May 4, 2024 • 29 mins
Ryan Gorman hosts an iHeartRadio nationwide special featuring Jessica Edwards, Chief Development Officer at the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI). Jessica Edwards joins the show for Mental Health Awareness Month to discuss NAMI’s work supporting those impacted by mental illness, along with their awareness and educational efforts as the nation’s largest grassroots mental health organization. Also, Dr. Michelle Mullen, Senior Vice President & Chief Design and Impact Officer for The Jed Foundation, checks in to discuss The Jed Foundation’s work protecting emotional health and preventing suicide among our nation’s teens and young adults, including how the JED Campus program has offered vital support to colleges and universities.
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(00:00):
Welcome to iHeartRadio Communities, a publicaffairs special focusing on the biggest issues impacting
you. This week, here's RyanGorman. Thanks so much for joining us
here on iHeartRadio Communities. I'm RyanGorman, and we have a few very
important conversations lined up for you.May is Mental Health Awareness Months, so
that's the topic we'll be focusing onfor this show, and just a bit
(00:23):
we'll check in with the jed Foundation, a nonprofit organization working to protect emotional
health and prevent suicide among our nation'steens and young adults. But right now,
to get things started, let mebring in Jessica Edwards, chief development
officer at the National Alliance on MentalIllness. You can learn more about this
organization at NAMI dot org. That'sNAMI dot org. Jessica, thank you
(00:48):
so much for coming on the show, and let's begin with an overview of
how NAMI came about and the typeof work you're focused on. Absolutely,
thank you so much for this opportunity. So NAMI is the largest grassroots mental
health organization in the country. Wewere started in nineteen seventy nine by a
group of families gathered around a kitchentable who wanted more for their family members
(01:10):
and loved ones who were experiencing mentalhealth conditions and mental illnesses. So we
are now at the national Office andwe have six hundred affiliates and forty nine
state organizations nationwide, so we're prettymuch in every community across the country.
Our mission is to provide advocacy,education, support, and public awareness so
(01:32):
everyone with a mental health condition canthrive and live their most opportune life.
And we want to ensure that weprovide support for those individuals and families living
with mental health conditions so that theycan advocate and raise awareness and reduce the
stigma and make sure that they haveall of the help and hope that they
need. Let me ask you avery basic, but I think important question.
(01:53):
When we hear mental illness, whatexactly does that include? Yeah,
absolutely, it's a great question.So it really depends on the audience and
who you're speaking with. Some peopleprefer mental health condition or mental health it
sounds a little bit less scary andperhaps meets people more of where they are,
and then others prefer the term mentalillness. Serious mental illness is a
(02:15):
term that gets tossed around as well. So we meet people where they are,
and we don't see the diagnosis,we see the person. So people
may come to NAMI if they're experiencinganxiety or depression ADHD OCD. They also
may come to NOAME if they're experiencingschizophrenia, psychosis, bipolar disorder, major
(02:36):
depressive disorder. So NAMI really focuseson meeting the individual where they are on
their mental health journey and ensuring thatthey have the resources and access to help
that they need to find care,to find resources, and to ensure that
they know that they're not alone.We want to make sure that we're lowering
barriers of stigma, and sometimes theway in which we talk about mental health
(02:59):
conditions can can help lower that stigmabarrier. If we were to take a
thirty thousand foot view look at theissue of mental illness here in this country,
how big of a problem are wetalking about mental health conditions? Are
One in five US adults experience amental health condition each year, one in
twenty US adults experience a serious mentalillness each year, and the average delay
(03:23):
between onset of symptoms and treatment iseleven years. So this is a pretty
pervasive problem in the United States.I'm Ryan Gorman with Jessic Edwards, chief
Development Officer at the National Alliance onMental Illness. You can learn more at
NAMI dot org. That's NAMI dotorg. She's with me for Mental Health
(03:43):
Awareness Month. On the topic ofawareness itself of all these different conditions.
How much progress have we made inrecent years as your organization has been on
the forefront of all of that.Yeah, so we've really come a long
way. The pandemic was so challengingfor so many reasons. But if there
was a bright spot, and thatis a really big if, it would
(04:05):
be that people felt unified through thistraumatic experience of lockdown and the uncertainty that
surrounded COVID and health and all thatwas to come with that. And I
think that it really helped people alignon that we all have mental health and
we all have a various degree ofmental health challenges. So it really helped
(04:26):
align everyone and make sure that peoplerealize that we're all in this together.
It was less of than us versusthem. So that was a bright spot
of the pandemic, was just makingsure that we all are kind of aware
of our mental health in that way. But it not me As I mentioned,
we've been doing this for forty fiveyears, and we've been running programs
that are peer led family to familyclasses, support groups. Other organizations across
(04:50):
the country. Not ME organizations acrossthe country offer these in their communities,
and so this is not something newfor n ME, But I think as
a American society, we've really madea lot of progress in the last couple
of years. More people are talkingabout it, even just opportunities like this,
the opportunity that you've had me onyour show to discuss Mental Health Awareness
Month, it's incredible that wouldn't havehappened probably a decade ago. I would
(05:13):
say, what about treatments and strategiesto address these different mental health issues?
How much progress have we made onall of that. Yeah, so it
really there's always room for advancement ineuroscience treatment and research, but there's definitely
a lot of resources out there andtreatments available for folks. There's a lot
of information around that. On ourwebsite not me dot org you can check
(05:34):
out all sorts of medications and resourcesand treatments and therapies. I would also
say that it's never one size fitsall, so people need to find the
kind of care continuum support that worksfor them. That can include physical exercise,
that can include yoga, that caninclude getting outside, talking to a
therapist, medication therapy, animals,art therapy. So it really is up
(06:00):
to each individual person to find whatworks for them for their wellness journey.
