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Resilient and Real
Resilient and Real
Resilient & Real Summit: 2025 May Mental Health Awareness Month
Drawing from the depths of our inner wells to build resilience isn't just a poetic metaphor—it's essential survival wisdom for navigating today's challenging world. In this powerful conversation, mental health experts Dr. Chanté D. DeLoach, Dr. Georgina Yoshioka, and community leader Terrence Stone share both professional insights and deeply personal stories about cultivating resilience through life's toughest moments.
The discussion centers around what Dr. DeLoach describes as the "Four Cs" of resilience: Care, Connection, Culture, and Change. Each speaker offers vulnerable reflections on their own journeys—from Dr. Yoshioka's experience growing up in foster care to Terrence Stone's transformation from second-generation gang member to youth mentor. Their stories illuminate how resilience isn't simply an innate trait but a skill we can develop through intentional practices and meaningful relationships.
We explore how cultural backgrounds shape our resilience frameworks, with each panelist addressing how different communities approach mental health. The conversation tackles persistent stigmas head-on, offering practical strategies for normalizing mental health discussions in families and workplaces. Particularly moving is the panel's examination of how caregivers—often the "strong ones" holding everyone else up—can sustain their own wellness while supporting others.
The experts also dive into the complex relationship between social media and mental health, discussing both its potential harms and how it can be leveraged as a tool for connection and positive messaging, especially for today's youth. Throughout, they emphasize that vulnerability isn't weakness—it's the gateway to authentic connection and healing.
Whether you're seeking to strengthen your own resilience, support loved ones through difficult times, or create more mentally healthy communities, this episode offers actionable wisdom for filling your well and helping others fill theirs. Listen in and discover how small daily practices can transform your ability to not just survive but truly thrive.
For more information about the San Bernardino County Department of Behavioral Health, visit SBCounty.gov/DBH.
My name is Miranda Canseco and it is my pleasure to be the emcee and then the facilitator for today's live podcast. Thank you so much for being here. I hope you got some breakfast, some coffee, and are ready for a very insightful conversation. It is my pleasure to welcome you to the Resilient and Real Summit. Today promises to be an inspiring and engaging day, filled with thoughtful discussion, expert insights and invaluable takeaways. We are honored to have such esteemed gathering of professionals and thought leaders with us. Our expert panelists are ready to share their wisdom and experiences, and I have no doubt that their contributions will be both enlightening and thought-provoking. But their contributions will be both enlightening and thought-provoking.
Miranda Canseco:One of the highlights of today's summit is that it is a live podcast. This format allows for a dynamic interaction and also for all of you to participate in today's conversation. This is a platform for voices to be heard and ideas to be exchanged. Before we dive into today's activities, I'd like to recognize some of our behavioral health commissioners that are in the audience with us today. If you can, please stand to be recognized Today's conversation. You'll see a QR code that comes up onto the screen. That is an opportunity, as well as on each of your tables, an opportunity for you to submit Today's conversation. You'll see a QR code that comes up onto the screen. That is an opportunity, as well as on each of your tables, an opportunity for you to submit your questions. So, throughout today's program, while we're having our panel discussion, if a thought comes into mind, please submit your questions and then at the end of the program, we will have an opportunity to engage with all of you.
Miranda Canseco:I'd also like to highlight that today's conversation might stir up some feelings, some emotions, and so we do have our community crisis response teams in the audience and they are available to talk, as well as we have a privacy room that is available for anyone. Once again, welcome to the Resilient and Real Summit. You are all in for a treat, and it is my pleasure to introduce our first opening remarks speaker, diane Rundles. So Diane Rundles serves as our San Bernardino County Assistant Executive Officer, with over 16 years of experience in human resources and 24 years working in various government organizations. Her drive towards continuous improvement, nimble problem-solving skills and her passion for making a difference make her a very effective change agent. So please welcome Diane Rendles.
Diane Rundles:Thank you, Miranda, and good morning everybody. Welcome. What a beautiful event. So far right, at least the decorations and the environment is just beautiful. It's an honor to welcome you all to this important podcast summit, which celebrates mental health awareness and encourages us all today to explore our own personal well-being. Today's an exciting day to dive into both our personal mental health and community mental health and to focus on resiliency and its importance in our community.
Diane Rundles:Mental health is a cornerstone to our well-being. It affects how we think, how we feel, act, plays a vital role in how much we can handle in the way of stress, how we relate to others and our own self-efficacy to achieve our own personal dreams. I always tell my kids you cannot fill a cup with an empty jug. We must take care of ourselves before we can take care of others, and we often neglect that. It's something we have to remind ourselves of. But when you're driving in your car and the engine light goes on, what do you do? Hopefully, not ignore it. You take it in to be serviced because it needs attention, because it's your vehicle to get through life right. Well, our own personal mental health is our own vehicle to get through life, to navigate life's challenges to be resilient, and if we don't take care of ourselves first, we really can't effectively take care of others. So it's so important that we pay attention to this and that we focus on May Mental Health Month, and have really great events like this where we can explore those topics.
Diane Rundles:An indicator of a resilient community is one that relies on the strength of community members and leaders to solve challenging problems, bring programs and opportunities for communities to gather and fellowship to create a broader sense of home and inclusivity. Today, we can hear from great experts. This summit is a platform to explore new ideas, strategies and solutions that can help us build stronger, healthier and more resilient individuals and communities. I would like to extend my gratitude to all the speakers, panelists and participants for their dedication and commitment to mental health. As we embark on this journey today, remember that mental health and community resilience are interconnected. By supporting mental health, we strengthen our communities. By fostering resilient communities, we enhance the well-being of our individuals within the community. Resilient communities we enhance the well-being of our individuals within the community. Thank you for being here and I look forward to meaningful discussions today and collaborations that will take place.
Miranda Canseco:It is now my pleasure to introduce our next speaker and esteemed dignitary in our audience our Board of Supervisor, Chair Dawn Rowe. So Dawn Rowe is our San Bernardino County Third District Supervisor and has served on the board since December of 2018 and is currently serving as our chairman. As county supervisor, Chair Rowe has championed public safety for our communities. She currently serves on 22 boards and commissions and is the past president chair of both the San Bernardino County Transportation Authority and the Inland Empire Health Plan. Please welcome, Chair Rowe.
Dawn Rowe:Thank you very much, miranda. It's an honor to be here with you today. So, as she mentioned, I am the current chairman of the board and I have the honor of working with the other four supervisors to prioritize things such as mental health and our Department of Behavioral Health. Today, as we gather on this critical topic that affects us all and we discuss mental health, I really wanted to let you know that I'm incredibly honored to be here and proud of all of you for prioritizing such an important subject.
