Deandra Howard
Appearances
Health Chatter
Mental Health - Clinical by Population & Age
You know what? I'm trying to figure out what I'm asking. And the reason why I'm saying that is. is because whenever I am in the community and I'm talking to people about always having these kinds of conversations like this, that word always comes up. I mean, it's kind of like a catch-all for many, many things. I'm not saying for everything.
Health Chatter
Mental Health - Clinical by Population & Age
but for many things in a way and why people are behaving in a way that they do, why people are responding to certain things. And so I'm just, we talk about mental health by populations. I'm just saying that this is a more common word now in my community than I've ever heard before.
Health Chatter
Mental Health - Clinical by Population & Age
Yeah, but the question is, what are we going to do about it? I mean, it seems like the conversation keeps coming up, well, we're traumatized, and so what are the ways in which to address this? It's really kind of, when we talk about these kinds of topics, people don't know how to articulate, is it a mental health issue? You know what I'm saying? So we're in that area of...
Health Chatter
Mental Health - Clinical by Population & Age
You know, it's funny you're saying all these things because, you know, I'm not asking to be analyzed here, okay?
Health Chatter
Mental Health - Clinical by Population & Age
I just want to have this conversation, all right? But I remember things that happened to me before I was six, you know, that traumatized me. I mean, you know, I remember my fear of heights becoming very, when I was real young, I remember specifically, when I became very, very afraid of heights.
Health Chatter
Mental Health - Clinical by Population & Age
I remember very specifically when people, some of my relatives were playing with me about, and they stepped a pillow over my head and I remember not being able to breathe. And so it's been very, very, whenever I can't breathe, I freak out.
Health Chatter
Mental Health - Clinical by Population & Age
So I'm saying those kinds of things because I think that what you're saying is very helpful in the sense that we have these experiences that causes us to respond a certain kind of way. And other people might look at it and say, well, that's not okay, but it is our experience.
Health Chatter
Mental Health - Clinical by Population & Age
We started talking about age six. We started talking about the post-traumatic stress. And I think it's just important to have this kind of conversation so people can understand that it's not necessarily sometimes what they think it is. Oftentimes it isn't, yeah.
Health Chatter
Mental Health - Clinical by Population & Age
So can we talk about treatments? I mean, we talked a lot about mental health disorders and things like that. We talked about trauma, those kinds of things. How do we treat these issues once they are identified? Could you talk a little bit more about those things?
Health Chatter
Mental Health - Clinical by Population & Age
And it's interesting because I know Stan brought up the whole issue around shock therapy and stuff like that. I mean, it's just so many different things that are around this topic that I think is so interesting and so many different ways to address what's going on. I think in my case, you know, I'm thinking only about...
Health Chatter
Mental Health - Clinical by Population & Age
you know, mental health, we think about going, seeing the doctor and getting some meds. And that's just basically it. But I think that you're saying that there are other things like it could be a, you know, a genetic imbalance or whatever. So there's all these different ways in which to look at these things.
Health Chatter
Mental Health - Clinical by Population & Age
People need to, to not be fixed in terms of how things are going to work, but to open, you know, to different alternative, uh, uh, Am I correct?
Health Chatter
Mental Health - Clinical by Population & Age
Yeah, thank you, because I was going to say, I thank you for entering this conversation with us. I mean, it's been... There have been a lot of things that you said today that have really... been enlightening to me in terms of what we're really experiencing.
Health Chatter
Mental Health - Clinical by Population & Age
And saying you're absolutely right, I thought that the research that was done was phenomenal in terms of being able to understand this issue a little bit better. But the more you talk, Mike, the more I think we need to talk. about this. I mean, we need to enter this conversation because there's so many things that are going on.
Health Chatter
Mental Health - Clinical by Population & Age
And as Stan said a little bit earlier, is that it just seems like the issues are increasing and increasing. We don't have the necessary professionals to help. And so How do we enter this conversation? How do we chat about this in a way? And how do we give people the information that they need in order to make informed decisions? And that for us is really what's important.
