Author: MikeM

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Sharing – America Needs a National Institute of Healthcare Education
ByMikeM June 29, 2022June 29, 2022 Reading Time: 1 minute

Dr. Smith calls for the creation of a new institute to educate not only new mental health professionals but also to make sure that primary care practitioners are trained to offer some mental health support to patients since right now that seems to be where most people who are in need of mental health care wind up.

I haven’t fully considered all of the possibilities with this particular idea, but I will agree that it’s going to take something at this kind of national level to start to address the need.

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In the News | Links

Sharing – Patrice Evra: Ex-Manchester United star wants to end violence against children and details his own experience of sexual abuse
ByMikeM June 27, 2022June 27, 2022 Reading Time: 2 minutes

How many times have we heard “why did you wait so long to speak out?” Have we considered what we’ve done to make survivors feel safe to do so? Have we considered what our friend or family group would need to look like in order for a survivor to feel safe opening up about their experiences?

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Weekly Links

Shared Links (weekly) June 26, 2022
ByMikeM June 26, 2022June 25, 2022 Reading Time: 1 minute
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Sharing – What Do I Do When Mental Health Coping Strategies Don’t Work?
ByMikeM June 22, 2022June 22, 2022 Reading Time: 1 minute

Sometimes our coping strategies need to adjust to these new realities. That doesn’t mean you are failing, it means you need to adapt. It’s no different than what I often encounter at work, where the technology we work with and assist clients with changes and evolves, and we need to change and evolve with it. What we did yesterday isn’t going to work in today’s reality.

The same is true for our mental health toolkit. We need to keep evolving with it to adapt to changes.

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Sharing – The Key Differences Between Social and Emotional Loneliness
ByMikeM June 21, 2022June 21, 2022 Reading Time: 2 minutes

I think it’s important that we understand our need for both. As science keeps telling us, we are social creatures. Even introverts like me need some sort of social activity and friends. We also need those intimate relationships where we can hit those emotional connections. Romantic relationships are an obvious example here, but other relationships can also be our emotional connection.

The lack of one of these will feel like loneliness, but the “fix” will be different. If I’m well-connected to my wife but missing out on the variety of social connections that a larger friend group might provide, that’s where my focus should be, and it might show up differently. The lack of an emotional connection would also look different and brings with it a different set of risks.

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Sharing – Talking to Others About My Mental Health
ByMikeM June 20, 2022June 20, 2022 Reading Time: 2 minutes

I do understand this. I don’t make a habit of talking about my mental health when I get to spend time with friends, even though many of them read this blog and know about my history. Mostly, that’s because we’ve bonded for years over other things like work, shared interests, music, etc. Talking about mental health just hasn’t been what we’ve done in the past when we’re together and it’s comfortable to simply slide right back into those same roles when we are together.

There’s nothing wrong with that. Talking about mental health doesn’t have to occur each and every time we communicate with friends. We all get to have fun nights out without having that deep of a conversation. But, talking about it some of the time lets everyone in the group know that, when they need it, they can talk about it.

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