Latest / Voices for Voices® / The Future of Mental Health Care Is Here | Episode 98

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The Future of Mental Health Care Is Here | Episode 98 · Voices for Voices®

• 0:00
  Justin Alan Hayes, Voices for Voices: Welcome to the Voices for Voices TV show and podcast sponsored by Redwood Living.
• 0:07
  Justin Alan Hayes, Voices for Voices: Thank you for joining us today I am Justin Alan Hayes, founder and executive director of Voices for Voices, host and humanitarian.
• 0:17
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• 0:27
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• 0:58
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• 1:13
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• 1:22
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• 1:33
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• 1:35
  Justin Alan Hayes, Voices for Voices: Now.
• 1:36
  Justin Alan Hayes, Voices for Voices: I founded Voices for Voices to provide a platform for folks to share their stories with others as we work to break the stigma around mental health, accessibility and disabilities, helping people get the help they need while also helping them transition or prepare for the workforce with our Voices for Voices Career Center, where we connect talent with opportunity for both job seekers and employers alike, from coast to coast and in every industry and job level.
• 2:15
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• 2:17
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• 2:22
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• 2:33
  Justin Alan Hayes, Voices for Voices: Today, joining us in studio is Staci Hayes, so we have the same last name, but I can promise we're not related that we know of, and so we want to introduce and welcome Staci to the Voices for Voices TV show and podcast.
• 2:53
  Staci Hayes: Hi Justin.
• 2:54
  Justin Alan Hayes, Voices for Voices: Thank you for taking time out of your day and sharing your experience with the world.
• 3:04
  Staci Hayes: Thanks for having me and I want to congratulate you on your recent work abroad.
• 3:08
  Justin Alan Hayes, Voices for Voices: Oh, thank you.
• 3:08
  Staci Hayes: It's really meaningful and exciting.
• 3:10
  Justin Alan Hayes, Voices for Voices: Thank you, yeah, it was.
• 3:11
  Justin Alan Hayes, Voices for Voices: Yeah, still recovering, yeah, so a lot to get into.
• 3:16
  Justin Alan Hayes, Voices for Voices: Maybe we can start with your.
• 3:19
  Justin Alan Hayes, Voices for Voices: How did you get interested in mental health and social work and wanting to be a clinical counselor, and then we can get into your current work that you're also doing as well.
• 3:35
  Staci Hayes: Sure.
• 3:35
  Staci Hayes: So I think what's kind of interesting is it wasn't very, a very straightforward path.
• 3:40
  Staci Hayes: It was very serendipitous and kind of counseling found me opposed to me, kind of finding counseling.
• 3:46
  Staci Hayes: So, despite growing up in Florida around alligators and like like literally coming up into your backyard and like laying and sunning themselves in your backyard, I grew up with a very Midwestern kind of culture, so women had to be strong and still kind of sassy, but you needed to learn when to be quiet and you'd be able to go on, chop wood and then still kind of come in and make cinnamon rolls from scratch.
• 4:08
  Staci Hayes: So it was kind of this very like juxtaposition of being soft and strong and kind of kind.
• 4:12
  Staci Hayes: So I love that part of myself.
• 4:15
  Staci Hayes: I still struggle with the quiet part, but I think that's a good thing.
• 4:19
  Staci Hayes: But yeah, so first-generation college student which comes with so many unique boundaries and obstacles, so school came relatively easy to me.
• 4:29
  Staci Hayes: So in high school it was very logical that I would be kind of pushed through.
• 4:33
  Staci Hayes: I got through with four years, no summers, so I had tested out of enough classes.
• 4:38
  Staci Hayes: I think I switched my major three times, had exactly the right amount of credits to graduate.
• 4:44
  Staci Hayes: So then what happened was.
• 4:46
  Staci Hayes: I was working the same jobs that I was working before I graduated, but I was paying back student loans.
• 4:51
  Staci Hayes: So I really lacked that mentorship, that guidance, and I'm gonna take some responsibility.
