🎥 Watch the Video Podcast on YouTube:
🎬 A video version of this episode is available here:
YouTube: @TheSurvivorsPodcastChannel
🎙️ Episode Sponsored by Calmerry
This episode is proudly brought to you by Calmerry, an online therapy platform providing affordable and accessible professional counseling.
🌐 Visit: https://calmerry.com/the-survivors-podcast/
🎟️ Use code SURVIVORS20 for 20% off your first month.
💙 Because your mental well-being matters. 💙
📝 Episode Summary
Dr. Janine Ellenberger returns to The Survivors to share insights from her career in digital mental health, personal observations from the field, and reflections on what’s missing in America’s response to mental illness and suicide. The conversation tackles the painful gaps in aftercare, the burden on families, and how communities can fill the void for those who feel most alone. Dr. Ellenberger champions an empathetic approach, grounded in accessibility, connection, and purpose-driven recovery.
🌟 Lessons Learned
- Suicide recovery is possible. Like any chronic illness, mental illness requires sustained care, not just emergency treatment.
- The “3 P’s” matter: People, Place, and Purpose are foundational for anyone reentering life after crisis.
- Support must extend beyond the ER. Real change starts when communities show up and family systems are empowered with education and tools.
- Accessible therapy saves lives. Platforms like Calmerry are breaking cost and location barriers.
- We all have a role. Whether it's a listening ear or soup on the doorstep, support doesn’t have to be clinical to be lifesaving.
🕰️ Chapters
00:00 – Intro & Trigger Warning
01:00 – Welcome Back Dr. Janine Ellenberger
03:00 – America’s Mental Health Gaps
06:00 – Suicide Recovery Needs More Than Medicine
10:00 – Teletherapy, Insurance & Accessibility
14:00 – Family Burnout and Support
18:00 – The Power of Community
21:00 – Lisa’s Personal Story of Loss
24:00 – What To Do After Crisis
28:00 – Supporting the Homeless with Mental Illness
29:30 – Call to Action for Compassion & Systemic Change
30:00 – Wrap-Up & Resources
📚 Resources for Mental Health & Support
🔹 The Survivors Podcast Website – https://thesurvivors.net/
🔹 The HelpHUB™ – Mental health resources, tools, and support networks – https://www.thehelphub.co/
🔹 Schoser Talent and Wellness Solutions – Mental wellness coaching & support – https://schosersolutions.com/
🔹 Calmerry – Affordable & accessible online therapy – https://calmerry.com/
🔹 Sh!t That Goes On In Our Heads – A raw, award-winning mental health podcast – https://goesoninourheads.net/
📲 Follow & Connect With Us
📷 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/the_survivors_podcast
🔗 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-survivors-podcast
🎥 YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@TheSurvivorsPodcastChannel
#TheSurvivorsPodcast #EndTheStigma #MentalHealthMatters #SuicidePrevention #YouAreNotAlone #BreakTheSilence #GriefSupport #988Lifeline #SurvivorStories #HealingTogether #PodMatch #MentalHealth #SuicideAwareness #Podcast #Community #Hope #Grief #Stigma #MentalIllness #Support #LisaSugarman #GretchenSchoser
🎙️ See You Next Week! Stay strong, keep going, and remember: You are enough. 💜
00:00:00
[MUSIC]
00:00:05
The Survivors is brought to you by our friends at CalMory.
00:00:08
This podcast mentions suicide, mental illness,
00:00:11
grief and loss, and maybe triggering for some listeners.
00:00:14
So please take care of your well-being by
00:00:16
pausing or skipping any sections that feel uncomfortable to you.
00:00:19
And if you or someone you know is struggling,
00:00:22
please call 988 for support.
00:00:24
>> Welcome back to another episode of The Survivors.
00:00:28
And we are once again very excited to share some time in space with our friend,
00:00:34
Jenine Ellenberg.
