This is the second part of our conversation with Dr. Christen Smith about the effects of police violence and other forms of inequality on the health of blacks in the U.S. and beyond. Here, we put the Hogg Foundation's own home city, Austin, Texas, under the microscope for a conversation about the relationship between inequality and health. You are highly encouraged to listen to Part 1. Thanks for listening!

“Health” is not something that exists in a vacuum. The Hogg Foundation is driven by our conviction that a more just world is also a healthier one. That’s one of the reasons why we talk so often about the “social determinants of health.” The World Health Organization defines social determinants as “the conditions in which people are born, grow, work, live, and age, and the wider set of forces and systems shaping the conditions of daily life.”

For blacks in the U.S., a key social determinant is the community impact of unequal policing. In this episode, Dr. Christen Smith, an associate professor of African and Diaspora Studies and anthropology at The University of Texas, and the host, Ike Evans, sit down for a wide-ranging conversation about the impact of inequality on the health and well-being of blacks in the U.S. and beyond, using recent events such as the tragic death of Erica Garner in December 2017 as a backdrop.

The episode is broken into Parts 1 and 2. We hope you listen to both!

Austin has a vaunted reputation as the "Live Music Capital of the World", and the city's signature live music event, Austin City Limits, is taking place right now over the next two weekends. It's a blast for music lovers and a cash cow for the city. But to say that the highly competitive and demanding Austin music scene can tax a musician's mental health is an understatement. The SIMS Foundation was started in 1995. It is named in honor of Sims Ellison, an Austin musician who took his own life. Today, the organization serves about 600 musicians and music industry workers a year, connecting them to sorely-needed services and supports.

On this episode Patsy Bouressa, SIMS clinical director, and Vanessa Lively, an Austin-area musician who heads her own nonprofit, Home Street Music, shed some light on the mental health needs of this community, and why music fans, in Austin and elsewhere, should be paying attention.

Music credit: "A Chain Unbroken" by Vanessa Lively.

https://www.amazon.com/Chain-Unbroken-Vanessa-Lively/dp/B0016CP11Y

Related link:

http://hogg.utexas.edu/podcast-wnba-athlete-mental-health-sports

It's an exciting moment for mental health philanthropy in Texas. Increasingly, there is an awareness that mental health is too complex a problem to address without collaboration across different sectors--health and human services, housing, criminal justice, and education to name a few. "Collaboration" is an idea that is widely invoked, but rarely broken down into its core elements.

In this episode Katy Bourgeois, a senior consultant with Mission Capital of Austin, is here to inform and educate on collaboratives--why they matter, and how to do them well. She is joined by Tammy Heinz, program officer and consumer & family liaison for the Hogg Foundation. We’re here to talk about cross-sector collaboration, and its role in addressing complex issues like mental health.

A recent investigation by National Public Radio found that people with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD) are sexually assaulted at a rate seven times greater than that of the general population, according to statistics NPR received from the Department of Justice. Not only is their likelihood of victimizations far higher, but the vast majority of cases go unprosecuted.

James Meadours, an advocate for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities, and Colleen Horton, a policy program officer for the Hogg Foundation, join us for a candid look at abuse in the lives of people with IDD, focusing not just on their victimization but on their role as effective advocates for system changes.

As an organization the Hogg Foundation aims not just to advance mental health and wellness, but to make a positive impact on the world more generally, particularly in historically marginalized communities. Advocating for marginalized communities implies an ongoing relationship that takes time to grow. In this episode Latasha Taylor, mental health organizer for Grassroots Leadership of Texas and a peer policy fellow for the Hogg Foundation, offers up her thoughts on what it means to advocate for marginalized communities and why it matters.

Imani McGee-Stafford was a standout for the University of Texas women's basketball team, and now plays for the WNBA's Atlanta Dream. At the time of this interview, she was fresh off addressing a rapt audience at the Black Student Athlete Summit, which took place in January 2018 on the campus of her alma-mater. McGee-Stafford is a survivor of abuse and suicidal depression, and is now on a recovery path. In this episode, learn how mental health challenges can show up in the life of an elite athlete, and how the culture of sports can impact mental health and wellness, both positively and negatively.

Jason Howell, executive director of SoberHood, is a self-defined social entrepreneur. A simple definition of the term comes from the Schwab Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship: the social entrepreneur is one who "achieves large scale, systemic and sustainable social change through a new invention, a different approach, a more rigorous application of known technologies or strategies, or a combination of these."

If this implies a willingness to challenge orthodoxy as well as wear several different hats, Jason Howell fits the bill. In this episode of the podcast, Howell talks about his journey of recovery from substance use, and his recent successes at using recovery principles as pillars for creative, organized enterprises that make a difference in people's lives.

In the world of mental health, "resilience" emerges as a key concept. An unexpected disaster like Hurricane Harvey is a prime opportunity for a conversation about resilience and the conditions, institutions and practices that foster it. Jameisha Brown, a PhD student at Texas A&M University, directs the health ministry at Windsor Village United Methodist Church in Houston. In this episode, she shares with us her hopes and fears for post-Harvey Houston, as well as what her experience has taught her about the intersections of faith, resilience and health.

Windsor Village was a recipient of a Hogg Foundation grant supporting faith-based organizations as promoters of mental health and wellness in predominantly African American communities. In a follow-up segment, Vicky Coffee, a program officer at the Hogg Foundation, talks about this unique grant initiative and the impact it's having in Texas.

More people are beginning to recognize the connection between community factors — quality of life, level of civic engagement, economic development, education, and many others — and individual well-being, including mental health. Dell Medical School, in Austin, Texas, has emerged as a hub for some of the latest thinking on how to approach community wellness in this more holistic way, as part of its mission to transform Austin into a "model healthy city."

In this episode, Dr. Octavio N. Martinez, Jr., executive director of the Hogg Foundation for Mental Health, and Dr. Clay Johnston, director of Dell Medical School, sit down for a conversation about how communities promote mental health and well-being that focuses on Austin but draws out key insights that have implications for all communities in Texas and beyond.