• 4:56
  Staci Hayes: I really didn't seek it out because the end goal was getting that education, getting that piece of paper, getting that degree I wanted so much more.
• 5:05
  Staci Hayes: So then, like I said, counseling kind of found me.
• 5:06
  Staci Hayes: I was always that person that people liked talking to.
• 5:09
  Staci Hayes: I felt very passionately about helping people believe in themselves, telling them that they had what they needed.
• 5:16
  Staci Hayes: So that was one thing that I noticed from your podcast is that you were humanitarian.
• 5:20
  Staci Hayes: I'm a very humanistic counselor, so fundamentally I believe that people have what they need.
• 5:26
  Staci Hayes: They either need education or sometimes just encouragement, or sometimes just some support, somebody to believe in them.
• 5:32
  Staci Hayes: So counseling really gave me that vessel to do that.
• 5:35
  Staci Hayes: So during my masters at Kent State loved it, had so much fun, took my time when I say took my time, I still get through two and a half years but I took the time to really do that self-evaluation, spend that time working on myself, growing the beautiful maturation that happens when you take a second to go.
• 5:54
  Staci Hayes: Hey, how do I feel about this?
• 5:56
  Staci Hayes: How am I thinking about this?
• 5:57
  Staci Hayes: How is my viewpoint biased?
• 6:00
  Staci Hayes: How is it different than other people see the world and coming to that stark realization that how I grew up is not how everyone else grew up and how they see the world and experience the world very differently?
• 6:11
  Staci Hayes: So in the experience that I've had as a counselor, I've seen children, adolescents, families, couples, I've worked with forensic populations, college students.
• 6:22
  Staci Hayes: I loved it all.
• 6:24
  Staci Hayes: So when I was really having a passion of just working with people in general, I wanted to do more.
• 6:28
  Staci Hayes: So then I was like, okay, so then I'll be a college professor.
• 6:31
  Staci Hayes: So then I went, got my, you know, my doctorate and counselor education and supervision had so much fun, so much fun and again had that time to grow and, you know, focus on myself and really look at how I was going to change an impact.
• 6:45
  Staci Hayes: And then, right after I graduated, I ended up getting a job very close to home which was awesome as a college professor Teaching, counseling, and that was amazing.
• 6:55
  Staci Hayes: And then, all of a sudden, I was like I've worked so hard to get to this point and this isn't where I want to be, this isn't where I want to end up.
• 7:03
  Staci Hayes: So I think what's unique about my kind of educational journey is that when you work so hard for something and you realize that this is not where you wanted to be, that's okay.
• 7:13
  Staci Hayes: It was just a stepping stone to the next place.
• 7:16
  Staci Hayes: So I really just kind of looked around I've been very fortunate in my life to have these opportunities to take a breath, look around, self-evaluate and be like where am I supposed to be and what am I supposed to be doing?
• 7:30
  Staci Hayes: And just like approach the world with an open head and an open heart.
• 7:34
  Staci Hayes: And it was Thanksgiving last year.
• 7:38
  Staci Hayes: We had this amazing family tradition with my three children Macy's Day, prayed, and then we do a gingerbread house.
• 7:45
  Staci Hayes: So they pretend to put the gingerbread house together and I pretend to notice that they're not just eating candy for breakfast.
• 7:50
  Staci Hayes: So that's like that's our thing.
• 7:52
  Staci Hayes: And I really just started seeing all this stuff about NFTs.
• 7:56
  Staci Hayes: You know, on the Macy's Day, prayed, my husband went and bought like the Oculus goggles, and then I started hearing cryptocurrency and technology, technology, technology.
• 8:06
  Staci Hayes: And that was really an interesting part of kind of what brought me to where I'm at.
• 8:09
  Justin Alan Hayes, Voices for Voices: Wow yeah.
• 8:13
  Staci Hayes: That was a lot, Justin.