Dawn Rowe:Mental health is a vital part of our overall well-being and it affects every aspect of our lives. It affects our relationships, our work performance, our physical health, our overall quality of life. As a county, we are committed to supporting our residents' mental health and well-being. Our vision is to create a safe, healthy and thriving community where everybody has access to resources that they need. This vision is ours in San Bernardino County and it's a part of our strategic plan, which prioritizes mental health and wellness as a key focus area. So what does it mean? To build bridges for resiliency and wellness? It means creating connections between our community members, our services and our resources. It means providing support and opportunities for people to build strong relationships, to develop coping skills to access quality care, especially when and where they need it. It means working together to break down barriers and reduce stigma around mental health.
Dawn Rowe:Supporting our Department of Behavioral Health is crucial to achieving this vision. This department plays a pivotal role in providing comprehensive mental health services to our community. They offer a range of programs that include crisis intervention, counseling and preventive services tailored to meet the diverse needs of our residents. By empowering this department, we ensure that individuals and families receive timely and effective support, which can prevent mental health challenges from escalating to more serious conditions. The Board of Supervisors recognizes that mental health is not just an individual concern, but a collective responsibility.
Dawn Rowe:Investing in our Department of Behavioral Health not only aids those in immediate need, but it also contributes to the overall socioeconomic growth of our county. Healthy individuals drive a productive workforce, it lowers health care costs, it fosters safer neighborhoods and, moreover, destigmatizing mental health and promoting well-being encourages a more inclusive and compassionate society, which aligns with our broader goals of equity and justice. As we move forward, I urge each of you to join in building bridges of resiliency and wellness. Let's work together to create a culture of understanding, support and inclusivity. Let's provide the resources and services that meet the needs of our community members, and let's prioritize mental health and wellness in everything we do. Thank you.
Miranda Canseco:So now to kick off our program, we do have a keynote speaker, and it is my pleasure to introduce . Dr. Deloach is an educator, scholar and practicing psychologist practice dedicated to providing intersectional, interpersonal work that honors intergenerational legacies of trauma and resilience, while fostering generative healing for individuals and communities. You are all definitely in for a treat.
Dr. Chanté D. DeLoach:It's such a great honor and treat to be back here and to be here for such an important conversation, an important topic, and special thank you to Eden and the entire DBH PR and community-based team for all of the love and labor poured into making this event possible. In the brief time that I have this morning, I want to start by inviting you, us, to first center ourselves. Notice what you feel when you slow down enough to attune to the body and to the breath. Attuned to the body and to the breath, notice what parts of you might feel tense, might still feel frantic from the morning rush just trying to get here, but I invite you to honor the things that will still be there waiting for you when we leave here all the emails, all the messages and to just center for a few minutes and focus on our well-being, something that we don't often do enough. In the few minutes that I have, I want to talk about drawing from our well to promote our well-being, drawing from our well to promote our well-being, drawing from our well to promote our well-being.
Dr. Chanté D. DeLoach:We often reference wells as a metaphor to imagine reaching within ourselves, to access what we need to navigate life's challenges, much like those before us or those who still rely upon wells, draw upon wells for water. I often think about my own well, which, admittedly, is often not quite as full as I want it to be. Now there's a story about a well in my family that has been passed down to me. Now, while time won't allow for me to tell this story in the fullness that it deserves, it serves as a backdrop for how and why I think about my own well so often, and just as a care warning, there is some violence that I reference in this brief story my great-grandmother, julia Mae Deloach, a biracial black woman born to a formerly enslaved mother, who birthed the child of her slave master when she was an infant. In Louisiana, a group of white vigilantes, sometimes referred to as night riders, came through the area, surrounded our family's home and set it on fire. Unfortunately, it burned down, with most of the family in it, but one of Julia May's older brothers was somehow able to escape the burning house with baby Julia May and threw her in an abandoned well in prayers and hopes of protecting her from harm. As he rode off and fought to defend the remaining family and our land, that night, her brother, whose name I don't know and that well saved her life. She survived to tell the story of that night and the brother she never saw again. That's a true story.
Dr. Chanté D. DeLoach:Y'all Now that might sound like a tragic and violent story to start the morning, but her story, my story, like so many of yours, is not a tragic story. It's a story of survival and resilience. I often think of my great grandmother as the baby in the well and everything she survived. Thankfully, most of us are not running from Knight Riders or at least not the same kind to save our lives. Yet I wanna talk about the purpose of a well and fostering resilience and what we need in our well today to not just survive but to thrive in times such as this. And so, as we think about wells, I invite you to pause and reflect on the question, and reflect on the question what is in my well? Next slide, please let's start with resilience. We've mentioned this already and just what we understand it to mean.
Dr. Chanté D. DeLoach:There's so many different definitions of resilience. In short, it refers to the process of adapting well or overcoming serious challenges. There are likely people who instantly come to mind when you think of resilience. Perhaps you think of yourself, perhaps you think of your own circumstances. I instantly think of my daughter, who you see here with her permission, by the way who was born three months early with her permission, by the way who was born three months early, weighing a meager two pounds and four ounces, who was hospitalized for more than two months, endured multiple medical procedures, who, every time a doctor thought she wasn't quite ready to do something, or who told me that I needed to prepare for what might come. She would show them and the world that she was always up for the challenge. This little one who still struggles with severe asthma, yet plays sports every day and I'm so proud to say she just won her first USTA tennis trophy. That's resilience y'all. So often, when we think of resilience, we think of dramatic stories like my great-grandmothers, like my daughters or others who have often survived more than us. Yet resilience is not the same thing as survival, although we must be resilient to survive.
Dr. Chanté D. DeLoach:Today, you can go to the next slide, please. Today, I want us to reflect the how of resilience. I want us to identify what we're already doing well because so many of us are doing so many things well and what areas we need to strengthen in order to persevere, to bounce back, particularly during a time when many people are tired, weary and may not feel optimistic or hopeful about the life, about our lives, about the world around us Indeed in so many spaces and relationships. Some of us are in a state of weary survival. Many of us may no longer be leading with a strengths-based mindset of bouncing back. Instead, we might feel like we're dragging ourselves across the finish line. Some of you may have felt like it took everything in you just to get here today. Yet most of us in this room have overcome a range of different types of adversity just to be here in this moment. Next slide, please. Next slide, please.
Dr. Chanté D. DeLoach:Psychologists describe resilience not as a fixed trait, something you either have or lack, but as a dynamic living system, a metaphorical well that needs continual inputs, rest, emotional connection, small wins or times when we feel capable. So let's talk about some ways we can strengthen our own resilience and fill up that well, or how we can help to cultivate it in others around us, from our children and our loved ones to our clients, our work teams, our direct reports. The four Cs care, connection, culture and change are some of the concrete ways we can cultivate resilience and well-being and pour into our well, the first C is care. You can go to the next slide. What and who do you care about? Do you show as much care for yourself as you do for others?
