehead: I just want to throw in, you know, from the religious side at least, you know I know in the Christian faith I believe in in the Jewish faith and Islam there is actually
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The Reverend Carol Morehead: It’s not a therapist. But there, there’s a really strong belief in Mentors from birth. And so in the Christian tradition we baptize many Christian traditions, baptized infants, and part of that process is to identify
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The Reverend Carol Morehead: God parents. and got the part of the role of God. Parents from a spiritual perspective is to be that wisdom person who accompanies them through their life.
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The Reverend Carol Morehead: and gives them another adult person in their life. To kind of be their witness, and be their champion, and be their companion along the life’s way; and when that, when that’s done well and really works, it. It can be.
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The Reverend Carol Morehead: It’s not therapist, but it can be a significant person in the life, and I and I think other traditions do similar kinds of things. So I just think that’s interesting.
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Kimberly Somarriba, she/her, NAMI NH: Okay. Another question that came in is, do you have any suggestions for ways to int intentionally integrate
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Kimberly Somarriba, she/her, NAMI NH: spirituality or religion into someone’s mental health treatment.
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The Reverend Carol Morehead: So i’ll just say quickly. And then, if you don’t mind
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The Reverend Carol Morehead: from the from the spirituality kind of side, I would say
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The Reverend Carol Morehead: one way is is just to accompany people. So, as as the minister, you know, when someone’s getting ready for some sort of medical procedure, or they’re in the middle of, like I said, a medical crisis or their
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The Reverend Carol Morehead: they’re trying to seek support. It’s very common for
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The Reverend Carol Morehead: for a a minister, a rabbi, an email to a company those people literally, I mean, I’ve gone to many doctors appointments to just kind of be the person in the room who hears things and can just be with someone to kind of help hold their anxiety. We go to hospitals
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The Reverend Carol Morehead: with particularly with mental health. I think we are called on
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The Reverend Carol Morehead: with with some frequency to to listen and help point the way to to treatment and help identify. I mean, I keep a list of
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The Reverend Carol Morehead: people to refer to, because there’s a constant need, and there are never enough therapists and psychiatrists. So
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The Reverend Carol Morehead: thing
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Daniel Morehead, MD: Yeah, I totally agree. You know most hospitals have chaplains some. I I recently heard it at Maclean’s, a psychiatric treatment center. They have a a one of their programs has to do with spirituality and practicing healthy spirituality.
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Daniel Morehead, MD: You know, if you’re if you’re a spiritual and religious person, and the most important thing is integrating it our lives.
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Daniel Morehead, MD: But the person asked the question probably got that from the talk, and wondered how we how do we deal with it in treatment? I think, in a in a therapy situation. If you’re doing a longer term therapy with somebody.
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Daniel Morehead, MD: Every subject should be fair game, and the therapist is not You’re not asking them to be an authority
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Daniel Morehead, MD: about. You’re not asking them to be your minister.
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Daniel Morehead, MD: but a spirituality and religion, or part of your life, or you’re exploring things. It should be fair game to talk about that as part of your life, and what you should look for is not not that they, your therapist, knows everything about it, but that they’re curious, and they’re sympathetic, and they want to know what it’s like for you specifically, and what helps you, or what doesn’t help you
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Daniel Morehead, MD: or what your struggles are, what you’re exploring. You’re interested in. They’re a fellow traveler
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Daniel Morehead, MD: rather than somebody who’s a judge. You’re supposed to tell you what to do.
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Daniel Morehead, MD: So I think we you know. How do we, we, you know you read books that are interesting that you find about the subject. You may talk to people if you’re in a church or faith, community or spiritual group. You could talk to people. You may, you know you may have other friends who share some of the same interests.
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Daniel Morehead, MD: and gradually you you find your way. But but again, a a therapist who can’t be empathetic with whatever your experiences is, is maybe not the therapist for you, so I would give him a chance, you know. It may take him a while to understand where you’re coming from, but
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but that should be a really good place to start.