• 8:14
  Staci Hayes: Yeah, that is a lot.
• 8:16
  Justin Alan Hayes, Voices for Voices: But on the teaching side, it must have come natural to share your experiences, the knowledge that you have with students.
• 8:30
  Justin Alan Hayes, Voices for Voices: So, whether it's in the classroom where you're sharing, or whether it's on Zoom or your office, having those visits, having conversations, it sounds like it's been easier than maybe others, for maybe more of an introvert.
• 8:49
  Justin Alan Hayes, Voices for Voices: It's like okay, I'm not going to share as much I'm going to feel it out before I start sharing.
• 8:57
  Justin Alan Hayes, Voices for Voices: Is there anything you can maybe point to.
• 8:59
  Justin Alan Hayes, Voices for Voices: Maybe it's not like one thing, but just how you started to feel when you're in those situations.
• 9:06
  Justin Alan Hayes, Voices for Voices: It's like okay, wow, it's coming natural to me.
• 9:11
  Staci Hayes: Right.
• 9:11
  Staci Hayes: So here's the funny part I'm more introverted than people will ever understand.
• 9:15
  Staci Hayes: So when I'm faced with a difficult situation, I have a tendency to kind of pull in a little bit and be more analytical than kind of reaching out.
• 9:21
  Staci Hayes: So that's something that I've really worked on.
• 9:23
  Staci Hayes: One thing that was really important to me as a professor was not only giving practical application, because you learn all this theory and all these beautiful ideas and I'm like that's great.
• 9:33
  Staci Hayes: You need to learn how to get into the trenches and how to utilize this and actually help people.
• 9:39
  Staci Hayes: But one thing I really rammed home with my students was this issue of self-care and you have to take care of yourself, especially as somebody who is a helping professional, like anybody who's a caretaker or takes charge of, or responsibility of, somebody else's well-being.
• 9:54
  Staci Hayes: If you're not taking care of yourself, you're not taking care of them.
• 9:56
  Staci Hayes: And one of the big things that I found about myself is self-care really means personal development and creating these challenges in my life where I'm putting myself in kind of uncomfortable situations and I have to overcome that.
• 10:08
  Staci Hayes: So that personal growth is self-care for me.
• 10:11
  Staci Hayes: And when I would say this to some of my students, they would really look at me and say, oh okay, so I need this really expensive skin care or I need to go buy this super expensive mountain bike.
• 10:21
  Staci Hayes: And although some people have this spiritual connection to nature, it shouldn't involve you spending a lot of money.
• 10:28
  Staci Hayes: And it's a very personal journey where you need to know yourself well enough to know what makes you feel restored, so that answers your question it does, and I've had a little bit of changing majors going through school.
• 10:45
  Justin Alan Hayes, Voices for Voices: I changed it a couple of times and even then, when I landed on a major to where I'm at now, there's still differences.
• 10:53
  Justin Alan Hayes, Voices for Voices: But when you were kind of feeling your way through with the different majors, how did you know that you wanted to, I guess, keep an open eye or an open ear or like, okay, I'm doing this thing or these things, but my heart's not all in it.
• 11:11
  Justin Alan Hayes, Voices for Voices: Maybe there's something else, because I not only with COVID, but I think there's a lot of students that might say, oh well, I went to school for this or I'm going for this, I have all this debt and now I'm doing something that I don't love, that I want to do something more.
• 11:29
  Justin Alan Hayes, Voices for Voices: So maybe you can give some inspiration on that of how you found yourself and then how you're able to share that with others.
• 11:38
  Staci Hayes: Right.
• 11:38
  Staci Hayes: So I think that's an excellent question.
• 11:40
  Staci Hayes: So for me, the generation that I grew up, and it was pretty much go to college, you're going to make so much more money, you know like, just go and they will figure it out later.
• 11:48
  Staci Hayes: So I think there were so many people that felt like they were all in and they wanted new cards, but they didn't want to fold because they had so much invested.