Just like we would talk about aphysical health condition, right, we put
a lot of focus into what weput into our bodies, how we move
our body, and the same goesfor mental health. So it's really a
customized approach for each person on theirwellness journey. I want to ask you
about the launch of the nine eighteight Crisis hotline. Some of the conversations
(06:24):
I've had with different organizations working onthis issue, they've told me that it's
been nothing short of a game changeor just that simplified number and promoting it,
getting the word out about it.It really has helped. Is that
what you're seeing at NAMI absolutely sucha game changer. A mental health crisis
(06:45):
deserves a mental health response. SONAMIwas a huge advocate for ensuring that nine
eight eight got launched, and weare so grateful that that is a resource.
It is a twenty four to sevenfree confidential support for people stress and
what an incredible crisis resource that itis that was so needed across the country.
So yes, we were huge advocatesfor that, very excited that it
(07:06):
is in place. Still work tobe done as we continue to build it
out and raise awareness around it.So thank you for mentioning that such a
great point. I'm Ryan Gorman,joined by Jessica Edwards, Chief Development Officer
at the National Alliance on Mental Illness. You can learn more about the work
they do and support that work atNAMI dot org. That's NAMI dot org.
(07:26):
May is Mental Health Awareness Month inJessica, what is your organization doing
during the course of May to honorthat designation? Absolutely, so, we're
always encouraging people to share their story. That's one of the biggest ways to
help remove the stigma is for peopleto know that they are not alone.
And so hearing stories of either celebritiesor famous people or people that you see
(07:47):
in the media or even in yourcommunity or in your personal life. When
you hear someone else sharing their story, that helps that individual who's on the
receiving end know that they're not aloneand that you're a safe place to share
and to go to and talk about. So that's something that we drill into
our communities all the time is justto share your story and to feel empowered
in that. For May our themethis year is take a Moment for mental
(08:11):
Health. So we are encouraging peopleto cultivate empathy and understanding by fostering open
dialogues and urging people to share theirmoments of mental health. So taking a
pause, taking a break, takinga moment for your mental health and sharing
what that means to you, andthat can be highlighting your story or also
(08:33):
sharing ways that you stay well,prioritizing your mental health care, tips and
tricks, anything that you can doto just take that beat, take that
moment to share your mental health storyand journey. One part of this mental
health issue that we're experiencing in ourcountry right now that's gotten a lot of
attention recently the mental health among youngerpeople. What have you been seeing in
(08:56):
terms of the data on all ofthat and what have you been doing about
that? Over at Nomie absolutely sucha great point. We know that early
intervention is one of the keys tobetter outcomes. So the sooner that somebody
seeks care and seeks help and startsto identify that they may be experience and
experiencing a mental health condition, thebetter likelihood that they're going to get care
(09:18):
and have that better outcome. Wealso know that for adolescence, which is
ages twelve to seventeen, one insix experienced a major depressive episode in the
last year, and one in threeyoung adults, which is aged eighteen to
twenty five, has experienced a mentalhealth condition. So the sooner on that
(09:41):
journey we can find an intervention,find care, find coping mechanisms, find
tools to stay well, the higherlikelihood the outcome is. I will also
say, on a really positive note, I'm finding and Weetnami are finding at
the younger generation is so much morelikely to talk about their mental health.
We're seeing them talk about it atwork, talk about it at school,
We'll talk about it on social mediaand in the media and in their communities.
(10:03):
And I think that that's really excellentin helping to normalize the conversation around
mental health, and that's the goodfor all of us across society certainly,
And I think that the younger generationis really taking a leadership role in that,
which is exciting to see. There'sanother group that you highlight on your
website again, NAMI dot org thatsometimes I think gets overlooked when it comes
(10:24):
to mental health issues frontline professionals,and this really came to light during the
pandemic, right absolutely, Yes,taking care of the caregivers is something that
has been in nami's core DNA sincewe were founded, and during the pandemic,
we really wanted to take that authenticvalue and make sure we were taking
care of the people that were takingcare of us. So we really focused
(10:46):
on ensuring that all of the frontlineworkers and responders and caregivers had resources available
to them during that very critical,frankly crisis time because the work that they
were doing was so essential for ourphysical well but had a really incredible emotional
wellbeing and mental health component and toldto it as well. Absolutely, I'm
(11:07):
Ryan Gorman, joined by Jessica Edwards, chief Development Officer at the National Alliance
on Mental Illness. You can learnmore at NAMI dot org. That's NAMI
dot org. Jessica's with me forMental Health Awareness Month. Your organizations at
the forefront of education and information onall things mental illness. Can you talk
(11:28):
about what it is you provide toso many different organizations across the country.
Absolutely, so all of nami's programs, classes and support groups and initiatives are
free. So we are a nonprofit. We are very grateful to all of
our donors and supporters and corporate sponsorsand foundation supporters. Certainly all of their
support helps us offer all of thesepeer led free programs across the country.
(11:52):
A couple of highlights are our CommunityHealth Equity Alliance, which prioritizes can unity
informed solutions for the Black African ancestrycommunity. That's a recent initiative. We
also have programs like NOMMI Family toFamily that I mentioned, which is a
family education program. We also haveNOMI Basics, which is a program for
(12:16):
parents of young children. We haveseveral resources for youth and young adults and
for parents as well to help navigatetheir young person's journey. We also have
a helpline that is one eight hundrednine to fifty NAMI or you can text
helpline to six' two six fourzero And if you're experiencing a mental health
(12:37):
crisis, you can always call ourtext nine eight eight twenty four seven.
As we talked about earlier, Sohow can everyone get involved and support the
work you're doing. Yeah, wehave over one hundred Nommy walks across the
country. There's several here coming upin May and then more in the fall.
