Presenters:
Felicity Bernard, Institute for Health Policy and Practice, UNH
Liz Haynes, Monadnock Family Services
Jace Troie, NAMI New Hampshire
Samantha Captain, Bureau of Mental Health Services, DHHS
Transcript:
Michelle Wagner, NAMI NH (she/her): Good afternoon. We’ll take a minute and let folks enter into the zoom room with us.
Michelle Wagner, NAMI NH (she/her): I’m Michelle Wagner with NAMI New Hampshire, and I work on the first episode. Psychosis early, serious mental illness, Initiative. Thank you for joining us for today’s Webinar titled good care and trying times. Realistic steps to nourish ourselves and our communities.
Michelle Wagner, NAMI NH (she/her): This presentation is being recorded, and you’ll be able to find it on the Education page of OnwardNH.Org in the next couple of days you’ll receive a follow up email with links to both an evaluation and the recording.
Michelle Wagner, NAMI NH (she/her): This is a Zoom Webinar. Your camera and microphone are off. The chat is working, so please enter any comments you have there. The Q&A Is there as well. We can just use the chat. If that works for folks.
Michelle Wagner, NAMI NH (she/her): We have a wonderful panel with us today, and we’re looking forward to a robust discussion.
Michelle Wagner, NAMI NH (she/her): As we all know, the last 3 years have been trying times, so we’re going to talk today about the losses we’ve experienced, the collective trauma we’ve been through, and we’re going to talk about our way forward ways to nourish ourselves and our communities.
Michelle Wagner, NAMI NH (she/her): So, to get started. I’m going to have folks introduce themselves. Let’s begin with you, Felicity.
Felicity Bernard (she/her) UNH – IHPP: Oh, Hello, and
Felicity Bernard (she/her) UNH – IHPP: so glad to be here. Thank you for inviting me. This is a great panel. I’m Felicity Bernard. I’m a licensed clinical mental health counselor. I do work at the University of New Hampshire, at an institute called the Institute of Health Policy and Practice and so in that Work. I helped pediatricians become more trauma-informed, better able to manage
Felicity Bernard (she/her) UNH – IHPP: mental health and behavioral health. So, in their clinics I’m also I also have a clinical role at an online therapy called dB. Teams, New Hampshire and Tbt for you, which is really rewarding.
Felicity Bernard (she/her) UNH – IHPP: And I I’m a mother of 2
Felicity Bernard (she/her) UNH – IHPP: back to you, Michelle.
Michelle Wagner, NAMI NH (she/her): Great. Thank you, Felicity Liz. How about you?
Liz Haynes- MFS: Yeah, Hi. I’m With Haynes. I work on the whole program, and i’m not family services. I work with young adults who are experiencing their first episode of psychosis and
Liz Haynes- MFS: trying to help them through that scary and confusing time.
Michelle Wagner, NAMI NH (she/her): Great, Thank you, Liz. Samantha. How about you?
Samantha Captain (she/her) DHHS: Thanks, Michelle. Yeah, I’m: I’m Sam, Captain, I am the Peer program specialist at the Bureau of Mental Health Services in in New Hampshire’s Department of Health and Human Services, and part of My role is.
Samantha Captain (she/her) DHHS: you know, running the office of consumer and family affairs as well as working on peer programs, initiatives, advocacy, statewide training efforts.
Samantha Captain (she/her) DHHS: And yeah, all kinds of like peer-related topics and advocacy initiatives. My background is in peer support. I’m a certified peer specialist here in New Hampshire. I’m at a state level in intentional peer, support trainer.
Samantha Captain (she/her) DHHS: and and i’m somebody with my own lived experience that is particular to experiences of trauma.
Michelle Wagner, NAMI NH (she/her): Great. Thank you, Sam
Michelle Wagner, NAMI NH (she/her): Jase.
Jace Troie (he/him) NAMI NH: Hello, everyone. My name is Jace Troie, and I work for naming New Hampshire as the diversity, equity, inclusion, and Program assistant very long title. But oh, sorry that is my cat.
Jace Troie (he/him) NAMI NH: But I work on everything diversity, equity, and inclusion within. I mean New Hampshire, trying to make sure that our programs are equitable, and we’re having conversations about diversity and inclusion as much as we possibly can. So, thank you for being here today.
Michelle Wagner, NAMI NH (she/her): Yeah, thank you. Thank you all for joining us, and with that we’ll have Jason take down the screen and turn it over to Felicity to
Michelle Wagner, NAMI NH (she/her): set the stage for our discussion.
Felicity Bernard (she/her) UNH – IHPP: Felicity, you’re muted
Felicity Bernard (she/her) UNH – IHPP: Couldn’t see it.
Felicity Bernard (she/her) UNH – IHPP: I’m. Here now. Thank you. And so yeah, I’m just going to set the stage a little. I think what I’m about to talk about is not going to be a surprise to anyone but just kind of set the stage for where we can focus our attention.
Felicity Bernard (she/her) UNH – IHPP: And so
Felicity Bernard (she/her) UNH – IHPP: what we’re gonna do today. As Michelle mentioned, we’re gonna name the experience, right? Because that’s the first step in healing is what is it, we’re experiencing like, just this confusion, this this fog, this like, who are we now? And what is this? What does this new world look like?
Felicity Bernard (she/her) UNH – IHPP: Then we’re going to look at the impact, and then we’re going to share ways to heal and move forward. So, the first thing I want to talk about is the concept of collective trauma.
Felicity Bernard (she/her) UNH – IHPP: So collective trauma is
Felicity Bernard (she/her) UNH – IHPP: reactions to a traumatic event that affects an entire society. It does not represent to not only represent a historical fact or event, but a collective memory of an awful event that happened to a group of people
Felicity Bernard (she/her) UNH – IHPP: and collective term as a way of just shattering the basic fabric of society. And we’re still discovering the impacts today. So, you see it in childcare settings.
Felicity Bernard (she/her) UNH – IHPP: I talked to someone in a head start the other day about an unprecedented amount of behavioral challenges in their classroom and used to be one or 2 kids out the entire classroom. Those folks, those kids that were born
Felicity Bernard (she/her) UNH – IHPP: 2018, 19 to 2020 are all severely impacted by it. High school students, the older. They we, we it just it’s it keeps building right. It’s not over like who who thinks the pandemic. It’s over right. We might not be as exposed to
Felicity Bernard (she/her) UNH – IHPP: a virus. But we are still all feeling that impact. So, things like, so we’re just gonna name them right
Felicity Bernard (she/her) UNH – IHPP: here we go.
Felicity Bernard (she/her) UNH – IHPP: Okay, so
Felicity Bernard (she/her) UNH – IHPP: you can see my little bubbles, right? And so
Felicity Bernard (she/her) UNH – IHPP: increasing political divisiveness
Felicity Bernard (she/her) UNH – IHPP: and violence in the streets, distrust and violence.
Felicity Bernard (she/her) UNH – IHPP: weather events, including devastating hurricanes, heat waves, wildfires.
Felicity Bernard (she/her) UNH – IHPP: medical, economic, racial, and climate-based catastrophes just highlighting the need for attention to the meaning and implications of this cumulative compounding trauma. Exposure.
