Latest / Authentic Living / Mental Health for Leaders and the ROR: Return On Relationships with Dr. Ronke Komolafe

Transcript

Mental Health for Leaders and the ROR: Return On Relationships with Dr. Ronke Komolafe · Authentic Living

• 0:01
  Welcome to authentic living with Roxanne, a place where we have as conversations about
• 0:08
  things that really matter in our lives.
• 0:11
  And now here's your host, Roxanne Derhodge.
• 0:36
  Hi, everyone.
• 0:37
  It's Roxanne Derhodge.
• 0:38
  Thanks for tuning in again this week with authentic living with Roxanne.
• 0:41
  Today, I have a privilege to have a colleague, that has so many similarities, in the field of
• 0:49
  mental health, coming on today.
• 0:53
  Her name is Roxanne Kamalaf.
• 0:56
  Am I saying that wrong?
• 0:57
  So pronounce it properly.
• 1:01
  Kamalafi.
• 1:02
  I like that's that's really pretty when you say it the way you say it.
• 1:06
  Kamalafi.
• 1:07
  Rocky Kamalafi.
• 1:08
  Raki and I or both, Forbes, council members.
• 1:13
  I am the chair, and I was lucky enough.
• 1:16
  I think I met Rocky about about 8 months ago now when, I believe she was already a member
• 1:22
  and I was probably just beginning myself.
• 1:25
  So today what we're gonna talk about is mental health and something that I you know, in my
• 1:33
  tenure and obviously in one case tenure, we'll talk about, Rocky, I started out really young,
• 1:41
  And my, you know, for the podcast listeners, they know that I learned quite young that voice
• 1:47
  was important to me.
• 1:48
  I grew up you know, in turn that to make on a little, you know, village called Diamond
• 1:53
  Village.
• 1:54
  And, there was a lot of connection and really it was like the village was my family over and
• 2:01
  above my family, but also in that, I saw a lot of, disconnection some of it with my primary
• 2:07
  family.
• 2:08
  So I really very, very early felt that need to be able to share what I was going through and
• 2:13
  then decided Well, maybe when I grow up, I can maybe help others with that.
• 2:18
  And that really was where my path got started around mental health.
• 2:22
  Tell me about you.
• 2:24
  So a bit about your background, it's doctor Rolke, I should tell you.
• 2:29
  And Tell me about your path which is in mental health but a bit different, from my path.
• 2:35
  What what got you into you know, mental health, as as a specialty.
• 2:42
  Oh, thank you so much, Roxanne.
• 2:45
  I appreciate you inviting me to your forecast.
• 2:48
  Thank you for this opportunity.
• 2:50
  In honesty, I've always wanted to be a psychologist, the clinical psychologist as
• 2:55
  child.
• 2:56
  I had the picture of my company laid out by the time I was 12, I had a vision, and I was I was
• 3:02
  raised and born.
• 3:03
  I was born and raised in Nigeria.
• 3:05
  And then I came to America when I was twenty.
• 3:08
  So I had my sophomore, my freshman and sophomore years in Nigeria.
• 3:13
  And then in my junior year, I moved to, Kentucky to go to University of Louisville in
• 3:19
  Louisville, Kentucky.
• 3:21
  And back then, I really just wanted to be a psychologist, but Nigeria never really had a
• 3:26
  psychological, a psychology program in the schools I wanted to go to.
• 3:30
  So my dad convinced me to become a sociologist, which, you know, it's really about the study of
• 3:35
  human behavior, very similar to psychologists.
• 3:38
  Psychology, but EF has a lot of differences.
• 3:41
  So as a psychology major, I I was very fascinated with all my psych classes, the way
• 3:47
  they're entertaining, easy.
• 3:50
  And I kept telling myself, somehow I'm gonna end up in a psychologist.
• 3:54
  I don't know how.
• 3:55
  So I ended up coming to America in my junior year.
• 3:58
  I applied to change my major to, psychology.
• 4:03
  I became a psych major.
• 4:04
  I was excited.
• 4:05
  I'm gonna become a psychologist or a psychiatrist at this point.
• 4:09
  I changed my mind or a neurosurgeon.