So I would encourage you to findyour local NAMI, which can be
found easily from our homepage www dotnom dot org as you mentioned, and
(13:00):
find your local NAMI and your communityto get involved that way, and then
if you're interested in inolved, gettinginvolved at the national level, sharing your
story, writing a blog, sharingthe content on social media, taking a
mental health moment, getting engaged insome of our campaigns. All of that
helps propel the movement so that everyoneknows that they are not alone and that
NAM is a resource for them.Final question for you, and I think
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this is something everyone listening can benefitfrom. What are some best practices,
some tips that you offer at NAMIfor all of us to better improve our
mental health. Absolutely they might soundbasic, but I think it's so important
to get grounded when you're talking aboutmental health and mental health conditions and mental
illness, to remember to treat yourmental health and your brain the same way
(13:43):
you treat your physical health. Sogoing for a walk if that's accessible to
you, getting outside if that's accessibleto you, talking to a friend,
talking to a therapist. We takesuch good care of our physical bodies,
we must ensure that we're taking careof our mental health in the same way.
Our brain is our most trusted assetin such an important part of our
(14:03):
overall health. So finding ways foryou to feel mentally and physically well,
it's going to be key. JessicaEdwards, chief Development officer at the National
Alliance on Mental Illness, with usfor Mental Health Awareness Month. You can
learn more and support all the workthis organization is doing at NAMI dot org.
That's NAMI dot org. Jessica,thank you so much for coming on
(14:26):
the show. We really appreciate it. Thank you. All right. I'm
Ryan Gorman here on iHeartRadio Communities andcontinuing now with our Mental Health Awareness Month
special, I want to bring inyet another organization focused on this. I'm
joined now by doctor Michelle Mullen,Senior Vice president and Chief Design and Impact
Officer for the JED Foundation. Youcan learn more about all the work they
do at Jedfoundation dot org. DoctorMullen, thank you so much for taking
(14:50):
a few minutes to come on theshow. And let's start with the background
on how this organization came about.And the work that you do well,
Ryan, thanks for having me.I appreciate being here. So the JET
Foundation was created because of a family'sloss of their son, and his name
was Jed and he died by suicide. And the Sato family decided to use
(15:18):
their grief to be able to createreal change, and in their discussions of
how do you prevent future dust,the college students university president said, tell
me how to do this, andI will do everything out of my power
to be able to protect our students. And that's how the JET Foundation had
started. So, now that we'rein Mental Health Awareness Month, how much
(15:41):
has awareness of mental health issues grownin recent years? It seems like by
a tremendous amount. And what roledo you feel your organization, the Jed
Foundation plays in helping to raise thatawareness. The JET Foundation is a national
non profit that protects emotional health andprevents suicide for teens and young adults.
(16:06):
And we have seen real changes howcolleges see mental health on campus. So
I've been around a long time andwhen I first started doing research about college
student mental health, we used tohear from college campuses all the time.
We don't have mental health issues oncampus and that is rarely a comments I
(16:30):
ever hear. Now colleges are acutelyaware that their students have growing challenges and
are much more aware of mental healththan in the past. So because people
are much more likely to talk aboutmental health, and you know, these
earlier generations are open to having conversations, there is increased collaboration and problem solving.
(16:56):
And what our report has found ourwork here as a part of JET
Campus is that implementing a comprehensive approachreally helps to have good conversations to be
able to identify this is a campuswide issue and everyone could be a part
of the solution. I want toget to a brand new report that your
(17:18):
organization released, a decade of ImprovingCollege Mental Health Systems JET Campus Impact Report.
Give us the background on this report, what you were looking to find,
and some of the highlights from thesefindings. So I'll first start by
describing JET Campus. JET Campus isa four year program that partners with schools
(17:42):
to help guide and collaborate around whatare the programs, the policies, the
systems, the culture and campus tobe able to leverage what they're already doing
and also build additional components to enhancemental health substances use and suicide prevention.
(18:02):
We provide technical assistance and help partnerwith the school through those four years,
and so this report is really aculmination of ten years of work that we've
done nationwide. It represents over onehundred thousand students, and you know,
in this report, we saw sweepingimprovements across the board. So depression and
(18:26):
anxiety had improved for students for partof ject campuses. They were more aware
of mental health resources. And onething that we saw that was really staggering
and it makes good sense, isthat you know, improved these students also
saw improved graduation and retention rates.We saw a twenty five percent reduction in
(18:51):
suicide attempts. So the comprehensive approachthat we have been implementing over the last
decade not only saw these really animportant clinical like these symptoms reduction, but
also improvements in graduation, retention andreductions in suicide. We're joined by doctor
(19:14):
Michelle Mullen, Senior Vice President andChief Design and Impact Officer for the JED
Foundation. You can learn more andsupport the work they're doing at jedfoundation dot
org. Some of those numbers theyseem to be at odds with what we're
hearing more generally about the mental healthof young adults across the country. So
(19:34):
that seems to just indicate further howsuccessful the JED campus program has been.
Right. You know, it's interestingwhen we think about what college students are
struggling with. You know, theyare really crossing from you know, being
earlier young adults through this transitional adulthood, and so they are managing and competing
(19:59):
demands of college campuses, you know, the competition balancing social life and academics.
They're also struggling with things that someof us older folks have never had
to think about before, like massshootings on campus. You know, they
have a lot of stressors. Butwe also know that young people are incredibly
resilient, and so knowing that thereare real steps that universities and colleges can
(20:26):
take to improve mental health on campusby making it a campus wide effort shows
real promise that a culture itself canboth reduce depression and anxiety, increase help
seeking, and improve graduation and retention. So when people feel like they belong,
you know, we have all theseother great outcomes associated with that.
(20:49):
Let alone, the significant and realreduction in suicide, it's twenty five percent.