00:00:36
She is a seasoned physician entrepreneur,
00:00:39
health executive with over 20 years of experience in digital health,
00:00:42
clinical practice and leadership.
00:00:43
She is the co-founder of Behavidence,
00:00:45
the digital phenotyping company for mental health conditions,
00:00:48
and the chief medical officer of our sponsor,
00:00:51
transforming mental health care through innovation,
00:00:54
expanding our services through strategic partnerships and
00:00:57
introducing it's also responsible for world-class virtual therapy,
00:01:01
training programs and improving therapist-client matching to ensure
00:01:04
personalized care for every individual.
00:01:06
And we are absolutely thrilled to have her back with us on
00:01:10
the Survivors to continue our just beautiful conversation from last week.
00:01:13
I feel like we got so much into that 30-minute conversation.
00:01:19
And we just really want to pick up in some ways where we left off.
00:01:22
So, Jenine, welcome back.
00:01:24
We're so glad to have you.
00:01:25
Good morning and thank you so much.
00:01:27
I was very excited for today because I got to have this conversation
00:01:30
with the two of you again.
00:01:31
So, thank you for including me in this.
00:01:33
So, we talked about a bunch of different topics in the green room
00:01:40
before we started recording.
00:01:42
And we really landed on a conversation about just how lacking our country is
00:01:48
in terms of support for people with mental illness.
00:01:51
And you had such profound insights on why that is and what we need to do to compensate for that.
00:01:58
So, I feel like we should just kind of keep rolling with what you were talking about a few minutes ago
00:02:04
and just dive right back into that same space.
00:02:05
I can definitely just jump over to exactly what I started with if you'd like me to.
00:02:10
Okay, so I recently attended a conference and had the privilege of listening to a talk by Dr. Thomas Insel.
00:02:19
He used to be the former head of the NIH during the Reagan and Obama era's and spent a lot of
00:02:25
time researching the causes of mental illness.
00:02:29
And during his talk he spoke and he's written a book called Healing Our Parts from Mental
00:02:33
Illness to Mental Health.
00:02:34
But what stood out to me was his experience when he was giving a lecture about the science of why
00:02:43
people have schizophrenia or depression or anxiety and all that the phenomenal progress in research
00:02:49
about these things.
00:02:50
And a father stood up in the audience and said, you know, with all your respect,
00:02:54
you know, my son has schizophrenia.
00:02:56
He tried to commit suicide three times and our house is on fire.
00:03:00
And really all you're talking about is the chemistry of the paint.
00:03:03
It doesn't help us.
00:03:04
And he then actually went on a new journey and sort of went to California and started really
00:03:09
exploring the homeless situation there and came back and said, you know, really it's not just about
00:03:14
the treatment.
00:03:15
It really is about the support, the care, the community around that person.
00:03:20
And I think that is something that we lack in this country to be very honest with you.
00:03:25
People will go, they'll have a suicide attempt, they'll get to the ER, get the maids.
00:03:30
And then they are discharged and where do they go?
00:03:32
If they do not have that support, where do they go?
00:03:36
And Tom and cell or whoever it is speaks about the three Ps and I probably got the wrong person.
00:03:41
But anyway, the three Ps, people, place and purpose.
00:03:44
So if you don't have a place to go, what do you do?
00:03:48
If you don't have people, caregivers, communities, support you, what do you do?
00:03:51
And if you don't have a purpose, you need hope.
00:03:53
You need their reason to get up and go out and do something.
00:03:57
And I think that we have a long way to go in this country for support in that aspect.
00:04:03
Yeah, we do. You're right. And it's interesting because I had this conversation with my therapist
00:04:08
not too long ago in terms of what happens when someone has been hospitalized for depression,
00:04:15
a breakdown, mental illness in general.
00:04:17
I'm just going to say as a disclaimer that there are fire alarms going off in our condo building right now.
00:04:23
I'm very safe. There's these are just a test.
00:04:26
So if you hear that, please don't be alarmed because I'm fine.