• 4:11
  Some people have to do with the brain.
• 4:13
  Or human behavior because I was just fascinated about the human behavior.
• 4:17
  And, by the time I graduated, I was certain I wanted to become a psychiatrist.
• 4:23
  So after my graduation, I decided to, become a case manager working closely with, a
• 4:29
  psychologist therapist and psychiatrist in a mental health clinic.
• 4:36
  And as a case manager for us, serious mental health clinic.
• 4:40
  You're the 1st line of of communication before therapy or before the doctor.
• 4:46
  So I really, but, you know, for almost 3 years, I really got to experience on a day to day
• 4:51
  basis, what it meant to be a psychiatrist, a therapist, pretty much any type of, profession
• 5:00
  in mental health.
• 5:01
  And after that, I decided being a psychiatrist was not for me.
• 5:05
  However, I do like the the, operational aspect of of of medicine.
• 5:12
  So I decided, okay.
• 5:13
  I'm still gonna go to medical school to become a neurosurgeon.
• 5:16
  I got in.
• 5:17
  I applied.
• 5:18
  I was admitted, and then I had to go shadow.
• 5:21
  Doctors before I actually started school.
• 5:24
  This time around, it was different from a community health center.
• 5:28
  It was private settings.
• 5:29
  It was surgical centers.
• 5:32
  And I had to talk to students, go to classes, you know, for almost 2 weeks, I was embedded in
• 5:37
  this process, and it was the most boring thing.
• 5:41
  I have ever experienced different from psychology or psychiatrist where you
• 5:45
  continuously talking to people about it going through.
• 5:48
  This was very cut and dry.
• 5:49
  What do you need?
• 5:50
  What do you want?
• 5:50
  Let's get it done.
• 5:52
  And after that, I decided the most fascinating theme from my experience both shadowing and
• 5:59
  walking in a clinic was really the operational side of of health care.
• 6:05
  So I decided to finish my MBA, which I was doing my MBA then and go get my PhD in
• 6:11
  behavioral health.
• 6:13
  So as a behavioral health expert, my focus is on integrating mental and physical health,
• 6:17
  because one of the things I saw was or a chronic main physical health condition is
• 6:23
  always an underlining, typically an underlying social determinants of health issue, or a
• 6:29
  mental health issue.
• 6:30
  And for a chronic mental health issue, there's typically an associated physical health
• 6:35
  condition.
• 6:36
  So if you bring a schizophrenic, for example, if you're seeing them, they can understand
• 6:41
  medication for 10 to 20 years.
• 6:43
  The chances of them developing high blood pressure or diabetes as a result of their
• 6:49
  medication and their condition is very high and very likely.
• 6:53
  Same thing for somebody who has diabetes.
• 6:56
  If they don't know how to manage it properly and understand your symptoms, they can easily
• 7:00
  become depressed when they have low blood sugar, high blood sugar, just depends on their,
• 7:06
  on their levels.
• 7:07
  So I really saw the intricacies and the interconnection to mental and physical health,
• 7:11
  and nobody was talking about it back then.
• 7:14
  Nobody was associating that somebody who has financial problems is homeless and who has
• 7:20
  these conditions.
• 7:21
  It's not gonna follow through.
• 7:23
  This were the experiences I had working in a clinic.
• 7:26
  So I decided, you know, getting my PhD was in in behavioral health with a focus of in
• 7:32
  unintegrated health was the right way to go.
• 7:35
  And here I am today.
• 7:37
  What's interesting, right, So I started front line with the Metrotrauma police.
• 7:42
  And I thought I was here on on 20 one years old.
• 7:47
  And I'm thinking, wow.
• 7:49
  This is this is real.
• 7:51
  Right?
• 7:52
  And then realizing that was the human condition and really understanding now in retrospect, you
• 7:58
  know, 30 years later, recognizing that every interaction that I had with people would help
• 8:04
  me look at them holistically.
