Stan and Clarence chat with Patty Bowler - Director of Policy and Community Programs at the Minneapolis Health Department - and Kara Hirdman - Senior Public Health Specialist for Mental Well-being at the Minneapolis Health Department - about the government's interest in the mental health and well-being of its citizens. Join the conversation at healthchatterpodcast.comBrought to you in support of Hue-MAN, who is Creating Healthy Communities through Innovative Partnerships. More about their work can be found at http://huemanpartnership.org/
Hello everybody. Welcome to Health Chatter. And today's episode is on government interest in mental health and well-being. So we're going to be doing a couple of shows on mental health overall. And this is the first one that really, really kicks it off. So stay tuned. We've got two great guests with us.
As always, I'd like to introduce our great background crew that is really second to none and helps Clarence and I do these shows on a weekly basis. So we have Maddie Levine-Wolf, Aaron Collins, and Deandra Howard that do our background research for us and give us some good talking points and ideas to discuss with our guests that we bring on. Matthew Campbell,
is our production manager and makes sure all the logistics of getting the shows out as well as our website up and running. So thank you to Matthew. And then finally also Sheridan Nygaard helps with our research and our marketing. So these are great, great behind the scenes people.
And like most productions, movies, TV, whatever, you have to have good people in the background to make things really work and they really help us. Of course, there's Clarence Jones. Without Clarence, we wouldn't be able to do this. Great podcast, Health Chatter. And I greatly appreciate his collegial insights and his friendship. So thank you, Clarence. And then finally, Human Partnership is our
is our sponsor for this. It's a great community group that's involved in the community. Specifically, they started out in the African-American community and now they do just about everybody in a variety of different things. I encourage you to visit their website as well as ours. So thank you, thank you, thank you. So today, we're looking at governmental interest in mental health and well-being.
We have two great guests with us. Patty Bowler, who we've connected on a variety of different things over the years, is the Director of Policy and Community Programs at the Minneapolis Health Department. She directs and coordinates local, state, federal policy proposals in her arena, does a lot of programmatic work. endeavors. Today we'll be talking about mental health.
If I really wanted to, I could add all the different things that you've been involved with over the years, but that would take up the whole show. But thank you, thank you so much for being with us. Cara Kurdman has just started at the Minneapolis Health to Carbon a couple months ago, so thanks for being with us and being willing to be
vocal already on the subject matter, senior public health specialist for mental well-being at the city of Minneapolis, and has done some great things in the past. She was the director of healthy living at YMCA of Greater Twin Cities for a few years, and so thank you. I mean, I'm sure the perspectives and the kickoff, I'm really saying this, the kickoff as it relates to
Mental health really starts with the two of you. So thank you very much. So, all right, Clarence, I'll let you kick her off and let's get the show moving here.
All right, all right. So a couple of weeks ago, I think Mr. Scott, who's on the podcast with us, helped us to arrange a meeting with the commissioner, the new health commissioner, Commissioner Chaplin. And out of that conversation, I had a chance to meet Cara, And we started talking about the various things that were going on.
And we decided that we needed to have a more extensive conversation around this whole idea about government interest in mental health. And so I invited her to come and and she also wanted to bring on Miss Patty Bowler, who we have known, I would say, 20 years. Stan, you probably have known her longer than that, but you just said she was at the city of Minneapolis for 27 years.
We are excited about having both of you. And I know that Patty and Kara, this is a new position. And Patty, I think you were in it probably originally. And so we're going to start with you if that's okay. Yeah. Is that all right? Okay. Yes. So the health department created this new role to focus on mental well-being. Why don't you tell us a little bit about what Kara will be doing?
Yeah, thank you, Clarence. And first of all, I just want to say that we're excited to be on the podcast. So I am a big fan of Clarence and all the work that he's done over the many years and the human partnership. And certainly Stan just contributed so much to our state as a Minnesota Department of Health partner. So thank you for having us this morning. We really appreciate it.
being on this show or the podcast and talking about at least what one governmental partner can do. And that's the Minneapolis Health Department around mental well-being. And so just a little background. We've known that mental well-being in our community is a huge concern. And we, every three years we do what's called the community health assessment. And we're required to do that.
We're an accredited health department and beyond the requirement, it's just a really good thing to assess community needs every, every, you know, so often. So what we've learned over and over again is mental health and mental wellbeing is super important for us as a local public health department to get involved in and pay attention to. But here's the kicker. We haven't always had the resources.
