It’s exhilarating to work with a group of ppl all going for the same goals: eliminating “stigma” and educating their specific population and the masses on mental health, and the teaching the best coping/treatment/thriving methodologies.
Got to do the morning keynote today for conference attendees – this first picture is the #SameHere shot of all those in attendance – fire, police, paramedics, executive boards (you’ll see on the second slide). When it comes to MH, we can’t have silos. We must work as one big team.
The presentation gave me the opportunity to expand on the idea that Steve Farina and I from this amazing group have, to use #SameHere to establish the baseline that we all face challenges, and then #ShareItDontWearIt as a call to action to start opening up – to peers, to family, and to professionals. There is no telling how far and how many communities, industries, & countries we can reach with our collective connections, tying this all together.
To have folks come up after the hour session and talk about how they’d like to be involved and how they’d like to help connect dots was incredible. This experience helps us realize there are partner organizations (not just individual advocates) around the world who want to work together to accomplish the goals above. That’s. Plain. Awesome.
There were a bunch of slides today on everything from sleep cycles and how 16 hrs awake and 8 hrs asleep helps “clean the exhaust” we build up from the work our brains do while we function throughout the day…to how organizations can change from shame-based cultures to encouraging cultures. Theo Fleury, to your point, they showed a slide on “creating the safe zone” from one of their program presenters as step 1! Unbelievable experience and so glad I came to be a part. Looking forward to doing much more with this passionate crew!
We are living through a time where talking about unification is less popular and more risky than talking about divison