00:04:29
So the interesting thing is that when someone goes in for treatment, they come out and they are
00:04:38
at their most vulnerable. You know, they come in and whether it's a three day hold or whether it's,
00:04:43
you know, a 30 day hold, whatever the case might be, the irony is when they're released,
00:04:50
that's when they're at the highest risk for taking their life or for having another relapse of
00:04:56
some kind. And what you're saying is so profound about, you know, it's that it's that after care
00:05:02
in terms of someone reintegrating and and dealing with their mental illness and and having that kind
00:05:08
of support. And I think that it just becomes such an overlooked issue. We think of it in terms of
00:05:14
like, okay, someone goes in for, you know, some kind of an operation, you know, a long transplant or
00:05:19
surgery of some type. And they have the whole protocol is all set. They have their follow-up
00:05:24
appointments and they have all of their their physical therapy appointments. Right, right, right. And
00:05:30
they're after care. And there's nothing that's considered when you have mental illness on the same
00:05:37
left. And they can't be released from the hospital until somebody picks them up from the wheelchair
00:05:40
to drive them home and they say, do you have someone to care for you at home and bring you soup
00:05:45
because you can't walk or whatever the story is. And yes, that is what it's lacking. When I did my,
00:05:50
when I had my suicide attempt and I was talking to 98, they asked me if somebody was home. And
00:05:56
thankfully my wife was home, but I can't imagine having to made that call and been where I was and not
00:06:03
having a support system around me. You know, we have that problem here in upstate New York, you know,
00:06:08
there's a lot of homeless up here. I live right in between two college towns and a lot of time these
00:06:14
kids don't have anybody close by if they have their dorms, they have their roommates, but their
00:06:20
families are so far away. And I think the schools do a little bit better job. At least I hope with
00:06:27
suicide awareness and things like that. But we also have a homeless community up here. Whenever I look
00:06:32
at somebody who's homeless, like currently homeless, a lot of these people are mentally ill. And to Jean,
00:06:38
Jean's point, we don't have the care for them. We don't have the care for the vets. We don't have the
00:06:44
care for the homeless. Like when it comes to mental health, we don't have enough resources out.
00:06:50
We don't. And to go to to your point, those people don't have a place. They don't have a person and
00:06:55
they don't have a purpose. And for me, it's really a watch people. Filly has a big homeless problem as
00:07:01
well. And I watch people, they walk, they take a wide berth around the person who's homeless. And I,
00:07:07
you know, I look at them, you can see their thoughts. One is, oh, they want to acknowledge it. I don't,
00:07:12
this is bad. I don't want to be near it. But I often think in the back of their minds is the fear.
00:07:17
Could this happen to me one day? Because there isn't the social support system in this country.
00:07:22
You know, it's hard if you don't have health insurance. It's hard if you don't have a job. Unlike those
00:07:27
socialistic countries up all the Europe and Australia, you know, there is a bit of support. You don't
00:07:33
have to care. It's a terrifying position to be in. And mental health care is expensive. A lot of
00:07:39
psychiatrists don't take insurance. A lot of psychologists don't take insurance. So unless you have
00:07:44
money, you don't get the help. Even if you have kids or family members to try and support them through
00:07:50
that and find the right key. And I tell you something, finding the right psychiatrist or psychologist
00:07:55
is, is can be a hit in this job. Get care. Look, gee, look at you. We've had this conversation before
00:08:00
when you shared your story on an episode earlier in the season. You talked about how you had to
00:08:05
speed date your therapist because it's not often a good match right away. And that's that's hard. That's
00:08:12
time consuming. It's, you know, it's emotionally draining to go through kind of all of those
00:08:18
motions and go through the stories and your history and only to have to shift over to someone else.