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The Reverend Carol Morehead: you know. Another thing. I’ve had
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The Reverend Carol Morehead: people. And, Dan, you. You may have had this, too, from your side, but I’ve had actually a number of people who have signed releases, so that I could talk to their therapist
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The Reverend Carol Morehead: because they want me to be a part of the overall conversation, which is a very humbling
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The Reverend Carol Morehead: kind of place. But but that’s another way. That mental health and spirituality can join together, of course, only with permission. But yeah.
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Daniel Morehead, MD: we we all need all the help we can get, and so we need allies and your You know your your spiritual life, and you know, spiritual, you know, counselors.
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Daniel Morehead, MD: or you know your clergy and your group. Those are allies with your mental health and their allies, with your mental health professionals, and I know it’s hard to get a psychiatrist on the phone to talk, or sometimes even a therapist. But if I get a call from you know, from some clergy person
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Daniel Morehead, MD: I’m. I’m ecstatic that somebody has that much support in their life, and somebody who’s that much on their side. And I think most clergy may. There They’re always exceptions, but most clergy really want people to have good mental health care, and are are so happy
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Daniel Morehead, MD: when they get it. And I, I talk to other clergy besides my wife. I’m very confident of this. They’re very happy
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Daniel Morehead, MD: when people get their mental health care that they need.
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The Reverend Carol Morehead: and sometimes we we don’t, understand we have questions, and so it can be really helpful when we can say, You know, how can I, as a as a faith leader, as a spiritual leader, support this person
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The Reverend Carol Morehead: because we may. We? We’re not doctors. We’re not therapists. We may not understand all the mechanisms that are going on. And so those conversations can be really valuable.
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Daniel Morehead, MD: This also reminds me just in it. Interrupt us if more questions come in. But that dilemma of should I take this medicine.
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Daniel Morehead, MD: and especially as a person of faith. Should I do? I really need a medicine?
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Daniel Morehead, MD: You already address that, Carol. But I I can say from my side is the doctor. It’s always. It’s always a struggle to to figure out. Okay, do I need a medicine here, and which medicine do I need, even apart from spirituality.
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Daniel Morehead, MD: But my attitude with faith and spirituality is we just. We need all the help we can get, and so just like, if there’s a clergy person who can help, or somebody as spiritual group or practice that can help bring it on. I’m all for it, and in the same. And and likewise
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Daniel Morehead, MD: if there’s a medicine that can help great. I promise it will not be the magic pill it won’t. Fix everything. Don’t worry. Spirituality still has to do its part, but the medicine can help do its part on a more physical level. And all all these things I I think they they work better in synergy than they do alone.
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Daniel Morehead, MD: even.
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Yeah.
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The Reverend Carol Morehead: you, too.
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Kimberly Somarriba, she/her, NAMI NH: we’ve got. I got 2 more
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Kimberly Somarriba, she/her, NAMI NH: and you talked about you. I think you touched on this already. But can a healthy set of values without a specific organized religion, provide the same benefits.
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Daniel Morehead, MD: Short answer from the literature as we don’t know. But when they break these things out like spirituality, you know, as a part from organized religion, meaning purpose.
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Daniel Morehead, MD: spiritual practices like meditation. The answer, so far as yes, though all those things help and religion great if it works for you. But but even apart from organized religion, these things, so for sure.
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The Reverend Carol Morehead: Yeah. And I and I wonder this is really a question, Dan, you know, and I use the phrase communities of practice. I think
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The Reverend Carol Morehead: being connected. The connectedness is what seems to be the big, important thing, and so
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The Reverend Carol Morehead: that can still leave you a kind of vulnerability that maybe you wouldn’t have if you’re in some kind of community practice. And again, it could be your yoga, your yoga practice, or your I mean, there’s all kinds of spiritual practices that are not specifically religious or theistic. So
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Kimberly Somarriba, she/her, NAMI NH: all right another one, is it? It’s a comment with a question.