We do provide mental health therapy through our school based clinics. And I hope to get into that a little bit later in the podcast. But what we're really focused on is what do we do from like a population health or community health perspective around mental health? And so. because of the pandemic, we were able to secure some new funding that came from the CDC.
So I think the CDC and our governmental leaders really at all levels recognized how important public health is in shoring up community health and well-being. And so we were able to get a workforce grant through the CDC. Again, it's COVID money.
And we used part of that workforce grant to hire Cara to serve in the role of somebody who could really be a point person around community mental well-being for a health department. And so that's her role. And that's huge because mental health we need to define it better. It's a huge topic area. So that's part of Cara's work. She's putting together a work plan.
And then secondly, beyond that, we wanna become a trauma-informed health department. And I know I want to talk about that in more detail later on in the podcast, but we know that we can't really serve our community who has been traumatized in so many ways unless we understand as a health department what trauma is, what the impacts are, and how it even affects our own staff.
who are reflective of the community. So Cara is also helping us become a trauma-informed health department. So those are really kind of the two parts of her job, you know, the community mental well-being piece, and then also the trauma-informed, helping us become a trauma-informed organization.
So, you know, thank you, Patty, for that. And Carl, you and I, when we were talking with the commissioner, we had this long, extensive conversation about you and about community work. And so what we want you to do is to share with our listeners a little bit about your background. And then how do you see your expertise fitting into what Patty has described?
Yeah, well, OK, so I. posed myself as a lifelong learner, which I think is very important when it pertains to trauma and mental well-being because we're constantly learning new stuff.
Growing up in a family with public service workers and addiction within my own family and my own personal understanding of trauma, that actually kicked off my interest in an undergrad in psychology, a master's in family education. I'm currently enrolled in a doctorate Educational Leadership and Learning Program. I've lived in three countries, all in the Americas.
I've worked within mental health and well-being for over 30 years, you know, in different areas with all ages. So St. Joseph's Home for Children, Alexandra House. I'm a peer support specialist. I've worked as a high school teacher in alternative high schools. As you said before, I was a director of healthy living.
at the YMCA and worked for the Y for many, many years, including creating a partnership with the Ramsey County Correctional Facility and bringing health and wellness to the women in prison during that time. I also was the health and wellness coordinator.
All right, we lost Kira. The people around me.
Okay, Kira, hold on. So Sheridan, hold on a sec. So we're losing you on your mic.
Oh, no.
That's okay. Can we go back a little bit more about your background? Because we can cut that other part out. Just start all over again.
Well, not all over again, just 10 seconds.
The last 10 seconds. Sorry. Yeah. My internet connection, it says it's, it's there, but yeah, sometimes I, my Xfinity kicks out. So the work that I've previously done, you know, within nonprofit and for-profit such as Alexandra house, um, St. Joseph's Home for Children, working with all different ages, living in a couple different countries.
As a director of healthy living at the YMCA, like I stated before, and bringing health and wellness to women in prison in a partnership, that was a phenomenal opportunity to create change, as well as working for the St. Paul Fire Department. And so,
All of those experiences really helped me understand, you know, individuals, health and wellness, trauma, informed care, and also continually learning and listening. So a big part right now of my position is I'm listening to the community, I'm listening to the department and the staff members, kind of seeing who's doing what, where I can help
bring mental health and wellness and awareness and creating and helping the department, you know, which they've already started some of that work. I'm sure Patty can discuss that, but helping them become trauma informed. So, and through all of this, I'm just really focused on right now, specifically in this first six months, really listening to what's
what's going on so that I can gauge that work.
So Patty, you kind of hit the nail on the head when you said it's really hard to even define mental health. I mean, it seems like it's such a vast array of issues overall. So you've been in the public health arena a long time. Without thinking about what might be on paper somewhere, where are you coming from as far as mental health?
What do you believe is truly the definition that can help drive programmatic initiatives going forward?
Yeah, that is the million dollar question, isn't it, Stan? I mean, I would say public health, we're very disease specific and a lot of times our funding is disease specific. So, you know, we'll focus in on diabetes and we know that so many chronic conditions, we can trace them back to mental health conditions. So it's all interconnected.