00:08:23
That's a lot. Especially when you're vulnerable. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. The first couple of days were
00:08:30
really hard because I had gotten the therapist. She wasn't really my cup of tea but I knew I needed
00:08:36
somebody right then and there. And then the next therapist I did like two weeks later still not a
00:08:42
good fit but still needed somebody to talk to. And then finally by the third one, I found the one
00:08:49
that really clicked. And you know, for me, I'm paying for therapy out of pocket because my insurance
00:08:54
doesn't cover the type of therapy that I'm going through. And I think that with like even the telehealth
00:09:00
platforms need to take in into accommodation that people don't have a lot of money. They need to do it
00:09:06
at a sliding scale. I understand that we all need to make money but there are millions of people
00:09:11
out there suffering because they can't afford mental health. Which in your so right and is such a
00:09:17
problem because even with the tele therapy platforms, they still have to pay the therapists. The
00:09:21
therapists need to live. If you look at the salaries in this country of insurance compensated
00:09:29
and reimbursed therapists, it's not a lot. And it's a lot of work. You know, it's putting a lot of your
00:09:36
emotional energy into therapy. So it's a double its sword in a way. I must say I do think tele therapy
00:09:42
does offer a great platform for accessible, affordable kick now. So if you need something because
00:09:50
as we spoke about last time, you could wait three months to see a therapist, you know, depending on
00:09:54
where you live and the availability of therapists. So you could be having this crisis and you know,
00:09:58
want to do anything. You just want someone to talk to to get that is hard. But tele therapy, I think,
00:10:03
like platforms like Conry, definitely do offer that. You can click a button and say, right, I need
00:10:07
someone in the next 72 hours sort of filtered by what you do and don't like. So that matching does
00:10:14
sort of help the speed dating process a little bit easier and then and find someone to speak to.
00:10:19
It's it's it's that accessibility, I think, that makes tele therapy so much more attractive now
00:10:25
than it ever used to be. Almost definitely. And of course, there are so many different options,
00:10:29
so many different platforms that all have their kind of unique spin on providing therapy and and
00:10:35
connecting with therapists and the way that their platforms are structured. And I think at the end of
00:10:40
the day, if you were to go out of pocket to a traditional therapist, kind of a brick and mortar
00:10:45
therapist, you could be paying hundreds of dollars to get in the door if you're not insured, which
00:10:51
so many of us are not insured. And on the other side, when you do go to, you know, a tele therapist,
00:10:57
not only are you given the advantage of having so many different options and you can do it from home
00:11:02
and it's private and it's secure, but you're also paying a fraction. You may be paying a quarter or
00:11:09
a third of the cost of what you would pay a traditional therapist. So there are so many advantages,
00:11:15
but it feels like like I'm listening to this conversation and it feels like to me, what might be
00:11:20
beneficial to people who are listening might be like, we've established that the point of this
00:11:24
conversation is that we are lacking in that mental health care piece of our society exactly, exactly.
00:11:32
So, okay, we've talked, we've identified, we've identified tele therapy as a thing that people
00:11:39
can source. So maybe it makes sense to have the conversation of, okay, what are the other things?
00:11:43
What if you're somebody who is struggling with your mental health? You know someone who's
00:11:47
struggling with your their mental health? What's out there? What's available for people to support them
00:11:54
in those ways? And like beyond tele therapy, let's talk purpose, let's talk, you know, involvement,
00:12:01
community involvement, things like that, mindfulness, the other options that are out there.