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Kimberly Somarriba, she/her, NAMI NH: One reason for my breakdown was a lack of finding a spirituality that resounded for me. I was asking myself basic like questions such as, Who am I? What is life?
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Kimberly Somarriba, she/her, NAMI NH: Do you think that this plays a a factor in most people’s mental health? How long do we have to answer this one
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Daniel Morehead, MD: 1 min? No.
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Daniel Morehead, MD: I’ll. I’ll be brief. I won’t. Take a whole minute, but it’s a profound question, and my answer to that question is yes, I mean, I think you put it very well when we hit the wall with a life crisis
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Daniel Morehead, MD: it calls everything in the question, and we look at ourselves and open things up that maybe we haven’t looked at in a long, long time, and the beauty of the of the question perspective of of the the person who articulated this? Is
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Daniel Morehead, MD: it’s incredibly painful anxiety provoking and disturbing it’s it’s these are our biggest opportunities for growth.
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Daniel Morehead, MD: I’m not going to grow in the middle of a crisis. You don’t have to do your deepest therapy in the middle of a crisis, but coming out of a crisis. That’s when we have our our our greatest growth.
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Daniel Morehead, MD: and a spirituality needs to to support us, and that I agree.
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The Reverend Carol Morehead: i’ll just say
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The Reverend Carol Morehead: a community too often, and I can only speak specifically to Christian communities, the ones I know. Too often Christian communities
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The Reverend Carol Morehead: spend way too much time talking about things that are not about the core of what we need to be talking about as who we are as humans. We waste time on other things, because people I find people are are starving to talk about. Who am I?
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The Reverend Carol Morehead: What am I? What’s my purpose? You know
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The Reverend Carol Morehead: What is the purpose of life? These are actually really important things that that’s what we’re supposed to be about, not about some other things which take up a lot of bandwidth and a lot of religious life which
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i’d like to see change.
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Kimberly Somarriba, she/her, NAMI NH: Thank you, and we’ll be sure to share the slides from Dr. Moorhead and Reverend Carol in the Huva App. We can share that as a like a document, so we’ll make sure we share those with folks so that they can
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Kimberly Somarriba, she/her, NAMI NH: revisit and take a look.
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Kimberly Somarriba, she/her, NAMI NH: as they, you know, see fit.
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Kimberly Somarriba, she/her, NAMI NH: I’m trying to advance to thank you. Slide, and it’s not working.
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Daniel Morehead, MD: thanks to all of you.
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The Reverend Carol Morehead: Thank you so much for having us.
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Kimberly Somarriba, she/her, NAMI NH: Yes, we’ll. We’ll have this recording available in Hoover for 30 days, and then it will be shared on the nomine New Hampshire. Youtube Page. So that’s going to be there up next, and I’m going to try one more time. Let’s see if I can get this.
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Kimberly Somarriba, she/her, NAMI NH: We have a workshop or a we have a
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Kimberly Somarriba, she/her, NAMI NH: a Nami. You have your walks rally. That starts right at noon with burning porter, and she has a bunch of really cool stuff to give away. So if you pop over to that.
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The Reverend Carol Morehead: you won’t, you won’t. Be sorry. Thank you. Thank you. Dr. Dan and Rev Carol. Thank you so much.
NAMIWalks NH Rally
For 20 years, Walkers, Donors, Volunteers, and Sponsors have joined forces to stomp out stigma at NAMIWalks NH – our state’s largest mental health and suicide prevention awareness event. Join us at the NAMIWalks NH Rally to get ready for the 2023 NAMIWalks NH on Sunday, October 1st!
Giveaways, FAQs answered, and some shout outs you won’t want to miss!
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Michele Watson, NAMI NH, she/her: Hi, everybody and welcome. We’re just gonna wait a couple of minutes to let people come on in.
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Michele Watson, NAMI NH, she/her: Okay, we’re on a tight timeline. So i’m just gonna go ahead and get started. Thank you for joining us and welcome back If you’ve been at one of our sessions already today, i’d like to welcome Brittany Porter, Brittany, our Development Coordinator and walk manager for Nami, New Hampshire.