Felicity Bernard (she/her) UNH – IHPP: Isolation is huge. It has a
Felicity Bernard (she/her) UNH – IHPP: severe impact on mental health, the mental health well
Felicity Bernard (she/her) UNH – IHPP: mental health and well-being. This disproportionately affects folks in the older demographic who are home alone, with no supports.
Felicity Bernard (she/her) UNH – IHPP: and
Felicity Bernard (she/her) UNH – IHPP: it’s just to end the ambiguity. Right of this is it over? Is it? What is this isolation? Can we come out yet? How do we get back into the routine? How do we like
Felicity Bernard (she/her) UNH – IHPP: talk to people normally again? I I was at a conference the other day, and I thought, there’s this woman I know I’ve known for 4 years talked to her all the time. First time I’ve ever seen her in in real life, and we just like screamed and ran towards each other like there’s this huge like emotional verse, because we were in person and seeing each other, right? So, we’re missing out on the I am missing out on that human connection where you could see people on zoom all day.
Felicity Bernard (she/her) UNH – IHPP: But you Don’t get to exchange that. You know that humanity is in the same room as each other. It’s just lost.
Felicity Bernard (she/her) UNH – IHPP: Yeah. Okay. So, loneliness again is vicious. It causes increased health risks. You know, earlier death.
Felicity Bernard (she/her) UNH – IHPP: Internet and social media engagement exacerbate these feelings of loneliness, depression, and anxiety. And so
Felicity Bernard (she/her) UNH – IHPP: here is where we are. Let’s see where
Felicity Bernard (she/her) UNH – IHPP: what this has been doing to us again. I have been naming
Felicity Bernard (she/her) UNH – IHPP: populations that have been disproportionately effective, but here are are some that really stick out for us women having to, you know.
Felicity Bernard (she/her) UNH – IHPP: Are we? Am I going to stay home? Am I gonna work? What does this mean for my children. What does this mean for my career? All of those things of bypass communities, especially with the Co-occurrence, of all the Racial and George Floyd, and all of the the new focus
Felicity Bernard (she/her) UNH – IHPP: for most of America on on these
Felicity Bernard (she/her) UNH – IHPP: disparities and diverse, and those inequities. if an economically disadvantaged children and adolescents, and those of us with pre-existing mental challenges are all at greater risk for these things.
Felicity Bernard (she/her) UNH – IHPP: Take a second to talk about social media and the blessing in a curtain, right?
Felicity Bernard (she/her) UNH – IHPP: It can help you feel more connected.
Felicity Bernard (she/her) UNH – IHPP: However. it has this impact of.
Felicity Bernard (she/her) UNH – IHPP: So, let me give an example. So, and the Boston, the Boston bombings at the Marathon, right? So, there was a study after that that showed
Felicity Bernard (she/her) UNH – IHPP: that folks that watched it repeatedly. They were nowhere near Boston, but they watched it repeatedly
Felicity Bernard (she/her) UNH – IHPP: had more impact, more symptoms of PTSD than the folks that were right there on the finish line.
Felicity Bernard (she/her) UNH – IHPP: experiencing it in real life. So, it’s that that oversaturation of negative and and trauma, and watching these things repeat over and over again. I had the same experience when the 2 towers went down. It just was just everywhere, and it was just. It’s just reliving, reliving, and reliving that trauma. And so that
Felicity Bernard (she/her) UNH – IHPP: and social media can be super toxic, especially for our teenagers. We’ve seen the new purpose data which is surveillance data we collect from high schoolers shows an increase in sexual violence, bots of suicide depression. All of these things that are are
Felicity Bernard (she/her) UNH – IHPP: teenagers in New Hampshire are now experiencing. Oh, my gosh! Eating disorders have skyrocketed. So in in my own practice I see a lot of eating disorders, lots of suicide, ideation, and just like not feeling like they have any sort of
Felicity Bernard (she/her) UNH – IHPP: ownership over their lives. just this. The lack of immediately or agency.
Felicity Bernard (she/her) UNH – IHPP: And
Felicity Bernard (she/her) UNH – IHPP: so I’m going to.
Felicity Bernard (she/her) UNH – IHPP: So those are the things right. Those are a lot of things. And so I’m going to just take out my slides for a second, and we’re going to just go around and talk about it. What does this look like? And how is how these interfered with
Felicity Bernard (she/her) UNH – IHPP: with ourselves and and our ability to provide good care for others. So personally, for me, I have
Felicity Bernard (she/her) UNH – IHPP: really and felt the impact of loneliness right. So, I’m on zoom all day.
Felicity Bernard (she/her) UNH – IHPP: We can go into the office right. It’s just not very, you know. Not. Everybody goes in all the time, and so you you can choose to go in or not. And I just missed that human connection, the water cooler talk, the
Felicity Bernard (she/her) UNH – IHPP: you know, the improv too. How is your day? You know? How are your kids? You don’t get that on zoom. I don’t you go in. You do your business. You get out Also, my kids right. I just have this huge guilt
Felicity Bernard (she/her) UNH – IHPP: about letting them watch too much screen like right. I got stuff to do. How am I, you know, and they’re just. and and I’m trying. I try not to beat myself up a lot about it, but it really is. I’m like I’m a bad mother. This is what I’m feeling. How can I be? You know good at this and get at this at the same time. So, what do you guys Think how is it? And
Michelle Wagner, NAMI NH (she/her): I’d love to piggyback on that, and talk about the loneliness, right? You had mentioned Felicity about older adults being impacted. Some of the oldest one on this panel, my decade or 2 and or 3,
Michelle Wagner, NAMI NH (she/her): and it was really hard for me. I live alone, I’m single. I live alone we got booted out of the office. My work became virtual, staring at a screen day in and day out, and not having people to talk with on top of that I also made a move
Michelle Wagner, NAMI NH (she/her): shortly into Covid. So now I’m in a new community, and it was unbelievably isolating. So isolating. I’m really fortunate that I work at mommy New Hampshire. We we’re into social service and taking care of people, right? So, my Co-workers actually thought about me and the leadership team
Michelle Wagner, NAMI NH (she/her): Who? Oh, this makes me teary because they took care of me because, they said, when we start allowing people back into the office, we need to think about Michelle. She’s home alone.
Michelle Wagner, NAMI NH (she/her): right? So, my coworkers showed up for me.
Michelle Wagner, NAMI NH (she/her): So that was huge. So yeah, that’s it for me for the moment.
Jace Troie (he/him) NAMI NH: And off of that for a lot of us. Our home became our workspace as well, and
Jace Troie (he/him) NAMI NH: this space where we used to go and use to decompress and relax after a long day, is now the same exact space as
Jace Troie (he/him) NAMI NH: the ones that we may be experiencing stress. And and now it doesn’t necessarily feel as much of a safe space for a lot of people, and so kind of balancing that work life balance, but in the same space, and making sure that you’re
Jace Troie (he/him) NAMI NH: configuring that space to work for you in a way that also takes care of your mental health and your mental wellness at the same time, and a lot of people are going back to the office now, but a lot of people are still staying home and working from home at the same time, and although it can be really wonderful, it can kind of be
Jace Troie (he/him) NAMI NH: stressful at times, because
Jace Troie (he/him) NAMI NH: that space is becoming the same place, and it’s hard to kind of
Jace Troie (he/him) NAMI NH: escape or take a step away from those stressors or those realities at some time.