Dr. Chanté D. DeLoach:Now I'm going to admit here, just in this small, intimate group of 200, plus our podcast listeners, that I am a constant caregiver, always giving, showing up as a parent, as an aunt, as a daughter when my mom was alive, as a sibling to someone with severe mental illness, as a professor for my students, as a department chair, as a therapist for my clients. Many of us can't even count the number of ways we are caregiving. Many of us can't even count the number of ways we are caregiving If we consider care as a form of emotional or energetic currency. We must evaluate how much we are giving and whether that is balanced by the care we receive from others. Often, caregivers do not receive or even allow themselves to accept care from those around them. Many of us take better care of others than we do of ourselves. Now I'm going to say that again Many of us take better care of others than we do for ourselves. I know I'm not alone in that.
Dr. Chanté D. DeLoach:In recent years, self-care has received much needed increased attention. However, our understanding of self-care often gets limited to activities like spa days, vacations and naps. I would pay good money for a nap right now. Yet we tend to marginalize self-care as something reserved for weekends or as a reward for enduring the work week, for getting through the school year, for making it through a conference, a task of some type. But are we truly practicing self-care every day? Do we engage in self-compassion and extend ourselves grace during life's difficult moments as a reflection of self-love and care? One of the most important questions we can ask ourselves is how have I designed my daily life to take care of myself? Do I make time and space to eat healthy meals, move my body, get enough sleep, connect with people who matter to me, laugh and breathe deeply? While these small daily practices may not be the same as a massage or a spa day, the research tells us that they help to cultivate that resilience and well-being that can transform how we experience each day and navigate the world. Those small practices might prevent us from saying some things that perhaps we might not want to say. Perhaps we don't need to unsend quite a few so many messages. This is especially important for caregivers and for care workers Collective care we're seeing more attention around. We've moved beyond just attention to self-care.
Dr. Chanté D. DeLoach:When we talk about collective care, we're referring to seeing one another's well-being, particularly their emotional health, as a shared responsibility of the group rather than as the sole responsibility of one person. And, as an aside, that one person is often the quote-unquote strong one, that strong person in a family, that strong person in a friend group, anybody the strong one. You're tired, aren't you? Me too, I'm with you, aren't you? Me too, I'm with you. But when we talk about collective care, there are great examples of these Meal trains for someone who's ill or just had a baby or a loss in their family, creating a shared care plan for a friend who needs support or is isolated in some way. And we've learned so much from queer and disabled communities who have used collective care models for decades. Mia Birdsong has written a book and described so many examples in her book. How we Show Up Now. The next C, next slide, please, is connection as we Now. The next C, next slide, please, is connection as we see, with collective care.
Dr. Chanté D. DeLoach:Research shows us that resilience is not just about our individual strengths, but it's social support that may matter the most, feeling connected and cultivating positive social relationships. That's essential to resilience and filling up our well. This sense of connection isn't just about how much time we spend with friends or loved ones, but by the quality and the meaning of those interactions. So, for example, keeping a group chat with trusted friends or colleagues can offer a judgment-free space to connect whenever needed. Many of us have a work bestie who makes each day bearable, or friends we may rarely see but still still feel deeply connected to. Now I often joke about my overactive group chats and how I have to mute them just to be able to get anything done every day. Yet those same folks who I chat with in a group I joke with vent to. These are the same people who showed up for me when I lost my parents. These are the people who show up when I need them most across time zones. So it's important not to minimize the value of virtual connections, especially when they show up as a lifeline in those difficult moments.
Dr. Chanté D. DeLoach:Research supports what our hearts have already told us that good social support helps us manage stress during difficult times. It benefits both our mental and our physical health. Most of us know fight or flight is a key stress response, but tend and befriend is also a stress response Coined by UCLA psychologist Shelley Taylor. This refers to a stress response we often see in women, who respond to stress by releasing oxytocin and beginning to tend to our children, to our young ones, and by seeking connections or befriending one another, seeking connection during times of stress. Those social interactions are comforting and our stress levels decrease. So if you're someone who tends to isolate and people have to come looking for you during times of stress, right. If we're able to push back against that tendency and connect with others, we're much more likely to reduce the stress and feel supported.
Dr. Chanté D. DeLoach:Now, as a therapist, assessing social support is critical to my work. We all recognize that all friendships are not the same. Some of us learn the hard way, right. But I inquire not just about the availability and quality of social relationships, but also about how effectively individuals use social supports, and this serves as a reminder for all of us in the room, even those of us who are clinicians. The people around us cannot show up for us, they cannot support us if they don't know we need help. It takes strength to be vulnerable enough to ask for help and to say we're not okay and no, I don't have it. Next slide. The third C is culture.
Dr. Chanté D. DeLoach:To some extent, resiliency depends on culture. What is important for resiliency in one culture may be less important in another culture. We have familial and cultural teachings of strength, survival and culture that are passed down intergenerationally, that shape how we think of ourselves, like my Aunt Joyce keeping my great-grandmother's story alive so that four generations later, my daughter knows the stories of her ancestors. In addition, research has shown that in more collectivist culture, where the well-being of one's group is valued more than the individual's social support being flexible, these things are more protective and may help us to foster resilience. In dominant American culture, there appears to be a need for both of these, a combination of independence and interdependence.
Dr. Chanté D. DeLoach:We focus a lot on generational trauma in a lot of conversations today, as we should, because we're working to better understand what we carry. It is equally, if not more, important to honor the intergenerational resilience that we carry, because those stories are also a part of our legacy. It's also important to think about the culture around us socially, at work, in the home and the effect it has on our resilience. Creating a culture of resilience requires many of the characteristics I've already named Community connection, communication and trust. Many of us have been in work settings and relationships, neighborhoods where these are lacking, and it can lead to feeling unseen, a lack of support. And it can lead to feeling unseen, a lack of support, toxic environments, and can result in burnout and turnover, especially in care work professions that are already burdensome. And then the last C is change. How many of you know that change is hard for you?
Carol McDonald:How many of you know that change is hard for you, mm-hmm.