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Michele Watson, NAMI NH, she/her: She’s been involved in planning now in New Hampshire walks since joining the staff back in 2,016.
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Michele Watson, NAMI NH, she/her: She coordinated last year’s record breaking walk, which was just amazing, and she even planned her trip from Italy so that she could be back today to talk with you about the walk coming up. She’s got some some great things to share, and so i’m gonna turn it over to Brittany.
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Brittany Porter: Excellent! Thank you so much, Michelle, and thank you all for joining us today. I am just going to share my screen.
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Brittany Porter: All right, Michelle, Can you give me a thumbs up if everything looks good.
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Brittany Porter: awesome? All right.
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Brittany Porter: Well welcome everyone to our Nami walks. Rally for Nonie walks New Hampshire. I am so excited. You. You are all joining us today.
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Brittany Porter: Okay. So again, my name is Brittany Porter, and I am the walk manager for Nami walks New Hampshire. This role involves planning our events connecting with and assisting our team captains and participants, and yes, even promoting the walk at my own wedding.
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Brittany Porter: So, before we dive in. I just want to remind everyone to register for Nami walks New Hampshire by the end of the day today, so I can send you one of our adorable 2,023 walk stickers. Every person attending today will get one. And I know by the end of my presentation. You’re all just going to be so excited to join. Now we walks in Hampshire.
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Brittany Porter: so let’s dive into our agenda. As Michelle said, this is a short session. I only have 15 min.
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Brittany Porter: so I promise I will keep this short, sweet, and informative.
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Brittany Porter: So why make a powerful commitment and participate in not me? Walks New Hampshire.
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Brittany Porter: because Nami Walks is the largest, most vibrant mental health event series in the country.
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Brittany Porter: Over the past year alone Nami walks has searched to new levels of popularity and impact leading Nami to be recognized as the Peer-to-peer fundraising
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Brittany Porter: fundraising organization of the year.
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Brittany Porter: So taking place in more than 130 locations. Nami walks, invites participants to share their stories and walk together to achieve mental health for all.
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Brittany Porter: Why do we want?
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Brittany Porter: So we walk to promote awareness of mental health, and to reduce stigma. We walk to raise funds for Nami, New Hampshire’s free support, education and advocacy programs.
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Brittany Porter: So I would be remiss here. If I didn’t say a huge Thank you to our volunteers, teachers, and leaders. We could not offer these support groups, classes and more without them.
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Brittany Porter: and Finally, we walk to build community and let people know that they are not alone.
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Brittany Porter: Everyone individually has their own reason for walking. Some folks walk in memory of a loved one, in honor of a loved one, or in honor of themselves. But we are all united in believing in Nomi, New Hampshire’s mission and mental health for all.
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Brittany Porter: So let’s talk a little bit about our 2,022 at Nami Walk season 2,022 was an amazing year for the Nami Walks program. So let’s look at the success we had
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Brittany Porter: so nationwide. There were 121 Nomi walks, events attracting 62,000, participants, and raising a record breaking over 14 million dollars.
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Brittany Porter: The power of our mission is being felt as never before as mental health, for all has become a dream within reach.
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Brittany Porter: Over in little of New Hampshire we registered 1,149 participants, 129 teams, and we’d raised over $220,000.
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Brittany Porter: This was a record-breaking year for us. and though we are one of the smallest States in our country, we have consistently been in the top 10 fall fundraising walks for the past few years.
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Brittany Porter: Our nomi New Hampshire family is truly incredible. Obviously I would love to take credit for this record breaking event. But it’s truly a team effort. And our now in New Hampshire family is so supportive. And just
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Brittany Porter: so. Mission driven, and 2,022 was
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Brittany Porter: so exciting. This is our first year back in person, after we did 2 virtual years, and
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Brittany Porter: the crowd just came out, and it was truly an amazing event.
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Brittany Porter: I am thrilled to share that a 100% of the funds raised stay right here in the Granite State supporting the mission of Domin, New Hampshire and Nami National used to take a small percentage.
