Latest / WIXN AM 1460 - Shaw Local Radio / Talk Line: Andy Jackson talks mental health in the Sauk Valley

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Talk Line: Andy Jackson talks mental health in the Sauk Valley · WIXN AM 1460 - Shaw Local Radio

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  Speaker 1: Welcome back, Waking crew. You're here with us on FM
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  Speaker 1: ninety five one and AM fourteen sixty wixcent It's eight
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  Speaker 1: fifteen on your Thursday morning, and that means it's time
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  Speaker 1: for talk line and I'm joined in the booth once
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  Speaker 1: again by our good friends from Sinnissippi Centers, Andy Jackson, Sir,
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  Speaker 1: how are you?
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  Speaker 2: Oh good?
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  Speaker 3: How about you?
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  Speaker 2: Yeah?
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  Speaker 3: You know, just fantastic.
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  Speaker 1: We could fill a whole show with the Star Wars
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  Speaker 1: and Star Trap we had going on before this. You
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  Speaker 1: guys would be so surprised considering how serious me and
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  Speaker 1: Andy kit.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah. What prompted that I think is a new Mandalorian movie.
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  Speaker 2: So we were just talking.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, and I haven't seen yet and you said you
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  Speaker 1: had neither. But of course opinions are already out there.
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  Speaker 1: I have to almost avoid the Internet, which is hard
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  Speaker 1: to critic as much as I'm on it. Yeah, yeah,
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  Speaker 1: between spoilers and critics and why and it's like I
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  Speaker 1: don't want my opinion influenced. I have my opinion's mine?
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  Speaker 3: Yeah yep.
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  Speaker 2: Oh.
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  Speaker 1: Anyways, May's mental health month and so you got some
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  Speaker 1: you know, important news to go along with that. Of course,
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  Speaker 1: the very you know around the that is the core
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  Speaker 1: of Ssissippi Centers is mental.
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  Speaker 3: Health, mental health, behavioral health care, substance use treatment, all
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  Speaker 3: kinds of things. But yeah, during May, we really want
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  Speaker 3: to focus on the mental health aspect, which was first
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  Speaker 3: designated in America, by the way, in nineteen forty nine
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  Speaker 3: by Mental Health in America. Part of what prompted that
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  Speaker 3: was all of the i think soldiers in World War
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  Speaker 3: Two who would experienced what back then was called shell
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  Speaker 3: shock what we would call PTSD now and amongst other things.
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  Speaker 3: So it's been celebrated for a long time and it's
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  Speaker 3: a month that from our perspective especially, we want people
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  Speaker 3: to take away kind of two things. And one, you know,
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  Speaker 3: recognize that we all have a level of mental wellness
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  Speaker 3: just like physical fitness, financial fitness, if you want to
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  Speaker 3: call it financial fitness, financial wellness, whatever, and all of that,
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  Speaker 3: and that mental wellness is linked to all other kinds
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  Speaker 3: of health and wellness. SAMPSO, which is the Substance Abuse
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  Speaker 3: in Mental Health Services Administration has a nice flyer called
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  Speaker 3: the Eight Dimensions of Wellness, and financial is one of those,
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  Speaker 3: but so is mental wellness and physical health and all
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  Speaker 3: of those kinds of things. So and they are all
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  Speaker 3: are all interconnected. And then I think the second thing
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  Speaker 3: we want people to take away it's a chance to
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  Speaker 3: talk about how mental illnesses are real, just like other
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  Speaker 3: chronic physical illnesses. And I say that because sometimes we might,
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  Speaker 3: you know, because it's it's not a broken bone. It's
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  Speaker 3: not something that you can see. It's you know, we
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  Speaker 3: kind of is maybe a little bit more I don't know,
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  Speaker 3: not real to people, but it really is. You can
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  Speaker 3: think of it as a brain disease really in one way.
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  Speaker 3: You can certainly think of it as that it's just
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  Speaker 3: like any other chronic physical illness that can be treated effectively.
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  Speaker 3: Like any chronic illness, diagnosing and treating as early as
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  Speaker 3: possible can prevent or lessen symptoms. So I think those
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  Speaker 3: are the two big takeaways that we want people to
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  Speaker 3: take away from Men's Mental Health Month.