• 8:07
  And then not long into, my corporate career, I was looking at health and wellness strategy
• 8:12
  about what would it take to keep people healthy, and at work healthy and potentially
• 8:19
  happy so that we would intervene relatively quickly and you know, quite soon, what what was
• 8:25
  really, really apparent to me, Roxanne, is that, integrating or understanding the needs of
• 8:32
  the, well employee that may step into starting to be unwell is a lot cheaper than when you
• 8:39
  catch them late stage into short term when they're about to kinda do that cyclical door of
• 8:44
  the short term disability claim where it becomes quite vicious.
• 8:48
  And then what is the right intervention to get them back in the past.
• 8:51
  So it's interesting, Ho, when I look at you, me starting at a definitely frontline and you
• 8:57
  wanting to go frontline and going, you know, more of an integrated approach.
• 9:02
  I ended up at that end as well.
• 9:04
  Because ultimately, it's what is in people's best interest to be able to offer the, you
• 9:09
  know, the ultimate solution would help them you know, get the best kind of support that they
• 9:14
  need to, to be healthy, psychologically, emotionally, and biologically.
• 9:19
  Yeah.
• 9:19
  I love the way you said it because when it comes to well-being, you know, a lot of people
• 9:24
  think it ain't healthy.
• 9:26
  And being happy is the solution to well-being.
• 9:28
  But in reality, well-being really is a lifestyle, right, So, detailing people to
• 9:35
  exercise and eat healthy and sleep is those are great self help, self care tips.
• 9:41
  But people have to do it continuously.
• 9:43
  Right?
• 9:43
  It's a lifestyle.
• 9:45
  And a lot of times, most of what we experienced in terms of people having challenges at work or
• 9:51
  people having healthcare challenges comes from chronic conditions or trauma.
• 9:57
  It comes from a lot when you do a detailed comprehensive assessment to look at their
• 10:01
  physical and integrated health, you see an interconnection.
• 10:05
  On why some of these things happened.
• 10:07
  Right?
• 10:07
  Somebody with a chronic back pain due to an accident they had 20 years ago is physically
• 10:14
  having chronic condition and pain.
• 10:17
  Right?
• 10:18
  But in reality, they are traumatized by that accident 20 years ago, which to them they never
• 10:23
  needed therapy for.
• 10:25
  So that trauma continuously shows up as back pain and in other areas of their lives, not in
• 10:32
  all cases, but in some cases, And in some cases, it then spills into their work life and
• 10:37
  in their personal relationships.
• 10:39
  Right?
• 10:40
  So a lot of times, our mental health is a history of what we've gone through, either
• 10:46
  positive or negative, and the long and short term effect that is having on us.
• 10:51
  So I love I love that you touch the name when it comes to work.
• 10:56
  It's one thing to tell employees be resilient, you know, go go exercise.
• 11:01
  We're giving you an exercise benefit.
• 11:03
  We're giving you a therapy benefit, but I think in reality, it's asking employees what they
• 11:07
  need to be okay.
• 11:09
  Right.
• 11:10
  And, you know, when
• 11:10
  I we looked at the trending analysis, you know, we looked at, you know, I worked in every size
• 11:17
  and sector of company, multinationals, from, you know, 500 lives all the way up to, I think
• 11:24
  one of my biggest contracts was over, 750 employees across North America.
• 11:30
  And ultimately, what it was was to understand what were the the pressures, you know, of that
• 11:37
  individual?
• 11:39
  What was the the, you know, these pressures of the environments that they were in that that
• 11:43
  the the type of a sector that they were working with, their demographic variables, if it was a
• 11:50
  20 fourseven service, all the things that you know and I know And then ultimately, we could
• 11:55
  map out if it was in health care, for instance, mostly ma female, generally nurses 247.
• 12:01
  There are about 40 to say forty two to fifty one years old.
• 12:06
  They are either, you know, you know, we're shift work with children that they're raising
• 12:11
  or maybe they're separated.
• 12:13
  So the strategies ended up being more kind of focused on what they were needing.
• 12:16
  But to your point, if we figure out what the core fundamental is for that person, then
• 12:23
  you're able to versus, you know, let's pray and pray.
• 12:25
  Let's put a let's put a, you know, a nutrition program in.
• 12:30
  Let's put a a gym membership, those types of things are already really good.
• 12:34
  And for the people that are that you're offering that benefit, that's generally the
• 12:38
  people are already using it.
• 12:39
  But it's the 20%.
