City Commission - Regular Meeting

It is always a pleasure to introduce my next guest, the executive director of the St. Clair County Community Mental Health, Debra Johnson. Nice to see you.

Always good to see you.

You look good. You look relaxed.

I am.

Like you have no worries.

I have a few, but... Don't we all? Don't we all? Don't we all? Yeah, we all do.

This is the month of June, and you've got two or three things that are happening. The first one is Teen Advisory Group Applications Extended. What's that all about?

First of all, you might recall we talked about, we established a teen advisory group just over a year ago, and our intention was we're trying to figure out a better way to get our mental health messages, resources, information, all those things to teenagers. And so we thought we need teenagers to help us, to tell us what is an effective way to reach them. That's right. And so we put it out there and we asked for applications from all the high schools. And we received students from almost every high school in the county.

Wow.

And several from a few of the high schools. And even, you know, the president of the Community Foundation's Youth Advisory Council, his name is Josh. I saw him at a Child Abuse Neglect Council event and he said, could I be on that tag? And I said, we would love for you to be on the teen advisory group. And so he is on there, too. And he's just been phenomenal. But everybody, all the kids have been phenomenal on that. And the things they've accomplished in their first year as a group has far exceeded our expectations. You've heard me do the mental health minutes on the Well, they're doing some of them now, too. So when you hear other voices, it's the teens doing them. And they're doing a fabulous job. I think they're better than I am at it. So they can keep doing that. But they also have asked their schools if they can have those be read during morning announcements in their schools. Oh, good.

Okay.

and other mental health messaging. The other thing that we started through a partnership with the Athletic Factory, which is run primarily by Cliff Thomason, he started that, is a teen mental health podcast. And so the teens, different teens take turns being on there talking about different topics, maybe stress related to exams, the stress of being a senior, deciding what you're gonna do next. the stress when you're doing way too much, like sports and band and academics and all those kinds of things, and just relationship issues, different things like that. And that, I don't know if they've aired the first podcast yet, but I know they've filmed at least two. But they're fantastic. They are doing just a phenomenal job. So I do feel like we're getting our messaging back and

Teen advisory group. That's great. I know that the schools, the East China schools have a teen advisory group from students from the different schools in the district. And this is something similar, but much more important.

But it's countywide. And so actually, we actually desperately need a student from Marine City High School to apply and Algonac High School. We don't have anybody that has applied from those two schools. We have one applicant from St. Clair High School.

What is the requirement for the student? Are they freshman or sophomore?

No, it doesn't matter. They can be freshman, sophomore, junior, senior. It doesn't matter. And Josh, the kid I was talking about, he's from Yale, and he's a senior. He's going off to college. But he asked if he could still participate remotely. and so I think he's going to Central Michigan and I said I think that's fantastic if he wants to do that because also he might be a person to make sure things are happening at Central Michigan like I know that they have counselors at colleges and things like that but maybe he can you know give suggestions there about how to make sure there's an increased amount of awareness about mental health but one of the best things is I think is helping to break down stigma because they talk about like yeah i mean if you if you're feeling depressed or anxious or whatever you need to talk to somebody there's things that you can do um just like if you have a super sore throat yeah you need to do something about it right um and so so i think it's going to be really good so they are definitely have been great advocates um how often do they meet monthly monthly okay at your campus Primarily. They have also met at the Athletic Factory. At one point they talked about moving the meeting around the county, but the bulk of the people, the closest location would be Port Huron, except for the very outlying, so they're talking about that.

Well, you've got St. Clair, Marine City, Algonac, Cape Act, Cardinal Mooney, New Christian Life Academy, and Landmark, so there's a whole bunch of schools that are participating.

Well, those are the ones you said we're encouraging applications from, because we've gotten very limited in the past, or none. And so we have Port Heron High School, Port Heron Northern, Marysville, Yale, Memphis, I'm trying to think of other ones. So we have a lot of schools. They're not in our county, I don't think. But the rest. So yeah. So anyway, so again, any students who live in St. Clair County, they might attend school elsewhere, privately, virtually, or even homeschooled. They would be eligible.