Liz Haynes- MFS: Yeah, I agree with that. I know. For me, working from home was really difficult, and that lack of connection not only with my coworkers.
Liz Haynes- MFS: but with my clients.
Liz Haynes- MFS: You know I have people in real need that I could only see over the phone or over Zoom. I couldn’t.
Liz Haynes- MFS: you know. Go be there with them and physically support them. And that mean it’s really hard to feel like I was doing my job well
Liz Haynes- MFS: and really worried for those clients that I couldn’t see them, you know, physically lay eyes on them and make sure that they were okay.
Liz Haynes- MFS: This is scary times.
Samantha Captain (she/her) DHHS: Yeah. And I mean I I almost felt kind of the opposite where I was working in person through the entire pandemic because I was working, you know, on mobile crisis teams and running a residential program. There was no ability for me to do that from home.
Samantha Captain (she/her) DHHS: and and that kind of led me to feel like a sense of jealousy honestly. Of all the people who were able to be home.
Samantha Captain (she/her) DHHS: because I felt really unsafe. Someone who is, you know, high risk. I have asthma as well as autoimmune problems. and to be still going out in the community face to face with so much uncertainty, and and that lack of sense of safety really impacted me as well.
Samantha Captain (she/her) DHHS: I I was lucky in some ways right, because I had those people around me more regularly. But it came with the cost. It came with that realization that it every person I was in contact with was increasing my risk of exposure and the possibility that I could die
Samantha Captain (she/her) DHHS: or bring. You know the virus home, and in fact, people we care about.
Samantha Captain (she/her) DHHS: you know. I also purchased my first home, like in December of like 2019. So, a couple of months before things shut down, and though I was able to keep. You know, most of my income. I was a 2-job person at the time.
Samantha Captain (she/her) DHHS: My second source of income was gone. My husband’s income was gone. He was laid off at the start of the pandemic, and we had just spent our entire life savings on a down payment.
Samantha Captain (she/her) DHHS: and had no reserves financially. So, there was definitely like financial stress and and just like a loss of connection on a social level, because I was also worried about you know, bringing viruses to my community because I was working in person. I was trying to limit the people I was in contact.
Samantha Captain (she/her) DHHS: so, I wouldn’t have the risk of infecting them.
Samantha Captain (she/her) DHHS: But yeah, I think that sense of like lack of safety, a lack of control.
Samantha Captain (she/her) DHHS: and really also like I was very deeply impacted by a lack of that sense of justice with everything that was happening like in our communities around us. And and you know, on the news every day
Michelle Wagner, NAMI NH (she/her): that makes me think about my social circle. So I was cut off from my work social circle. But within my friend’s circle, too. I have my dearest and closest friend, who I spend a lot of time with also has asthma.
Michelle Wagner, NAMI NH (she/her): So, I was cut off from her, and and even now she’s still very concerned about her health.
Michelle Wagner, NAMI NH (she/her): and so, we have a birthday party coming up this weekend, and she may not come if it ends up raining, and she can’t spend time outside. Then I won’t be able to see her. So, my relationships have been really deeply, deeply impacted.
Samantha Captain (she/her) DHHS: Yeah, Another place. I saw that kind of loss of community was in actual grief. I think of. You know the fact that I actually lost my father during Covid.
Samantha Captain (she/her) DHHS: and there was no funeral right, which is normally a place where people gather and provide a community of support for the people who are grieving, and and to have like so much loss of actual life in our faces, like all the time
Samantha Captain (she/her) DHHS: as somebody who’s lost a number of people over the last few years in my family. That really impacted me in like a very.
Samantha Captain (she/her) DHHS: you know, compounding way.
Michelle Wagner, NAMI NH (she/her): and I experienced that as well. I lost my sister, and we lost a family friend in 2021, and it was
Michelle Wagner, NAMI NH (she/her): it was just a very different feeling around it. I’ve lost people, prior to the the 2020’s.
Michelle Wagner, NAMI NH (she/her): and there was some normalcy around getting together and celebrations of life. And so, you know, when we’re naming losses, even losing people during this time, even if it wasn’t from Covid. There were still just some dramatic ships, and how we were able to grieve those folks
Samantha Captain (she/her) DHHS: Yeah, like our traditions, too, right like not just routines, but like actual traditions
Jace Troie (he/him) NAMI NH: and even loss of
Jace Troie (he/him) NAMI NH: boundaries in some sense, because now that everyone’s working remotely.
Jace Troie (he/him) NAMI NH: it’s hard to leave work at the office because the office is home. And so, it’s a matter of like. Oh, we’ll just check one more email before I go to bed or oh, my work phone just rang, and now it’s a cell phone, and I bring it with me Everywhere I go, and
Jace Troie (he/him) NAMI NH: I feel like before we were able to kind of set those boundaries and leave work at work. But now, like we have lost those boundaries, and trying to figure out how to implement them again, so that we are taking care of ourselves is really important as well.
Michelle Wagner, NAMI NH (she/her): And I would just like to mention people who weren’t or haven’t been working right outside of the home, perhaps, or have
Michelle Wagner, NAMI NH (she/her): jobs that they
Michelle Wagner, NAMI NH (she/her): needed to go to like. One of my sons was not employed during the pandemic, and that was extra extra isolating for him. so, he didn’t even have at least a work team that he might check in via email right. He was really disconnected from people
Michelle Wagner, NAMI NH (she/her): wondering Felicity, if you want to bring that poll up at this point in time, you let me know when you want to do that.
Felicity Bernard (she/her) UNH – IHPP: Yeah, I think that’s a great idea right now. So, we want to hear from you. How have you been impacted? So, we have a little poll if you want to take part in it, and if there’s something other that you’d like to share with us, please put it in chat, because this is what we’re within a of cathartic part of our Webinar. You get to say
Felicity Bernard (she/her) UNH – IHPP: this is how it’s impacted me right to be heard.
Felicity Bernard (she/her) UNH – IHPP: Let’s do that right. Okay. So go ahead. And Michelle launch the poll and then feel free to fill in on the chat as well.
Felicity Bernard (she/her) UNH – IHPP: What area of life has been most trying for you in these last several years. adapting to the virtual world. navigating and maintaining relationships. community connection.
Felicity Bernard (she/her) UNH – IHPP: health outcomes
Felicity Bernard (she/her) UNH – IHPP: there. And again, if you want to put the other in the chat. That would be great. We’ll give folks a minute to answer that.
Michelle Wagner, NAMI NH (she/her): I think what we found when we were prepping for this webinar is just
Michelle Wagner, NAMI NH (she/her): how the the feelings and the thoughts, and what we were going through. You could feel sort of alone with it. And what we realized is, it’s really normal that other people are feeling the same thing. So
Michelle Wagner, NAMI NH (she/her): be great to hear from people what’s been going on with them.
Samantha Captain (she/her) DHHS: Oh, yeah, I think I’ve.