Dr. Chanté D. DeLoach:Change is difficult for many of us. It's important to disentangle change from control. For many of us, feeling out of control can be triggering, activating for us, especially those of us who have trauma histories. Yet change is inevitable. When we embrace change, we can focus on what is within our circle of influence and control. There's so many things outside of our control even in this moment Things like weather, politics, climate change, you name it. There's a laundry list of things the news reminds us affect us but are outside of our control. And then there are things that we can't control but we can influence Our relationships with others, our children's behavior, how we are seen and experienced by others. And then there's this small internal circle of things we can control the way we take care of ourselves, what and who we prioritize. We take care of ourselves, what and who we prioritize, our own boundaries and our individual behaviors. When we choose, with intention, to focus and prioritize what is within our influence and control, we're better able to accept change because we can change our internal narrative. We can change our internal narrative, and changing our own narrative matters right. What we tell ourselves matters about how we feel and how we see ourselves and the world. There are a few key takeaways I want to leave you with One resilience is not a fixed trait.
Dr. Chanté D. DeLoach:We can build and strengthen it. I am glad that we are not only what we were born with. We are not only our circumstances. We must show care to ourselves and allow others to show up for us. Positive connections with others help to strengthen our resilience, especially when we're weary or burned out. We've got to work with intentionality to create and nurture cultures of resilience. We're focusing more on what is within our circle of influence and control in order to build and pour into our well. Every deep breath we take, in every small step forward, we're filling our wells from which we draw to promote our own resilience and well-being. Thank you.
Miranda Canseco:Let's hear it one more time for Dr Deloach. Thank you so much. Transitioning over to our panel discussion, so I'd like to bring them up one by one and give them a great introduction. So I think Dr Deloach needs no further introduction. Please welcome Dr Deloach back up to the stage for our panel.
Miranda Canseco:Next to our panel, we have our very own Department of Behavioral Health Director, dr Georgina Yoshioka. So Dr Yoshioka has over 27 years of experience in social work and behavioral health services, focusing her career on improving care for diverse populations, especially within the criminal justice, healthcare and child welfare systems. Dr Yoshioka is dedicated to destigmatizing behavioral health issues, advocating for early intervention and enhancing quality care. Please welcome Dr Yoshioka. And last but not least, definitely we have for our final member of our panel discussion, terrence Stone. So Terrence Stone is an inspirational leader who dedicated his life to empowering young people and helping them discover their true purpose. In 2001, he founded and is the CEO of Young Visionaries Youth Leadership Academy, president of Terrence Stone School and Community Consulting and the president of the Southern California Black Chamber of Commerce for the High Desert Chapter.
Miranda Canseco:We will get into all of the amazing things that Terrence is doing in our community, but please welcome Terrence Stone. All right, this is your panel. We assembled this panel because you will see, as we have discussion of just the vast experience lived experience that they have and then the amazing work that they're doing in our communities. So to start us off, especially because we got to know Dr Deloach a little bit to introduce Dr Yoshioka and Terrence, I'm going to start us off with Dr Yoshioka, if you can start off. We often hear the phrase resilient and real, and that's obviously the name of our podcast. But how do you define resilience in the work you do and what does it mean to you personally?
Dr. Georgina Yoshioka:Thank you, miranda, and thank you everyone for having us here today and being on this panel. For me, resilience, you know, again when I reflect in my life and I was having an opportunity during Dr Lodge's presentation and the reference to a well, it really just reminded me of myself and entering into the world that I felt that I had an armor of resilience placed on me and, again, not by choice, it was something that I felt when I reflect back about the importance of how it came to me and in regards to, like my mother, being able to manage her mental illness at a young age with two older brothers and myself, and having to make a life decision for a parent that I believe no parent would want to make is being able to turn your child over to a law enforcement officer to say, please take care of my children as I need to take care of myself. So that form of resilience, in the sense of my mother doing that, just demonstrates her strength and at the time and her courage to do that in honor of her being a responsible but yet loving mother to me and my brothers. So I think when I again, as I look at it and I thought about it as I was thinking. I do a lot of thinking, believe it or not, but the idea is just realizing of how much in my life, of how much I've overcome.
Dr. Georgina Yoshioka:I was writing down some notes for myself, realizing that it's taken me a lot of years of my life to be able to say that I'm a survivor.
Dr. Georgina Yoshioka:It was never that I have identified as a victim, but I hid behind so much of what happened because I didn't want individuals to see me in a different light, other than being someone who was normal.
Dr. Georgina Yoshioka:And I think when you realize of being, you know in the foster care system for a majority of your you know 14 years of your life, also knowing that you grew up in a family where there was alcoholism, there was dealing with mental health, but also just also knowing that you've lost a sense of identity. So I feel, between where I was and where I am today, it's just been a continual process, but also recognizing that I am resilient and through that I am a survivor and that's something that I feel that, again, we tend to push aside. But I've been able to be more open about my story. So it's been more recent, believe it or not, than it has been in the past and again, it takes a lot of courage to do that. So I acknowledge folks that are able to tell their story way further sooner than I have been, so I'm here today to be able to do that. But that's where I look at the importance of resilience.
Miranda Canseco:Thank you. And even in our discussion of when we were kind of introducing our panel, that was a lot of our conversation as we'll get into each of your backgrounds but of how we've been able to channel some of that pain into passion and then how it's made us so resilient and getting into that space of thriving. So thank you, dr Yoshioka. Transitioning over to you, terrence, so what inspired you to start Young Visionaries and how has your vision evolved since its early days?
Terrance Stone:Thank you, good morning y'all. Y'all just looking up here at us. You know what Young Visionaries I started almost 25 years ago and really it was my trauma-informed care activity for myself. If you know my background, you know that I was the second generation gang member and and going through the trauma of that and from my household, I had to figure out a way that I can work with young people and let them know that it doesn't matter the community that you come from, the household that you grew up in, that you can do and be whatever that you want to do and be in life. So I didn't think that it would get super large or have a whole bunch of staff and things like that. I just wanted to go and just work with young people, basically. And so we've been doing that for quite some time now and it just evolved.
Terrance Stone:It evolved, I think, because of the needs in the community. We started off with just doing gang intervention and prevention. That was our sole program. And then we moved to teen pregnancy prevention and prevention. That was our sole program. And then we moved to teen pregnancy prevention, I remember. And then our largest program right now is our mental health program, which is doing fantastic in the communities and in the schools and things like that as well, though, too. So that's just my story, that I go out and I let young people know that you can just like you can make it, basically, and it's just about finding that resilience inside of you. And growing up in my household, in my community, like nobody went to therapy. The only Thera in my house is probably Theraflu. That's all we had in the household. That was it right. So, then, but just letting young people, just people in general, know that therapy is okay too. It's good to have somebody to talk to and ain't going to tell your business in the neighborhood later on, things like that as well.