All right, this month has got a couple of celebrations. One is Pride Month and the other one is Mental Health Month.

Men's Health Month.

Let's talk about June is Pride Month.

June is Pride Month and that is an important month to talk about because it's to raise awareness about people that are within the LGBTQ plus community. We know for a fact that people within that community have higher incidence of mental health issues. higher incidence of attempted suicide and higher rates of completed suicides. So we really need to make sure that we reach out to make sure that they know, A, that Sankirk County Community Mental Health is an ally. They would be safe with us, come to us for treatment services, et cetera. And just, we really need to make sure that they know that we're available, I guess. And so it's important for us to reach out to any segment of our community that may have been marginalized in the past or it's harder to reach them or whatever. And so so we've been working closely with the Blue Water Ally Center. It's important here on Barbara Payton as the director of that. And they they have a big pride event I should know the date of it, but I'm not positive. Is it in my notes? I don't know.

No, I don't see it.

Okay, well, if you look at the Blue Water Ally Facebook page, you'll find the date. It's downtown Port Huron. And for those of you that may not know, Barb Payton, you know what she did before, right?

Yep.

Backup singer to Bob Seger. Yeah. So she sings a little bit at this, too.

Oh, wonderful.

Yeah, so it's pretty cool. So anyways, so we want to be inclusive for all people, all populations. And so the biggest thing is to make sure that people within any of these communities, and really any people, we need to be inclusive, we need to be respectful, we need to treat people with kindness, not be judgmental, all those kinds of things.

Okay. And it's also Men's Health Month.

And so Men's Health Month is also important. We raise awareness about that because, and you being a man may identify with this, that sometimes men think they have to be like, oh, macho. And so maybe you're feeling super anxious or depressed, but you're not going to tell anybody because maybe that makes you weak.

Right.

And it doesn't make you weak. That's a legitimate thing. And you would go get some, we hope, seek services, seek support. And because men, everybody needs, I love this one guy that I met where he once said, he said to me, he was getting therapy for a little bit, but then he's been fine. And he's a very successful community business person. And he said, I still go maybe once a year or whatever, just a little tune-up, just in case. Just like you go for an annual physical. So if you had a relationship with a therapist, you might want to do something like that just to check in.

Well, you always have said that mental health is like an illness with a broken leg or a broken arm. And you go to a doctor and you get it fixed.

Right. And so that's what we just try to say, that if you're going to be supportive to somebody who has heart issues or cancer or whatever kind of disease they might have, physical, then you should provide the same level of support to a person who has a mental health issue. Schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, severe depression, anxiety, all those things. People need support every bit as much as when somebody is diagnosed with a physical health issue, a serious one.

Different pathways to recovery. Talk to me about that.

Well, we talk about recovery because recovery is different for everybody. It's not like a one size fits all. And recovery, when I say I hope that you can live your life in recovery, it's whatever that means to you. And so for you, it might mean um it might mean that you want to live more independently in the community and you want to maybe maybe you'll always need some level of supports because people for example with intellectual developmental disabilities they're not that doesn't go away right but they but people can live more integrated into our community more and be more we can be more inclusive and accepting. And maybe they need daily support, but it's the life they want to live, and we're helping support them to do that. So we call that living their life in recovery. So same for people with mental illness, substance use disorder. In the past, recovery was always associated with that, like alcoholism, drug addiction, et cetera. But it's for anything. And actually, it's recovery from physical, too. But yeah, we talked about it's not one size fits all. It looks different for everybody. And we have a lot of different things that we can provide, different ways to provide support. We have, besides individual therapy, groups, classes, peer supports, all those kinds of things. And so yeah, so we are... hoping to help people get into recovery. And back in the old days, and I mean the old days like when I was in college, they didn't talk about people recovering. Like, oh, they have bipolar disorder. That's a rough one. Not much you can do. Well, there's a lot you can do. There's medication, there's treatment, there's all those things. My grandma actually had, I would say, pretty severe bipolar disorder. But when I was growing up, I knew sometimes she was depressed and in bed for weeks on end. Sometimes she had to go to the hospital. Sometimes she was kind of high strung, which is like the manic side of that. But then when she was well, and you met her, you never would have guessed anything. You'd be, wow, yeah, she's awesome. She's fun. She was a fun grandma. She used to shepherd my field trips sometimes. And back then, that was in the 60s, when go-go boots were in style and stuff like that, and she had a little red wagon, a car. People thought I had a super cool grandma. I thought so, too. But anyways, that's the life people can have, especially in her case. She was so lucky because she had family support. My grandpa was fantastic. And she had ups and downs her whole life. My mother's mother, fantastic, and all of her kids. But anyways, so my point of that story is it can happen to anybody, any level of socioeconomic backgrounds, any of that stuff. And so it's important that we support people. The biggest thing communities can do is make sure people feel connected. And again, I talked about this already, but that you're welcoming, that you're respectful, that you're not judgmental, that you don't say, I'm like, ugh, what's wrong with you? And why do you look like that? Or why are you acting like that? And those kinds of things. And just know that small acts of kindness and compassion can make all the difference for people.

