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

Coriena's journey begins with a mother’s fierce devotion to her son—a love strong enough to risk everything. When faced with a dangerous and volatile situation, Coriena made one of the most difficult decisions of her life—she took her son and fled. With no time to plan and nowhere to go, Coriena chose safety over certainty, even if it meant homelessness. In this episode, Coriena shares her journey toward stability, healing, and hope. We also hear from Stephanie Roberts, Program Manager of Outreach and Rapid Response, who speaks to the critical importance of community collaboration in addressing Oklahoma City's unhoused population—and the resources needed to ensure long-term success.To learn more about Oklahoma City's Key to Home program, visit okc.gov/government/key-to-home. To support Mental Health Association Oklahoma's Street Outreach program and the many services supporting clients just like Coriena, visit mhaok.org/donate.

Karen LaPlante is the director of education at Mental Health Association Oklahoma. She has overseen our Zarrow Mental Health Symposium for 20 years. On today's episode, learn about the event and what you can do to get involved. Learn more at https://www.zarrowsymposium.org

In this episode, Pat Nichols, with the organization Parents Helping Parents, gives advice on how to navigate the difficult arena of helping a loved one struggling with addiction. Speaking from his own experience, he shares what he's learned and how he's now using what he went through to help others. For more information on Parents Helping Parents, click here > https://www.parentshelpingparents.info/.

Business owner Eric R. talks to MHAOK about his struggles with mental health, addiction, and his suicide attempt. He shares how he overcame those challenges and how he stays motivated in life today.  This episode contains content that some may find triggering.  If you or someone you know is experiencing thoughts of suicide, call the National Suicide Hotline at 1-800-273-TALK (8255). 

"And I think - going back to the community and finding out what their needs are - you just mentioned cultural humility and I'd like to define cultural humility as the practice of not knowing because we're professionals and we know a lot of things and rarely do we focus on what we don't know. But we have to engage in this quest for learning more about the communities that we serve because we get caught up in our own biases."  On today’s episode, we’re excited to be in conversation with Dr. Rosemarie Allen. Dr. Allen will be a keynote at this year’s virtual Zarrow Mental Health Symposium. Dr. Rosemarie Allen has been a leader in early childhood education for nearly 40 years and her life’s work has focused on ensuring children have access to high quality early childhood programs that are developmentally and culturally appropriate. As a national expert on implicit bias and culturally responsive practices, Rosemarie has been a respected voice on equitable youth and family-focused community support and response throughout the pandemic. The theme for this year’s Symposium is Cultivating Community Connections and is coming up September 29 - October 1. You can register to attend the event at www.zarrowsymposium.org  We’d like to thank two of our Sponsors - Ascension St. John and the Public Health Institute of Oklahoma - for their generous support of this year’s Symposium. 

On today's Mental Health Download Podcast from the nonprofit Mental Health Association Oklahoma, our guest is Claire Grace, a college student at the University of Oklahoma. Claire is a Diana Award recipient, an award presented in memory of Princess Diana. Claire’s award was given for her community service and her advocacy for inclusion and compassion through a public speaking initiative she has delivered to over 6,500 people. You can learn more about her and her nonprofit at www.clairegrace.com

Listen to the live audio from a special media event this morning in Tulsa at Friendship Church featuring Xavier Becerra, U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services, and local dignitaries. Together, they fought hard for voter-approved Medicaid expansion. More Oklahomans across the state will finally have health care coverage starting today, July 1. And more than 124,000 Oklahomans have already qualified for Medicaid benefits under the expansion. It's estimated that of the 200,000 Oklahomans who are now eligible for coverage, approximately 92,000 are in need of mental health and addiction treatment services.

"Don't take it personally when people don't make things accessible for you. It's not that they're trying to do it with any menace. It's just that people don't understand. And, unfortunately, even though it's tiring and it's exhausting, you do have to educate. And, hopefully, by educating, we can make the world a more accessible and better place for everyone." -- Jenna Adair, MHAOK student intern who is legally blind On today’s episode, we’ll be talking with Jenna Adair and Dr. Jedediah Bragg about helping people with visual impairments connect to mental health treatment services. RESOURCES https://webaim.org/techniques/forms/ Creating accessible forms nfb.org  Blindness info/phone list/resources nfbok.org Oklahoma resource for blind convert@robobraille.org document converter https://www.ada.gov/ta_titleiii.html#gen Small business documents that provide guidance https://www.washington.edu/accessibility/documents/word/  Guidelines for making accessible documents https://www.abledocs.com/en?gclid=Cj0KCQjwzYGGBhCTARIsAHdMTQyDUkuVHa9HYTbHaUlSTneYqWLH_Z9mhb39Yc3y_yO8yq0f2F7Io4QaAtHGEALw_wcB Service to ensure accessibility of docs.

At the five score anniversary [of the Tulsa Race Massacre,] let us exhale and let us breathe freely, oxygenating our efforts on three fronts. One, healing our history, Two, making an appreciative inquiry into our past. And, three, recommending to diversity, equity and inclusion. If we do this, we will have honored the memory of one of our darkest days by illuminating it with a bright new light. — Hannibal B. Johnson On today’s episode, we’re re-sharing Hannibal B. Johnson’s keynote address at the 2020 Zarrow Mental Health Symposium - Healing from Historical Trauma. In Hannibal’s keynote titled "The 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre and Historical Racial Trauma," he explored the history of racial historical trauma in the United States and Oklahoma and discussed how we must think critically about our strategies for addressing the present legacy of historical racial trauma in America to pursue justice and healing.

NEW EPISODE >  Help for the Healer ECHO with Comm'r Slatton-Hodges & Comm'r Frye > mhaok.org/podcast During the pandemic, health care workers have given so much to care for our communities, oftentimes at the expense of their physical and emotional health. So today, we'll explore the Help for the Healer ECHO virtual program aimed at supporting provider resiliency and caring for the caregiver, healer, and helper during COVID.   Dr. Sara Coffey and Matt Gleason interview Dr. Lance Frye, commissioner of the Department of Health, and Commissioner Carrie Slatton-Hodges, of the Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services. Get all the details about Help for the Healer here: https://medicine.okstate.edu/echo/help-for-the-healer-echo.html

It's severe weather season and some people may be dealing with severe weather anxiety. Today on the podcast, Jon Haverfield talks to Steve Piltz, who is the meteorologist in charge of the National Weather Service. Jon and Steve give us ways we can cope and deal with severe weather anxiety and make it through the tornado season that we're currently in.

You’re listening to the Mental Health Download Podcast from the nonprofit Mental Health Association Oklahoma. I’m Whitney Cipolla, the Association’s Advocacy Specialist.  I’m joined by Dr. Rebecca Hubbard with Oklahoma State University Center for Health Sciences.   In this episode, we’ll interview Senate Minority Leader, Senator Kay Floyd of District 46 and Representative Jeff Boatman representing District 67.  We will be talking about mental health in schools and the legislation they’ve authored this session on this topic.