• 12:40
  That's what we found.
• 12:41
  It was that within that 20%, and they weren't they weren't sick.
• 12:47
  And they were not, you know, they they were well enough, but they could kind of hide below
• 12:52
  the radar.
• 12:53
  So they were the ones showing up every day.
• 12:56
  You know, they might be maybe giving you 65 percent of productivity or presenteeism like
• 13:01
  the term is.
• 13:02
  I'm gonna show up I'm gonna give you my FaceTime, but I'm not gonna get the
• 13:06
  productivity.
• 13:06
  But those were the individuals that were generally using every benefit and they were
• 13:12
  costing organizations the most, but you couldn't engage them based on those kind of
• 13:17
  what I'm gonna say blanket benefits.
• 13:20
  It was always, you know, how do we reach them?
• 13:22
  So I wonder, I just want your perspective from integrated health.
• 13:26
  Does that make sense what you see?
• 13:28
  It's reaching that band.
• 13:30
  20% maybe or erroneous number for this time, in the marketplace.
• 13:34
  But what what is it that you see with that that subset, or what are you seeing now with
• 13:39
  reaching I I don't call them.
• 13:40
  I call them bit, the unknowingly unwell.
• 13:46
  I think that's a good way to put it because, when first of all, the when it comes to
• 13:52
  recognizing this, a lot of people don't easily recognize your stressed out.
• 13:56
  Right?
• 13:57
  They can physically feel it.
• 13:59
  For 5 minutes, 10 minutes, or whole day.
• 14:02
  And then 2 weeks later, they noticed they have insomnia.
• 14:05
  They go to their doctor's office, They get medication for insomnia book.
• 14:08
  They stop waking up at 2 or 3 o'clock in the morning, and you and I know the pattern of
• 14:13
  waking to 2 or 3 o'clock in the morning continuously for at least 2 weeks does signify
• 14:18
  a level of stress and in some cases depression.
• 14:21
  Right, without doing an assessment, we really can't say that.
• 14:24
  But we do know that's a pattern.
• 14:26
  That's part of the questions that we tend to ask if you're trying to screen.
• 14:30
  But if somebody has those symptoms and they go to the doctor and just say, I'm having
• 14:34
  insomnia, I'm stressed at work.
• 14:36
  You know, the doctor asked them the basic, you know, Q9, you know, everything seems okay based
• 14:42
  on how they answer it.
• 14:42
  They're getting a medication to sleep well.
• 14:45
  They think they're okay.
• 14:46
  Right?
• 14:47
  But the the progression continues.
• 14:50
  So in terms of how do we capture these individuals, my recommendation is we all need
• 14:57
  to own and be responsible for our well-being.
• 15:01
  Right?
• 15:02
  I always tell people, drew an integrated health assessment How is your finances stressing you
• 15:08
  out?
• 15:08
  Because if your finances are stressing you out, it could cause more stress in your workplace
• 15:13
  where you become resentful that you're not making enough.
• 15:16
  Or maybe you're just spending more than you make.
• 15:19
  It's not really an employer, and that's why you really need to do a true assessment.
• 15:23
  Why you upset at your employer?
• 15:25
  When you're making enough, you're just overspending.
• 15:27
  It could be a spiritual assessment.
• 15:29
  Right?
• 15:30
  You may be living in a higher power, but you're not refreshing.
• 15:33
  You do replenishing.
• 15:34
  And growing in a higher spiritual way.
• 15:37
  It could be social.
• 15:39
  You know, do you have enough friends?
• 15:41
  Do you have enough support?
• 15:43
  Support friends.
• 15:44
  You know, I have friends who tell me, oh, they're lonely now because they don't have
• 15:48
  friends, but they don't have friends friends who have kids within their age range, or they
• 15:54
  don't have friends who have the same occupational status and professional status
• 15:58
  with them.
• 15:58
  So they can barely have certain conversations with them.
• 16:02
  Or every time they're available to spend time with your friends, their friends have other
• 16:06
  engagements.
• 16:07
  So it could be a social issue.
• 16:10
  It could be a professional issue, how fulfilled is typisyside a uredia job.
• 16:16
  You know, and it could be a mental health issue.