Health Chatter
Mental Health - Clinical by Population & Age
So I really want to thank you for helping to kind of sort through something even for me today. And I'm sure that our listeners will get the benefit of that.
Health Chatter
Mental Health - Clinical by Population & Age
I think that was why I was going to start off my questioning by asking this question, because I thought what you just said speaks so well to it, is that according to the research that we have, that there are more than 200 types of mental health disorders. And I think that most people, when they think about mental health, they only think about maybe one or two. What are your comments about that?
Health Chatter
Mental Health - Clinical by Population & Age
I mean, you're speaking to the fact that there are a lot that we don't even think about.
Health Chatter
Mental Health - Clinical by Population & Age
Yeah. Dr. I, you know, as you were talking about some cultural things, one of the One of the conversations that's happened a lot in my community is this issue around trauma and intergenerational trauma and cultural trauma. Is that something that... What are your thoughts? I mean, because I think a lot of people are using trauma as a catch-all for everything that's happening.
Health Chatter
Mental Health - Clinical by Population & Age
Is that something that you think is occurring as a result of the shutdown? Or is it just that people have decided, as you said, to just group everything as one thing?
Health Chatter
Stereotypes & Labels
I think that was a great time to bring me in. So I am engaged. I have been engaged for a long time to a man. However, I identify as bisexual. And so I think I am an Amazing example of how I present as somebody that is hetero or that passes as straight. And people are quick to label me as straight.
Health Chatter
Stereotypes & Labels
But really, my lived experience and who I am and where my attractions fall, I am bisexual and I have my whole life. So this is something that a lot of people struggle with in my life because I have a wonderful, loving fiance that is a man. And so I think a lot of people have a hard time understanding how that can mean that I am still bisexual.
Health Chatter
Stereotypes & Labels
But I think it opens the door for conversations with a lot of people. And by the end of the conversation, they're like, yeah, I do think that you're bisexual. I do think that you're gay. So I think it's just... I think I'm a good example of don't judge a book by its cover. Don't label a book by its cover. And I do think that there are stereotypes for straight people that I fall under.
Health Chatter
Stereotypes & Labels
And I fall under stereotypes for bisexual people. I have a nose ring. That's a common one that people make a joke about. And even a common... A common stereotype about bisexual women is that they are dating or engaged or married to a straight man. So I fall under that stereotype, too. But that doesn't diminish my experience by any means. Yeah, I think that was a great time to call me in, Stan.
Health Chatter
Stereotypes & Labels
no okay oh i can go ahead for just go ahead yeah go ahead sure i think it's it's obviously it's religion it's ethnicity it is race and it is age like we think about even you know yeah yeah we like to joke on this podcast a lot we're the young ones you guys are the old ones like it's really easy to but really um uh i have 110
Health Chatter
Stereotypes & Labels
three-year-old participants, they would look at you and they would call you young. So really in the scheme of things where we label ourselves, where we label other people, it is so subjective. And when we think about, um, Like even religion, you don't know in the scheme of things how involved they are in their church or their practice or in their community.
Health Chatter
Stereotypes & Labels
Or I even think about like immigrants a lot where they may have come from a culture where it's completely immersed in their culture and now they're here and it's different. It's different and you may go to the same church here, but it will be with different people and a different culture and things will be practiced differently.
Health Chatter
Stereotypes & Labels
And so I just think in the scheme of things, really like zooming out and looking at the bigger picture, we have no idea where people are or where. where they fall unless they tell us and communicate with us about that. And that's why I think the pronouns in the emails are a great opportunity to just effectively communicate clearly with no ifs, ands, or buts.
Health Chatter
Stereotypes & Labels
This is what this person would like to be labeled as. That's just my two cents on it.
Health Chatter
Health and Politics
You know, I was thinking about that. When you asked that question, I just said, like, what do I expect? Exactly. You know, what do I expect? And I think I expect access. You know, I expect that, you know, that when I need health care, that it's there for me.
