Mental Health

  • Sharing – ‘Investing’ in mental health is doomed to fail because humans aren’t stocks

    Again, I get that this sounds ridiculous to talk about an individual’s mental health in terms of what they offer in terms of productivity, and not in terms of them just being a human being and having value.

    It sounds ridiculous because it is ridiculous. But, it is also the language of business. Look, your employer only started offering things like flu shots and health screenings because sick employees don’t get much work done, and cost more in insurance premiums, not because the company suddenly started caring about having healthy employees. That’s the reality.

    It would be nice if employers did these things, and wanted to also invest in mental health resources, just because it’s the best thing for all of us as individuals and as a society, and likely some employers do. Others won’t get involved until it benefits them.

    So, we speak to them in the language they understand. Because we need the money, the “investment”, now. We can’t wait for the whole world to agree that they need to do it because it’s the right thing to do.

    Too many people will go without while we wait for the perfect solution. We have to take the imperfect for now.

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    Shared Links (weekly) Oct 25, 2020

    A Call For Greater Investment In Workplace Mental Health: Leaders From Facebook, YouTube, Best Buy, Verizon Media And More Weigh In

    ‘Mental health can affect everyone’

    Self-Compassion As A Life Skill

    The Best Psychology Podcasts of 2020

    How to Stop Obsessing Over Your Mistakes

    Eradicating the roots of childhood trauma

    Photography as Therapy: How To Keep Your Mind Positively Occupied

    Mom Who Lost Daughter Now a Mental Health Advocate

  • Sharing – National Well-Being Before and During the Pandemic

    When I compare my personal experience to the overall statistics, again I can see where it is also kind of all over the place, because it’s individual. In some ways, I’m doing pretty well, in others, not so much. None of us are exactly the same, or living with the same circumstances. So as global as this pandemic is, the effects have been incredibly diverse. That person you are working with on a Zoom call, the medical professional, the person taking your to-go order, that teacher your kid is learning from, or even those kids and their parents are all dealing with any multitude of impacts that we know nothing about, and probably never will. The one thing we do know, is that they are being impacted. 

    We would do well, as a society to take advantage of this very obvious opportunity to learn that we are all impacted in different way by events, and to take the time to listen to how someone who isn’t like us, is impacted. This is a great time to understand the large scale of the world and all of the different experiences within it. Maybe we could at least settle for understanding that our own individual situations, are not representative of everyone. Not even close, in fact. 

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    Shared Links (weekly) Oct. 18, 2020

    When mental health emergencies end in fatal police encounters

    How You Can Use Mindfulness to Guide Neuroplasticity to Improve Brain and Mental Health

    How to Help a Suicidal Friend

    Crisis Services & People of Color — We Can Do Better: Interview with Vic Armstrong

    These apps make mental health easier for people in the margins

    What We Know About LGBTQ Youth Mental Health and Suicide Prevention

    Why hope is essential, not a luxury

    Budget-Friendly Ways To Get Support For Your Mental Health

  • Would you Rather Talk Mental Health with a Bot?

    I’m glad so many people are open to having a robot therapist, because as we have discussed many times, we don’t have nearly enough therapists to treat everyone who needs it, and you can’t just create more trained therapists very quickly. With good enough artificial intelligence programming, we CAN spin up more trained chat robots to meet the need. Is the programming good enough today? I don’t know. I’m guessing there is still some work to do, but at what point is it better than what we have now for so many people, which is nothing?

  • U.K. World Mental Health Day Rundown

    Top stories from the U.K. for World Mental Health Day. You may find more by searching Google News. https://www.inyourarea.co.uk/news/liverpool-lads-carry-39kg-over-26-miles-to-mark-world-mental-health-day/ https://uk.finance.yahoo.com/news/mental-health-day-england-football-070008697.html https://www.lta.org.uk/about-us/tennis-news/news-and-opinion/general-news/2020/october/world-mental-health-day-oli-jones–how-tennis-saved-my-life/ https://www.atvtoday.co.uk/160285-uktv/ (Dave and CALM Mental Health Day) https://www.qpr.co.uk/news/community-news/qpr-supports-world-mental-health-day/ https://www.eveningexpress.co.uk/news/uk/harry-and-meghan-join-podcast-to-support-world-mental-health-day/ https://www.efl.com/-more/all-about-the-efl/official-charity/ https://www.bbc.co.uk/newsround/54418803 https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/cricket/54477545 Also on: Facebook X