You know, as we're looking atsome of the different issues that students
attending our nation's colleges and universities arefacing these days, I'm wondering how much
social media looms over all of that. Back when we were going to school,
at least when I was going toschool, it was first starting to
(21:11):
roll out, but it certainly wasn'tanywhere near the level that it is today
and didn't impact our lives like itdoes today. You know, social media
is this double edged sword. Forsome it is the great connector, and
for others it's a great stressor,you know, that competition, that the
constant comparison, and for others theyfeel real belonging and connecting with groups that
(21:34):
they don't have around them and beingable to connect with other people that look
more like them or identify with youknow, how they identify. So it
is very complicated kind of maze tonavigate us when is it harmful, when
is it helpful? And you know, at JED, we try our best
to be able to educate young people, parents and caregivers and universities systems on
(22:00):
some of the recommendations that could behelpful in minimizing threat and risk and increasing
the benefits of connection and belonging.I'd like to dive a little bit deeper
into this program that again is showingtremendous results, especially when you compare it
to some of the other numbers we'reseeing when it comes to the mental health
(22:22):
of young adults across this country.So can you break down how JED Campus
works and some of the parts ofthe program that seem to make it most
effective. So JED Campus, asI had said, is a four year
program that works directly with schools,leaderships, staff, faculty and creates an
(22:45):
interdisciplinary approach to solve the problems oncampus. Oftentimes, when we think about
mental health, we really focus onwhat is counseling doing counseling office do,
But rather this is a campus wideapproach of like how can we all help,
(23:06):
how can we promote social connectedness,how can we all identify students at
risk? How can we help increasehelp seeking behaviors. So when we think
about JED Campus, it's really aprocess of layering the community as a response.
So there are certain things that thecampus does themselves, like ensure that
(23:32):
there is mental health and substancency servicesthat students can connect to those rapidly that
there's not long way. Times weprovide recommendations related to how to manage crisis
on campus, how to prevent thosethings from happening, you know, thinking
about how do we ensure that studentsare safe on campus, But a lot
(23:55):
of our work focuses on how dowe develop the life skills that students need
to be able to navigate these challengesover their lifetime, So conflicts of resolution,
managing relationships, even things like timeand task management, so people are
able to manage their stress and thedemands of their family and friends and work
(24:18):
in school. So when we startto think about the JET Campus as a
program, it is really across theentire community and through that students feel more
connected, they're more aware. Theyhave reported in ours in our data that
you know, they have less depressionlast anxiety. So we're seeing real improvements
(24:45):
by attending to the culture on campus. What has the response been like from
administrators and leaders on campuses that haveparticipated in the JET Campus program. You
know, colleges are acutely aware thatthere are real needs for college students.
(25:06):
Most of our college students have beenthrough the pandemic, you know, there
was real destructions in their development andtheir you know process through high school.
And so they feel really relieved,right that there's expert guidance out there that
(25:26):
we provide evidence based recommendations and datainformed decisions. We partner with them to
be able to identify, what arethe things that you have, what are
the things that are missing? Arethere funding mechanisms that we can go after
to improve something? Is there,you know, a curriculum that you can
implement, Is there a campaign thatyou can put into place that you know
(25:49):
increases students' awareness of you know,counseling on campus or the role of the
RA and dorms. And so resoundingly, college campuses feel as if someone can
provide them that guidance that they neededto take real action at these pieces that
seem to be missing. Schools aredoing a lot and so being able to
(26:14):
leverage what they already have, andsometimes it's adding a little bit. Sometimes
it's adding a policy. You know, sometimes it's easy, as like creating
a triage system by identifying who needswhat services went So colleges have been very
or intentionally supported by JED campus advisorsand what you need and how do we
(26:37):
fit that need with expert, evidencebased interventions and recommendations. May is Mental
Health Awareness Month. I'm Ryan Gormanand joining me right now, I have
doctor Michelle Mullen, Senior Vice presidentand Chief Design and Impact Officer for the
JED Foundation. You can learn moreat jedfoundation dot org. So, when
we're talking about this JED campus forstudents, parents, educators who might be
(27:04):
interested in implementing something like this ontheir campus, what would be your suggestion
for going about doing that? Well, of course for young adults that I
would say is you know you arenot alone. If you're struggling to reach
out for help, people want tohelp. I think the other thing for
young adults is if one on campus, see if your campus is implementing a
(27:26):
comprehensive approach. You know, ourdata shows that a comprehensive approach improves mental
health across campus for parents and caregivers, JED recommends having open conversations about mental
health with your students. Parents andcaregivers should check out a report also see
if their student school is implementing acomprehensive approach. And I think lastly,
(27:52):
for what colleges can do. Ourevaluation shows real promising results that there are
concrete steps that results and improve mentalhealth and suicide prevention on campus. And
I think what JED would most recommendis don't wait. Prevention is key.
Don't wait for something to happen oncampus that you then have to attend to,
(28:12):
but rather cut the services, thepolicies, the practice in place so
that we can prevent as much aspossible. And then finally, what can
everyone do to support the work you'redoing at the JED Foundation. Well,
I think generally speaking, we wantto increase health seeking. JED wants people
(28:33):
to feel comfortable reaching out for helpand for people being able to help people
who need help. So, youknow, promoting connectiveness, identifying people who
are at risk increase health seeking andhelp giving behaviors. You may not know
what to do, but getting toconnect someone connected. So what we've seen
(28:55):
in our data for college campuses anduniversities is a comprehensive approach works to prevent
suicide and it improves mental health.So look to your colleges and universities to
see are they implementing a comprehensive approachto be able to really improve these outcomes.
(29:15):
For these students or Mental Health AwarenessMonth. Doctor Michelle Mullen, Senior
Vice president and Chief Design and ImpactOfficer for the JED Foundation again. You
can learn more and support the workthey do at Jedfoundation dot org. Doctor
Mullen, I want to thank youso much for the work you organization is
doing and for taking time to comeon the show. We really appreciate it.