So I would say, number one, it's how do we as a public health department understand trauma? And that would be a place for us to start, I think. Minneapolis has gone through a lot with COVID and then the civil unrest. So I think we're starting with what is our understanding of trauma? And then I would also say We as a health department, one of our core values is to partner with community.
And so we really need to work with our community partners to better understand mental health. And Stan, one thing I'm... cognizant of is, you know, there's mental health treatment, like therapy, one-on-one therapy, and that is super, super important. But it's also like, what do we do in the broader community?
And so we recently provided funding to 14 community-based organizations for them to provide mental well-being supports to in the community. And that could be things like healing circles. We worked with Black Family Blueprint just recently, and they did a series of healing circles with African American mothers in the community.
We're working, I don't know if you're familiar with the Minnesota Peacebuilding Leadership Institute, but they are working with community or neighborhood organizations such as the Central Neighborhood Association and the neighborhood around George Floyd Square to really understand trauma and what the impacts are. of trauma have been.
So part of Cara's work is to put together a work plan on behalf of our health department to kind of figure out, you know, how do we do a little bit more laser focus on community mental well-being. I mean, it's so vast. It's like chronic disease prevention. It's suicide prevention. It's trauma. It's a billion things.
And so just the other point that I want to, based on what the work that I do as somebody who works on policy, Beyond kind of the programmatic approach, are there policy things that we can do in Minneapolis to improve mental well-being? And I can't tell you exactly what that is because we're on that journey. But I see Clarence has his hand raised.
I do. I want to thank you for that. Cara, what does the first six months look like for you?
Lots of things.
You've been around for three months now, right? This is the third month. You only have three more to go. Come on. So let's talk about the six months. What does it look like for you?
I'm still meeting people and hearing what they're doing. So I'm kind of taking this huge puzzle and piecing it together so I understand who's doing what, what their focus is on. And it's really fascinating. you know, school-based clinics and seeing all the work that they're doing and then the research that's being done within our own department.
So it's a lot of meeting individuals, trying to understand what they're already doing and then where are the gaps and then understanding that. But yeah, it's a lot of listening and also meeting with Patty and Commissioner to kind of see their direction and where their goals are as well for the actual department staff. And then taking that work that we do with in-house out to the community.
And Patty, what about for you? this, this, I know new, new people, what was the first six months look like for you?
Yeah. I would echo what Cara said. Um, so, uh, we haven't really talked about our internal trauma informed work much, but, um, Cara is going to be she is leading a leadership team. So one of the seven steps of becoming a trauma informed organization is to pull together champions in the department. And they aren't necessarily like in leadership positions. It's it's all across the department.
So we have an administrative support people involved. We've got some program staff. We've got some finance staff. We have some leadership. but it's to really work with that leadership team. We've been on this journey since 2019, but you know, like 2020 happened and Stan knows this.
I mean, you're just the pandemic and everybody knows this, but if you're in public health, the pandemic, we just had to stop everything and focus on the pandemic. And one thing I will really say, I'm sorry, I'm deviating from your question, Clarence, but we, mental wellbeing was such a huge thing during the pandemic. And we as a health department were We felt inadequate to address it.
I just have to say that. And so we're grateful now that CDC and others have recognized that they need to fund public health more robustly in order for us to do this work. But so, yes.
Oh, go ahead. No, I know that Hugh Mann did a survey in the community with the Harthorn neighborhood, and we did like 500 surveys. And what we found out during this period of time, because we were concerned about the COVID plus the George Floyd and the public unrest, those kinds of things.
And one of the things that we found out was that the community was really struggling when it comes to relationships and sleeping. which I am, you know, which these are mental health kinds of things that are impacting our community.
And so I'm really glad to see that the, you know, to see the city of Minneapolis, as well as other organizations, governmental organizations, stepping in to try to address these issues. Because as you just said, these are major, major issues. And, you know, I will say this one thing, too, is that after, even now, I am trying to find out who my allies are.
I mean, the people and who are my partners now? I've got to establish new relationships with people because things have changed so radically.
So I've got a couple of perspectives here that I'd really like some insights from our guests here. Okay. So in the past, in some of the shows that we've done, we've focused on a variety of different illnesses. Okay. And We kind of divide it up into the three arenas, prevention, acute treatment, and disease management. Okay, so...