How do people get a hold of you and get some of these wonderful sources?

Well, they can call our new access line at 810-488-8888, or they can, if they're in crisis, we encourage them to call 810-966-2575. That number is answered 24-7 by one of our staff. If they need to come out to assess the situation, they will do that any time, day or night, any day of the week.

That's good service.

Yeah, and even if you're not sure, if it's a crisis and you're like, Oh, I don't know if I should call or not. Just call. It's just a phone call. Our staff, they're being paid. They'll answer the phone. And then you can say, this is what's going on. I'm not sure. And the staff might say, well, based on what you're saying, it sounds like, are you comfortable waiting until tomorrow to take care of business? And here's what you can do or here's where you can go. Or if they're not.

We'll be there.

We'll be there. So, yeah. Cool. I don't know if you saw the Kiel article, but we have a fantastic mobile crisis van. It has like the capacity has like a computer in it. So if we need to do like a televisit with a psychiatrist or anything like that, we can do that. So the whole computer thing's set up in there. But it's a big size vehicle. So there's like comfortable seating in there. Because before we just had like a regular little van and maybe it's hard to get the person in there. It's also wheelchair accessible. So sometimes the problem is happening in the house. So we can't see them in the house. We need the person to come out. And so what if it's raining, snowing, whatever, inclement weather? We got the vehicle. Or privacy.

And I get that through 810-966-2575. Simple number. That's the 24-7 crisis support. Or just your normal services, 810-488-8888.

Right. Can I mention a couple more things?

You can mention whatever you want, dear.

Okay. I just do want to say about, oh, also about back to CMH. Follow us on Facebook. Check out our website. A lot of resources are out there. Any questions, give us a call. But I just want to mention the St. Clair County Child Abuse and Neglect Council. Yes. has the Tee Off for Kids Sake outing, golf outing, coming up July 20th. It will be at the St. Clair Golf Club. We have a 8 o'clock in the morning flight and then a 1.30 in the afternoon flight. And the information, you can find it on, probably on my personal Facebook, if you're friends with me, but you can also find it on the St. Clair County Child Abuse and Neglect Council's Facebook or website. Registration is open.

That's always a huge event.

It is. It's a big event.

Big fundraiser.

We have a silent auction, and it's just a lot of fun. So hopefully people come out for that. And then we also, just to save the date on the Dementia Alzheimer's Association of St. Clair County, our big walk, it's the 10th annual, and it'll be September 26th. So if you're a walker, runner, or just a supporter of Alzheimer's and dementia, we hope to see you there.

Okay, very good. Deborah, thank you so much for bringing us up to date on all the latest information.

You're welcome.

Always a pleasure.

Thank you. Always a pleasure for me, too. Okay, very good.

That's about it for this edition of the Focus Program. Thanks very much for tuning in. Until next time, I'm Paul Dingaman. See you soon.

Thanks for watching Focus with Paul Dingaman. Focus is produced at the CTV Community Television Studios in St. Clair. For over 20 years, CTV has captured the moments that matter to our community.

The preceding program was produced by CTV Community Television. CTV Community Television is supported by the cities of Marine City and St. Clair, East China Township, Cotterville Township, and the East China School District.