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Brittany Porter: but, thanks to money they’ve gotten from.
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Brittany Porter: Excuse me, they got from the book. You are not alone. They’ve been able to wave those fees. And now every penny that’s raised for an army walks. New Hampshire stays right here in our state.
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Brittany Porter: So now let’s shift our focus to 2,023.
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Brittany Porter: So our 2,023 Nomi Walks, New Hampshire, will take place on Sunday, October, the first at the soccer field on touch at these soccer fields on South Crude Street in Concord.
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Brittany Porter: Our registration opens at 9 am. With our 5 K. Walk, beginning at 1030. There is a shorter route available who for folks who may want or need that
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Brittany Porter: we always welcome friendly dogs, and we will have refreshments, games, and entertainment. We have a fantastic kid zone that is manned by our Children’s Department, involving a puppet show.
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Brittany Porter: We have a bounce house. We have face painting. It’s tons of fun, and we will have some games and entertainment for after the walk.
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Brittany Porter: so we hope you’ll stick around afterwards.
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Brittany Porter: I would like to note that Nami walks. New Hampshire is a rain or shine event. We like to say that if we buy emergency ponchos, it doesn’t rain. So rest assured. I have those
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Brittany Porter: all in stock, so I know it is going to be a wonderful sunshine day on Sunday, August
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Brittany Porter: in 2023. We want to show that we are together for mental health, and we will be keeping hashtag together, for M. H. Is our national hashtag. So when you post about Nami walks on social media. Please make sure to include this hashtag.
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Brittany Porter: and our local hashtag is hashtag stigma free in the 603.
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Brittany Porter: I don’t know if one of my volunteers could throw that in the chat that would be awesome
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Brittany Porter: new this year. We’ll be offering a number of Nami Walks, New Hampshire office hours. These are going to be 30 min. Zoom calls that center around a host of topics relating to Nami Walks, New Hampshire. Well, also allowing folks to come with questions.
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Brittany Porter: So we have 2 of our team captains from team, and in our discussing fundraising on July nineteenth.
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Brittany Porter: But we’re still looking for additional topics of interest. So if there’s something about Nami Walks, New Hampshire, you’d like to learn about or see a short presentation on these, either drop that in the chat or send me an email. We always like to hear from folks. As you can see. We have
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Brittany Porter: plenty of dates, and we’re looking for plenty of fun topics. So just let me know.
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Brittany Porter: So you’ve shown your commitment to Nomi walks New Hampshire by joining us for our rally. So let’s view some of the ways that we can get involved.
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Brittany Porter: So there are a variety of ways you can participate in Nami Walks, New Hampshire. You can register as a team captain.
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Brittany Porter: So a team captain gathers a group of people who wish to walk together. A team can be as small as 2 people as big as 200, plus. You can register dogs and cats, just saying
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Brittany Porter: when selecting this option, you’ll be prompted to under a team name and a fundraising goal.
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Brittany Porter: A team member means joining a team, advocating and fundraising together.
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Brittany Porter: When selecting this option, you’ll be prompted to choose a team.
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Brittany Porter: An individual participant means you wish to advocate and fundraise for mental health, awareness and suicide. Prevention on your own, or with a friend.
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Brittany Porter: A virtual participant means you cannot physically attend nummy walks New Hampshire. But you still wish to advocate and fundraise. There is no wrong way to register. Each and every one of our participants plays a crucial part in racing awareness and sharing our message
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Brittany Porter: Mental health for all. So
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Brittany Porter: some folks choose to sponsor, and we have a variety of sponsorship opportunities ranging from $250 to $15,000. If you’re interested in sponsoring, not me, walks New Hampshire. Please reach out to our Director of Development, Kristen Welsh.
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Brittany Porter: So be happy to drop her email in the chat. Here you can join our walk committee. We need your help to plan a fun and exciting event day.