Based on where you're headed in the city of Minneapolis, and then I also want to talk about how we might compare to other places in the country. But for right now in Minneapolis, are your initiatives focused on which of those arenas? Prevention more? I would assume not acute treatment because that's not in the public health domain, but disease management could be.
So what's your perspectives on that?
Yeah, so thanks for that question. Well, clearly prevention. I mean, that's what public health is all about. But I will say, so we run a network of eight school-based clinics in eight high school settings, and we offer therapy to our students. And when I first started a long time ago, school, our school based clinics, by the way, have been operational for 40 years.
And, you know, we're one of the leaders in the country around school based health care. But but when those clinics first started, they were really focused on medical care, physical care, reproductive health care. Over time, we've really realized that mental health is a huge concern. So we're focusing in our school-based clinics.
We do provide the medical care, but a big part of our portfolio of services is around mental health. So Stan, we are doing that because that's one of our direct services that we're providing. And I have to give a shout out to the mayor and the city council because
They provided some funding through ARPA dollars to help fund some therapists of color in our clinics and also through the through the general fund through property tax dollars to help us fund therapy. What we were finding is like November would roll around and our therapists would be full. And so we had to turn kids away, which is heartbreaking.
So we were able to get some resources through our city leadership in order to provide that one-on-one therapy through our school-based clinics. So I just wanted to mention that, but yes, clearly we're also in the realm of prevention and that's somewhat new work for us. I also want to say that we're embarking on a new community health assessment.
That's that every three year process where we try to understand community needs and our evaluation and research staff that are working with Hennepin County and the city of Bloomington to do this Hennepin County wide assessment. I know that mental well, they really want to dig into mental wellbeing and they want to focus on connectedness because we know that that's one of the factors.
That's one of the assets that communities members can use to address mental wellbeing. So does that answer your question?
Yeah. So let me, so, all right. So, you know, for our listeners, cause we have listeners around the country. So, This is Minneapolis. Okay. All right. So now, you know, Patty, certainly you've got colleagues, you know, around the country. How is it, is this, are the problems that you're, that you and Cara are identifying here, is this nationwide? And that's number one.
And then number two, are other cities, let's just say cities for right now, addressing these mental health issues in a similar way that you two are in Minneapolis, or are we really on the creative edge of things?
Yeah. I, yeah. You know, we like to be on the creative edge.
Right. Of course.
Regarding this work, I think we're, we're doing some catch up because we're a midsize city, but yet we, we want to play in the sandbox with the big cities and we're part of the big cities health coalition. And so when we first actually during the pandemic we, we really wanted to better understand what's happening across the country with what health departments are doing around mental health.
And so I initiated phone calls and interviews with four health departments. And big health departments learned that they were much bigger than we were. We've got like 150 employees. Some of those folks are seasonal techs, so they're not permanent employees. I was talking to New York City, Chicago, Seattle, King County. They have, honestly, thousands of employees.
Um, so they have, their capacity is much greater than ours, but, um, certainly mental health is, it's a huge issue for everybody in every community. However, because we're Minneapolis and we had the civil and the murder of George Floyd, um, the civil unrest, I think that has really, um, we're struggling, uh, even more so. Um, and, uh, so.
what we learned from other health departments is that, you know, they're doing the work, they've got more resources, but we are also trying to kind of emulate some of the cool things that they're doing. And one thing we heard is that they're becoming trauma-informed organizations and they're also helping their community partners with that work.
So I think it's Chicago has quite a model to like create cohorts with community partners and we want to get there as well.
Yeah, Claire. Yeah, yeah. So, Patty, I appreciate that. So, you know, I come at this from a community perspective. What can the community do? I mean, obviously, the communities have identified this as an important issue. What can the community do to help to assist in this process?
Yeah. Thank you. So I think it's, you know, helping us get data, participate in the community health assessment that we're doing. That would be, I think, really important. Letting us know that you're interested in partnering with us or, you know, we can reach out. But as I mentioned, we did fund 14 organizations to do mental wellbeing work. And we're gonna be issuing another RFP in September.
And we'd love to partner with more organizations. We're a heavily grant funded health department. So we have to like, you know, get more resources in order to get the resources out to the community. But we know the community knows the most about what's happening. And so, yes, I think partnering with government is really, really important.
So Cara.