• 16:18
  It could be a previous trauma.
• 16:20
  It could be a kind stress.
• 16:21
  We all know for long stress can be a mental health conditions.
• 16:25
  So I think it would be great for employees to do continuous assessment, give individuals
• 16:30
  these questions to continuously assess without even asking for a feedback.
• 16:36
  Cause a lot of times, there's a distrust.
• 16:38
  If I were to answer this truly, what are you gonna do with my data?
• 16:42
  How does it change?
• 16:43
  Absolutely.
• 16:44
  They're afraid.
• 16:44
  They're like, it's performance evaluation time.
• 16:47
  Yeah.
• 16:47
  And, you know, I know in the employee assistance world, everything's confidential,
• 16:51
  but then when disability programs, there was a point here in Canada, where they're the
• 16:57
  providers started to offer both EAP and disability.
• 17:01
  So here we were in the EAP world where we were like, it's completely confidential, You you
• 17:06
  know, we don't break confidentiality, but then you have these bigger companies which have
• 17:10
  swallowed up a lot of the smaller companies, and they had arms now.
• 17:14
  They had the EAP arm, but now you have disability arm.
• 17:19
  Well, the disability arm, you have to give information to the disability provider.
• 17:23
  About, you know, what's keeping you away from work.
• 17:26
  So how then does the employee feel like I can completely go to this psychologist with their
• 17:32
  and tell him everything.
• 17:33
  And I know, unless I tell him about homicide suicide or child abuse, nothing gets broken.
• 17:38
  But on the other arm, now these bigger, you know, companies, these multinationals are now
• 17:43
  saying, well, we all also offer short term disability, but we won't we we need this
• 17:48
  information because we need to know how long you're gonna be off.
• 17:51
  What the diagnosis, what is the treatment, you know, and, you know, what steps are you taking,
• 17:56
  blah blah blah blah blah.
• 17:57
  So people start to get confused to your point.
• 17:59
  Right?
• 18:00
  So making sense because, again, people are concerned about, well, I have this is my
• 18:05
  livelihood.
• 18:06
  And, you know, yeah, I'm trusting and all, but how do I really know where that information
• 18:12
  goes?
• 18:12
  So how did you know, when you're when you're working with environments, with from,
• 18:19
  integrated health strategy, how do you approach that con concern about trust and data?
• 18:27
  That is an ongoing issue in our honesty.
• 18:30
  One of the things that we've seen has been very successful is give individuals, in some cases,
• 18:39
  funding and tell them, hey.
• 18:40
  Go subscribe to a certain mental health app.
• 18:42
  Let us know which one.
• 18:44
  So we know who you are, and we can pay them directly.
• 18:48
  Another one could be give have them do assessments and tell you what they need.
• 18:53
  Another one is just continuously build the trust and let them know you will never gigabit
• 18:58
  your data.
• 18:59
  You know, you have to bring legal in, you know, and have them sign some documents.
• 19:05
  So it shows that it becomes a, you know, some type of vehicle documents that the company
• 19:10
  technically cannot provide.
• 19:11
  Whatever you need to do to prove to get their trust, having monthly meetings, peer support
• 19:17
  groups within your companies, you know, mom, mom, mom's with kids, less than ten year olds,
• 19:23
  dad with kids, less than twenty years old, you know, a blended family support grill, spawn out
• 19:29
  support groups, creating the support groups, we see a lot of mental health apps there.
• 19:36
  Most of them are great, most of them different sick job.
• 19:38
  There's still a trust issue where people feel if they complete the assessment, use that.
• 19:43
  That someday, the company would get that.
• 19:45
  So it's, you know, it's almost, hey.
• 19:47
  We have a subscription.
• 19:49
  Log in.
• 19:50
  We never get your information.
• 19:51
  You don't even have to use your real name if you choose not to.
• 19:55
  You know, you can use the company, or you don't have to use your real name.
• 19:58
  Whatever you the company needs to do to help people be okay.
• 20:01
  And when it comes to well-being, Like I said, it's a lifestyle.
• 20:06
  So you just don't do it once a year during employee assessment.
• 20:10
  You know, we eat every day.