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Brittany Porter: Our walk Committee meets on the third Wednesday of the month, from 5, 30 to 6, 30 on Zoom. I do occasionally try to hold meetings here on our office, because it’s really awesome to see friendly faces in person. But zoom opens it up for more folks to join.
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Brittany Porter: And lastly, you can volunteer on Event Day.
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Brittany Porter: Now me walks. New Hampshire takes all of us, and we have plenty of ways. You can volunteer on event day to make our events successful we need help with morning setup
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Brittany Porter: helping with parking, assisting in the ref refreshment tent, distributing t-shirts and more. I often have folks tell me. Oh, I really want to volunteer, but I also want to walk. Is that an option? And I have to say yes, 99 of our volunteer opportunities.
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Brittany Porter: and before it’s time to leave for the physical walk itself. So if you want to volunteer and walk, that is always an option.
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Brittany Porter: So, no matter how you choose to become involved. We just want you to join us on October first.
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Brittany Porter: so the biggest thing is to register today. Register registration is open. Nami walks and h.org.
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Brittany Porter: Someone could throw that in the chat that would be awesome.
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Brittany Porter: We also have several resources to set you up for successful Nami Walk. Season, such as a team, Captain Toolkit, and a participant guidebook. You can see the links there, but also, once you register, you will see an option on your fundraising page for these toolkits.
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Brittany Porter: and if you ever can’t find them, please reach out to me.
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Brittany Porter: And while we are here to achieve our goal of mental health, for all. We still want to recognize you for your hard work and dedication. So i’m very excited to unveil our T-shirt for this year.
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Brittany Porter: So When you raise a $100 or more you’ll receive our official Nami walks. New Hampshire t-shirt this is a great way to support. Show your support of mental health.
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Brittany Porter: We also have a recognition program for folks who raise $500 or more and stay tuned. We will be announcing these items very soon.
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Brittany Porter: So one step at a time when you participate in Nomi walks New Hampshire, you’re helping us move closer to mental health for all by leaps and bounds.
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Brittany Porter: So how can you get started?
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Brittany Porter: So register? If you haven’t already customize your page and share your story
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Brittany Porter: self- donate to kick start your fundraising, Use your network and create a list of people to ask. Find your best tool emails, letters, text tweets, whatever works for you.
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Brittany Porter: I typically just like to get that link to my fundraising page on my phone and just text it to people. But
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Brittany Porter: also sometimes I just register people on.
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Brittany Porter: Tell them they’re registered later.
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Brittany Porter: Get connected share on social media and tag us at together for Mh. Or a hashtag stigma free in the 603, and finally start fundraising. Set your goals and make a fundraising plan.
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Brittany Porter: So I want to thank you for your time. I look forward to having you join us as we come together for mental health of the 2,023 Nami walks New Hampshire.
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Michele Watson, NAMI NH, she/her: Oh, gosh! I think I only have a couple of minutes for questions, so fire away. So we do have a couple of questions. Actually, I’m proud of myself because I can answer this first one. How many teams did we have last year? What was on your slide? It said 129, which is just 3?
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Michele Watson, NAMI NH, she/her: The next question: Are there any events that happen before the walk? And do you have a fitness instructor getting everyone warmed up before?
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Brittany Porter: Those are great questions. Yes, we do have a couple of events before Nomi walks to New Hampshire. This is one of them. This is our rally. Our next one will be our kick off breakfast.
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Brittany Porter: We do not have an exact date for that yet, but it will be sometime in mid august. It should be in conquered and stay tuned for dates on that. Soon
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Brittany Porter: we did used to have a zoom, but instructor for an army walks New Hampshire. However, that person no longer teaches zoom, but we would actually love to have a fitness instructor warming people up. So if anyone knows anyone who would be interested, please reach out to me. That would be awesome.
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Michele Watson, NAMI NH, she/her: great. Let’s see where the next one go.
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Michele Watson, NAMI NH, she/her: What changes. Do you see, with this year’s walk?