Miranda Canseco:Very good, thank you. And there's many benefits to attending, of course, our in-person Resilient and Real Summit, and then those that listening you get to hear the stories. But one thing that you are missing if you're not here in person is just seeing Terrence's amazing shoes that he has on. He has some really fly shoes that only the ones that are in our audience can see. Those Love it, Thank you. Can see those Love it, thank you. So we want to talk about recognizing the barriers, how we can challenge them, the systems that maybe suppress it, and then the community that can rebuild. So I pose this to any of our panelists who want to kick us off what are some of the most common misconceptions about mental health in our community and how can we challenge them effectively?
Terrance Stone:I'll start. I think one is just the misconception or the misunderstanding of mental health. Like I said, just growing up in my community, like we never heard of, I've never heard of mental health. I never heard of depression, anxiety, like, if you felt like that in my household, you better go get some ginger ale or something. Go drink some ginger ale. Some of my people know what we're talking about. Go drink some ginger ale and you'll be all right. I don't even know if that have medical stuff to it, but that ginger ale.
Terrance Stone:I still have ginger ale in my house to this day, right, but I think just to you know, because really now our kids are super in tune with their mental health and um, and I don't know how and I don't know why, but they'll tell you. Mama, emotion of my mental health is not you. I'm like, okay, let's see what we can do. But, um, but just growing up, like we never had that. Basically, like I know in my community, if you seem like you had some type of mental health issues or whatever it could be, it's the pastor is up the street, right, he gonna lay hands on you and and pray it out, you and things like that. So but I think that understanding that we need to have therapeutic services when we need to see a psychologist or a therapist and things like that, but just to know that it's okay Because you know, we grew up with that. You know, especially our men. Help me out, men, don't leave me by myself. I got on my shoes today.
Terrance Stone:Right man, don't leave me by myself. I got on my shoes today, right, but you know it's just the just trying to be macho Is that the word you know? Like we don't do that. Basically, we have to tough it out and we have to figure it out. I don't care if you're depressed or your anxiety is high and things like that. We just had to figure it out and just go on with daily life and I think I grew up just in that mentality Okay, I'm depressed, but it's not depression, and we drink some ginger ale and figure it out and get my day going and things like that. So I think, just breaking down those walls of if you feel like something is not right, that check engine light, come on. Someone mentioned that let's stop and figure out how we can get it fixed.
Dr. Georgina Yoshioka:I was thinking castor oil, but I don't know where you got the ginger ale either, that I'm drastically to aging myself right now. I think a couple things I think for me when I think about the misconceptions is one is will you hear people? Language is powerful, and I think a couple things I think for me when I think about the misconceptions is one is will you hear people? Language is powerful, and I think really that's where it's important. Some of the things that are said comments I can't say in a day in my work or outside of my work that I hear someone say something and it makes me cringe. I try to reframe. That's a clinician in me, so I try to reframe the statement to try to not say, hey, you said it wrong, but I'm going to reframe it. So this way you hear and hopefully the next time you say it you'll be able to convey it that way. Not always the case, I think, for me. One is growing up. A lot of it is about children are resilient and the idea of the wonder is where do people get that idea? I think as a child, what I find myself to be was I was smart. I was smart in a way because I was street smart, I didn't have books, I was observant and what I realized is how do I create myself in a way that I look normal? Something as simple as getting free lunch, I mean back in the day, right Back in the day, free lunch was stigmatizing. So what I did is I brought my own dishes so I could create, move my food to dishes that didn't present as they were free lunch. Hey, that's smart, right, I think. Also, as I got older, I also realized for myself of hearing different statements that person's crazy, that person's an addict. You know they're. They're just use drugs, they don't care about life, they don't care about people, a person with mental illness. You know that, you know. Oh, it's unfortunate, they were born that way. You know it's something. Why can't they just tap themselves? Why can't they change? And it's things that you hear so often and so you try to reframe that.
Dr. Georgina Yoshioka:I remember as a young adult and I at the time became a parent, at a time in which I shared the story of growing up in foster care on a case-by-case scenario. I always remember one statement that was repeatedly said to me as a young mom so because you grew up in foster care, does that mean that you're going to abuse your child and you realize that as a young adult, it was almost to a point where I thought to myself. It made me question myself of being a parent. Where I thought to myself, it made me question myself of being a parent. Maybe I shouldn't be a parent, maybe because I didn't have a mother or a father in my life consistently, as my counterparts in different settings, that I encountered folks that were parents, but maybe the fact that I didn't have a relation with my mother that maybe I couldn't be a mother. So here we go back to the street. The smart, the idea is learning by watching people who are parents themselves, but it really empowered me to know that I am a good parent. I was a good mother Again because I was observant, I learned, but it goes back to. That is something that has always resonated with me for many times in my life.
Dr. Georgina Yoshioka:And again, as we all know, how many of you have parents in here? Are we perfect? No, right. We know that we might make a decision, not the best decision. You know we're looking for the best, but I think, ultimately, when you have that and that stigmatizing type of approach, of language or statement said to you. It's something that stays with you and so it takes the most out of you to be able to overcome that misconception. So I say to anybody is to acknowledge that everybody wants to be a parent, everyone wants to be a caregiver, as you mentioned. We're all caregivers. We do the best that we can. So I think that's really about how misconceptions can present today.
Miranda Canseco:I think it kind of segues our conversation of kind of the cultural upbringing that plays a role into the stigma of mental health and getting the care. So when you were saying the castor oil, the ginger ale, like, the vapor rub, like there was so many that was like the go-to and how it's kind of ingrained in us and our upbringing and how then it just kind of leads on. I mean, my grandparents said that to my parents and then my parents said this to me. So how can we engage these diverse communities with the understanding that culture is important but there are certain things that we need to break in order so that way we can rebuild and grow.
Dr. Chanté D. DeLoach:I think that's such an important question, one I think it is really important for those of us who are engaging in these conversations to know how different communities talk about and think about mental health, and from a holistic perspective. So if you need to know that vapor, rub, ginger, ale, robitussin, whatever the teachings were in the household, you got to be able to address that as part of the conversations. Right, that, it's okay, that those are the messages that you may have heard. But let's talk about some other understandings of what might be influencing your mental health.
Dr. Chanté D. DeLoach:And when we are authentic and we bring all of our identities to these relationships, we gain credibility, we're trusted, and so our clients want to know that they can trust us, that we can hold whatever it is that they have to say, that even if we have lived something different, that we can hold their truths, we can hold the complexities of their family dynamics and I call it complexities right, like we have a lot of stuff in our families, in our neighborhoods, in our communities, and can I follow it?