• 11:55
  Staci Hayes: So that's what you're kind of explaining to me.
• 11:57
  Staci Hayes: I would say have the courage to invest in yourself.
• 12:00
  Staci Hayes: And unfortunately, college is super expensive for so many people and I know I had to take out student loans.
• 12:06
  Staci Hayes: I ended up getting a graduate assistantship later on, but again, being a first generation college student, how about buying books?
• 12:13
  Staci Hayes: How about, like there's people aren't your family's not equipped for that?
• 12:16
  Staci Hayes: They don't understand.
• 12:18
  Staci Hayes: So when they have this huge bill come up like my mom still says I have my doctorate in psychology, and now she laughs and says she likes to say that better, even though that's not what my doctorate's in.
• 12:26
  Staci Hayes: But they just have this under like wait, you do an internship and you work for free and you're like, yeah, because you're gaining experience.
• 12:32
  Staci Hayes: So I would say and I know I'm going to take a lot of flack, for this is college is not for everybody and I am a huge proponent of you know two year degrees, you know professional training programs like if you have an idea, if you don't have an idea, get some experiences and, I think, very similar to how you live your life and the example that you're setting for people is get outside of yourself and help others and that gives you an amazing understanding of yourself and where you're supposed to be and what you're supposed to be doing.
• 12:58
  Staci Hayes: And allow that to change, because you're going to grow and your experiences are going to shape you and you're going to view the world differently, so you have to allow yourself to change.
• 13:08
  Staci Hayes: The scary part of that is is you will give up a certain level of stability in order to embrace that adventure, so that stability piece.
• 13:17
  Staci Hayes: You can't have adventure and stability in the same breath.
• 13:19
  Staci Hayes: It's not possible.
• 13:20
  Staci Hayes: I've tried, trust me, but understanding that you're going to have to let go of who you were to become who you're supposed to be.
• 13:28
  Justin Alan Hayes, Voices for Voices: Yeah, and I think it comes back to do it you like, what makes you feel good, not what your room may, what your family may think that, wow, I mean, even in my case family is the biggest champion, but also sometimes doesn't quite understand why I would go to Ukraine for six days, and what I want to do what I wanted to achieve, and again, that adventure and stability of adventure.
• 14:02
  Justin Alan Hayes, Voices for Voices: Like, okay, there's air raid, sirens at one o'clock in the morning, is a missile going to hit?
• 14:07
  Justin Alan Hayes, Voices for Voices: Yes, no, hopefully all the safety precautions are taken.
• 14:11
  Justin Alan Hayes, Voices for Voices: And then, on a I mean, less extreme side, of things right changing majors or going to a training or which are all scary, which are all scary on their own merits.
• 14:23
  Staci Hayes: I heard a piece of advice that I carried with me when I was young.
• 14:26
  Staci Hayes: It's like you're not going to ask the janitor how to be a millionaire, so you should always take advice from people who have what you want.
• 14:33
  Staci Hayes: So if you don't want what that person has and they're giving you advice.
• 14:36
  Staci Hayes: But what's so funny is is those people who are readily giving advice.
• 14:40
  Staci Hayes: It comes from a place of love.
• 14:41
  Staci Hayes: It doesn't mean that you have to take it, but understanding that.
• 14:44
  Staci Hayes: If your family doesn't understand you and you're trying to be different, that probably makes a lot of sense, because they're not getting where you're coming from, because you're going somewhere they've never been.
• 14:53
  Justin Alan Hayes, Voices for Voices: So so, moving a little bit to what you were mentioning last Thanksgiving, and in the paper that you put together and you just have a way with words I'm like, oh my gosh, we could put like all these like very complex words, like a sentence, so like I would write a paragraph and I would have one here and there.
• 15:14
  Staci Hayes: But that's higher ed, Justin.
• 15:16
  Staci Hayes: It is Like you have to sound smarter than what you are I got it Go ahead, yeah.