Health Chatter
Health and Politics
But I think, you know, a little bit earlier in the conversation, you know, listening to what Barry was saying, I thought about the pharmaceutical deserts. I thought about the food deserts.
Health Chatter
Health and Politics
And, uh, you know, what role does politics play in the fact that I think that they were saying like 25% of Walgreens drugstores are closing, you know, I mean, like you got all this stuff, you know, what does politics play in that? How is that going to affect the health of the community?
Health Chatter
Health and Politics
How does that affect people in, uh, how does politics affect the communities in rural Minnesota, rural, rural, rural counties around, around the, uh, Around the country, you know, I mean, it's it's pretty, pretty unclear. You know, I think that there is a there is a pie in the sky kind of of reality. I mean, pie in the sky kind of thinking about what we what we're supposed to have.
Health Chatter
Health and Politics
And then there's the root cause, like it's not there because the politics or the will of the community or the will of the government is not there. And so we're caught in that space right now where people are really trying to figure out what is real? You know, what can I really expect from my government now? I mean, you know, and again, we get into this fake news stuff.
Health Chatter
Health and Politics
I mean, it's messing with my mental health. Yeah. I think for a lot of folks, it's best with their mental health. And so for me, what I do, I cut off TV. I don't want to hear it no more. Let me kind of struggle through or do whatever I got to do. But anyway, so that's my initial thought about what do we want? What would I want?
Health Chatter
Health and Politics
I would want appropriate access, but that's not always available for me or for anybody else.
Health Chatter
Health and Politics
Yeah. With that help. Yeah, yeah. You know, it's interesting. I think it would. I know that I've talked with a lot of people about single payer plans. But, you know, as you were talking, Stan, and again, this is my looping brain here. I thought politics, confusion equals money. Yeah.
Health Chatter
Health and Politics
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Politics, confusion, evil is money. So, you know, there's a certain amount of, and again, this is my thinking, is that there's a certain amount of, I shouldn't say value, but there's a certain amount of gain with a lot of this stuff that we're seeing
Health Chatter
Health and Politics
I think it would be very helpful for us as a nation to be able to have, as you just said, have access to be able to go in and to get the kinds of services that we need. But unfortunately, money always plays a part. Money always plays a part. It's interesting, Barry, you were talking about when you started. I remember when I was younger, My doctor came to my house.
Health Chatter
Health and Politics
And you know what? The thing, too, is that I think when we think about politics, we have this view of just government kind of things, but there's corporate politics, too. Oh, God, yes. That's what I'm saying is that, you know, and so sometimes there is a collaboration or a coordination between the corporate and the governmental entities, which can affect our health.
Health Chatter
Health and Politics
Because, you know, the government can pass laws that kind of restrict the organizations from doing certain kinds of things which might be very helpful for the community. They may not say it like that, but...
Health Chatter
Health and Politics
Yeah, all of these things, all these factors we have to take a look at and we have to, again, we have to be much more attuned to what's really going on in order for us to really affect our community's health. And that's one of the things for me, and I'll be totally honest with you. I was talking to somebody recently and I was talking about the work that we do at Human.
Health Chatter
Health and Politics
You know, at one time we did like 250 health fairs a year. You know, but, you know, that's that's that's that was a long time ago when I was much younger. Now I find that that it's important for me to be more involved in the public policy making. Right. Now, that's hard for me because, you know, I don't want to do nothing with politics.
Health Chatter
Health and Politics
but that's where we have to go in order to really make some changes in our communities. At least for me, at least at this point in my life, I see politics, health, really, really connected together. And so therefore I have to readjust myself to be able to do these things. And so it's a struggle because, you know, I'm like, I'm the Kumbaya kind of guy, you know, but yeah, Kuba, yeah, don't work.
Health Chatter
Health and Politics
Yeah. Well, you know what, Sam? I want to say this real quick, and again, I'm not being political much. I have to talk like this, okay?