Dr. Chanté D. DeLoach:Can I follow the thread of the family that you're not blood related to and who's in and out of the household and you know these kinds of things without judgment right. And when we gain that trust, that's when we are really able to delve more deeply into their pain, to be in the suffering with them and to help facilitate their movement through that, into a different way of understanding how they can be better, how they can be, live the lives that they want to live, even when that is different from, perhaps, those around them. Different pathways forward are still possible, but I think it has to start with authenticity. It has to start with honoring whatever the truths are that they're from. The other part is representation matters right. Who they see on this stage today matters right. Our stories matters, and so I think that's really important for all of us to remember who are engaging in this work.
Miranda Canseco:And to follow up on that. Then what does that look like in action? So I know we have clinicians, but I mean, you don't have to be a clinician for this to be put into practice, like this is our everyday life. So what does that look like? Successfully and to whatever scale?
Dr. Chanté D. DeLoach:I think that can look a lot of different ways. I think one of the things that just happened this morning today Terrence I'll use as an example he tells his own story, his journey so beautifully and being able to learn and connect with that. When we had a Zoom call just to introduce ourselves, we all told very vulnerable parts of our backgrounds and we were able to connect parts of our backgrounds and we were able to connect. And so I think with clinicians, we're taught in our training oh, we're this blank slate and I'm the one with the pen and paper and credentials to match and so I'm not supposed to tell anything about myself. One of the questions I always ask clients at the end of an initial session or at some point in the initial session is what do you need to know about me to trust me? I think it's such an important question and I have never had a client ask me in 25 years of practicing. I've never had anybody ask me something that I was uncomfortable responding to in some way, but being able to honor that.
Dr. Chanté D. DeLoach:This is a relationship. It doesn't mean that I have to tell all of my personal business to my clients, but it does mean I need to honor that they may need to know something about me in order to trust me, and so part of that is vulnerability. It's modeling authenticity, sharing what we feel safe and comfortable disclosing. It also means being trained right.
Dr. Chanté D. DeLoach:Some of us are not trained or feel comfortable working across a variety of identities, and so we need to be trained. It's not our client's jobs to educate us about all aspects of their backgrounds. It's okay to ask questions and lead with curiosity, of course, but checking our own assumptions, because part of that training in that work, our own personal work, is making sure that I'm not going in with assumptions about, as Dr Yoshioka mentioned, assumptions about what it means to have lived and grown up within a foster care system. You know, making sure that I'm not coming in with negative assumptions if I'm working with Terrence about what it means to be a second generation gang member, rather to lead with curiosity and to know that their story is still being written and allow them to be authors of that and for me to be along with that ride.
Dr. Georgina Yoshioka:Just to expand on that. I know for us we do a lot of work now in the field, a lot of field work, right, and I think when we think about that and I was just talking to Commissioner Dr Samuel about it about, I've had an opportunity to go out and do the point-in-time count for the past three years and it's provided me an opportunity to go into the homes of individuals which are again identified as unhoused, homeless Again, these words that are attached to the presence because they don't have four walls, a door and a roof over their head, but to them that's a culture for them. And when we enter a pond, into the section of area that we're going, it's interesting. I was sharing. I take when I've gone and Dr Belford has been my sidekick on these outreach efforts but I take actually dog toys. I buy them myself and I get dog food and it's my way to when I go and encounter a person. I have that because most of them have pets. By the way, just so you know, they don't have cats, so I'm not going to buy cat food next year.
Dr. Georgina Yoshioka:But I learned a lot. I thought they did, but they told me very kindly, no. So but with that it learns that. You know that when we think of the word culture, we think about what's presented before the person and really it extends beyond that, as you mentioned that. The fact is that you know, going to a home setting, I know the importance of where we're at today and the focus on encampments and areas and being able to clear and get individuals linked to housing Very, very important.
Dr. Georgina Yoshioka:But it does take a number of engagements back to the trust, the vulnerability. They see you there. It's a conversation, I have to say, with Dr Belford. She does a great job when she's out there and she's engaging folks, but the idea is being able to hear their story and I think it goes back to that. What's the circumstances why they're there? But really about it's not about let's get you up and get you in a place where we could put you with that roof and four walls, but how are we going to be able to do that and make it a successful transition for you for the long run? And really many of them and I, you know we hear things of oh I you know they don't want help. They do want help it, just they want it in a way that they can build it based on trust, understanding and realizing that you are understanding where they were and where they are and where they do want to be. But part of that is that cultural understanding them from their lens and not from our perspective.
Miranda Canseco:So I just want to add that piece and if I could just do a follow-up too to that, dr Yerushaoka, I think that's like putting it in practice in the community. But I've also been able to like we've worked together just on like a professional setting of what that looks like to share yourself. So what has that been like? And I know you started off your segment of sharing how there was some kind of hesitation, but what's been your experience with that?
Dr. Georgina Yoshioka:That's a great question, I think, for me. Again, I've teetered on sharing very much in the past, but I always felt that it was never the right time or the right place and I think it's taken me to be vulnerable to be able to share, and I appreciate the response and I have individuals that have reached back out. I've had a few folks approach me here and I appreciate that more than you may have felt, but I'm going to say to you it's just rather comforting for me because, again, it's lived experience, it's a story that must be told and the reality is think, when we are in positions in which we are in making decisions, it's not just about from the mind and the thinking, it's from the heart, because it really is the goal for me as long as I've been in social work is I've been boots on the ground and with the boots on the ground, I've been able to see and experience what it is and what it is to receive services. I've been able to see and experience what it is and what it is to receive services, but I also now have the opportunity to work with a great team in the time in which I'm able to work, to build programs and not programs by myself.
Dr. Georgina Yoshioka:It takes a village. So anytime something comes up, it's not about me like I have this idea and I want you to do this. It may sound that way but it's not. It takes many people who are coming together, who have the mind but also have the heart and have lived experience that may not have shared their story to date, but hopefully, as we all sit here today, it gives you the courage to know that it's really important to know why you do what you do and how dedicated you are, but to know that it's okay, we all have a story. It's a strength, it's not a weakness, to be able to tell that.
Miranda Canseco:And then Terrence going to you. That's really what you've built, young Visionaries. So what has been that experience of sharing, kind of your upbringing, your story and then seeing the impact with our youth in the community?
Terrance Stone:I feel like a Zoom you ever started. Zoom on, mute, unmute yourself.
Miranda Canseco:I feel like a Zoom. You ever start a Zoom on mute, unmute yourself.
Terrance Stone:But I think that is very important. I think, because it looks like most of us adults in here and professionals, and when you're encountering, we'll say, young people, they see you like where you are now right. They see you and they think you're like man, you look like you just always had it together and that you always just make stuff happen. But I don't know about y'all, but for me that's not the case, and so I love sharing my story. I don't tell them everything. When they start asking too many questions, I'll be like, stay out of my business, but I like giving them my background to let them know that I've been through trauma and I've been through things, and hopefully, with me sharing this, you can get through yours as well, though, too, Because a lot of times we do stuff early. We talked about tradition and things like that. You guys heard about the family, and they cut the ends off the pot roast. Let me tell you that. All right, so just talking about asking questions and traditions.