Samantha Captain (she/her) DHHS: you know long since. Let go of the concept of normal right? Because if abnormal is normal, like, what does that all mean? Right?
Samantha Captain (she/her) DHHS: And I really haven’t met people who haven’t been struggling
Samantha Captain (she/her) DHHS: like I. It’s visible everywhere. And with every person who i’m engaging like in in truthful dialogue. It’s there.
Samantha Captain (she/her) DHHS: I think, there’s a real power in actually naming that as a community.
Felicity Bernard (she/her) UNH – IHPP: And our folks seeing those results.
Felicity Bernard (she/her) UNH – IHPP: Yeah, it looks like maintaining relationships and community connections are tied for first. Yeah.
Felicity Bernard (she/her) UNH – IHPP: Absolutely
Felicity Bernard (she/her) UNH – IHPP: Anyone sharing anything.
Felicity Bernard (she/her) UNH – IHPP: Let me check
Felicity Bernard (she/her) UNH – IHPP: the politics of the pandemic. Were challenging. Families had different views around vaccine. Oh, that yes, it’s a political divide, right?
Felicity Bernard (she/her) UNH – IHPP: What is truth? What is science? What is fact? What is made up right? The distrust in the public public health system? Right? Is trust in sight.
Samantha Captain (she/her) DHHS: Yeah, I’m really glad. Somebody mentioned that.
Samantha Captain (she/her) DHHS: You know my husband and I were married, you know, pre pandemic, but only mildly. My husband likes to say we were married 2 weeks after, from
Samantha Captain (she/her) DHHS: or 2 weeks before, Rather Trump was elected, and we were on to different sides of the political and
Samantha Captain (she/her) DHHS: many other spectrums there. And so, it was really challenging to find a way forward where we were focused on the relationship. And rather than
Samantha Captain (she/her) DHHS: you know.
Samantha Captain (she/her) DHHS: asking the other person to like change their mind. We ended up finding it was much more successful to like find, you know, understanding of each other like, where did we form the beliefs that we have
Samantha Captain (she/her) DHHS: like. What experiences did those come from? And and by focusing on, you know, understanding rather than agreement it. It really helped us in terms of, you know, continuing and maintaining that relationship over time.
Felicity Bernard (she/her) UNH – IHPP: We have someone else sharing that they’re
Felicity Bernard (she/her) UNH – IHPP: their adult children seem to enjoy it. Stay at home. So, it does depend right. Some people love that.
Felicity Bernard (she/her) UNH – IHPP: and people do not thrive.
Felicity Bernard (she/her) UNH – IHPP: Someone else lost their mom so sorry.
Felicity Bernard (she/her) UNH – IHPP: My sincere apologies.
Felicity Bernard (she/her) UNH – IHPP: This march from heavy. Covid, still having inflammation of lungs, continues to exercise and pray for our community and world.
Felicity Bernard (she/her) UNH – IHPP: Someone else worked on it 2020, 7 residential facilities. God bless you! So, I was not really impacted.
Felicity Bernard (she/her) UNH – IHPP: My husband struggled for having to work at home for 18 months. Okay.
Felicity Bernard (she/her) UNH – IHPP: But yeah, it’s a great point. Like.
Felicity Bernard (she/her) UNH – IHPP: I experience things differently than anyone else experiencing. We all have our reactions to it.
Felicity Bernard (she/her) UNH – IHPP: and
Samantha Captain (she/her) DHHS: and I think those are going to be unique
Samantha Captain (she/her) DHHS: to each of us based on, you know, our experiences career prior right prior to the pandemic, those things actually really impacted me right like I already had a lot of grief
Samantha Captain (she/her) DHHS: that I was working through. I already had a lot of trauma that I was working through. So in in many senses
Samantha Captain (she/her) DHHS: that stuff was brought up yet again every day, right?
Samantha Captain (she/her) DHHS: And like someone mentioned, you know, working in those 24-7 residential programs, you did not have time to process what was going on around you. It was more a bar your head in the work and just get through its kind of moment.
Felicity Bernard (she/her) UNH – IHPP: Yeah, we had 2 folks in the chat. Talking about that working mobile crisis is very hard.
Felicity Bernard (she/her) UNH – IHPP: you know, feeling that jealousy other people get to stay home very hard to get it into work.
Felicity Bernard (she/her) UNH – IHPP: and then someone else says.
Felicity Bernard (she/her) UNH – IHPP: being one of the few that worked in person, while many others working from home, missed co-workers
Felicity Bernard (she/her) UNH – IHPP: so, all sorts of variations of these things.
Michelle Wagner, NAMI NH (she/her): and I think Samantha made a great point when we were prepping for this talking about collective trauma.
Michelle Wagner, NAMI NH (she/her): Every person’s been impacted as we’re seeing in the chat and from shared here on the panel. It’s different for every individual, depending, because we are all individuals right. But we’ve all been impacted. We’ve all had losses. It’s been incredibly challenging and traumatizing for all of us in different ways
Jace Troie (he/him) NAMI NH: on the 603 stories podcast that I help host. It’s a podcast made by an adult for young adults. So, it’s always young adults that are on the podcast, and we had a
Jace Troie (he/him) NAMI NH: COVID-19 episode on how Covid impacted the mental wellness of young adults, and it was so interesting, seeing all the varying responses to it, because some people were saying, oh, I’m a social butterfly. It really impacted me negatively, because I didn’t get that opportunity to socialize. But then we were getting other comments from listeners coming in, saying
Jace Troie (he/him) NAMI NH: it was a blessing in disguise. I felt like I’ve been burning out for years now, and it was finally a time where I didn’t feel like I had to interact socially with other people and run my social battery all the way to empty every single day. And so
Jace Troie (he/him) NAMI NH: it is interesting how
Jace Troie (he/him) NAMI NH: we are all experiencing this collective trauma in different ways, and although it is definitely a collective trauma, some people have been finding more so silver linings than other people, and
Jace Troie (he/him) NAMI NH: not that it’s had
Jace Troie (he/him) NAMI NH: benefits necessarily, because I feel like benefits, is a strong word to use in this sense, but silver linings for sure.
Jace Troie (he/him) NAMI NH: and people have found different ways to cope and manage
Jace Troie (he/him) NAMI NH: this experience that we’re going through and
Jace Troie (he/him) NAMI NH: really do what’s best for them
Jace Troie (he/him) NAMI NH: in in the course of it all.
Michelle Wagner, NAMI NH (she/her): And Kim Murdoch, our communications director, did share the link to that podcast that’s in the Chapter folks.
Samantha Captain (she/her) DHHS: Yeah, I’m: so glad you mentioned kind of the impacts in in both directions, and I I kind of found that was true within myself, like in both directions. Right, you know, much like somebody had mentioned. You know
Samantha Captain (she/her) DHHS: I I had to slow down. I was forced to slow down because my second job was a wedding photographer, and there were no weddings, but I had 15 years of working every weekend during the summer.
Samantha Captain (she/her) DHHS: Right? I had 15 years of 7 days a week work during the summer, because I was also maintaining regular employment. And and to have those weekends right was actually really wonderful, and I needed to be forced to stop
Samantha Captain (she/her) DHHS: the work that I was doing to realize how much I needed that space.