00:12:06
So I was just going to say here in upstate New York, I live in a very small farming committee,
00:12:12
very small county in upstate New York, but it's full of college kids. They do have mental health
00:12:17
resources that are free, but I'm going to use this disclaimer just because of what's currently going
00:12:23
on within the administration that some of these resources are pulling back. But if you are struggling,
00:12:29
you can definitely go to mental health centers like family care. You can certainly go to those people
00:12:35
and they will find you somebody to help you. Even if you're homeless, they're going to be able to
00:12:40
find you somebody to talk to. But you know, the other part of that too is let's just all be a
00:12:45
have a little bit more empathy for what people are going through and like offer whatever help you
00:12:50
can. So that's that's my two cents. And I'm going to go back to I think families become the
00:12:56
involuntary mental illness experts in a way. And I think more support needs to be given to families
00:13:02
because then they could actually play a better role in a way because if you don't, I think you've
00:13:08
got two sort of groups yet. If you if you as a family are overwhelmed by your family members'
00:13:14
mental illness, you can step back and just say, oh well, there's nothing we can do. Let them
00:13:19
be. Let them go. We've tried our best. But a lot of people really learn to understand like the
00:13:24
the dear man has said his house that you know, you don't want to know what the chemistry of the paint,
00:13:28
his house is on fire. He was very well aware of what was going on with his son. So I think
00:13:34
they're the experts and we should lean into that as a society. We should support the families because
00:13:39
if the families get the support, the people in the place is already taken care of. Those are two
00:13:45
of the three piece that we've picked the box to. And but I think often for families, it's a lot.
00:13:50
It's it's it's overwhelming and it takes so much time and it takes so much resources. So I think
00:13:56
the families need the support as well. Absolutely. I mean, I think in terms of families who I know
00:14:02
who deal with family members with mental illness, it can be so all-consuming where they flow or the
00:14:09
vibe of the family or the structure of the family is dictated by the person who is experiencing
00:14:16
the mental illness or the struggle. And then everyone else in the family is really just kind of
00:14:21
running around with their, you know, hands open trying to catch the person before they fall. And so
00:14:26
everything else gets ignored. And the family dynamic as a whole is completely turned upside down.
00:14:32
And it's a really hard environment to function in because so many things can come up from a situation
00:14:38
like that. Like resentment can come up from things like that. It can be very difficult to manage
00:14:43
your day-to-day responsibilities. Most families have at least one or two family members who are working,
00:14:49
who are providing financially, who are caregiving, who maybe in some cases are raising children. So
00:14:55
so there's so much more involved in the day-to-day family unit, but it's all consumed often when
00:15:00
that family unit has someone who is in such desperate need of support that it takes over everything.
00:15:07
And that's difficult. You're right. I mean, families really need to have support because they're
00:15:10
at the end of the day. They're on the front lines. They're the ones who are dealing with it the most.
00:15:16
And I can say just for my own personal experience, you know, when when I finally was able to open up to
00:15:22
my wife about what was going on on that day, she's like, why didn't you come to me sooner with her?
00:15:27
For me, I didn't know how to tell her because I didn't understand what was going on with me.
00:15:31
And then the more probing questions, the more probing questions, and I couldn't answer her. And so I
00:15:37
wish there were more resources for like for my example. Why couldn't I find my voice? Why couldn't I
00:15:43
find my footing? Why didn't I open up to her? And for me, my answer was I didn't know how to because
00:15:48
I didn't understand what was going on in my own body. Take a step to your mental well-being with
00:15:54
CalMary. Trust it online therapy platform that supports you through life's challenges,
00:15:58
connect with licensed therapists and reap the benefits of traditional therapy enhanced with
00:16:02
digital tools whenever you need it. Visit calmery.com to get started.
00:16:06
I think that really speaks to the importance of just good communication. Whether you're dealing with
00:16:12
someone who's unwell or not, it's just general foundational block of a family unit should be
00:16:21
having those open conversations sitting down like I know we always talked with our girls as early on
00:16:26
as we could in an age appropriate way each time as they got older just to really ensure that they
00:16:32
felt like they could come and talk to us if things were not okay. I mean the obvious things like
00:16:37
talking about sex or talking about drinking or talking about peers or you know all of those things
00:16:42
as well. But I think we also have to be having the conversations about the mental health piece too
00:16:47
and integrate that. If we want things like mental health and wellness and mental illness to become
00:16:52
mainstream then we need to start integrating those conversations into our day to day so that
00:16:58
people are used to hearing it so that people don't feel put off or unprepared to have a conversation.