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Brittany Porter: So we are still in the planning phases. But we do have some fun ideas for this walk. One thing we’re hoping to expand. This year is the
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Brittany Porter: after. What
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Brittany Porter: I don’t want to call Post Rock, because we do have an event called the Post Rock Celebration. But after the walk we’re trying to incorporate a little entertainment. Have some yard games and just kind of keep the fun and community going.
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Michele Watson, NAMI NH, she/her: So that’s all that we have for questions. I didn’t know if we had talked about a giveaway.
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if you wanted to mention that, or if you need me to fill in details
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Brittany Porter: if you held in the details that would be awesome. Okay, thank you myself. So for people that have registered for, and I’ve attended the conference at some point today, and have also registered for the walk by the end of today
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Michele Watson, NAMI NH, she/her: and update today. We do have a giveaway. I can’t remember what was in the bag. But we have an army. New Hampshire swag in there. We’re merchandise, march, however, you call it, as well as some other little gifts, so make sure you register to walk by the end of the day today, if you haven’t already, and we’ll announce in Huva, who the winner is
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Brittany Porter: excellent.
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Michele Watson, NAMI NH, she/her: So I think that was all that we have for any, all the questions I’ll stop sharing my screen. Great! There we go.
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Okay.
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Michele Watson, NAMI NH, she/her: and let me just pull up my screen one more time, so we can thank our sponsors
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Michele Watson, NAMI NH, she/her: again.
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Michele Watson, NAMI NH, she/her: and all right. So thank you all for being here, Brittany. I we had 54 participants, which is really really exciting. So, as I said Don’t, forget to register for the walk today, a recording of the session will be available in the hoofa app for 30 days, and then it can be found on the Nami, New Hampshire, Youtube Channel. We’re gonna have everybody take a break for lunch
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Michele Watson, NAMI NH, she/her: and be back for our one Pm. At one Pm. For our next session, which is advocating for internal mental health.
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Michele Watson, NAMI NH, she/her: See you all there? Thanks so much.
Advocating for Maternal Mental Health
Heather Martin, recently named a WZID Outstanding Woman of 2023, along with Nancy Glynn, of MomsRising will share their experiences related to maternal mental health and their advocacy efforts to improve access and support to all moms and their families. They will explore the landscape of needs of different communities across the Granite State and how we can best care for moms at all parts of their journey.
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Kimberly Somarriba, she/her, NAMI NH: All right. Welcome, everyone.
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Kimberly Somarriba, she/her, NAMI NH: Thank you for joining us and coming back. I hope you had a
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Kimberly Somarriba, she/her, NAMI NH: a good stretch. Maybe you got to see some sunshine
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Kimberly Somarriba, she/her, NAMI NH: during your lunch. We’re going to give it just a minute for people to join us, and we will begin.
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Kimberly Somarriba, she/her, NAMI NH: Michelle. You want to give me like a thumbs up or something. If you feel like people have been able to join, I can’t see the lift
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Kimberly Somarriba, she/her, NAMI NH: looking good, okay, awesome.
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Kimberly Somarriba, she/her, NAMI NH: Well, thank you everyone again for coming back and joining us for the not New Hampshire Annual Conference. Hope brings us together. My name is Kimberly. So Mariva Michelle Watson and I coordinate the annual conference.
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Kimberly Somarriba, she/her, NAMI NH: We’re just worth Roger here
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Kimberly Somarriba, she/her, NAMI NH: as a a mama, 5 myself. I i’m just
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Kimberly Somarriba, she/her, NAMI NH: elated that we’re covering this topic at the annual conference this year. advocating for maternal mental health. We have 2 fantastic speakers to present
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Kimberly Somarriba, she/her, NAMI NH: today.
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Kimberly Somarriba, she/her, NAMI NH: Nancy Glynn is the campaign director for Mom’s rising New Hampshire. She is a mom, an activist, and she’s also a navy veteran. She’s been advocating on behalf of New Hampshire family since 2,016, and has a true passion for
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Kimberly Somarriba, she/her, NAMI NH: disability, justice, women’s rights and health care, advocacy
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Kimberly Somarriba, she/her, NAMI NH: in her free time. Nancy loves to push herself to run further than she has ever run before and participates in road races and obstacle course races on a regular basis. She lives in Sutton, New Hampshire, with 2 dogs, Carl, the Cats, her partner and their Ninja warriors son
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Kimberly Somarriba, she/her, NAMI NH: and heather. Martin is a passionate maternal mental health advocate.