• 15:20
  Justin Alan Hayes, Voices for Voices: So when, when you did find, and we're finding the you know AI and the metaverse and all these like you said these terms and your husband comes home with the the Oculus goggles.
• 15:33
  Justin Alan Hayes, Voices for Voices: And how did you move forward once you, once those thoughts were coming into your mind?
• 15:41
  Justin Alan Hayes, Voices for Voices: Because there's a big difference between okay, here's something I want to do, right, and and then Test in the water.
• 15:49
  Justin Alan Hayes, Voices for Voices: So how did you get to the part of testing the waters and maybe what was your like process?
• 15:54
  Staci Hayes: Well, like, I think one of the biggest barriers to so many people is this level of perfectionism, and so I have to do it the right way the first time.
• 16:01
  Staci Hayes: So you cannot be afraid to fail, and I hate failing, it is like one of my least favorite things in the world, but I learn so much from it.
• 16:09
  Staci Hayes: You don't learn anything from succeeding, to be honest, it's just this little you know, bow on the present.
• 16:13
  Staci Hayes: But I think you cannot be afraid of making a misstep and understanding that you're gonna learn from it, and then you just keep moving forward.
• 16:19
  Staci Hayes: So initially, what I just did is my husband's like well, do this, this and this.
• 16:23
  Staci Hayes: Because he's just like, like, the most amazing Influence my life as far as, like, you don't need to know what you're doing, just know what the next step is.
• 16:29
  Staci Hayes: And then to figure out what the next step is from there and kind of looking at mental health and wellness and that interaction with technology.
• 16:36
  Staci Hayes: I can't really think of two infrastructures that are more at odds, but they have very good similarities in the sense of Creativity and complex problems and how we can bring those together.
• 16:48
  Staci Hayes: So really looking at what is the next logical step and where can I go from there and hopefully Connecting with people who not only are enthusiastic and supportive but also believe in what you're trying to do.
• 16:59
  Staci Hayes: So trying to find good people to add into your support system.
• 17:02
  Staci Hayes: So finding that next logical step.
• 17:05
  Justin Alan Hayes, Voices for Voices: And that's so crucial finding People that will support you and what, what you're doing of what interests you, even if it's Like that's not me, that's not something.
• 17:17
  Justin Alan Hayes, Voices for Voices: I'm interested.
• 17:18
  Justin Alan Hayes, Voices for Voices: Like my wife, she does space planning for joint fabric stores and so she saw AutoCAD and all these things and I'm like I I don't know I know how to high-level on it, what you're doing, but like when you're getting there, like okay, the cameras go here and then, and then for a construction process of being able to support and say You're great, what you you do.
• 17:41
  Justin Alan Hayes, Voices for Voices: I don't know what that really is, but you know.
• 17:45
  Justin Alan Hayes, Voices for Voices: So please support me and what I'm doing, even if it takes time and, like you said, trial and error and Sometimes, getting back to on your internship Example, there might be times where you're not paid or paid as well, but there will be come a time if you continue on what what you believe in Obviously have to be somewhat rational about.
• 18:13
  Justin Alan Hayes, Voices for Voices: I can't bankrupt your family right those things but outside of that, or going on a trip in a war-torn country at the time.
• 18:21
  Justin Alan Hayes, Voices for Voices: Right, that's it.
• 18:24
  Justin Alan Hayes, Voices for Voices: So how did you start to incorporate Meta into your practice and Driving you to start your, your nonprofit organization?
• 18:38
  Staci Hayes: Okay.
• 18:39
  Staci Hayes: So essentially, what my nonprofit is is it's mental health and wellness in the metaverse with DEI.
• 18:43
  Staci Hayes: So what I really looked at is I was like, okay, so, open heart, open mind, and I'm really looking at okay, what am I uniquely bringing to the situation?