Samantha Captain (she/her) DHHS: and how much it really benefited me, and and just like the impact of having that once again in my life.
Felicity Bernard (she/her) UNH – IHPP: I I love how you said Chase like this the social butterflies versus the folks who just want to stay at home right. That was great. I got to think at home, and now we see that integration back into like having to go to school every day is a big challenge for those folks.
Felicity Bernard (she/her) UNH – IHPP: And, Liz, if you want to tell about your the folks that you’ve we’re already agoraphobic. You want to tell that one. I thought that was very powerful
Liz Haynes- MFS: sure. So, I’ve been working with this client for about 2 years, and she self identifies as germophobic. So, we’ve only met ever on the phone. We have one Zoom Meeting once and with the eventual goal of meeting in person.
Liz Haynes- MFS: So recently she had to be reassigned to a different case manager, as my case load is shifting. And when I told her that I asked if she wanted to meet on the phone or over zoom, and she actually invited us to her house.
Liz Haynes- MFS: So, the first time I’ve ever met her was her to meet her new case manager.
Liz Haynes- MFS: I was just so immensely proud of her for taking that huge step. 2
Liz Haynes- MFS: meet somebody. Have somebody come into her space after years of it, just being
Liz Haynes- MFS: an impossible goal to her.
Felicity Bernard (she/her) UNH – IHPP: Great sharing in the chat, too.
Jace Troie (he/him) NAMI NH: And what’s so fast?
Felicity Bernard (she/her) UNH – IHPP: Oh, sorry, no! Go ahead.
Jace Troie (he/him) NAMI NH: What’s so fascinating now is that we never really considered all of these other options for remote work, for people who may not have the same social experiences as some of us outgoing people.
Jace Troie (he/him) NAMI NH: But now that the pandemic has happened, and we were kind of forced to
Jace Troie (he/him) NAMI NH: except that type of work.
Jace Troie (he/him) NAMI NH: I’ve noticed a lot of places that are continuing to remain hybrid to provide that sense of comfort level for anyone going forward.
Jace Troie (he/him) NAMI NH: So yeah, you can work in person if that’s what’s most effective for you. But you can also work from home, if that’s what’s most effective for you, and it’s not always a matter of oh, I need to work from home, because I
Jace Troie (he/him) NAMI NH: might be more at risk for Covid or something like that. It’s no longer just a need, but it’s a matter of being flexible, so that everyone is able to reach their highest potential in an environment that suits them
Jace Troie (he/him) NAMI NH: which I’ve really appreciated.
Felicity Bernard (she/her) UNH – IHPP: And, Sam, I don’t know if you saw Polly’s comment, but that
Felicity Bernard (she/her) UNH – IHPP: my supervisors and colleagues had no patience or compassion for support. Right, we’ve been we were talking about not too like providing that space right in our workplaces to be able to to that human right, and we can’t just shut it down and pretend it’s not there.
Samantha Captain (she/her) DHHS: It’s it’s validating here.
Samantha Captain (she/her) DHHS: Yeah, I I saw that, too, and I appreciate like that comment, because
Samantha Captain (she/her) DHHS: I think you know that’s part of you know how I find solutions to this. It is is allowing more kind of vulnerability, and and I was a supervisor of mobile crisis peers during the pandemic, and I found what made it survivable for both me and my team in many cases
Samantha Captain (she/her) DHHS: was the freedom to actually talk about more than just work at work like in our supervision practice, you know, people were welcome to bring whatever it was
Samantha Captain (she/her) DHHS: that they needed support with, whether it was circulated or not.
Samantha Captain (she/her) DHHS: because we are like actual whole humans, right? And and there is very limited ability for most of us to just shut down that part of ourselves that is, you know, broken or devastated, or struggling.
Samantha Captain (she/her) DHHS: When we walk through our work doors right like that doesn’t stop being present in our lives.
Samantha Captain (she/her) DHHS: So, the ability to really be our full selves and be vulnerable, and have that
Samantha Captain (she/her) DHHS: struggle be not only allowed in the workplace, but supported
Samantha Captain (she/her) DHHS: within it like, can we create room for us to be whole humans in our work?
Samantha Captain (she/her) DHHS: I think. Yes, and I think we need to do that. We not only need to start
Samantha Captain (she/her) DHHS: being vulnerable and talking about these things in our work, but that we need to be more open to receiving it, even when it’s deeply uncomfortable, so that people aren’t in that discomfort alone.
Felicity Bernard (she/her) UNH – IHPP: Okay.
Felicity Bernard (she/her) UNH – IHPP: Oh, my gosh! This is a great sharing. I feel so validated. But shall we move on to
Felicity Bernard (she/her) UNH – IHPP: now? What, now? That we felt their feelings? If you get them out there, that will be too.
Felicity Bernard (she/her) UNH – IHPP: So, let me share some of this.
Felicity Bernard (she/her) UNH – IHPP: That’s the answer connection
Felicity Bernard (she/her) UNH – IHPP: next our way out there’s so much research that shows that connection is healing.
Felicity Bernard (she/her) UNH – IHPP: It’s
Felicity Bernard (she/her) UNH – IHPP: it. It can change, you know, from it. It can elevate mood and keep pull people out of isolation right? It’s just so powerful. And so, it just reminds me of. I don’t know if anyone read this book, it’s the body keep score by vessel van to cook, I’ve
Felicity Bernard (she/her) UNH – IHPP: and a huge into trauma-informed care and being aware of trauma and being able to help people through it. So, in this book Bessel Van Der Kolk mentioned several fundamental human tools that help heal trauma. He explains that human connection is one of the greatest tools for healing.
Felicity Bernard (she/her) UNH – IHPP: Our capacity to destroy one another is matched by our capacity to heal one another.
Felicity Bernard (she/her) UNH – IHPP: Restoring relationships and community is central to restoring Well, being, he goes on to say, Language gives us the power to change ourselves and others by communicating our experiences like we were just doing.
Felicity Bernard (she/her) UNH – IHPP: helping us to define what we know and find a common sense of meaning right? So, the goal here is to find meaning and purpose and connection in life. And so how do we do that
Felicity Bernard (she/her) UNH – IHPP: when we have our own individual, mental and emotional health to attend you, they can do even more challenging, so those of us, with anxiety already present
Felicity Bernard (she/her) UNH – IHPP: know that it can spread to others. My anxiety spreads to me
Felicity Bernard (she/her) UNH – IHPP: on and on, and on, right, and so the opposite is also true that when we process and acknowledge our grief and stress, we can manage our own reactions and set examples for others.
Felicity Bernard (she/her) UNH – IHPP: So that is hopeful
Felicity Bernard (she/her) UNH – IHPP: out here.
Felicity Bernard (she/her) UNH – IHPP: Yeah. Okay.
Felicity Bernard (she/her) UNH – IHPP: So, healing and moving forward, we can’t go backwards. We can undo. So how do we move forward?
Felicity Bernard (she/her) UNH – IHPP: So, allow groups to redefine who they are.
Felicity Bernard (she/her) UNH – IHPP: and why are they going right, this a whole new Look at how we work.