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Kimberly Somarriba, she/her, NAMI NH: She works with postpartum moms at Dartmouth health pediatrics after successfully launching a postpartum screening workflow for mothers in the pediatric practice.
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Kimberly Somarriba, she/her, NAMI NH: He there is also a postpartum support coordinator for the State of New Hampshire. She became passionate about maternal mental health, after losing her only sister to maternal suicide over a decade ago.
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Kimberly Somarriba, she/her, NAMI NH: More recently, Heather has been advocating for legislation regarding maternal mental health here in our State and on a national level.
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Kimberly Somarriba, she/her, NAMI NH: She feels advocacy and spreading. Awareness for maternal mental health
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Kimberly Somarriba, she/her, NAMI NH: is essential to keeping our moms and families. Oh, to helping moms and families who are in crisis.
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Kimberly Somarriba, she/her, NAMI NH: And you guys who may know that May third Governor, Senior, who signed a proclamation and recognition recognition of maternal mental health today.
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Kimberly Somarriba, she/her, NAMI NH: This would do in in large part to Heather’s advocacy efforts in our state
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Kimberly Somarriba, she/her, NAMI NH: and heather didn’t get a heads up on this. So, hopefully you don’t mind surprises heather.
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Kimberly Somarriba, she/her, NAMI NH: but we really want to recognize your tireless voice. and you
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Kimberly Somarriba, she/her, NAMI NH: have been selected for the I’m. A New Hampshire volunteer of the month for May 2023. So we had
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Kimberly Somarriba, she/her, NAMI NH: the the privilege of of honoring you for that and
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Kimberly Somarriba, she/her, NAMI NH: particular heather volunteers for the not a New Hampshire survivor Voices Speaker program. So
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Kimberly Somarriba, she/her, NAMI NH: congratulations. Thank you guys both so much for being here.
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Heather Martin: Thank you guys, what a wonderful surprise I really appreciate naming New Hampshire. They really
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Heather Martin: have helped, you know, spread advocacy for this issue. I had contacted them probably about a year or 2 ago, and had asked, hey, what are we doing here in the State of New Hampshire for maternal mental health.
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Heather Martin: and it just went from there, and I met with Holly Stevens at the State House and testified in front of legislators
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Heather Martin: about the importance of mental health. And we’ll we’ll get into that with the presentation. But
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Heather Martin: now in New Hampshire has been so supportive. And there’s so many great people that work here, and i’m extremely grateful. So thank you very much. I appreciate that.
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Heather Martin: So i’m so excited to be here with my friend Nancy Glen, and we hope to
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Heather Martin: share our stories and to
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Heather Martin: inspire you or someone you know, or friends, to share your story about maternal mental health.
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Heather Martin: because we know it’s a a you know the number one issue affecting mothers here in our country and across the world. So
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Heather Martin: that’s what we hope to do with this presentation. Here’s me. I work at Dartmouth. Health pediatrics like can really get said, and
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Heather Martin: past 3 4 years been working with our mothers there, and doing, screening for maternal mental health.
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Heather Martin: anxiety, depression, and then following up with them, making sure they’re seeking mental health, help or support groups. and I also work with postpartum support.
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Heather Martin: International as a coordinator for New Hampshire. We have 3 others with myself, and you can call a helpline. We’ll get into that a national help line, and they connect you to us. If you live in New Hampshire, and we’ll connect you to mental health
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Heather Martin: help and resources so extremely important. And more recently I’ve been working with the chapter that we that has really.
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Heather Martin: you know, has really gotten a good. I don’t want to say, start. But like Restart, we’re trying to really build the chapter and the resources and make conne