• 18:51
  Staci Hayes: So this mental health and wellness background, this belief that people have what they need, believe that human connection is incredibly important empathy, compassion, and, regardless of how much I'm supporting technology, I genuinely, genuinely believe you cannot innovate yourself out of an existential problem, meaning know how big technology gets, we're gonna still need human beings to help human beings.
• 19:13
  Staci Hayes: So, and then I'm like, well, what problems are we having?
• 19:16
  Staci Hayes: So I'm like, okay, so I'm looking at my nieces and nephews, I'm looking at my friends kids, I'm looking at my children.
• 19:21
  Staci Hayes: So, remember, sometimes we are called to help, not from a completely altruistic Component, but I have young kids.
• 19:28
  Staci Hayes: We all see the kids sitting there on their cell phones, sitting at the table.
• 19:32
  Staci Hayes: They're not talking, but they're all texting.
• 19:34
  Staci Hayes: You know we have all of these kinds of things that we're starting seeing.
• 19:37
  Staci Hayes: If we would have known the impact that cyberbullying would have had on our children, how would ravage our school systems and tear lives apart If we could have gotten ahead of that if we could have been proactive, if we could have embraced these cultural shifts with like a line on intervention but also on Growth and impacts, so we could have been more proactive at kind of looking at those issues.
• 20:04
  Staci Hayes: As that last generation, the second iteration of the internet came out, we're seeing anxiety, depression, negative body image, fomo, fear of missing out, which I that started about like 10 years ago.
• 20:19
  Staci Hayes: You know, I was in the counseling center at Kent State and we'd have students come in and they're like I don't want to turn my phone off so they weren't sleeping, they had anxiety about and we have like this two dimensional representation of what life is, so to disrupted sleep patterns, like all of these kinds of negative things that are coming out of Technology.
• 20:37
  Staci Hayes: If we would have known if we could have got ahead of it.
• 20:39
  Staci Hayes: But I also think there's extremely Positive things.
• 20:44
  Staci Hayes: We have wildly destigmatized mental health concerns and illness and like made it a little bit more normal.
• 20:51
  Staci Hayes: People can find people that look like them, regardless of where they're existing and operating within this world, and I think those are so important.
• 21:00
  Staci Hayes: We brought like-minded people together.
• 21:02
  Staci Hayes: You are much more likely to be able to advocate for a specific group or concern because of the accessibility to others.
• 21:10
  Justin Alan Hayes, Voices for Voices: Wow, yeah, and I think you just summarized, I mean really that the evolution and kind of digital media, some of the challenges that Were there are there and working through that.
• 21:26
  Justin Alan Hayes, Voices for Voices: I mean I know if With my cell, I mean, I went back at my, my lows to a flip phone because I was like there's just so much going on, and it Was my mind was going in a million different directions and I wasn't able to Miss rain, rain.
• 21:41
  Justin Alan Hayes, Voices for Voices: All that ends.
• 21:42
  Justin Alan Hayes, Voices for Voices: I need to go back to the basics.
• 21:45
  Justin Alan Hayes, Voices for Voices: And then I came point where you know when you're texting, you know the one ABC like yeah, hit the button multiple times, yeah, all times, like I can.
• 21:58
  Justin Alan Hayes, Voices for Voices: So much time.
• 21:59
  Justin Alan Hayes, Voices for Voices: Yeah and I think that's also interesting because Human beings were not robots.
• 22:07
  Justin Alan Hayes, Voices for Voices: We're not meant to be as efficient as a robot or machine that's making a car or whatever it's making and Judging ourselves of like wow, like I have this free time, so I can't have free time.
• 22:22
  Justin Alan Hayes, Voices for Voices: I always got to be on the phone checking something and see, but not being super productive at you know, like okay, what did you do for the last three hours?
• 22:30
  Justin Alan Hayes, Voices for Voices: I'm like, well, I really don't know.
• 22:33
  Justin Alan Hayes, Voices for Voices: Like I looked at you know tiktok videos.