Terrance Stone:So there was a family, and they passed a recipe down for years on cooking a pot roast. So every year, they would cut the ends off the pot roast, and so, finally, someone called great grandma and they said well, grandma, great grandma, why do you cut the ends off the pot roast? Because she had a little oven. So in order to fit the pot roast in the oven, she had to cut the ends off the pot roast. So for years and generations, without asking questions, they would cut the ends off the pot roast and they got giant ovens right, but without asking questions and understanding, oh great, grandma had a little bitty oven right. They would have known that you can keep those ends on that pot roast. The ends on the pot roast are delicious, right. So it's just asking those questions.
Terrance Stone:So with young people, which we primarily work with, we try to be as transparent as we can. We allow them to ask questions so that they can understand. This is why I did things this way, and so you're probably doing things that way, because you've seen people that were older than you do things that way as well, though, too. So you have to help them to get in perspective and let them know also that it's okay to ask questions not too many questions, but ask some questions, you know, so that they can understand that. You know that we all have obstacles in our way to get into where we want to be. But the thing is figuring out, how do you get through those obstacles, and then we let them know too. When you get through it, make sure you tell somebody else how to get through it, because they'll have those same obstacles as well growing up.
Miranda Canseco:Yeah, and so we've talked about kind of some of the barriers that are in society and that we've encountered. So, going over to then, how can we which was a perfect transition of how can we then cultivate that resilience during challenging times, which they're bound, they're on a daily? So how can we build and maintain resilience during times of personal and then collective crisis?
Terrance Stone:Go ahead, we're looking at you.
Dr. Chanté D. DeLoach:I can start. Obviously, I named some things in the talk earlier, but the first thing that's coming to mind for me now is something I think that we've each shared in different ways, which is talking, saying the things out loud. I think the more we talk about mental health in the good times and the bad, the more we give permission to others around us to normalize it, and so I am very intentional about talking about what I do for my mental health. I try to model that for my daughter, for the people around me. This is what mommy is doing today for my mental health. I'm about to close this door. I need a break, but I think the more we talk about it, and not just when we're struggling the more it becomes part of everyday conversation. We remove stigma.
Dr. Chanté D. DeLoach:Terrence talked about how the younger generations I'm so happy to see younger generations talking about mental health more, and you know they will often, you know, just say oh, I got to protect my mental, as they often call it, or at least that's what my students say and we'll talk about what it is that they're doing with. You know, social media. That comes with the good and the bad. There's a lot of positive information about therapy about psychological health issues on social media. Now we also know social media can be the cause of or contribute to some mental health issues. But I would just say that one of the best and easiest, most consistent things we can do is talk out loud and name what we're doing for our mental health and if we're having struggles, if we're having challenges, to not be ashamed to talk about that.
Dr. Georgina Yoshioka:When you mentioned social media, I was sitting here I was thinking about how, again back in time, we didn't have a telephone, we had a telephone ring. You know, again back in time, you know, we didn't have telephone, we had telephone ring, push button, three-way call. I can go on and on. I mean ways that we thought we were very advanced in technology, only to find out we weren't. But I thought about two scenarios about social media and how. You know, again, wellness is about right, being able to take care of yourself, lead by example. I'm not the best, so I'm never going to say anybody, follow my lead, just know I'm trying my best. The well was an example. I've been trying to drink water. That's where I went right away. I went and filled it up. It's over there. It's not doing anything for me right now, but it'll be there later. But with that social media. So two scenarios. I learned about social media, about the impact, about one's wellness.
Dr. Georgina Yoshioka:I had a hairdresser. I say I had because in the time with my hairdresser, I would see her once a month. She did a fabulous job on my hair and, with that though, one day I was there and I said, hey, great trip, you went on, it was beautiful. You went out to San Jose and she said, oh, you saw that. And I was like, well, yeah. I said, oh, my gosh, you had great pictures. It looked someday I'd like to go up there. It was like really great. She said, but you didn't like it. And I said, oh, and I was like, oh, so you know, moment, I'm vulnerable, she's doing my hair. So I said, gosh, I will make sure to like your picture. She said, well, you know, if you're going to look at it, you should like it. And I was like, got it Noted, noted. So every time I went on Facebook and I saw it, I just liked it. I didn't even look at it, I just liked it Because I thought I'm in her hands. Every month, eventually, I found a new hairdresser. No focus on social media, all good.
Dr. Georgina Yoshioka:On the other side, I've been very open about my loss and I think, when it goes back, when we talk about resiliency, I made a note on my paper about loss of identity and I think for myself as a widow and actually June 18th will be 11 years since I lost my late husband, so we can see it's still impactful it seems like people will say, oh, 11 years. That's a long time. It's not Every day. Every year is a everything, the occurrence of the events, and everyone will say I'll be there. Call me things, I get it. People's lives move on.
Dr. Georgina Yoshioka:In the three months that I was by myself, I realized that when I went to social media, I became very angry. And I was angry because I felt how could everybody else keep living when I'm not living? I'm here but I'm not living because I've lost half of my identity. And so in that time I realized how impactful social media can be and realizing that again, I had to shut it off and I had to re-ground myself to know that it was nobody else's fault, because there was times where I thought even family, anything like that. So it was a time where it was really a bad time for me, very depressed about it, and realized like, okay, put it aside, now I need to rebuild my identity. So when you think about experiences of loss and loss comes in different ways and shapes and forms, and how everyone, how one can experience it, it's something that I always keep in mind when I hear someone that mentions something that's associated to a loss.
Dr. Georgina Yoshioka:So with that, I think you know, with social media it is. It can be very impactful, but it's it's a good way, because you do get to. You know, see what people are doing. My hairdresser, for one, was an example. But ultimately it's something that I think we need to and again, I'm not lead by example is to try to put down your phones, try to be engaged in conversation, do more outings, do things where you can do more socialization, because that inner interaction is important. That's really about your health as well, your wellness, and I think it's something that you know we get caught up in, and I think that's what we need to focus. And I just want to go on the flip side for the Department of Behavioral Health, we started with Miranda and then also Raquel, with doing wellness retreats, and I just want you to know that it's coming this year. So if you didn't think it was, it's coming.
Dr. Georgina Yoshioka:So yes, yes thank you, and they've been great, and we appreciate the participation, because we do honor and appreciate the work that's being done every day by every person in the department. No one has a more important job than anybody else. All of us have important jobs because we work together. We're a village, we're a team. We are here to serve individuals who are needing our assistance, our guidance, for their wellness, and so we want to make sure that your wellness is met as well. So do your best to practice it, and again, it takes work. It does take work, but know that we're here, too, to also support that.