Felicity Bernard (she/her) UNH – IHPP: how we educate, how we connect! What? What again? Silver linings
Felicity Bernard (she/her) UNH – IHPP: reaching out for help.
Felicity Bernard (she/her) UNH – IHPP: A huge barrier to that is stigma. I think we all know that right. So, having this part of our daily conversations like Sam was saying, okay, so workplace issue. It is like human beings come to work as human beings, not as Widgets. And so
Felicity Bernard (she/her) UNH – IHPP: talking about it, you know, realizing that it is universal, even if people stuff it down. That’s the way of doing it. It works for them, and then they can bring it home, or whatever not. Everyone is like that. So, you have to make that space stop doom scrolling.
Felicity Bernard (she/her) UNH – IHPP: unplug that we’re
Felicity Bernard (she/her) UNH – IHPP: traumatizing and re-traumatizing I mean traumatizing all of this bitterness, and the and the the deaths and the
Felicity Bernard (she/her) UNH – IHPP: and you know the the folks struggling, we just we just keep consuming and consuming. And this is different from any other time in history, because, like the last pandemic, we had in the 1800s.
Felicity Bernard (she/her) UNH – IHPP: you know, it was very slow. Information moved very slowly, right, and it was almost done before everyone knew about it
Felicity Bernard (she/her) UNH – IHPP: and it and and you know it wasn’t. When the people said it was over. It wasn’t really over because it was still going on in other places. And so, this is just like immediate in your face. This is all of the death and destruction, and all of the bad things just constantly flooding us to turn that off.
Felicity Bernard (she/her) UNH – IHPP: And that’s for silver linings. So, what are some silver linings.
Felicity Bernard (she/her) UNH – IHPP: These are areas of growth, namely, self-awareness, empathy, authenticity, like again, bring that back to what Sam was talking about? We are authentically human, and let’s bring that to work right stress management, lack of control like that. It’s a huge part of
Felicity Bernard (she/her) UNH – IHPP: folks with eating disorder Experience that restricted eating is because they want to have control over something, and there’s nothing in their life they can have control over. But this. This I can control, so giving back that control, realizing people have agency and and have
Felicity Bernard (she/her) UNH – IHPP: what they need inside them to to continue to grow.
Felicity Bernard (she/her) UNH – IHPP: There is increased creativity and innovation. Oh, my gosh! Telehealth can we say fell out amazing, you know, before pandemic it was just like, oh, we can’t do that. No, no, no, no, no! And then it just exploded right and so
Felicity Bernard (she/her) UNH – IHPP: more access that means more access to rural folks, more access to, unfortunately, not more access to folks who don’t have the Internet but again spread that access to help with those disparities.
Felicity Bernard (she/her) UNH – IHPP: Restaurants have a whole new way of operating right outdoor spaces.
Felicity Bernard (she/her) UNH – IHPP: You know you could go pick things up. I love that I thought that just ordering something and just going grabbing it again, not having to talk to anyone or socialists that just go and grab it.
Felicity Bernard (she/her) UNH – IHPP: And so here’s some resilient responses to trauma. So what this can this does happen During trauma you can increase bonding with family, and maybe trauma bonding. You’ve been through a difficult situation with someone you come out feeling closer to them, and more connected, redefining or increasing our sense of purpose.
Felicity Bernard (she/her) UNH – IHPP: I just shook everything up for us. So what are we actually standing for now, like what is really important and like? Because that’s what comes to mind when you’re facing death? You’re like, what am I doing with my life? Right? How do I make more of it?
Felicity Bernard (she/her) UNH – IHPP: Revised priorities, increasing, charitable giving and volunteerism? Oh, my gosh! That’s one way that I felt like I had some control. My donated money. I can’t get out and expose myself, but I can. I can give money.
Felicity Bernard (she/her) UNH – IHPP: and then increased, commit to a personal mission right that personal sense of feeling that I’m doing something that I can be proud of, and that’s going to impact others.
Felicity Bernard (she/her) UNH – IHPP: And then just you know, creating, meeting, creating, meaning like, what does this mean for us? Right? So, redefining its a, it’s a a to,
Felicity Bernard (she/her) UNH – IHPP: you know. It’s like
Felicity Bernard (she/her) UNH – IHPP: It’s terrible. It’s not good. It’s a all out delete, though. Right, it’s like, okay, Wipe. That’s clean and let’s pull up something that’s more meaningful. To us.
Felicity Bernard (she/her) UNH – IHPP: And so with that
Felicity Bernard (she/her) UNH – IHPP: we’ll share about how we do this. Yeah.
Felicity Bernard (she/her) UNH – IHPP: I love.
Felicity Bernard (she/her) UNH – IHPP: Okay. So, I’m Catholic. But hold it against me. I know it’s like a top-notch touchy subject
Felicity Bernard (she/her) UNH – IHPP: you talk about religion.
Felicity Bernard (she/her) UNH – IHPP: I
Felicity Bernard (she/her) UNH – IHPP: take or leave the policies leave or take whatever I need to. But the feeling of connectedness inside that church is what brings me there singing together with the same, with a room full of other people, just brings me to a place
Felicity Bernard (she/her) UNH – IHPP: like it’s just makes filled me with joy, right like singing. If I could find someone that wants to do it, I might do that. But that that connected to my past and the the connections to them or those around me. That voice is so powerful.
Felicity Bernard (she/her) UNH – IHPP: I mean you, Sam, what you? What do you do?
Samantha Captain (she/her) DHHS: Well, I mean, I kind of feel like I had an advantage in this, because I had experienced trauma previously, and and had found ways.
Samantha Captain (she/her) DHHS: you know, to incorporate those experiences, and and who I was in the present and in meaningful ways. So, I I often think about
Samantha Captain (she/her) DHHS: the fact that, like a crisis, can be a significant opportunity. And I I really relate that to like the metaphor of a a wildfire, how like in wildfire in nature, sometimes that devastation and destruction is actually necessary to provide like this space for new growth
Samantha Captain (she/her) DHHS: and and for that growth to exist, there has to be that space, right? There must be an absence of something
Samantha Captain (she/her) DHHS: in order for us to like. Revise what’s there, and in some cases like even nourish the new growth, right? And and so for me. I I think about that a lot every time I’m. In a state of crisis, whether it’s related to this pandemic or not.
Samantha Captain (she/her) DHHS: that this can be an opportunity for me to find
Samantha Captain (she/her) DHHS: a new way forward, and and I try as much as possible to not be afraid of that prospect. Right? Like changes really hard for many of us, myself included, and sometimes I feel really afraid of that.
Samantha Captain (she/her) DHHS: But then I remind myself of all the ways that I already have changed.
Samantha Captain (she/her) DHHS: and the ways in which those changes have really served me well
Samantha Captain (she/her) DHHS: to have that like space for reflection and realignment, right like to revise and redefine ourselves to reinvent like who we are.
Samantha Captain (she/her) DHHS: Those are all like opportunities that come out of a state of crisis.