• 20:12
  Right?
• 20:12
  That's for nourishment.
• 20:13
  We exercise.
• 20:14
  We need the sun.
• 20:15
  We speak.
• 20:16
  We drink.
• 20:17
  We sleep.
• 20:18
  We need those things to reenergize ourselves.
• 20:21
  It's a lifestyle.
• 20:21
  So it's employee well-being.
• 20:23
  It should be a lifestyle for the company and a lifestyle for the employees.
• 20:28
  Right?
• 20:28
  So continuously assess them on a monthly basis.
• 20:31
  What do you need?
• 20:32
  These are the 10 things we have.
• 20:33
  How is this working for you?
• 20:35
  Verbal, I say sometimes surveys should be done where employees can just do a Dropbox or you
• 20:42
  give them a list of questions and it's typed out.
• 20:44
  They have print it out anywhere to choose to manually fill it out and drop it in the drop
• 20:49
  box, so you cannot trace it.
• 20:51
  Anything to create that level of trust.
• 20:54
  So because when employees are okay, your productivity goes up.
• 20:57
  It's a win win.
• 20:59
  When employees are feel them happy at work, their productivity goes up there.
• 21:04
  Their presence of work goes up.
• 21:05
  It's not about showing up to work for a 8:10 hour job.
• 21:09
  It's about really giving us that 8 to 10 hours, right, because you can show up.
• 21:14
  Your productivity might be an hour's worth, and you can show up for 8 hours, but your
• 21:18
  productivity is almost 12 hours worth because you're just on point.
• 21:22
  So when we truly take care of our employees, it's a win win situation.
• 21:26
  And I think with COVID, a lot of companies are striving and doing everything they can to do
• 21:31
  that, in our honesty.
• 21:32
  It's just we need more communications from employees to tell us what what they need.
• 21:38
  You know, before I started my own company, I remember going to my boss back in 2019, and I
• 21:44
  told him, I'm I'm gonna be bummed out.
• 21:47
  It's coming.
• 21:48
  Can fit it.
• 21:49
  I can see it.
• 21:50
  I don't like who I'm becoming.
• 21:51
  I'm cranky all the time.
• 21:53
  And I do all my lifestyle, management.
• 21:56
  I exercise a day, meditation, yoga, you know, writing my journal.
• 22:01
  I was doing all of those things, so I wasn't physically tired.
• 22:05
  Or really mentally tired, but I was no longer fulfilled at my job.
• 22:09
  I had outgrown that environment, and I told him, he's like, what can I do to help?
• 22:14
  And, you know, I I came back and I told him, take away all these responsibilities that
• 22:19
  you've been adding on the last 2 years.
• 22:21
  These are not areas of my expertise.
• 22:24
  I'm doing that because you've asked me to, but now it's customary to burn out.
• 22:27
  I need to go back to doing What do you hire me to do?
• 22:31
  My area of fulfillment and expertise, what truly makes me happy?
• 22:35
  And his response is I'm the CEO, and I'm making an executive decision to know.
• 22:39
  You have to continue doing what you do.
• 22:41
  And I said, okay.
• 22:42
  2 weeks later, I came back and said I have a job offer.
• 22:44
  I'm leaving October 2019.
• 22:46
  Unfortunately, I couldn't leave because we got it quiet that he chose not to disclose that,
• 22:51
  but to tell them I was coming on board and I was written into the contract.
• 22:56
  And unfortunately, I had to stay with the company for 12 months, but they did not get
• 23:01
  what they deserved from me.
• 23:02
  I did not give them the level of productivity I should have given them because I I was honest,
• 23:09
  but they, you know, my boss then thought he needed me, and he communication was I can get
• 23:14
  it to do whatever I need.
• 23:15
  She's very collaborative.
• 23:17
  I know that the expense of my health.
• 23:20
  So I think when we truly listen to our employees, we can give them what they need.
• 23:25
  One of the strategies I've I've used, which I haven't done in 7 months, in all honesty, but I
• 23:30
  will go back to doing that was For almost two and a half years after I left that company, I
• 23:35
  went on vacation every month.
• 23:38
  I took 6 days off live.