• 22:35
  Justin Alan Hayes, Voices for Voices: I right I posted whatever those things are, and that's where I think kind of cutting through the technology and what do you want to do?
• 22:48
  Justin Alan Hayes, Voices for Voices: What do you want to be and where do you see yourself of?
• 22:50
  Justin Alan Hayes, Voices for Voices: How can I harness this energy?
• 22:53
  Justin Alan Hayes, Voices for Voices: Like with my anxiety is like oh my gosh anxious and all these different situations and and now I Harness the, the anxiety and do Pretty neat things.
• 23:06
  Justin Alan Hayes, Voices for Voices: I think and have this energy and people are like, how do you, how do you find an energy?
• 23:10
  Justin Alan Hayes, Voices for Voices: Like you drink coffee and I don't drink coffee.
• 23:13
  Justin Alan Hayes, Voices for Voices: They're trying to just like find us, like I, I'm just using the Anxiety to extra energy that I have that I was going out and drinking and having not good behaviors and it's like, well, can I use that to do things that are a little bit better.
• 23:29
  Justin Alan Hayes, Voices for Voices: And again, like you said, look outward and not always that like me, me, me.
• 23:35
  Justin Alan Hayes, Voices for Voices: There's all different, different things of Maslow's hierarchy of different things we need as human beings.
• 23:41
  Justin Alan Hayes, Voices for Voices: But outside of that, let's let's look at, like, what our fellow human might need if we're able to, not that we have to Give money or help every single person, but when things align with if you're able to and you have a dollar or you have a sandwich or you have Something in a gift card and you're in a situation it's like, okay, why is my pocket?
• 24:02
  Justin Alan Hayes, Voices for Voices: I have been been to this restaurant in like six months or I don't know.
• 24:06
  Justin Alan Hayes, Voices for Voices: We'll go back and just use those times of Opportunity of doing good things, whatever those are, and it doesn't have to be money, I said with self-care, it can be just small things be getting out in nature of not being on your phone for an hour, or Whatever those things are doesn't always have to be tied to a dollar amount.
• 24:27
  Staci Hayes: All right, and I think what you're describing to me is people's addiction to feeling productive.
• 24:30
  Staci Hayes: Yeah, they don't like those moments of silence because then they're actually kind of having to have that conversation with themselves.
• 24:35
  Staci Hayes: But on the other side of the coin, sometimes the best self-care is doing nothing and that's okay and like.
• 24:42
  Staci Hayes: So I think of this as this technology Convinces us that we're not supposed to have stress because everything's so easy now.
• 24:48
  Staci Hayes: Stress is a part of life.
• 24:50
  Staci Hayes: It's never going to be completely without stress.
• 24:53
  Staci Hayes: So I think if that we set this expectations, we're gonna constantly be disappointed.
• 24:57
  Staci Hayes: So I think stress is a part of life.
• 24:59
  Staci Hayes: It's okay, but it's managing it and finding happiness, regardless of whatever situation you're in.
• 25:04
  Justin Alan Hayes, Voices for Voices: Oh, absolutely.
• 25:05
  Justin Alan Hayes, Voices for Voices: How can people find out about you?
• 25:08
  Justin Alan Hayes, Voices for Voices: Your organization Contribute, volunteer, all those good things.
• 25:13
  Staci Hayes: So you find us at a very exciting time because we have so much going on.
• 25:16
  Staci Hayes: So we're really just getting our legs under us.
• 25:18
  Staci Hayes: Getting started.
• 25:19
  Staci Hayes: Our website is up and running a meta voice foundationio.
• 25:23
  Staci Hayes: They can email meta voice at gmail, dot-com to get a hold of me directly.
• 25:29
  Staci Hayes: Everything's on our website.
• 25:30
  Staci Hayes: They're more than welcome to kind of scope over it.
• 25:34
  Staci Hayes: We're really focused on education, outreach and establishment of best practices.
• 25:39
  Staci Hayes: So really, looking at the upcoming projects we have is we are working on developing an educational program For counselors and caregivers, parents, you know whoever want to take advantage of it.