Yeah, I was going to ask Cara too.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Same question for you. is that I know that you have some extensive background in the YMCA, St. Paul, you've done a lot of stuff. What's your thinking about the community and its work with you all in terms of this whole issue?
I think, as Patty said, just creating more partnerships. I have a lot of individuals that I already know that are doing the work and reminding them to to become part of this. And the thing is, is when it comes to trauma and mental health and wellness, like if you're not aware of what's going on, you can't make a change.
And so through all the work, you know, it's, it's really important to, for us to bring education to the community and the community to also give us education on what's going on with them. And so it is a, it's, it's a, And I need to be in the community and showing face just as, as the commissioner has asked me to do.
And he also wants to, you know, be more engaged within the community, which I think is awesome. Um, because we can't just guess what's going on. Right. So like, like you had said in the, in, in one of your, uh, previous questions, uh, with the commissioner and what we've talked about as loneliness is huge. It's a huge issue.
And if people don't let us know what's happening, you know, and us being more aware of what's really happening, I'm so glad that you guys did that survey because I think that's really important to get that kind of information so we have a really solid understanding of what's happening. And as things change, just continue that work. You know, it's always, it's a lifelong process.
And I hope to have lifelong relationships being built within the community and, you know, the department, because that's how you're going to create the best and most positive changes.
So, you know, again, for our listening audience, you know, when you deal with mental health, you can deal with, it could be acute. There could be acute mental health issues. There could be, as we all know, chronic mental health issues. It can be at the individual level for any of us. It could be on the community level. I personally think, Clarence, you could probably react to this for sure.
When the George Floyd incident took place, I believe that had a profound impact on the community mental health. As just all of us, we were affected by this. So I think we almost have to put things in certain compartments as we deal with mental health. So just so everybody gets a little bit of an idea here, our great research crew did some interesting background on this. Listen to this.
This is really kind of upsetting. from February 1st to the 13th of 2023. So that was just a couple of months ago. 28.3% of adults in Minnesota reported symptoms of anxiety or depressive disorder. Wow, okay. Compared to 32% in the United States overall. So I think both of those figures are astounding.
In 2021, just a couple of years ago, 20.1% of adolescents, that's 12 to 17 years old, and 8.3% of adults in the United States reporting having a major depressive episode in the past year. Okay, why that happens could be based on certain things that happened. or it can be anything that's happening health-wise or medically for you, a person individually, et cetera.
Then of course, Patty, you mentioned the pandemic. And then we have these true things that affect us all suddenly. And that has the suddenness of certain things has a profound impact or can have a profound impact on mental health overall. So, all right. So now going forward, think about, you know, how do we put things into certain compartments so that people understand?
So like, Patty, when you're dealing with this, the city of Minneapolis, over the years, it's like, how is it that you get the public to understand what's available to them for mental health assistance? I mean, it's just like, how do we communicate this?
Yeah, that's a really good, I mean, again, that's a huge question, Stan, I think. So I just wanted to say the data that you provided, I think that's right on. It's what one in five of us will experience a mental health crisis or whatever incident in our lives. I mean, it's so, so common. And I think normalizing
mental health and mental well-being and reducing stigma I mean you've heard that probably from many other people but I think that is is a really important first step and so we this is just one little thing but we tried to draw attention to May is mental health awareness month so we tried to draw attention to mental health through a series of activities that we
spearheaded or kind of tried to pull under a broader umbrella to draw attention to mental health in Minneapolis. And I know that many others did that as well across the country, but that's just one slice of something that we've been able to do. I'm really hoping though with Cara her new role that she'll help to strengthen whatever we're doing as a health department around mental well-being.
Because in the past, you know, it's been kind of like a piece of somebody's job in the health department, but now we have somebody who can really focus on it. And so Cara's connecting with others, certainly others in the Minnesota Department of Health, community partners, NAMI, the National Alliance of Mental Illness. We're so fortunate in Minnesota to have such a strong chapter.
So we're really trying to figure out what role does the Minneapolis Health Department play. We are partners in a planning grant that Hennepin County just received. I think it was funded by the state around suicide prevention. So you know, there's, there's a lot of work to do. And we'll have, have us back in like a year.
Well, we probably will. Although maybe we won't have to, maybe we will have solved the problem.
Oh my gosh. Doubtful.
Wouldn't that be nice?
Yeah.
Go ahead, Clarence. You're on mute. You're on mute.