• 23:40
  And I would go to the beach, travel to the Caribbean, mostly or to Euro, or sometimes I
• 23:46
  took a month off, but I would usually travel to the Caribbean.
• 23:49
  No internet, no computer, and just relax, come back, walk hard for 3 weeks, and that was what
• 23:55
  I needed for two and a half years.
• 23:57
  For me to replenish, which was shocking because if you ever told me I would need that, I would
• 24:01
  have told you no, but I did an internal assessment in.
• 24:05
  My exercise was still on point.
• 24:07
  Yoga was there, meditation, journaling, praying, everything else was there, my friends,
• 24:12
  my family, but I just needed a sense of disconnection from technology after getting my
• 24:17
  PhD and and being around computers all day for about, you know, 6 and 17 hours a day reading
• 24:25
  all at work.
• 24:27
  I was tired of always having computer screens in front of me.
• 24:32
  I needed to disconnect, and that really helped energize me.
• 24:35
  For some people could be going camping.
• 24:38
  I've even done it where in my own house, I would turn off my internet for a week or for,
• 24:43
  you know, or for a few days and tell my family to call me and, like, I messaged, and it feels
• 24:49
  like a vacation.
• 24:50
  I never knew telling off your internet could really feel like you were on vacation.
• 24:55
  Well, I think I think that's a great point.
• 24:57
  And, you know, I think, you know, having chose the field that I didn't quite young.
• 25:05
  That's what they don't teach you in grad school, first of all.
• 25:07
  They touch on how you take care of yourself, but it was something I I when I worked with the
• 25:11
  metro talk, please, like I said, it was the first job that I had out of university.
• 25:18
  And what it showed me was that this you know, being my head was the most important space that
• 25:27
  I need to really, really listen to that space because I was, you know, you're we know when
• 25:32
  you're in crises, you know, you're you're in.
• 25:34
  You're you're you're no you're the first responder.
• 25:36
  You're first stop.
• 25:37
  And I at that point, I was part of a team that was the first responders dealing with the
• 25:42
  victims of crime.
• 25:43
  So oftentimes, the crime had just occurred.
• 25:46
  The the scene was barely cleaned up, and we were there, on-site to help the victims of
• 25:51
  crime.
• 25:52
  And, of course, your body and your brain, Rocky, is wired for that, and I'm wired for
• 25:57
  that, you know, a bit of a, you know, I think you have to be a bit of adrenaline junkie to do
• 26:00
  a bit of what I did.
• 26:02
  But slowly, what it started to show me was like I would be on on on, and I worked probably 10
• 26:08
  out of 31 days because they knew the impact on human beings.
• 26:12
  And then when we dealt with difficult cases, I lit it literally took me sometimes 24 hours
• 26:18
  just to come back down.
• 26:20
  So you're thinking about that cyclical elements of, you know, the human capacity.
• 26:26
  We are wired for short term bouts of stress but it's the prolonged effect, which is what you
• 26:31
  were describing, that at that point, you're trying to replenish by all the things that
• 26:37
  should give you that bump back.
• 26:39
  And and you're you're just not getting able to kind of, find that timing again because you
• 26:44
  need to just go you've gotten so deep you know, with a depletion that it takes you a while just
• 26:50
  to be able to build back up.
• 26:51
  And I think finally, unfortunately, unfortunately, with the pandemic, it has shown
• 26:59
  all of us, in employees, leaders, CEOs, that we really we really really need to start to listen
• 27:07
  to what people are needing when they say I really, you know, like when you went to your
• 27:12
  what guts it took to be able to go and say, hey.
• 27:14
  I'm I'm I'm on the way that now people are starting to say, you know, none of those
• 27:19
  conversations were used to slight we have to really, really take seriously because people
• 27:24
  aren't able to just come back and bounce back like they used to because they're they're
• 27:29
  depleted.
• 27:30
  A lot more people have depleted.
• 27:31
  Hence, why we're seeing such a surge in anxiety and depression as well.
• 27:35
  Yeah.
• 27:35
  And I wanna touch on something, that you said about the pandemic, which out of my role in
• 27:42
  health is regulatory effects, right, assessing what the health care industry would look like
• 27:47
  from a regulatory perspective in a year 3 years 5 years.
