Schroeder Stribling, President and CEO of Mental Health America

May is Mental Health Month, and Mental Health America has released a 2023 Mental Health Toolkit called Look Around, Look Within. The screening data shows that anxiety rates are still high, especially among youth, with many experiencing frequent thoughts of suicide. Homelessness and mental health are interconnected, as insecurity in basic needs impacts mental well-being. The initiative encourages individuals to take care of their mental health by checking in on themselves and making small changes in their environments. Mental Health America is also raising awareness through an awareness campaign with landmarks and buildings being illuminated in green. with May being Mental Health Month and, of course, our Medical Monday segment for today, we will actually dedicate it to the kickoff of May as Mental Health Month and first of a series of interviews and features and guests and topics and things that we're going to be doing throughout the entire month of May. And as humans, our overall health is significantly impacted by our natural and our built environments as well, where we live, where we work, where we play, where we congregate with others all have a powerful influence on our well-being. And it's always important to consider their effects on our mental health, which, of course, sometimes doesn't get the attention that it really deserves. And with these topics in mind, Mental Health America is celebrating National Mental Health Month this May with the release of their 2023 Mental Health Toolkit that is entitled Look Around, Look Within. And my guest who's joining me here at the RNJ Morning Program to kick off our content of May as Mental Health Month is the President and CEO of Mental Health America. We have Schroeder Stribling, who is with us here at the RNJ Morning Program. Schroeder, good morning. Burt Barron, WRNJ Radio. How are you today? I'm well, thanks, Burt. How are you? Good. And thank you so much for making yourself available and for kicking off our month-long series of things that we'll be doing here. Can you just share with us first some of the findings and the trends from the screening data? This was a recent project that your organization took under their wing. What were some of the findings as a result of this study? Well, thanks so much for asking. And thanks again for your focus on mental health this month, Burt. It's so important. This is a terrific annual reminder for all of us to check up on our mental health and that of our loved ones and our neighbors and our communities. And thank you also for noting that we are today releasing a report in conjunction with the start of Mental Health Month. And it speaks to the results of the data that we have collected over this past year from our National Prevention and Screening Program, where 6.3 million people came to take a mental health self-test over this past year. And unfortunately, the news is about what we would expect given the data that we've been seeing about our collective mental health in general. We see that we are still at pre-pandemic rates of anxiety in general. We see that about youth are having really the greatest amount of distress. About three-quarters of people who come to screen every day, which is 20,000 people a day now, about three-quarters of them are youth, and about half of those youth who come to screen themselves for depression are having frequent thoughts of suicide. Those are just some of the highlights of what we've seen. And it leaves a very concerning picture about where we are collectively as a country with our mental health. Yeah, that's very alarming. And it's some very interesting data that you shared with us today. Housing stability and home environment, as we know, play such a large role in our mental health. And I think the term that's being used today, Schroeder, maybe you've heard this, is now they call it the houseless population. The homeless, they've kind of gotten away from that. Now they call it the houseless population. And I think the easy answer to that is if you don't have a stable living environment, if you don't know where you're going to sleep that night or where your next meal is coming from or what am I going to do if it rains again like it rained all weekend here in New Jersey, there's a certain amount of anxiety and instability, I think, that goes with that when you simply don't have a place to live. Do the two go hand-in-hand, mental health and houselessness? Absolutely. Absolutely the case. There, being, experiencing homelessness or being houseless are enormously stressful events. And any type of insecurity in what people's basic needs are, whether that's housing security, food security, the basic needs of daily life, that kind of stress has an enormous impact on our mental health. And so for people who are in that circumstance, that is certainly, mental health is one part of what needs to be addressed. However, really as a precursor to that, people need security in those areas. So that's a housing crisis is something to be addressed immediately, if at all possible, though we know that that's hard in certain parts of our country, especially. Yeah. Yeah. And it's tough to watch, especially when you see a child that goes to school every day and then has nowhere to go. They sleep in a car. They sleep in a parking lot. They sleep in a parking garage. Just heartbreaking. And after a while, it just has to just work and grind down the mental health of everyone involved there. My guest this morning is the President and CEO of Mental Health America, Schroeder Stribling. And we're kicking off May is Mental Health Month with the toolkit and the initiative called Look Around, Look Within. I like the title of that, Schroeder. It sounds like there's power within us to be able to have some of the controls of the things that are happening around us. But talk about the initiative. And what do you want people to take away with Look Around and Look Within? What's the goal of that? Well, I think you've really put your finger on the pulse of what we're getting at, which is that there are things that we can control about our environments and things that we can't. And so you mentioned before housing crises. And sometimes people have a certain amount of ability to affect those larger picture issues. But we all have the ability to look within and to change small things about our environments or our daily routines, which can have a big outsized effect. So for instance, looking within, we hope everybody will take a moment to check on their own mental health. Take some time to reflect. A great way to do that is to go to our screening program. And you can learn more about that at mhanational.org screening program and take a self-test for mental health. That's a terrific way, especially if you're feeling like something's off or you have some concern, it's a great way to check in on your mental health. It's a great resource to share with others. So that's really looking within. As we look around, there are things we can do to make our environment as mentally healthy as possible. Those include things like getting outside. And getting outside doesn't have to mean going to a national park. For instance, I grew up in a small apartment in New York City. And my mother made a very comfortable small environment for us. And we had a little porch where we could be outside. So things like that are small things that we do have control over. So we'd like people to look within, look around, and do what you can to promote your mental health and well-being and develop the kind of resilience that ultimately will help all of us move forward from the collective crisis we've been in. Yeah, I would encourage anybody to go to that website and just take the screening. It sounds like it just takes a couple minutes and could answer some questions. And maybe open up your eyes to a couple things, Schroeder, that maybe people weren't aware of. So I would encourage everybody, just take a couple minutes and check out, go to that website and see what that's all about there. And take that mental health screening. Do it this month. Do it for yourself. Do it for your loved ones. Do it for everybody who cares about you. I think that's an important thing to do. So mhascreening.org is the website that I have where people can go and take this assessment here and this screening. One last thing, and this is pretty cool for the month of May, where a lot of our national landmarks and over 100 buildings across our country are going to be brightly illuminated in this green color, just to raise some awareness for Mental Health Month. Niagara Falls, stadiums, bridges, one location in New Jersey that I'll share. But what was the goal for this, Schroeder? Just hoping to get some national attention, maybe something visible that people can see as a reminder for Mental Health Month? Absolutely right. Absolutely right. We're looking to spread the message, spread awareness, help people remember this terrific annual reminder to check up on your mental health and that of your loved ones and that of your neighborhoods and communities. So having this awareness campaign and having folks be able to see green lights up there and know what it's all about will help us to spread the word so that everyone can look at, look within, and look around. All right. Anybody from Northwest Jersey, a structure, a building, something, and you're listening to this interview in this program, right now all we have is the J and J corporate office in New Brunswick and they're going to be lit up in green for the entire month of May. Let's get more New Jersey involvement in this. Let's get some more of our landmarks. Maybe some of our river crossings want to get involved or maybe some of our big pharma institutions want to help out. Let's do it. Let's all get on board with this and really make a ruckus and kind of get the word out about May being Mental Health Month. And let's raise awareness and let's tackle this problem head on. Thank you so much, Schroeder, for joining me this morning at the RNJ Morning Program. And here's to what's going to be a very good month with a lot of conversation, hopefully some solutions and some dialogue. But let's get the ball rolling with this this morning. And I thank you for the time. I thank you so much. Thanks for what you're doing to raise awareness, Bert. We appreciate it.