Health Chatter
Health and Politics
You know, I would agree with that wholeheartedly. I think that when I... speak to people and i talk about some of these things there is not a connection made between politics and health it is it's just there uh i remember this is so funny i remember when i used to not like uh certain certain governmental bodies
Health Chatter
Health and Politics
But I remember when they were talking about, I think, Congress. Congress, they covered. I mean, you're a Congress person. You're going to get your stuff is covered. But sometimes when you are in a situation like that where you don't have to worry about something, you're not as sensitive to what other people might need.
Health Chatter
Health and Politics
And I think that that's part of the challenge that we have is that some people already got it made. They don't have to think about this. So this is not necessarily something that they have to worry about. But for other people, we have to think about this stuff.
Health Chatter
Health and Politics
And we have to utilize the political system in order to make sure that we're getting the kind of services that we need for our communities. So yeah, the politics is a big deal.
Health Chatter
Health and Politics
What, what, what are you thinking about? Yeah. I tell you, I tell you what a lot of people are talking about. They're definitely talking about mental health and politicians. There's a lot, there's a lot of, a lot of concerns people have about the mental health and the capacity and those kinds of things. As we, we started talking about this country and those kinds of things. And yeah,
Health Chatter
Health and Politics
That's a major thing. People are concerned. I mean, and that's at that level. But at the other level, at the community level, I mean, I'm walking down, I'm walking or driving through communities and I'm seeing that a lot of people A lot of people with mental health issues walk in our streets. What do we do as politicians?
Health Chatter
Health and Politics
I mean, what do we do as community members and as politicians to try to address that? A lot of that is political. I mean, having money to provide services for people. I remember when... Again, this goes back a while. I don't know if this is Ronald Reagan period or not, where they started closing down the institutions and started releasing people back into the community and things like that.
Health Chatter
Health and Politics
And it's like, it's just a snowball. It just keeps getting bigger and bigger. And we're starting to see more and more mental health issues that are starting to emerge. I mean, pressures that we talked about before, the food, the housing, all those kinds of things, those are stressors.
Health Chatter
Health and Politics
And if you can't address those kinds of issues, or if there's not a way for you to be able to provide for yourself, it's a health issue. It's going to be a health. And if it's not mental health, it's going to be a physical health. Right. You're going to catch a cold. You're going to get pneumonia.
Health Chatter
Health and Politics
All these things are just starting to point back to the fact that there is a strong connection between politics and the health of our communities.
Health Chatter
Health and Politics
uh because you know something happened and i didn't really understand how politics worked in it and you have to realize that that in this particular arena there are a variety of other factors and so uh for me when i go out to the community i don't think a lot of people make the connection yeah between health politics you know what can you do how can you be involved all those kinds of things so i'm in total agreement with you there is a political
Health Chatter
Health and Politics
Yeah. Interesting. Yeah. You know, Stan, as we were talking, thank you, Aaron, for that, because I really appreciate that view. When you were talking, you started out the program by talking about the woman in line where she was saying, like, she was in government in her business.
Health Chatter
Health and Politics
you know i i just think about uh when i was younger when i younger oh yeah i was younger uh yeah i was younger i i did i did a training one time and and i asked different you know people talking about well we don't want welfare we don't you know no those people and we were i was in the agricultural community and i asked this question what's the difference between welfare and farm subsidies yeah right
Health Chatter
Health and Politics
Okay. And though they were mad, they were mad. I'm just saying, wait a minute, I'm just asking the question. I'm just, you know, it's those people, they take it, you know, okay. But I think so many times the way that we describe things, and we talked before about this, the way that people like to define things
Health Chatter
Health and Politics
sets us up for this unhealthy conversation about how do we work together in order to make sure that the world is better. I always look at it like this, and I'm in the community a lot of times. I said, I care about what happens in Brooklyn Center and Edina. I said, because if an epidemic breaks out there, guess what? It's going to hit South Minneapolis too. So I have to be thinking more.
Health Chatter
Health and Politics
But a lot of times people say, well, that's them and not us. And I'm like, well, wait a minute. You have to understand how interconnected we are in this world. And so the politics that you are fighting against or you're trying to impose, is that going to ultimately affect you and your family? And you and your children, you know what I mean?