00:17:04
But I think Lisa you're so right there but it also depends on the family structure. I mean some
00:17:08
families don't theme these topics to be discussable. You know some families have different sort of
00:17:15
it might be a religious thing it might be I don't know whatever it is they're just not that open.
00:17:21
And then you have the single parent family and I think this is where the village I would say
00:17:25
takes a village to raise a child. I've come into play because and I think here like we're transparent
00:17:31
you know we came from South Africa so I don't have my sisters and my brothers and the aunts and
00:17:35
the uncles and the cousins here who often pick up things when the parents don't see things or even
00:17:42
you know my sister might notice something about me that my husband may not. Or if I'm alone at least
00:17:47
you know you have cousins who you might pop into who check in on you that village I think is so
00:17:52
incredibly important in managing mental illness because you need more than one person. It takes one
00:17:58
person to help initially but you need more than one person you need a little village to rally around
00:18:04
you when you need to bring you the soup when your leg is broken or to you know offer to walk the
00:18:09
dog when you're too tired. Those little things are so important because that is where you feel like
00:18:14
you belong. Yeah in a slightly different context I understand that I'm all I'm thinking about as
00:18:20
my own childhood and the way that he was raised by a single mother I mean I lost my father he took his
00:18:25
life when I was 10 years old I didn't know that he had taken his life my mother did so my mother not
00:18:31
only had to keep that secret chose to keep that secret of his suicide from me to save me from that
00:18:38
pain but she was also dealing with the loss of her husband and dealing with raising a child and
00:18:43
dealing with everything that all of a sudden now was on her plate which was the entirety of our
00:18:49
life and I think about that I of course couldn't see it for what it was then because I was a 10-year-old
00:18:54
kid and I just didn't have that perspective but as I've grown up as I've as I've formed my own family
00:19:00
and and understood what it takes to be a mother be a wife to to be all of the things that all of us
00:19:07
have to be every day I'm astounded and dumbfounded at the same time that my mother did what she did
00:19:12
but she did it because she like what you said she had community you know my grandmother came and
00:19:17
lived with us and our house was always full we we always had some part of our larger family unit
00:19:25
there and I don't know if my mother would have been able to just manage the day to day were it not
00:19:30
for that extra support you could understand mentally illness creeping in day if you're on your own
00:19:35
and dealing with that yeah and in the healthiest individual that's a lot to to manage yeah and at
00:19:41
that time I mean we're we're talking about the 1970s and 1980s people were not regularly visiting
00:19:47
with their with their therapist not not in the mainstream type of way that it is now my mother would
00:19:52
always laugh about it after the fact but whenever I would get frustrating or a situation would become
00:19:58
frustrating my mother would get in the car and she we had a loop we lived with a let me you know
00:20:03
in a circular neighborhood so she would get in the car and drive loops around the neighborhood
00:20:08
and just talk it out to herself she would just have a conversation with herself and that's how she
00:20:14
worked her way through whatever the issue or the problem was and then there were also the days
00:20:18
when my mother would be the first to say this that when I was really getting under her skin she would
00:20:22
get in the car and she would scream her way all the way around the block just to kind of you know
00:20:27
avoid doing that to me but I just I think about how remarkable it was in my mother's case that she
00:20:34
maintained a balance in spite of all of those things and I think about the fact that she had
00:20:39
people in her life and she had a community and she went back to college late in life and so she had
00:20:43
those those purpose her exactly exactly I mean that she did that six months after my father
00:20:49
good for her as a way at the age of 40 years old decided to go back and get her college degree that
00:20:54
took her five years and she did it and she did it she just excelled in every way and and I think about
00:21:00
we we talk about that all the time how not only was that just such a highlight of her life but it saved
00:21:04
her life in so many ways to be able to do something that was just for her in that way I think I think
00:21:10
maybe it makes sense to to dig a little deeper into the what what can we do part of this conversation
00:21:16
what can people do like let's let's put therapy aside and talk about kind of the the purpose and