Samantha Captain (she/her) DHHS: and for me, like
Samantha Captain (she/her) DHHS: I mean, I find a lot of discomfort in silence and and solitude. But I’ve been kind of practicing that one
Samantha Captain (she/her) DHHS: in in kind of smaller accounts. And so, for me.
Samantha Captain (she/her) DHHS: You know the silver lining was again. Those weekends right this weekend where I got to sit on my deck and bird watch.
Samantha Captain (she/her) DHHS: Yeah, that was important to me. I got to find beauty in the present moment, and I learned, like really the value of putting myself in the path of those beautiful things
Samantha Captain (she/her) DHHS: you want to show some of my birds? I do. I did professional photography for like a number of years, but I’m instead now focusing like really on nature
Samantha Captain (she/her) DHHS: and finding really the beauty that’s that’s all around me, like all the time.
Samantha Captain (she/her) DHHS: By taking, you know, pictures and like picking up my camera and focusing it on the natural world I was able to remind myself of, like the natural process
Samantha Captain (she/her) DHHS: of like growth and revision and and just beauty, even in like destruction and chaos.
Samantha Captain (she/her) DHHS: Thanks for for showing us
Samantha Captain (she/her) DHHS: feeling for me to focus on that stuff.
Felicity Bernard (she/her) UNH – IHPP: Yes, nature, nature.
Felicity Bernard (she/her) UNH – IHPP: it’s such is so healing it is.
Samantha Captain (she/her) DHHS: and and also like just like our relationships, right? Like if anything causing us to like. Look at those relationships and really place a bigger value on those genuine connections on like the embrace of someone who loves you right like
Samantha Captain (she/her) DHHS: That’s a silver lining for me that we are all more aware of those impacts.
Jace Troie (he/him) NAMI NH: I really like what you said about
Jace Troie (he/him) NAMI NH: clearing the way for new growth, and the pandemic was definitely an opportunity for me to do that as well. I am a Trans. Man. I was born female, and I am a man. So
Jace Troie (he/him) NAMI NH: I began my medical transition just before the start of the pandemic. I had
Jace Troie (he/him) NAMI NH: top surgery on February nineteenth, 2,020. So right before the world shut down.
Jace Troie (he/him) NAMI NH: and I was grateful for the pandemic, in a sense, because it gave me the opportunity to transition in peace, and really kind of grow into this new version of myself and
Jace Troie (he/him) NAMI NH: the pandemic, just kind of acted as like a little cocoon for me to do that. I went in as the caterpillar cocoon for a little while, and came out
Jace Troie (he/him) NAMI NH: this whole new person, and
Jace Troie (he/him) NAMI NH: I I think that in the in that sense the pandemic was really good for my mental health, because
Jace Troie (he/him) NAMI NH: I didn’t feel the social pressure, the social stigma as much as I probably could have, and that was a real blessing for me, because it gave me the time to kind of reflect and go about my journey at my own rate and in my own way, and really come out stronger on the other side because of it.
Samantha Captain (she/her) DHHS: Oh, Jace, I’m so glad that you mentioned the butterfly and that transformation, you know it’s something I’ve been thinking about a whole lot, because
Samantha Captain (she/her) DHHS: yeah, I mean, change is messy like I don’t know if you know what happens inside an actual chrysalis? Oh, yes, I look good
Samantha Captain (she/her) DHHS: like for those of you who don’t it’s it’s literally a melting down of what was into liquid like a goopy mixture. And what comes out of that
Samantha Captain (she/her) DHHS: process where that that inside that crystal is very few parts of that category actually contained in their original form in the butterfly.
Samantha Captain (she/her) DHHS: But I think of that butterfly. You know about what its function is in the world like to go around, and in this space of darkness like transform in that, in the chrysalis right? But then to come out and to literally be pollinating plants.
Samantha Captain (she/her) DHHS: and to just like spark on Wonder like how many times have you seen a butterfly, and just like a smile spread across your face as you watch it like flow through the air, and like just do its thing. It just like makes me joyful every time I see that it’s like an awe and wonder thing.
Samantha Captain (she/her) DHHS: And there’s this, this my Angelou quote about that which is like. We delight in the beauty of the butterfly, but rarely admit the changes it’s gone through to achieve that beauty
Samantha Captain (she/her) DHHS: like.
Samantha Captain (she/her) DHHS: Why is it we aren’t, reflecting on the process as much as we are the product.
Jace Troie (he/him) NAMI NH: and many days I was a pile of go emotionally. And yeah, sometimes you have to do that in order to. in order to be the best version of yourself.
Samantha Captain (she/her) DHHS: Yeah, and to spread beauty in the world right like to to provide that sense of wonder for other people
Samantha Captain (she/her) DHHS: and possibility.
Michelle Wagner, NAMI NH (she/her): When the last 3 years we’ve all been our own pile of Goo in some form or another.
Michelle Wagner, NAMI NH (she/her): And for me, when I think about connection and getting back to
Michelle Wagner, NAMI NH (she/her): trying to heal from all of this there’s been trauma, and how are we healing from it? And for me, living alone, working from home much of the time
Michelle Wagner, NAMI NH (she/her): it was getting reconnected with my community, and in one facet of community for me as a recovery community. I’m a woman in recovery. I have an eating disorder that Felicity mentioned a couple of times. I have that, but I also have substance use. I identify as having alcoholism. So, we do do 12 step work.
Michelle Wagner, NAMI NH (she/her): and it was so hard to meet people over. Zoom how we’re back in person. So, if connection is the key to all of this
Michelle Wagner, NAMI NH (she/her): figuring out ways for me to reconnect with people and for me in particular. I know social media and texting and phone calls. Work for people for me, actually being face to face with people is really fabulous.
Michelle Wagner, NAMI NH (she/her): And that dear friend who has asthma. I do get to see her on Saturdays. We’re like 2 little ladies every noon time on a Saturday. We’re sitting at the same restaurant.
Michelle Wagner, NAMI NH (she/her): getting pretty much the same food, and that has been precious and fabulous just to reconnect to the world in that way
Felicity Bernard (she/her) UNH – IHPP: That a great point about recovery, too. I mean it’s them. They’ve done studies on this right. The rats in the in the environment, right? It’s. And and they found that they like some, some it up by saying, Sobriety is not the opposite
Felicity Bernard (she/her) UNH – IHPP: of addiction. It’s connection. Connection is the opposite of addiction. And so how do we recover, we do it together. Yeah.
Felicity Bernard (she/her) UNH – IHPP: yeah. How could you do this? Anything
Liz Haynes- MFS: for me? The biggest connection I had throughout the pandemic was my clients and my teammates.
Liz Haynes- MFS: you know, being able to support my clients in their darkest moments and celebrate their little victories every day, even if I couldn’t see them in person.
Liz Haynes- MFS: It was amazing. and when I fell flat on my face and felt like the world was ending. My team is always here to pick me back up.
Liz Haynes- MFS: No judgment just always encourages written support. And
Liz Haynes- MFS: yeah, I don’t know how I would have gotten through the pandemic without being in the position I am in now
Liz Haynes- MFS: very grateful.