• 27:51
  In 10 years, looking at bill bills and laws that have been put in place and the policies
• 27:56
  that need to be implemented, both on, Medicare, Medicaid, and commercial basis.
• 28:02
  Right?
• 28:03
  I think, well, once the pandemic happened in all reality, I remember as soon as the the
• 28:09
  March 20th.
• 28:10
  I remember writing a memo and sending it to my market and saying, I'm like, hey.
• 28:13
  We need to get ready for telehealth.
• 28:16
  Medicare just said, you know, services are shut down.
• 28:19
  They're recommending telehealth.
• 28:20
  This is gonna go statewide, 50 states, get ready, and they're like, you don't know what
• 28:24
  you're talking about.
• 28:25
  I'm like, okay.
• 28:26
  Part of my job.
• 28:27
  Another assessment I did.
• 28:29
  Yeah.
• 28:30
  COVID is gonna last 2020 1.
• 28:32
  And they're like, what?
• 28:33
  I'm like, hey.
• 28:34
  From my from my economical perspective, did.
• 28:37
  We didn't just shut down the country.
• 28:40
  There was already a plan in motion.
• 28:42
  There were individuals who were experts who evaluated this.
• 28:46
  COVID and the impact of it will be, you know, all the amount till 2021, December.
• 28:50
  My analysis, I didn't even know it would go all the way to 2022.
• 28:53
  Right?
• 28:54
  Like, so let's prepare what we are going to do from a health care perspective to be okay.
• 28:59
  Now my third analysis, mental health, We shop people down.
• 29:03
  Isolation, loneliness, one of the key reasons people have depression.
• 29:06
  People have mental health issues.
• 29:08
  We will see a surge in mental health conditions.
• 29:11
  Let's keep it.
• 29:12
  And for myself, I texted all my friends.
• 29:14
  I have quite a few friends and mental health, and I said, mental health issues are gonna be
• 29:19
  on the rise.
• 29:20
  What can we do as friends to support each other?
• 29:23
  So we don't have that.
• 29:24
  And my friend is like, we just have to all quarantine together.
• 29:28
  And since it's got social lives and create a schedule.
• 29:32
  Yeah.
• 29:32
  Right?
• 29:32
  We need to work out.
• 29:33
  We are going to work from home.
• 29:35
  We know that.
• 29:36
  Go through shopping.
• 29:37
  How do we handle that?
• 29:38
  And we develop the social schedule.
• 29:40
  That everybody aligned to.
• 29:42
  I think during the lockdown, that was the most social I saw, the most social interaction I
• 29:47
  have in my friend, Right?
• 29:48
  You were all available and you were all safe.
• 29:50
  Right?
• 29:51
  Nobody was interacting outside of the group, so we knew we were safe.
• 29:54
  Nobody was gonna get us in contact with COVID, but we did their assessment quick to ensure
• 30:01
  there was no oh, my 4th assessment was PTSD.
• 30:04
  People who did all of this will not only have mental health issues, but will have PTSD.
• 30:10
  And people who are mentally healthy may have and not really understand.
• 30:14
  It's PTSD.
• 30:15
  Right.
• 30:15
  A lot of what I'm seeing right now in in in the workplace, and even with my colleagues and
• 30:20
  friends, is we call it the COVID PTSD.
• 30:24
  I I get the skulls every week.
• 30:27
  I I would say at this point, maybe once or wise a month.
• 30:30
  It used to be a big week, but I would have professionals, health care professionals,
• 30:34
  executives tell me, hunky, I'm okay, but I'm not okay.
• 30:38
  I don't know going on.
• 30:40
  This was such a great interview that we decided to turn it into a 2 part series.
• 30:44
  Be sure to tune in next week for part 2.
• 30:47
  So you don't miss out on the amazing content.
• 30:50
  Thanks for tuning in to authentic living with Roxanne creating the space for positive health
• 30:56
  the change.
• 30:57
  Roxanne is a keynote speaker, psychotherapist, and coach to work with Roxanne, visit Roxanne
• 31:04
  Derhodge dotcom/blueprint.
• 31:07
  We'll see you next time on authentic living with Roxanne.