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  Speaker 1: You know, that's a really great comparison when you said that,
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  Speaker 1: it's you know, it's the way people gloss over it
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  Speaker 1: in terms of like, it's not a broken bone. If
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  Speaker 1: if my leg was broken and you clearly see that,
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  Speaker 1: somebody would say.
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  Speaker 3: I want to see it, but yes, you could definitely
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  Speaker 3: see that bones, especially when the bone sticks out.
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  Speaker 4: I don't want to see that you're making me shuttered out,
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  Speaker 4: But people would see that, hopefully not see it either,
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  Speaker 4: but they would expect that I can't walk right, It
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  Speaker 4: wouldn't be a conversation unless you are a crazy person
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  Speaker 4: or jerk.
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  Speaker 1: Brandon can't walk. But when it comes to this, people
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  Speaker 1: are like, you can still think you can still go,
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  Speaker 1: So you're absolutely right. It could get glossed over and
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  Speaker 1: treated not as seriously by and by some people.
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  Speaker 3: It's a bit extreme to say that sometimes we think
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  Speaker 3: it's all in all, just all in your head.
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  Speaker 2: You know.
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  Speaker 3: We've heard that saying before, and I don't think that
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  Speaker 3: people really think that, but there's a but there's an
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  Speaker 3: aspect of it to that that you know, you don't
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  Speaker 3: you know, when somebody is experiencing mental illness, it's kind
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  Speaker 3: of hard to understand. It might be hard to understand
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  Speaker 3: it in particular, which is what organizations like NOAMI are for,
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  Speaker 3: which is the National Alliance of Mental Illness for Supportive
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  Speaker 3: family Members. So it can be kind of hard to
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  Speaker 3: understand it, especially at first if you haven't experienced it
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  Speaker 3: before in someone else or in yourself.
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  Speaker 1: I'm just glad we're getting to a point in civilization
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  Speaker 1: where we're trying to understand it.
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  Speaker 3: I think, so we need a ways to go. There's
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  Speaker 3: a ways to go. There's this stigma still, but I
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  Speaker 3: think especially COVID helped people understand point number one. Especially,
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  Speaker 3: we all have a level of mental wellness, and I
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  Speaker 3: think there is a great understanding, a greater understanding during
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  Speaker 3: COVID and which has stayed. It's been durable. If people
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  Speaker 3: understand their mental wellness and the mental wellness of other
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  Speaker 3: people better, a lot better having gone through that kind
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  Speaker 3: of difficult period. Everybody experienced it differently, but there was
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  Speaker 3: a lot of difficult times during COVID that we all
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  Speaker 3: went through.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, and I mean, this isn't something that's just like
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  Speaker 1: on the rare, out outliers of society. What is this
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  Speaker 1: you had shared with the one in five American adults
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  Speaker 1: experience mental illness?
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, I have a mental illness. Yeah, that's twenty percent. Yeah, absolutely,
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  Speaker 3: So if you think about even a small group of
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  Speaker 3: people that you're in, you look around, even if you
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  Speaker 3: don't know it, somebody's likely to have a diagnosable illness,
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  Speaker 3: whether they've had it diagnosed and treated or not. Yeah,
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  Speaker 3: So that's it. Is a significant number.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, absolutely.
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  Speaker 1: I mean there's maybe about ten of us in the
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  Speaker 1: station right now, and I'll tell you me and Sam
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  Speaker 1: are probably the two that you'd be picking out. But no, seriously,
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  Speaker 1: it's it's something that we've come to recognize where you've said,
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  Speaker 1: you know, we do have a ways to go, but
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  Speaker 1: I think we've definitely just come so far in this.