You know, I kind of alluded to this a little bit earlier, but the whole issue around the mental health is also driving the substance abuse issue in the city. And I know that we're working with the city health department and Suzanne Young on this issue. Talk about that connection, you know, between Patty Alcara
I'm going to, yeah, I think that's really key, but I'm going to punt that one over to Cara because she's been involved a lot in recovery.
Yeah, I am obviously coming from a family that has addiction within it and growing up within it and seeing it, how it affects individuals and children and family and communities. You know, it's a big deal. And the opioid crisis is huge. And as you know, that's one of the top three things
that Commissioner Chaplin is really interested in, in working on, I think, again, you know, the, in the homelessness, which it's, it's, it's like a big bowl of spaghetti, you know, it all kind of intertwines with trauma, creating addictions and, and then also homelessness and, and again, coming back to the relationships and the community and, And how do we support each other?
I just think it's really important. I'm a peer support specialist and I've worked with individuals as, you know, I'm not in recovery myself, but with individuals from recovery. And again, the biggest thing is a support system and resources, right? You have to give people resources and the ability to find help and be able to stick with that.
And that's one thing that we also want to really work on is creating those resources for the community. And that has started, it's on the website. But again, for those individuals that may not have a computer at home or a phone, figuring out ways in which to bring that information to the community. And for those that speak other languages, again, very important to do that so that they have access
to that information and those resources.
Thank you. So let me ask this. Maybe there's a silver lining with COVID because, okay, as severe as that pandemic was, it also heightened our awareness about certain things like mental health issues was brought really to the forefront it's kind of like knocking everybody in the head a little bit.
It's like, hello, unfortunately we have COVID, but now you get an idea of how severe some of these mental health issues are in our community. I'm hoping that that we don't have to face that again. We don't have to have something major in order to knock us in the head a little bit in order to make an impact on mental health issues. So, all right, mental health.
All right, you guys are professionals. You've been in this arena a long time. Patty, you alluded to these school-based clinics. I'm guessing that in that arena, you have referral mechanisms in place, okay? Like whoever that student or whoever is talking to, if they have a problem, boom, we can refer you to a professional that can really help you to the next level.
Is that part of the game going forward?
Oh, for sure. And so, Stan, we're embedded within one of the Minneapolis public school high schools. And so we work a lot with school social workers and other school staff. So just so you know that we try to work as a team within the high school setting. So That is super important for us to do and to obviously our therapists are seasoned and they know about the various resources.
And just another component of this, Stan, is the social determinants of health. So that's a big driver of why people are struggling with mental health. So as public health, and it's not easy, but what do we do about homelessness or lack of housing? Cara mentioned the big bowl of spaghetti, you know, that it's trauma drives homelessness. substance abuse.
Substance abuse can drive more homelessness. And so really understanding how the social determinants of health impact mental well-being is key. And how do we as health departments, which we're not always funded to work on social determinants of health, how do we do that work? I would say the COVID pandemic, it did have its silver lining.
and we beyond mental health you know it it catapulted us into as a health department working on food insecurity so we were able to direct food insecurity resources to some of our community partners i wish we had more funding for that but we try to work within our own structure our own city structure to really figure out how do we address housing how do we address unemployment?
How do we address education? So it's just another component of the mental health work.
So Cara, you mentioned spaghetti, and you know, and Patty, you're adding to the spaghetti. Okay, there's so many... things that are interwoven in this. All right, I'm going to ask Cara Hardwell. You've been involved in this. You've had some good history professionally with this. If you were to pull out one noodle out of that bowl of spaghetti,
besides one that you've already mentioned, which is you got to, we have to listen to, you know, people. All right. So let's assume that we've done that, but based on your experience, what noodle would you pull out first in order for us to really start the ball rolling here?
Whoa. Well, I do think a lot of trauma stems from childhood through all the, all the research and ACEs is acute childhood experiences are extremely important to pay attention to. I do. I don't think that here in Minnesota, in the city, in the U S in the entire world, we don't take care of our kids enough. And I don't think we pay attention to them enough.
I did a school visit and, and, you know, seeing what the kids are going through. hearing the stories, knowing what they go home to every day, right? And things that happen in our childhood affect us through our whole lives if we're not aware of it and we don't work and deal with it. All the women I met in prison, I'm telling you, they're wonderful people.