• 25:50
  Staci Hayes: But again, I'm a counselor, so I'm just gonna kind of lean into that.
• 25:53
  Staci Hayes: They're required to do 30 hours of continuing education, as all of the helping professions are, but counseling specific is nationally certified, so I am applying to be nationally certified to Supply those continuing education to counselors, basically telling them what is the metaverse, what is VR, what are some things that you need to look out with gaming addiction, you know.
• 26:14
  Staci Hayes: So I really think the things that we need to look out for as mental health professionals are emotional regulation Number one.
• 26:21
  Staci Hayes: So I mean, you're scrolling through tic-tac, you feel mad, then you feel happy, then you feel sad and you feel happy again and you feel frustrated and you're just scanning.
• 26:29
  Staci Hayes: I don't know if our emotional Regulatory systems are meant to fire that rapidly and that quickly and then intensely.
• 26:36
  Staci Hayes: I think verbal and written communication is going to be on the decline.
• 26:39
  Staci Hayes: I think social skills are going to be on the slight decline.
• 26:42
  Staci Hayes: I think we're going to see an uptick in all kinds of addictions, not only drug and alcohol, but gaming, adult content and gambling, just because it's so easy to access, so kind of looking at all these things that we need to be ready for.
• 26:57
  Staci Hayes: Whether people buy into technology or not and me personally, I don't think it's good, I don't think it's bad.
• 27:01
  Staci Hayes: You know, I'm the first person to go click, click, click, click and when something goes wrong, technology wise, but just being aware that this is going to impact our society, whether we support it or not.
• 27:13
  Staci Hayes: I mean, young people cannot even apply for a job without getting online.
• 27:17
  Staci Hayes: You know you used to have to walk in and talk to people and be like, hey, you guys hiring, can I get an application?
• 27:23
  Staci Hayes: Then you make that human connection.
• 27:24
  Staci Hayes: We're operating within a world where people can basically not go outside and have everything delivered to them and everything that we need, and a lot of research is suggesting that that Ups depression but lowers anxiety.
• 27:38
  Staci Hayes: So if I can create a situation where my anxiety is lessened, I'm going to do that, but then I'm going to lose that human interaction, that kind of carabiner into the wall that that promotes that mental health.
• 27:49
  Staci Hayes: Is that those relationships?
• 27:53
  Justin Alan Hayes, Voices for Voices: So much right.
• 27:54
  Justin Alan Hayes, Voices for Voices: What aren't we covering?
• 27:56
  Justin Alan Hayes, Voices for Voices: What, what?
• 27:57
  Justin Alan Hayes, Voices for Voices: What else are we missing or do we Cover?
• 28:01
  Staci Hayes: I talk really fast, I know that, so I probably have covered a lot of everything I wanted to do, but I really think that there is this interesting and unique opportunity to reach these populations that we've Previously been neglecting within the mental health field older populations, differently abled and we're seeing a huge uptick and use of social media and VR in the black and Latino population, which have a General mistrust because of, you know, being marginalized and oppressed within the mental health community.
• 28:30
  Staci Hayes: So we have this unique opportunity to break down some of those physical and systemic Barriers that are existing within our fields through the use of technology.
• 28:40
  Justin Alan Hayes, Voices for Voices: Fantastic.
• 28:41
  Justin Alan Hayes, Voices for Voices: Well, thank you so much for for joining us today.
• 28:43
  Justin Alan Hayes, Voices for Voices: It was a pleasure having you.
• 28:45
  Justin Alan Hayes, Voices for Voices: And want to want to thank you, our our viewers, our listeners, our readers of the transcript, for joining us on this episode of the voices for voices TV show and podcast.
• 28:58
  Justin Alan Hayes, Voices for Voices: Again, we want to thank our special guest, Staci Hayes, for joining us today and Please be a voice for you or somebody you know, and we'll see you next time.