Samantha Captain (she/her) DHHS: Liz. I actually think you make a really good point of the impact of caring for others on ourselves like for a very long time, even pre pandemic. I’ve had service to others on my self Care list, because I’ve seen, you know, so many times
Samantha Captain (she/her) DHHS: We’re being there for someone else and providing for someone else. The space for healing and connection and meaning right in the struggle like
Samantha Captain (she/her) DHHS: that’s healing for me
Samantha Captain (she/her) DHHS: to realize that, like I have some value in the world. Sometimes I forget that right like sometimes you feel like a cognitive machine, or that you’re a failure. I know I do all the time, regardless of the evidence, I feel that.
Samantha Captain (she/her) DHHS: And and so feeling that what I’m doing in my connections matters
Samantha Captain (she/her) DHHS: yeah, that I matter to other people that I can help someone else.
Michelle Wagner, NAMI NH (she/her): That’s a great
Michelle Wagner, NAMI NH (she/her): great segue into the on being episode that Sam and shared with us. Krista Tippet interviewed the surge in general, and I put the link in the chat because that could help you all expand this conversation that we’ve had today.
Michelle Wagner, NAMI NH (she/her): Do we want to do our final poll? Felicity.
Felicity Bernard (she/her) UNH – IHPP: Yeah, let’s do that. Okay?
Michelle Wagner, NAMI NH (she/her): Oh, let me make sure that I can get to that.
Michelle Wagner, NAMI NH (she/her): This is my first.
Michelle Wagner, NAMI NH (she/her): My first experience doing polls. Here we go. Let me launch the last one good care.
Felicity Bernard (she/her) UNH – IHPP: So, after hearing today’s discussion.
Felicity Bernard (she/her) UNH – IHPP: What do you think you’re going to do differently? How are you going to nurse yourself and your community.
Felicity Bernard (she/her) UNH – IHPP: And again. chat is also available. Share your ideas with that. How can we learn from you?
Felicity Bernard (she/her) UNH – IHPP: So here’s a a a short list of things to prioritize self-care.
Felicity Bernard (she/her) UNH – IHPP: Find ways to engage more in my community, put more energy into my relationships with friends and family.
Felicity Bernard (she/her) UNH – IHPP: Recognize and appreciate the value I get from work and volunteering.
or something else.
Felicity Bernard (she/her) UNH – IHPP: What do you think?
Jace Troie (he/him) NAMI NH: Reconnect and pick up new hobbies?
Michelle Wagner, NAMI NH (she/her): You know that you get this the same brain activity, eating chocolate that you do when someone gives you a compliment. If you want to give someone a piece of chocolate, give them.
Michelle Wagner, NAMI NH (she/her): And hopefully, those results are showing for you.
Felicity Bernard (she/her) UNH – IHPP: Yeah, they are showing on my end. Okay, Great Liz Michelle keeps chocolate in her office, too, and I often sneak in to grab one
Michelle Wagner, NAMI NH (she/her): that I do. I don’t know where the statue is right now. Yeah, I made the mistake of letting her know like candy in here. So she comes by a few times a week to grab some.
Felicity Bernard (she/her) UNH – IHPP: Yeah. They like people come visit in your office to keep some talk with it. You’ll be visited. I actually found that was a really good skill in hospital settings, too, like if you’re in in patient hospital like having surgery, or there for a health issue. If you put candy in your room to nurse is coming.
Michelle Wagner, NAMI NH (she/her): that is super wise. We are getting to the end of our time together, Sam. I know you had a poem you wanted to share with us. Yeah, dear friend of mine wrote this poem. It’s titled Resilience, and it’s written by Karen Preay, and and I just really appreciate her perspective. On this the poem goes.
Samantha Captain (she/her) DHHS: Be resilient, they told me, but resilience rarely refers to the ability to bounce back into who I was before. Can I change to meet this new situation? Can I change to adapt to these circumstances? Can I change my ways to overcome? Can I change.
Samantha Captain (she/her) DHHS: please? Can I change a prayer, a plea to the universe for courage and willingness to become a revised version of me?
Samantha Captain (she/her) DHHS: Trembling, I stretched to meet her
Samantha Captain (she/her) DHHS: like a dandelion breaking through the crack in the sidewalk. Resilience is birthing a beautiful new self in whatever conditions we find ourselves.
Samantha Captain (she/her) DHHS: And I just really appreciate Karen’s words there as a reminder that resilience isn’t always about
Samantha Captain (she/her) DHHS: Bouncing back, but finding our new selves that reinvention and the permission that we need to just like revise for the moment, right?
Michelle Wagner, NAMI NH (she/her): Thank you, Sam.
Michelle Wagner, NAMI NH (she/her): Take away from you, Liz, what words of wisdom as we part company today.
Liz Haynes- MFS: I don’t know. Come back to me. I’m coming back to you. J: So about you.
Jace Troie (he/him) NAMI NH: The freedom to live
Jace Troie (he/him) NAMI NH: authentically and creatively can
Jace Troie (he/him) NAMI NH: give way to progress, and hope I guess you might take away
Michelle Wagner, NAMI NH (she/her): nice. Thank you.
Michelle Wagner, NAMI NH (she/her): and for me it’s. Connect, reconnect, connect with the people that are already closest to you deep in that in some way. But think about connecting with the people around you, Liz. Can we hitch up now?
Liz Haynes- MFS: I mean, yeah, really connecting deepening connections with my coworkers with my friends, with my clients.
Liz Haynes- MFS: And it’s important.
Michelle Wagner, NAMI NH (she/her): beautiful. Thank you, Liz Felicity. We’re going to end with you.
Felicity Bernard (she/her) UNH – IHPP: Did Sam? Did you get a
Felicity Bernard (she/her) UNH – IHPP: Yeah, okay, okay, yeah, okay, My biggest takeaways are. I mean, what? From what? From here and from you guys and all of this, this great conversation, is it
Felicity Bernard (she/her) UNH – IHPP: the first thing we have to do is recognize it and talk about it
Felicity Bernard (she/her) UNH – IHPP: right? It’s not a shame. It’s missing a shame in volunteering like we’re all humans, and we’re all doing this together right? And so to to keep the stigma going. With all of this mental health like we don’t talk about that. We have to stop that, we have to be able to let people access the help that they need.
Felicity Bernard (she/her) UNH – IHPP: I also. Yeah connection. Obviously, it’s huge. And
Felicity Bernard (she/her) UNH – IHPP: I just just being able to talk about these things right. It’s just so powerful for me to name it right, and then come together and say, hey, what can we do together. I think all of that is just super powerful. How do you do that in your family? How do you do that in your community.
Felicity Bernard (she/her) UNH – IHPP: right. And so, having these conversations, and having the conversations about how we heal too, and be very powerful
Michelle Wagner, NAMI NH (she/her): great. Thank you all. Thank you all so very much for this panel today. Just a reminder a recording of today’s discussion will be posted on the Education page of Onward and H. Org. You will receive an email in the next couple of days with links for the website along with the evaluation link.
Michelle Wagner, NAMI NH (she/her): Once you’ve completed the survey, you’ll receive a certificate of attendance automatically. Any questions please reach out to me.
and next Wednesday, May third. We’ll be talking to Todd Donovan and his experience with part of Dyskinesia. Hope to see you then. Thank you all so much.