Mental Health Download: Exploring Mental Illness, Suicide, Homelessness and Incarceration

Welcome everyone to the first Mental Health Download Podcast of this 2021 season. I'm Matt Gleason. And today, my co-host is my dear friend Jane Mudgett. We are so excited to be kicking off the 2021 season focused on cultivating healthy minds with Dr. John Schumann. 

He is President of OU-Tulsa and also holds the Gussman Endowed Chair in Internal Medicine within the OU-TU School of Community Medicine.

Dr. Schumann has authored the blog GlassHospital since 2010, writing monthly posts aimed at demystifying medicine and bringing transparency to health care and policy for lay audiences. He has also written for national publications such as The Atlantic, Slate, Reader’s Digest, and NPR’s health blog, Shots.

He is also the developer, co-producer and host of the StudioTulsa program “Medical Mondays” on Tulsa’s local NPR station, KWGS 89.5-FM. His weekly show explores health care and the human condition. He has also contributed to the national NPR radio programs, “Marketplace” and “All Things Considered.”

OK, let’s get the conversation started. The Mental Health Download starts … now.

P.S. Thanks to our friend Lucas Oswalt for providing all the music for this year's season. Hear more from Lucas at https://lucasoswalt.bandcamp.com/

Oh, and watch this episode on Youtube at mhaok.org/podcast.

People can move from homelessness to housing and self-sufficiency and employment, to all kinds of possibilities in the future. We can't do any of this without our unique donors now or in 2021. I'm so proud and grateful to let them know how valuable they are to us and the impact that they're having on their community. -- Terri White

Our guest is Reggie Ivey, Chief Operating Officer of the Tulsa City-County Health Department. He talks with Mental Health Association Oklahoma's Rebecca Hubbard about self-care for his staff during a time of pandemic and the holidays.

"I am so proud to be a social worker and I love to be a social worker. It's a profession where you do make a difference in the lives of people. So it's work that you can feel good about."

— Julie E. Miller-Cribbs, MSW, PhD

OU's Anne & Henry Zarrow School of Social Work

On today's episode, we talk with Julie E. Miller-Cribbs, MSW, PhD. She is Director & Oklahoma Medicaid Endowed Professor in Mental Health for The University of Oklahoma Anne & Henry Zarrow School of Social Work. We talk about what social work students are learning during the pandemic and what the world will be like when they graduate.

Today, our guest on the Mental Health Download Podcast is Tulsan Lindsay Benson M.S., LPC. She has been working as a therapist for over 15 years.  Most of her experience has been helping people with trauma. Her dog, Gus, died at age eight of cancer in 2012 and that experience sparked a desire in her to help others as they deal with pet loss. She completed a training through the Association for Pet-Loss and Bereavement in order to become a certified pet loss and bereavement therapist.

Below is a list of resources for Pet Loss Grief.

Books:

The Loss of a Pet by Wallace Sife Ph.D

Pet Loss- a Thoughtful Guide for Adults and Children by Herbert A Nieburg and Arlene Fischer

When Your Pet Dies by James Quackenbush

How to ROAR: Pet Loss Grief Recovery by Robin Jean Brown

Books for Children:

Ages 3 and up

The Goodbye Book by Todd Parr

The Rainbow Bridge. A Dog's Story by Judith Kristen

Ages 5 and up

Paw Prints in the Stars. A Farewell and Journal for a Beloved Pet by Warren Hanson

The Tenth Good Thing about Barney by Judith Viorst and Erik Bleguad

Podcast:

The Pet Loss Podcast on Stitcher

Blog:

Griefhealingblog.com/petloss

Websites:

The Association for Pet Loss and Bereavement www.aplb.org

www.petlosshelp.org

Free Online Support Groups:

The Association for Pet Loss and Bereavement www.aplb.org

Local Resources

www.GUSpetloss.org

"A couple of tips or advice I would give is, No. 1, don't lose hope. Continue to battle, continue to fight, continue to take the steps to get to where you want to go." — Dustin Bailey

------------------

On today’s episode, we’re celebrating 12&12 Day which happens each year on December 12.

Our guests in the first part of the show include Tricia Mason, Chief Operating Officer of 12&12, and Jen Kerckhoff, an amazing 12&12 volunteer who created 12&12 Day a few years ago.

In the second part of the show, Jen will join me as we talk with two of the 12 faces of 12&12 -- Teresa Knox and Dustin Bailey.

On today's episode, guest host Jane Mudgett interviews Weldon Bowman, of W Design, about a variety of ways to separate your work (and school) life from your home life to benefit your mental health during the pandemic.

Happy Thanksgiving! On this episode, Ashley Gunnells and Matt Gleason reflect on what they are thankful for the people Mental Health Association Oklahoma serves -- and the donors who make it all possible.

Prior to the Zarrow Symposium, I thought Milwaukee was pretty far along but Milwaukee and many other American communities can learn so much from the work underway in Oklahoma: racist historical trauma; indigenous historical trauma; white rural Okie dustbowl historical trauma. — John Schmid, journalist and historical trauma expert

***

On this episode, we talk with John Schmid, an award-winning writer from Milwaukee. John is a historical trauma expert who attended this year's Zarrow Mental Health Symposium.

For anyone that knows of a friend or an acquaintance that experienced a suicide loss in their life, if you are able, if you are emotionally and mentally capable, go and sit with that person and let them share their thoughts and feelings with you about it. And listen without judgment because I can guarantee that is the best gift you can give to that person. —

Barbara Hathcock, Suicide Prevention Advocate

***

Today is International Survivors of Suicide Loss Day. To share her thoughts about this, we invited our friend Barbara Hathcock to talk about her late son and to offer tips to people who have also lost loved ones to suicide.