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  Speaker 3: I think so, especially if you if you contrasted in
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  Speaker 3: the past, where you know, I've been to institutions, we
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  Speaker 3: used to essentially lock people up in a prison, yeah,
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  Speaker 3: for mental illness. I mean, I think the intentions might
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  Speaker 3: have been good, but I mean it really and that's
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  Speaker 3: what spawned community mental health centers like Sinnissippi in the
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  Speaker 3: nineteen sixties, was in reaction to we're just warehousing people
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  Speaker 3: with mental illness who could otherwise be out in the community, productive,
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  Speaker 3: living their lives just like many people do. And yeah,
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  Speaker 3: a long time ago, it was it was it was
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  Speaker 3: it could be pretty bad if if you said that
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  Speaker 3: you had a mental illness, and and how that how
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  Speaker 3: people got treated and or didn't get got treated by
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  Speaker 3: other people, but maybe not getting the treatment that they
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  Speaker 3: really needed. We've we've come a long way with medications, counseling,
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  Speaker 3: all kinds of things, and it is it is way better.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, absolutely, it's a lot better.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, And it's it's really about having these conversations to
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  Speaker 1: kind of like combat the stigma around it and kind
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  Speaker 1: of get around the uncomfortableness of it for folks who
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  Speaker 1: are still hesitant maybe to talk to somebody, and if
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  Speaker 1: they're not, I mean, Sinissippi Centers is a great place
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  Speaker 1: to start that conversation with somebody that's going to understand you, uh,
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  Speaker 1: you know, isn't going to treat you in that way, right,
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  Speaker 1: and and get the services and like you said, you
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  Speaker 1: guys cover a wide range.
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  Speaker 3: Of services, very comprehensive, not just mental health treatment. We
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  Speaker 3: have a Healthy Family's Illinois program that has to do
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  Speaker 3: with mothers and babies are young, young children and keeping
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  Speaker 3: the family healthy in those kind of things. We have
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  Speaker 3: substance use treatment, We have supervised living apartment sites just
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  Speaker 3: well over I think still thirty programs and services that
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  Speaker 3: span the behavioral health spectrum. So very comprehensive. Absolutely. We
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  Speaker 3: have in fact, we have on site primary care for individuals,
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  Speaker 3: so we don't have a doctor on site, but we
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  Speaker 3: have you know where a client of Sinissippi Centers could
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  Speaker 3: actually receive some medical care on site at many of
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  Speaker 3: our locations. So it is a very wide variety of services.
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  Speaker 1: If anybody kind of wanted to get it, more than
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  Speaker 1: an extensive you know list or look at these services
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  Speaker 1: would be the best way to do it.
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  Speaker 3: I think Mental Health America's website, they are the ones
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  Speaker 3: that first designated this, Like I said back in nineteen
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  Speaker 3: forty nine, they have a great website for Mental Health Month,
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  Speaker 3: and we have a link to them on our website.
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  Speaker 3: But I'll give you their Our website is mental Health
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  Speaker 3: America dot net. So it's it's gonna be dot net
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  Speaker 3: instead of something else. Mental Health America dot net. And
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  Speaker 3: they've got great information. They've got a spot where you
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  Speaker 3: can take a free confidential online screening for yourself, could
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  Speaker 3: take it for someone else given you know enough information
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  Speaker 3: about their situation to find out what might be going on. Now,
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  Speaker 3: it's not a diagnosis. Again, it's free and confidential, it's online.
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  Speaker 3: It's not a diagnosis, but it's a hey, yes you're
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  Speaker 3: maybe you're right, something might be going on. Here's your
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  Speaker 3: next step. That's what they're going to give you. But
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  Speaker 3: if we have an extensive list of links on our website,
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  Speaker 3: it's sent us to be dot org, including the link
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  Speaker 3: to those screenings at the top of our links. At
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  Speaker 3: the top of the page you go to links, and
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  Speaker 3: then at the top of the links pages of screenings.
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  Speaker 3: So absolutely, yeah, there you go.
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  Speaker 1: That's a really great way to just kind of especially
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  Speaker 1: if you're someone who's a little hesitant, go on their
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  Speaker 1: play around a little bit, look at those resources they
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  Speaker 1: have on both of those sites, and then make a call.
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  Speaker 1: You're going to thank your so for getting that started
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  Speaker 1: and Andy, you know, while we're here, we would be
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  Speaker 1: remiss if we didn't talk about the organization's sixtieth anniversary year.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah.
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  Speaker 3: I think I've teased this, but it bears repeating because
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  Speaker 3: we're going to kind of celebrate this throughout the years.