Well, thank you for having me. All right, and that's going
(29:37):
to do it for this edition ofiHeartRadio Communities. As we wrap things up
on one, offer a big thanksto all of our guests and of course
to all of you for listening.I'm your host, Ryan Gorman. We'll
talk to you again real soon.
Welcome to iHeartRadio Communities, a publicaffairs special focusing on the biggest issues impacting
you. This week, here's RyanGorman. Thanks so much for joining us
here on iHeartRadio Communities. I'm RyanGorman, and we have a few very
important conversations lined up for you.May is Mental Health Awareness Months, so
that's the topic we'll be focusing onfor this show, and just a bit
(00:23):
we'll check in with the jed Foundation, a nonprofit organization working to protect emotional
health and prevent suicide among our nation'steens and young adults. But right now,
to get things started, let mebring in Jessica Edwards, chief development
officer at the National Alliance on MentalIllness. You can learn more about this
organization at NAMI dot org. That'sNAMI dot org. Jessica, thank you
(00:48):
so much for coming on the show, and let's begin with an overview of
how NAMI came about and the typeof work you're focused on. Absolutely,
thank you so much for this opportunity. So NAMI is the largest grassroots mental
health organization in the country. Wewere started in nineteen seventy nine by a
group of families gathered around a kitchentable who wanted more for their family members
(01:10):
and loved ones who were experiencing mentalhealth conditions and mental illnesses. So we
are now at the national Office andwe have six hundred affiliates and forty nine
state organizations nationwide, so we're prettymuch in every community across the country.
Our mission is to provide advocacy,education, support, and public awareness so
(01:32):
everyone with a mental health condition canthrive and live their most opportune life.
And we want to ensure that weprovide support for those individuals and families living
with mental health conditions so that theycan advocate and raise awareness and reduce the
stigma and make sure that they haveall of the help and hope that they
need. Let me ask you avery basic, but I think important question.
(01:53):
When we hear mental illness, whatexactly does that include? Yeah,
absolutely, it's a great question.So it really depends on the audience and
who you're speaking with. Some peopleprefer mental health condition or mental health it
sounds a little bit less scary andperhaps meets people more of where they are,
and then others prefer the term mentalillness. Serious mental illness is a
(02:15):
term that gets tossed around as well. So we meet people where they are,
and we don't see the diagnosis,we see the person. So people
may come to NAMI if they're experiencinganxiety or depression ADHD OCD. They also
may come to NOAME if they're experiencingschizophrenia, psychosis, bipolar disorder, major
(02:36):
depressive disorder. So NAMI really focuseson meeting the individual where they are on
their mental health journey and ensuring thatthey have the resources and access to help
that they need to find care,to find resources, and to ensure that
they know that they're not alone.We want to make sure that we're lowering
barriers of stigma, and sometimes theway in which we talk about mental health
(02:59):
conditions can can help lower that stigmabarrier. If we were to take a
thirty thousand foot view look at theissue of mental illness here in this country,
how big of a problem are wetalking about mental health conditions? Are
One in five US adults experience amental health condition each year, one in
twenty US adults experience a serious mentalillness each year, and the average delay
(03:23):
between onset of symptoms and treatment iseleven years. So this is a pretty
pervasive problem in the United States.I'm Ryan Gorman with Jessic Edwards, chief
Development Officer at the National Alliance onMental Illness. You can learn more at
NAMI dot org. That's NAMI dotorg. She's with me for Mental Health
(03:43):
Awareness Month. On the topic ofawareness itself of all these different conditions.
How much progress have we made inrecent years as your organization has been on
the forefront of all of that.Yeah, so we've really come a long
way. The pandemic was so challengingfor so many reasons. But if there
was a bright spot, and thatis a really big if, it would
(04:05):
be that people felt unified through thistraumatic experience of lockdown and the uncertainty that
surrounded COVID and health and all thatwas to come with that. And I
think that it really helped people alignon that we all have mental health and
we all have a various degree ofmental health challenges. So it really helped
(04:26):
align everyone and make sure that peoplerealize that we're all in this together.
It was less of than us versusthem. So that was a bright spot
of the pandemic, was just makingsure that we all are kind of aware
of our mental health in that way. But it not me As I mentioned,
we've been doing this for forty fiveyears, and we've been running programs
that are peer led family to familyclasses, support groups. Other organizations across
(04:50):
the country. Not ME organizations acrossthe country offer these in their communities,
and so this is not something newfor n ME, But I think as
a American society, we've really madea lot of progress in the last couple
of years. More people are talkingabout it, even just opportunities like this,
the opportunity that you've had me onyour show to discuss Mental Health Awareness
Month, it's incredible that wouldn't havehappened probably a decade ago. I would
(05:13):
say, what about treatments and strategiesto address these different mental health issues?
How much progress have we made onall of that. Yeah, so it
really there's always room for advancement ineuroscience treatment and research, but there's definitely
a lot of resources out there andtreatments available for folks. There's a lot
of information around that. On ourwebsite not me dot org you can check
(05:34):
out all sorts of medications and resourcesand treatments and therapies. I would also
say that it's never one size fitsall, so people need to find the
kind of care continuum support that worksfor them. That can include physical exercise,
that can include yoga, that caninclude getting outside, talking to a
therapist, medication therapy, animals,art therapy. So it really is up
(06:00):
to each individual person to find whatworks for them for their wellness journey.
Just like we would talk about aphysical health condition, right, we put
a lot of focus into what weput into our bodies, how we move
our body, and the same goesfor mental health. So it's really a
customized approach for each person on theirwellness journey. I want to ask you
about the launch of the nine eighteight Crisis hotline. Some of the conversations
(06:24):
I've had with different organizations working onthis issue, they've told me that it's
been nothing short of a game changeor just that simplified number and promoting it,
getting the word out about it.It really has helped. Is that
what you're seeing at NAMI absolutely sucha game changer. A mental health crisis
(06:45):
deserves a mental health response. SONAMIwas a huge advocate for ensuring that nine
eight eight got launched, and weare so grateful that that is a resource.