00:21:22
community and you know positive self-talk what can people do like when they stop listening to this
00:21:28
podcast today if they're feeling overwhelmed if they feel like they need some kind of support
00:21:34
additional support what do they do where do they go do they do they turn to mindfulness apps
00:21:39
it's on the person I think and where they're at you know some people on such a dark space they
00:21:45
cannot do anything they're almost paralyzed like Gritun was saying she couldn't communicate
00:21:51
she didn't know what to say she didn't know how so it's something just had they just it's so dark it's
00:21:56
so they so deep underground that they don't know how to put their hand up and I think that in that
00:22:02
case somebody needs to reach out but somebody who is feeling overwhelmed who's feeling really like
00:22:08
they are not coping right now reach out reach out to anybody and for anybody who's listening to this
00:22:14
podcast if someone reaches out take their hand and just walk with them you don't have to tell them
00:22:20
what to do you don't have to solve the problem just be there and know that they have someone that
00:22:26
they can actually turn to if they win when they're ready to when they want to speak be there support
00:22:33
don't judge those are two very very powerful pieces of information and I would add one thing that
00:22:40
GM sure you're getting ready to add this to about 988 calling the lifeline like we talk about
00:22:46
okay there are people who have insurance and they have access to therapy and then there are other
00:22:52
people who may not have the insurance piece but they have the means to do tele therapy and they have
00:22:57
a community but okay who about how about the people who don't have any of that where did they go what
00:23:02
did they do they always have a resource there is always someone on the other end of the 988
00:23:08
crisis lifeline and it can't say this enough especially speaking as a counselor who often takes calls
00:23:14
from people who say should I even really be calling and using this lifeline I'm really not sure because
00:23:19
I'm not suicidal and I stop them right there and I say are you feeling like you're struggling don't
00:23:25
even need to tell me right in this moment what it is that you're struggling with but are you struggling
00:23:29
and the answer is yes it's all relative it doesn't matter what you're struggling with because if
00:23:34
that's enough to affect your mental health and wellness then that's enough to pick up the phone
00:23:39
into call counselor and any of us on these lifelines are here to listen 24 hours a day every day of the
00:23:46
week to whatever it is that's compromising your mental health and wellness so I think that as we
00:23:53
identify in this conversation what those pieces are like go go seek some purpose in your life go find
00:24:00
community go explore therapy keep things like the 988 lifeline on the top of your brain and make
00:24:08
those phone calls when you need that help so my question to both of you is like what do we do for the
00:24:14
homeless community that doesn't sometimes don't have phones right are there people that can actually
00:24:20
go out to those encampments and talk to these people because a good portion of the homeless are
00:24:27
mentally ill but they don't have the resources they don't have somebody to talk to and it's just an
00:24:32
endless cycle right so yes they won't end up going to the hospital go into emergency getting kicked
00:24:38
back out into the world and nobody to talk to so as a community what can we do to help those
00:24:45
population because for the population like you and I and Jeanine we all have resources right we have
00:24:52
so full we get friends they have a roof over our head but I feel bad for the homeless and for those
00:25:00
people that really don't have the resources that we have so I'm trying to think of how we can use
00:25:06
our platform to so that people can understand what's going on yeah I think that's a hard question
00:25:12
and I and I think it's such an important population to focus on in this conversation I think that
00:25:19
it just speaks to how much more we need to build into our infrastructure the fact that unfortunately
00:25:24
it's not designed right now to support such a vulnerable population but we do have homeless
00:25:31
shelters there every city has a community of homeless shelters where people can go and can receive the
00:25:38
basics to to sustain them and to get a roof over their head and food and their stomachs and whatnot
00:25:44
it's it's a really hard problem to solve I wish I had the ready made answer it's interesting because
00:25:48
I um I was in San Francisco to conference recently and the city was clean I was there previously when
00:25:55
I dropped my son of a college and it was overrun with homeless people it was so sad the next time
00:25:59