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  Speaker 3: So probably in June we'll try to find some June
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  Speaker 3: related history of Sinnesippi Centers that we might pull up
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  Speaker 3: and talk about. But exactly, Sennasippi Centers is celebrating our
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  Speaker 3: sixtieth anniversary year. We started it at our Gathering for
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  Speaker 3: Good fundraiser that was success and a whole lot of
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  Speaker 3: fun back on May sixteenth at the Elks Lodge. Thank
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  Speaker 3: you for everyone that had something to do with making
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  Speaker 3: that a success, Sponsors, donors, people who came, all those
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  Speaker 3: kind of things. But we'll have social media posts, other
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  Speaker 3: activities that we're going to do to commemorate our anniversary,
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  Speaker 3: like I said, throughout the next twelve months, and that
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  Speaker 3: the very date that we're going to celebrate is May
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  Speaker 3: thirty first. Back in nineteen sixty six, Sinissippi Centers was founded,
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  Speaker 3: and then I'm sure there was something getting certified with
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  Speaker 3: the eight back then. Even back then we started providing services.
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  Speaker 3: I think was July first of that year, but in
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  Speaker 3: July of nineteen sixty six. So yeah, we're going to
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  Speaker 3: celebrate all of that. Sixty years of service hard to believe,
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  Speaker 3: and even back then served the four county area that
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  Speaker 3: is still the core of our service area. We also
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  Speaker 3: offer services from our Freeport office now up in Stevenson County,
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  Speaker 3: but Carol, Lee, Ogle, and Whiteside Counties were served from
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  Speaker 3: the very beginning from an office here in Dixon on
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  Speaker 3: Glean Avenue actually, and that building is still there in
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  Speaker 3: our history. I was not able to find where pictures
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  Speaker 3: of are where our Sterling office was located, but We
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  Speaker 3: had a Sterling office as well in nineteen sixty six.
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  Speaker 3: So we have those two offices serving those four counties
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  Speaker 3: right off the bat in sixty six, and it just
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  Speaker 3: increased from there.
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  Speaker 1: It's wild to think about that that much history in
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  Speaker 1: the Sauk Valley and having these kind of services here
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  Speaker 1: for there it.
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  Speaker 2: Is those roots.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, it's wild.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, but great.
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  Speaker 1: I mean for rural areas like hours again, and there
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  Speaker 1: are some communities, you know, same same size, same kind
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  Speaker 1: of relative location that don't have that kind of kind
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  Speaker 1: of support here.
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  Speaker 2: So we're lucky in that sense.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, there are a lot of parts of Illinois are
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  Speaker 3: in what's called a health professional shortage area, and that's
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  Speaker 3: just overall health that includes like hospitals, doctors and things
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  Speaker 3: like that, but in particular our for behavioral health care
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  Speaker 3: even more so in some of the areas of our state.
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  Speaker 3: For sure. Absolutely, yeah, I would see that.
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  Speaker 1: I had imagine if they had a complete pocket, they're
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  Speaker 1: probably going to think like physical health like first and
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  Speaker 1: then and then bringing that in. So having having all
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  Speaker 1: that here is just fantastic. Any anything else you want
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  Speaker 1: to share, Well, we've got a couple of minutes.
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  Speaker 3: Well we just want to thank everyone who's supported the
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  Speaker 3: agency over the years. Are many community partners that we've
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  Speaker 3: worked with, anybody that has touched the agency in any
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  Speaker 3: way that's that's helped us be a success along our
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  Speaker 3: journey and helped helped us provide behavioral healthcare to our communities.
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  Speaker 3: We just want to thank them for all of that support.
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  Speaker 3: And we of course we look forward to the coming decades.
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  Speaker 3: So one hundred years, I'm not going to be around
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  Speaker 3: for that. I suspect one hundred years would be in
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  Speaker 3: It would be a very interesting anniversary celebration.
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  Speaker 1: Absolutely, I think the speed of the conversation between me
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  Speaker 1: and you would be a little a little slower paced, just.
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  Speaker 3: A wee bet probably.
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  Speaker 1: Well, Andy, thank you so much for coming sharing this information.
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  Speaker 1: For all the fine work you folks do over at
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  Speaker 1: Sinney Sippy Centers, we really appreciate it.
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  Speaker 3: Well, thank you,