It is a twenty four to sevenfree confidential support for people stress and
what an incredible crisis resource that itis that was so needed across the country.
So yes, we were huge advocatesfor that, very excited that it
(07:06):
is in place. Still work tobe done as we continue to build it
out and raise awareness around it.So thank you for mentioning that such a
great point. I'm Ryan Gorman,joined by Jessica Edwards, Chief Development Officer
at the National Alliance on Mental Illness. You can learn more about the work
they do and support that work atNAMI dot org. That's NAMI dot org.
(07:26):
May is Mental Health Awareness Month inJessica, what is your organization doing
during the course of May to honorthat designation? Absolutely, so, we're
always encouraging people to share their story. That's one of the biggest ways to
help remove the stigma is for peopleto know that they are not alone.
And so hearing stories of either celebritiesor famous people or people that you see
(07:47):
in the media or even in yourcommunity or in your personal life. When
you hear someone else sharing their story, that helps that individual who's on the
receiving end know that they're not aloneand that you're a safe place to share
and to go to and talk about. So that's something that we drill into
our communities all the time is justto share your story and to feel empowered
in that. For May our themethis year is take a Moment for mental
(08:11):
Health. So we are encouraging peopleto cultivate empathy and understanding by fostering open
dialogues and urging people to share theirmoments of mental health. So taking a
pause, taking a break, takinga moment for your mental health and sharing
what that means to you, andthat can be highlighting your story or also
(08:33):
sharing ways that you stay well,prioritizing your mental health care, tips and
tricks, anything that you can doto just take that beat, take that
moment to share your mental health storyand journey. One part of this mental
health issue that we're experiencing in ourcountry right now that's gotten a lot of
attention recently the mental health among youngerpeople. What have you been seeing in
(08:56):
terms of the data on all ofthat and what have you been doing about
that? Over at Nomie absolutely sucha great point. We know that early
intervention is one of the keys tobetter outcomes. So the sooner that somebody
seeks care and seeks help and startsto identify that they may be experience and
experiencing a mental health condition, thebetter likelihood that they're going to get care
(09:18):
and have that better outcome. Wealso know that for adolescence, which is
ages twelve to seventeen, one insix experienced a major depressive episode in the
last year, and one in threeyoung adults, which is aged eighteen to
twenty five, has experienced a mentalhealth condition. So the sooner on that
(09:41):
journey we can find an intervention,find care, find coping mechanisms, find
tools to stay well, the higherlikelihood the outcome is. I will also
say, on a really positive note, I'm finding and Weetnami are finding at
the younger generation is so much morelikely to talk about their mental health.
We're seeing them talk about it atwork, talk about it at school,
We'll talk about it on social mediaand in the media and in their communities.
(10:03):
And I think that that's really excellentin helping to normalize the conversation around
mental health, and that's the goodfor all of us across society certainly,
And I think that the younger generationis really taking a leadership role in that,
which is exciting to see. There'sanother group that you highlight on your
website again, NAMI dot org thatsometimes I think gets overlooked when it comes
(10:24):
to mental health issues frontline professionals,and this really came to light during the
pandemic, right absolutely, Yes,taking care of the caregivers is something that
has been in nami's core DNA sincewe were founded, and during the pandemic,
we really wanted to take that authenticvalue and make sure we were taking
care of the people that were takingcare of us. So we really focused
(10:46):
on ensuring that all of the frontlineworkers and responders and caregivers had resources available
to them during that very critical,frankly crisis time because the work that they
were doing was so essential for ourphysical well but had a really incredible emotional
wellbeing and mental health component and toldto it as well. Absolutely, I'm
(11:07):
Ryan Gorman, joined by Jessica Edwards, chief Development Officer at the National Alliance
on Mental Illness. You can learnmore at NAMI dot org. That's NAMI
dot org. Jessica's with me forMental Health Awareness Month. Your organizations at
the forefront of education and information onall things mental illness. Can you talk
(11:28):
about what it is you provide toso many different organizations across the country.
Absolutely, so all of nami's programs, classes and support groups and initiatives are
free. So we are a nonprofit. We are very grateful to all of
our donors and supporters and corporate sponsorsand foundation supporters. Certainly all of their
support helps us offer all of thesepeer led free programs across the country.
(11:52):
A couple of highlights are our CommunityHealth Equity Alliance, which prioritizes can unity
informed solutions for the Black African ancestrycommunity. That's a recent initiative. We
also have programs like NOMMI Family toFamily that I mentioned, which is a
family education program. We also haveNOMI Basics, which is a program for
(12:16):
parents of young children. We haveseveral resources for youth and young adults and
for parents as well to help navigatetheir young person's journey. We also have
a helpline that is one eight hundrednine to fifty NAMI or you can text
helpline to six' two six fourzero And if you're experiencing a mental health
(12:37):
crisis, you can always call ourtext nine eight eight twenty four seven.
As we talked about earlier, Sohow can everyone get involved and support the
work you're doing. Yeah, wehave over one hundred Nommy walks across the
country. There's several here coming upin May and then more in the fall.