Health Chatter
Health and Politics
And so it's not like we want to throw money at issues and just wasting money. That's not what I'm talking about at all. But I am talking about how do we create safety nets for our communities? How do we utilize the political system to create safety nets for our communities so that all of us can benefit? Because if we have a huge crisis here, we're going to pay more taxes. You know what I'm saying?
Health Chatter
Health and Politics
I mean, it's like, you know, but it's like people are like, well, no, I'm not going to do that. I'm like, okay. So anyway, there's some arguments I just can't, I just can't.
Health Chatter
Health and Politics
You know what? When I saw this topic, I thought that we were going to be talking. I mean, there were so many things that went through my mind because there's so many emotions that are attached to both politics and and the issue of health. And so it was like, how do you manage to pull those two things together? And then how can we move the conversation ahead?
Health Chatter
Health and Politics
And I do believe that by having a conversation like this is important. And people are at different places, but we gotta talk. And so I just thank you. I thank you and Barry both for just talking. And Aaron, thank you for just talking. I think I can sleep better tonight.
Health Chatter
Health and Politics
Yeah, yeah, yeah. I think we throw those initials around a lot. I think so, too. And many people don't understand exactly how these particular governmental agencies impact their health or what they do to affect their health. And I think for many people, it's too much to think about. You know, and I mean, and I say that, I say that people don't want to think about it.
Health Chatter
Health and Politics
But yet at the same time, it's really, really important. As you were talking before about COVID and the mental health piece about it. There's a lot of things that are happening. I know that we're going to have a conversation about fake news and all those kind of things coming up.
Health Chatter
Health and Politics
Right now, the health factors that are impacting us as a result of the political decisions that are being made or not made is something that's very, very important to think about. I think about this. This is what I think about. I just had this conversation a couple of days ago with someone.
Health Chatter
Health and Politics
We had this person on that was talking about, well, actually, I took a trip down to the water plant in Minneapolis. And, you know, city of Minneapolis, they inspect their waters 500 times a day. They test their waters 500 times a day. What he told me was that Flint, Michigan, the things that happened in Flint, Michigan could have been avoided for about $2,000.
Health Chatter
Health and Politics
There was a political piece going on there, but for $2,000, we had this huge issue And they assumed part of that was some political decisions that were being made. So I don't think that people really do get the fact that there are some health factors that are also impacted by our political will or less or not will.
Health Chatter
Health and Politics
You know, Shane, I was going to say, you know, our topic today was politics and its effect on health. And I really don't, I don't believe that many people understand, you know, who you vote for. Yeah. Voting. making sure that you have people that understand the importance of health. I mean, you put people in places and they don't want to provide coverage for groups and for those kinds of things.
Health Chatter
Health and Politics
It's... Politics has a major, major role in terms of the health of a community. You know, all the zoning laws. I mean, you know, you know, people are, you know, people, the zoning laws, you know, you put people in and they say, well, we're going to have an incinerator here. You know, they're right next door to a to a community.
Health Chatter
Health and Politics
that's politics, you know, and people are putting people in that just says, yeah, yeah, we'll go to both of that. And so I think it's important that people really do understand that there is a real connection. And, you know, between this and our health, and it's not something that we normally explore.
Health Chatter
Health and Politics
I was actually in Baltimore a couple of weeks ago at the Academy of Health. And one of the posters that was there was this poster that this lady created around the coverage of mental health services in communities. So they're actually mapping out services to communities. And what they were saying, this is what she said, and I hope I'm saying this correctly.
Health Chatter
Health and Politics
She was saying that there's a lot more coverage than we suspect, but it's based on whether or not you have the right kind of insurance. So we have these huge gaps in these various communities that are not being covered because they don't have the right kind of insurance, which then begins to become a political piece because we need to provide ways to do that.
Health Chatter
Health and Politics
So what's interesting about this particular topic is that we can go off into a thousand different ways But there's a lot of understuff. There's a lot of undercurrent with this whole issue around politics and health. And so it's kind of good to enter into this very broad section conversation.