I like the scheme because they moved to homeless people because there was a big delegate from some
00:26:03
way from foreign country came to visit so they housed him temporarily so they there is a post they
00:26:08
can do it the states can do it the infrastructure needs we need to push for that to happen because yes
00:26:16
a homeless person go get food tonight and if the shelters are not full they may have a bed but if
00:26:21
the shelters are full they don't they sleep in the station or wherever they can find some place warm
00:26:25
because it's very cold in most of the cities in the US and the North so they need warmth and then
00:26:30
but when they get out the next day where do they go they don't have a purpose and they have mental
00:26:36
illness which needs to get treated and they don't get that in the shelter so I think that it needs
00:26:42
to become a federal mandate that we take care of the people and the second thing is I think more
00:26:48
of us need to volunteer because if we all help they're more hands they're more with it's more support
00:26:54
and I think that it will do us all the world of good to to understand that again this could be
00:27:00
happen to anybody it's a problem that if you don't have a job and you have not say what do you do
00:27:06
it's very easy to land on the streets so let's let's all help yeah I think as a way to to wrap up
00:27:13
this beautiful conversation just I think it's worth making reiterating the point that we all need
00:27:19
to be not only taking care of ourselves the whole oxygen mask put that on you first to ensure that
00:27:26
you're capable of helping yourself and helping others but we just need to be paying better attention
00:27:31
to people we need to I mean G say it all the time we need to show more compassion to ourselves
00:27:38
and also to the people around us and it's once we start doing that once we really start checking
00:27:44
in on each other regularly then I think things will start to shift things will start to change and
00:27:50
you'll see see you know a lot more people feeling supported and feeling capable of reaching out for
00:27:56
support and understanding that mental illness is not a life sentence people can recover it's like
00:28:01
having you know heart disease or having diabetes for example if you leave it untreated it has a lot
00:28:08
of negative complications and side effects but if you're able to address it and treat it and
00:28:13
management and again something like diabetes is not just about medication you know it's about
00:28:18
the right food and the right lifestyle and the right support well mental illness is the same
00:28:23
you need to have the right very good thing you need the right support around it as well and 100
00:28:28
percent you can recover so why do we let it become this epidemic when we know that that
00:28:35
key part of of hospitality not hospitalization as Tom I'm quoting again is part of the theory is
00:28:42
let's to trace that part of the cure and make sure that people have access to it absolutely and
00:28:47
let's start here let's start today let's start now and anyone listening we hope that you'll you'll
00:28:52
do the same we hope that you'll you'll move through your your day and and have a little bit more
00:28:57
intention in the way that you look after the people around you yeah I'd love this conversation this
00:29:03
was so awesome thank you Janine you are just so lovely you know I actually get more out of this
00:29:10
than anybody because every time we speak I realize how deep this problem is and that people have
00:29:19
governments people psychiatrists ecologists states have been trying to solve this for so long but
00:29:24
we're just not getting it right so it actually fires me up to do more good and it fires me up too
00:29:30
and I know here's you she look at her I'm all fired up today she's all fired up um Janine will you
00:29:36
will you come back someday soon yes we'd love to chat again wonderful thank you so much for
00:29:41
just your wisdom and your insight and just for spending a little bit of time we appreciate you
00:29:45
I appreciate you too thank you thanks for joining us on the survivors remember no matter how tough
00:29:50
things feel you are enough and the world needs you just the way you are you're not alone in this
00:29:55
journey there's a community here and every step forward counts we're so grateful you took the
00:30:00
time to listen and we hope they'll take one day at a time just know there's always more right ahead
00:30:05
thanks for being here friends just remember help is out there in so many different places
00:30:12
so if you or someone you know is struggling please call 988 and a trained crisis counselor like me
00:30:18
will be there to help you can also find an inclusive and comprehensive directory of mental health
00:30:22
resources tools and content at the help hub dot CEO just remember that help is always just a call
00:30:29
or a click away. We'll catch you next week. In the meantime, keep surviving.