So I would encourage you to findyour local NAMI, which can be
found easily from our homepage www dotnom dot org as you mentioned, and
(13:00):
find your local NAMI and your communityto get involved that way, and then
if you're interested in inolved, gettinginvolved at the national level, sharing your
story, writing a blog, sharingthe content on social media, taking a
mental health moment, getting engaged insome of our campaigns. All of that
helps propel the movement so that everyoneknows that they are not alone and that
NAM is a resource for them.Final question for you, and I think
(13:22):
this is something everyone listening can benefitfrom. What are some best practices,
some tips that you offer at NAMIfor all of us to better improve our
mental health. Absolutely they might soundbasic, but I think it's so important
to get grounded when you're talking aboutmental health and mental health conditions and mental
illness, to remember to treat yourmental health and your brain the same way
(13:43):
you treat your physical health. Sogoing for a walk if that's accessible to
you, getting outside if that's accessibleto you, talking to a friend,
talking to a therapist. We takesuch good care of our physical bodies,
we must ensure that we're taking careof our mental health in the same way.
Our brain is our most trusted assetin such an important part of our
(14:03):
overall health. So finding ways foryou to feel mentally and physically well,
it's going to be key. JessicaEdwards, chief Development officer at the National
Alliance on Mental Illness, with usfor Mental Health Awareness Month. You can
learn more and support all the workthis organization is doing at NAMI dot org.
That's NAMI dot org. Jessica,thank you so much for coming on
(14:26):
the show. We really appreciate it. Thank you. All right. I'm
Ryan Gorman here on iHeartRadio Communities andcontinuing now with our Mental Health Awareness Month
special, I want to bring inyet another organization focused on this. I'm
joined now by doctor Michelle Mullen,Senior Vice president and Chief Design and Impact
Officer for the JED Foundation. Youcan learn more about all the work they
do at Jedfoundation dot org. DoctorMullen, thank you so much for taking
(14:50):
a few minutes to come on theshow. And let's start with the background
on how this organization came about.And the work that you do well,
Ryan, thanks for having me.I appreciate being here. So the JET
Foundation was created because of a family'sloss of their son, and his name
was Jed and he died by suicide. And the Sato family decided to use
(15:18):
their grief to be able to createreal change, and in their discussions of
how do you prevent future dust,the college students university president said, tell
me how to do this, andI will do everything out of my power
to be able to protect our students. And that's how the JET Foundation had
started. So, now that we'rein Mental Health Awareness Month, how much
(15:41):
has awareness of mental health issues grownin recent years? It seems like by
a tremendous amount. And what roledo you feel your organization, the Jed
Foundation plays in helping to raise thatawareness. The JET Foundation is a national
non profit that protects emotional health andprevents suicide for teens and young adults.
(16:06):
And we have seen real changes howcolleges see mental health on campus. So
I've been around a long time andwhen I first started doing research about college
student mental health, we used tohear from college campuses all the time.
We don't have mental health issues oncampus and that is rarely a comments I
(16:30):
ever hear. Now colleges are acutelyaware that their students have growing challenges and
are much more aware of mental healththan in the past. So because people
are much more likely to talk aboutmental health, and you know, these
earlier generations are open to having conversations, there is increased collaboration and problem solving.
(16:56):
And what our report has found ourwork here as a part of JET
Campus is that implementing a comprehensive approachreally helps to have good conversations to be
able to identify this is a campuswide issue and everyone could be a part
of the solution. I want toget to a brand new report that your
(17:18):
organization released, a decade of ImprovingCollege Mental Health Systems JET Campus Impact Report.
Give us the background on this report, what you were looking to find,
and some of the highlights from thesefindings. So I'll first start by
describing JET Campus. JET Campus isa four year program that partners with schools
(17:42):
to help guide and collaborate around whatare the programs, the policies, the
systems, the culture and campus tobe able to leverage what they're already doing
and also build additional components to enhancemental health substances use and suicide prevention.
(18:02):
We provide technical assistance and help partnerwith the school through those four years,
and so this report is really aculmination of ten years of work that we've
done nationwide. It represents over onehundred thousand students, and you know,
in this report, we saw sweepingimprovements across the board. So depression and
(18:26):
anxiety had improved for students for partof ject campuses. They were more aware
of mental health resources. And onething that we saw that was really staggering
and it makes good sense, isthat you know, improved these students also
saw improved graduation and retention rates.We saw a twenty five percent reduction in
(18:51):
suicide attempts. So the comprehensive approachthat we have been implementing over the last
decade not only saw these really animportant clinical like these symptoms reduction, but
also improvements in graduation, retention andreductions in suicide. We're joined by doctor
(19:14):
Michelle Mullen, Senior Vice President andChief Design and Impact Officer for the JED
Foundation. You can learn more andsupport the work they're doing at jedfoundation dot
org. Some of those numbers theyseem to be at odds with what we're
hearing more generally about the mental healthof young adults across the country. So
(19:34):
that seems to just indicate further howsuccessful the JED campus program has been.
Right. You know, it's interestingwhen we think about what college students are
struggling with. You know, theyare really crossing from you know, being
earlier young adults through this transitional adulthood, and so they are managing and competing
(19:59):
demands of college campuses, you know, the competition balancing social life and academics.
They're also struggling with things that someof us older folks have never had
to think about before, like massshootings on campus. You know, they
have a lot of stressors. Butwe also know that young people are incredibly
resilient, and so knowing that thereare real steps that universities and colleges can
(20:26):
take to improve mental health on campusby making it a campus wide effort shows
real promise that a culture itself canboth reduce depression and anxiety, increase help
seeking, and improve graduation and retention. So when people feel like they belong,
you know, we have all theseother great outcomes associated with that.
(20:49):
Let alone, the significant and realreduction in suicide, it's twenty five percent.