They just have gone through some horrendous experiences. A lot of them as children, some of them as adults, right? But if you can't, understand and become aware of what's going on, you're going to continue that cycle, right? Continue the cycle.
So, you know, it's interesting from a prevention standpoint, Patty, you're certainly aware of this too. It's like start young, right? You know, give, give, give information to young people. The problem is, you know, young people, generally speaking, have that illusion of immortality. It's not going to bother me or I don't own that issue or, or what have you.
But the more that we're willing to work with younger people, I think you've hit on something. That might be a starting point. I mean, instead of making the bowl of spaghetti even bigger, maybe what we should do is hone in on something and get started somewhere, okay? So, all right.
Can I mention one quick thing?
Yeah, go ahead.
I know we're wrapping up, but so public health, we provide family home visiting. This is for pregnant and parenting families. And that is such a huge intervention because we're really helping. We're addressing health concerns, but we're also addressing parenting concerns. And again, if you can intervene early,
that is so, so important and can potentially help ameliorate some of the ACEs that Cara has been talking about.
Yeah. Yeah. No, I agree. I really agree. All right. So. you know, we reserve the right to, to bring you guys back. You know, Patty said a year, I'm going to make it even less than that because I'm hoping that, you know, we can really take those pieces of those strands of spaghetti and start addressing them. It's a great visual. I could, you know, it really is.
When you think about it, it's like, Oh my God, where do we, where, where do we really start with this? So I, I really applaud your efforts. I think that, um, at some point, you can ask the question, why should government be involved? okay, in this type of thing. Well, I got a good answer for that, but that's another topic altogether. But some people would say, why is government involved in this?
Why isn't it just a person with their healthcare providers, for instance, okay? So, I mean, these are things, as far as communication is concerned, that I think are important. And hopefully, through venues like this, Health Chatter, we can start getting those conversations out there And hopefully they'll be beneficial for the communities. So, all right.
So just for our listening audience, just so you know, we've got shows coming up on mental health, just mental health. Clarence and I realized that this is a big issue, big bowl of spaghetti, and we've got a lot of things to talk about. So we're going to have three other shows. It's like, where do we stand? in mental health altogether. It's like, okay, where, what's, what's the situation overall?
All right. Um, mental health, clinical aspects, like by population, by age, by geography, by whatever, but we'll be another show. And then we're also looking at, um, all right, if all of these things are still with us, what policy implications, what kind of help do we need in order to make these successful and we can address them appropriately?
So we're going to have three more shows and hopefully then, you know, we'll also be able to pull Cara and Patty back in the fold and we can have even more discussions on where things are going with your work. So it's been really great. Last comments, Cara, any... Any last words of wisdom?
You know, for those people that are listening and the community members and, you know, there's so many struggles in life, but I think helping people see the positive things within themselves and having optimism that even though things are really hard, we are trying really as well to help
It may not be perfect, but like in my job, I'm just going to learn continually, but I want to be there and be present for community as well as the department. And so I want to be a resource for people. And I hope that the community feels that way because I think it's extremely important. If you don't have your health, in my opinion, you don't really have much. So.
My dad would have said the exact same thing. Patty, last comment.
Yeah, thank you for having us on. And I echo Cara's remarks. I would just say that organizations like the Minneapolis Health Department, we have to make sure that we're a healthy organization internally and that we've got our house in order regarding understanding trauma in order to also be good community partners.
And I would also encourage community partners and other units of government to think about that as well.
Yeah, I totally, totally agree. So for our listening audience, as you can see, we have a lot to chat about as it relates to mental issues, mental health issues at the individual level, at the family level, at the community level. And we'll keep chatting away and hopefully you will too. So for all of us, Keep in mind that we have great shows coming up.
Actually, our next show is with Senator John Marty from Minnesota. So he's going to be talking about some overall health policies, but we'll ask him about mental health as well. So stay tuned for that show. So in the meantime, everybody keep health chatting away.
Hi, everyone. It's Matthew from Behind the Scenes. And I wanted to let everyone know that we have a new website up and running, HelpChatterPodcast.com. You can go on there. You can interact with us. You can communicate with us, send us a message. You can comment on each episode. You can rate us.
And it's just another way for everyone to communicate with Stan and Clarence and all of us at the Help Chatter team. So definitely check it out. Again, that's HelpChatterPodcast.com.