You know, as we're looking atsome of the different issues that students
attending our nation's colleges and universities arefacing these days, I'm wondering how much
social media looms over all of that. Back when we were going to school,
at least when I was going toschool, it was first starting to
(21:11):
roll out, but it certainly wasn'tanywhere near the level that it is today
and didn't impact our lives like itdoes today. You know, social media
is this double edged sword. Forsome it is the great connector, and
for others it's a great stressor,you know, that competition, that the
constant comparison, and for others theyfeel real belonging and connecting with groups that
(21:34):
they don't have around them and beingable to connect with other people that look
more like them or identify with youknow, how they identify. So it
is very complicated kind of maze tonavigate us when is it harmful, when
is it helpful? And you know, at JED, we try our best
to be able to educate young people, parents and caregivers and universities systems on
(22:00):
some of the recommendations that could behelpful in minimizing threat and risk and increasing
the benefits of connection and belonging.I'd like to dive a little bit deeper
into this program that again is showingtremendous results, especially when you compare it
to some of the other numbers we'reseeing when it comes to the mental health
(22:22):
of young adults across this country.So can you break down how JED Campus
works and some of the parts ofthe program that seem to make it most
effective. So JED Campus, asI had said, is a four year
program that works directly with schools,leaderships, staff, faculty and creates an
(22:45):
interdisciplinary approach to solve the problems oncampus. Oftentimes, when we think about
mental health, we really focus onwhat is counseling doing counseling office do,
But rather this is a campus wideapproach of like how can we all help,
(23:06):
how can we promote social connectedness,how can we all identify students at
risk? How can we help increasehelp seeking behaviors. So when we think
about JED Campus, it's really aprocess of layering the community as a response.
So there are certain things that thecampus does themselves, like ensure that
(23:32):
there is mental health and substancency servicesthat students can connect to those rapidly that
there's not long way. Times weprovide recommendations related to how to manage crisis
on campus, how to prevent thosethings from happening, you know, thinking
about how do we ensure that studentsare safe on campus, But a lot
(23:55):
of our work focuses on how dowe develop the life skills that students need
to be able to navigate these challengesover their lifetime, So conflicts of resolution,
managing relationships, even things like timeand task management, so people are
able to manage their stress and thedemands of their family and friends and work
(24:18):
in school. So when we startto think about the JET Campus as a
program, it is really across theentire community and through that students feel more
connected, they're more aware. Theyhave reported in ours in our data that
you know, they have less depressionlast anxiety. So we're seeing real improvements
(24:45):
by attending to the culture on campus. What has the response been like from
administrators and leaders on campuses that haveparticipated in the JET Campus program. You
know, colleges are acutely aware thatthere are real needs for college students.
(25:06):
Most of our college students have beenthrough the pandemic, you know, there
was real destructions in their development andtheir you know process through high school.
And so they feel really relieved,right that there's expert guidance out there that
(25:26):
we provide evidence based recommendations and datainformed decisions. We partner with them to
be able to identify, what arethe things that you have, what are
the things that are missing? Arethere funding mechanisms that we can go after
to improve something? Is there,you know, a curriculum that you can
implement, Is there a campaign thatyou can put into place that you know
(25:49):
increases students' awareness of you know,counseling on campus or the role of the
RA and dorms. And so resoundingly, college campuses feel as if someone can
provide them that guidance that they neededto take real action at these pieces that
seem to be missing. Schools aredoing a lot and so being able to
(26:14):
leverage what they already have, andsometimes it's adding a little bit. Sometimes
it's adding a policy. You know, sometimes it's easy, as like creating
a triage system by identifying who needswhat services went So colleges have been very
or intentionally supported by JED campus advisorsand what you need and how do we
(26:37):
fit that need with expert, evidencebased interventions and recommendations. May is Mental
Health Awareness Month. I'm Ryan Gormanand joining me right now, I have
doctor Michelle Mullen, Senior Vice presidentand Chief Design and Impact Officer for the
JED Foundation. You can learn moreat jedfoundation dot org. So, when
we're talking about this JED campus forstudents, parents, educators who might be
(27:04):
interested in implementing something like this ontheir campus, what would be your suggestion
for going about doing that? Well, of course for young adults that I
would say is you know you arenot alone. If you're struggling to reach
out for help, people want tohelp. I think the other thing for
young adults is if one on campus, see if your campus is implementing a
(27:26):
comprehensive approach. You know, ourdata shows that a comprehensive approach improves mental
health across campus for parents and caregivers, JED recommends having open conversations about mental
health with your students. Parents andcaregivers should check out a report also see
if their student school is implementing acomprehensive approach. And I think lastly,
(27:52):
for what colleges can do. Ourevaluation shows real promising results that there are
concrete steps that results and improve mentalhealth and suicide prevention on campus. And
I think what JED would most recommendis don't wait. Prevention is key.
Don't wait for something to happen oncampus that you then have to attend to,
(28:12):
but rather cut the services, thepolicies, the practice in place so
that we can prevent as much aspossible. And then finally, what can
everyone do to support the work you'redoing at the JED Foundation. Well,
I think generally speaking, we wantto increase health seeking. JED wants people
(28:33):
to feel comfortable reaching out for helpand for people being able to help people
who need help. So, youknow, promoting connectiveness, identifying people who
are at risk increase health seeking andhelp giving behaviors. You may not know
what to do, but getting toconnect someone connected. So what we've seen
(28:55):
in our data for college campuses anduniversities is a comprehensive approach works to prevent
suicide and it improves mental health.So look to your colleges and universities to
see are they implementing a comprehensive approachto be able to really improve these outcomes.
(29:15):
For these students or Mental Health AwarenessMonth. Doctor Michelle Mullen, Senior
Vice president and Chief Design and ImpactOfficer for the JED Foundation again. You
can learn more and support the workthey do at Jedfoundation dot org. Doctor
Mullen, I want to thank youso much for the work you organization is
doing and for taking time to comeon the show. We really appreciate it.
Well, thank you for having me. All right, and that's going
(29:37):
to do it for this edition ofiHeartRadio Communities. As we wrap things up
on one, offer a big thanksto all of our guests and of course
to all of you for listening.I'm your host, Ryan Gorman. We'll
talk to you again real soon.
Host
Manny Munoz
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