Terrance Stone:Awesome, I like the. So how many have social media? How many got Facebook? I'm seeing none of the young people raise their hand, but just, I have multiple social media pages and just the anxiety, right, like my birthday was last Friday, I think so last Friday. Saturday was Saturday. Give me a happy birthday, yeah, but having multiple social media pages and, like you said, when people are saying wishing you happy birthday, and just the anxiety of just trying to like all the comments because they know they'd be like you didn't like my comment. I'd be like, look man, I had like 20,000 friends on there and I don't even really know you like that but um, but but that social?
Terrance Stone:But just think as adults, though, who have more than one like social media platform, like Instagram, facebook, put your hands up. Don't mean you got the half a hand trying to hide it. Linkedin, linkedin, the words for me, because that's my biggest population on there, right, and they aggressive, like aggressive panhandlers on LinkedIn. They'd be like how you doing buy my product? I'd be like man, I don't even know you, um, but just think as adults, right, and, and we're on social media and we're monitoring and we're making sure that if we post, you like, right, and. But just think as our young people as well, though, too, because they're much, much more vulnerable and this is really their social media is really their world. Like my I havekids. They be touching my flat screen TV like it's an iPad. I be like, get your stanky hands off my TV today, got the fingerprints all on there.
Terrance Stone:But because they were born into technology, I remember when we got our first computer in the house, some of y'all was born with a computer in the house. It was strange. I grew up with typewriters, right, but the first computer was just, you know, it was. It was weird, but you know myspace, who are myspace people at? That's what I'm talking about, right, there, right, but just the anxiety of young people and, too, we were. We were speaking earlier.
Terrance Stone:You can't run away from social media, right, because it follows you. Usually if someone is picking on you at school or you have a bully at school, now they can have a whole army of people that don't even know you side conversations and what happened, and they wasn't even there. I'm like you live in Utah, you wasn't even there, you talking about the situation, and so, just so, with our kids, just the anxiety and the depression that comes with just having that social media, because it's on like all the time. I allegedly be driving looking at stuff, right, I look up. I was driving so long allegedly allegedly looking at social media, and I'm just looking at the car in front of me. When I looked up, I was in a parking lot. I was like what the heck? I'm going to follow this person home trying to check my Instagram, looking up. But you can't like get away from it as a young person. Basically, because, even if you turn your social media off, someone will come and show you what happened and what they're saying on social media, basically. So also, too, on the flip side as well, it can be a great tool to use. You know, to get positive messages out as well, though, too, on social media. So we try to do that like a lot. We have a great staff and a great team that is constantly putting out videos and great posts and things like that, so we try to just keep those things out and things like that.
Terrance Stone:So whoever who take a picture before for social media, can somebody take your picture and you're like, let me look at it before you post it? My wife do that. She's like, let me see it. I got to post it right now, leave me alone. But because she's worrying about, immediately, what somebody else might say about her picture, right, she'll put all kind of what's those things when you fix the face, oh my God, she'll filter that picture up and then post it, right, I used to do that too. She used to call me baby Yoda because I put my face so smooth. But the anxiety of it, though, right, the anxiety of it. You do not want to post something that someone's going to say something negative. You want some likes, and I'll be looking at my likes too, dr G. I'll be like, oh, they ain't going to like my picture. Oh gosh, this is a good picture, this is a good picture. But the anxiety of it, though, as well, though, too, you know.
Terrance Stone:But in our kids, though, as adults, just think our young people how impressionable they are, right, and then they have that social media. So they're, you know, putting the filters on and and things like that. I work with a group of kids and they got social media, and I see their social media like I don't recognize none of y'all, because y'all filters just got everybody looking different in the classroom. So it was good to see y'all. Good to see y'all, anyway. Good to see the real you today. Come on now. Right, but we have to realize that the social media is really like one of their main things, because this is like their world, basically, like I didn't grow up.
Terrance Stone:I'm 55.
Terrance Stone:I grew up with no social media.
Terrance Stone:Come on now with the 50s. That's what I'm talking about. I grew up, you had to go talk to somebody right and the phone. If you want privacy, you take that long cord and you had to go talk to somebody right in the phone. If you want privacy, you take that long cord and you wrap that thing down to the bedroom so you can go have a private conversation, but everybody know where you at, because the phone in the bathroom, the long cord you can't even hide, no more. Basically. So just you know, just keep in mind just that, the social media and ask your kids about their social media as well, though, too, you know, because sometimes they, you know they have things on there or they are concerned about things on there that they really don't want to talk about in front of everyone else. So I always try to ask them, you know, is that Instagram popping what your TikTok look like today, yeah, things like that, so that you know, just to connect with them. I probably I don't even know what I'm talking about.
Dr. Georgina Yoshioka:No, no, add one thing. So you know, I just wanted to share one thing. Aging myself here back in the day I don't know if anyone knows we we used to have what we call a slam book. It was a slam book. Who knows it? Who knew it?
Dr. Georgina Yoshioka:Okay, so, very so, this was a book that was created out of a notebook and basically you would then number all the way down, one to 50, whatever you wanted to do, and you'd create different questions and then you would pass it around. So if I was number two, I put number two and I would go through every question and I would answer. So if there was ever say, who do you like, who do you think is cute, I'd put the name and I put number two. Right. But talk about anxiety, because when that book came back you were like flipping through to see where it was. So anxiety existed way back in the day, but today it was a little bit more contained. But I just wanted to share that with the slam book because I remember that, yeah, I was like whew, yeah.
Terrance Stone:Let's get some ginger ale.
Miranda Canseco:And I think the social media discussion is a larger discussion in itself. It is a double-edged sword, but from my perspective and I'd love to hear from our panelists I feel like it's all in a search for connection. And that's what, Dr Zaloch, you talked about of that building of resilience is that search for connection and authenticity. So how can, when we have great platforms, that can be and we saw that when the pandemic was happening that social media? Because we had to social distance, the social media was the only way that you could communicate with people. But it was the good and the bad, it provoked a lot of anxiety, a lot of just seeing, because it was right, it surrounded you, it was your everyday, because we couldn't go anywhere. So what can be some other avenues that we can point our youth to? One, and then even for ourselves, of searching for that authenticity, searching for that connection, of searching for that authenticity searching for that connection.
Dr. Chanté D. DeLoach:I just want to echo something that Dr Yoshioka said, which is in-person human connections. And with our youth. They're in school every day, and so it's fertile ground for cultivating relationships among peers, with teachers, with staff, with coaches, and so I really underscore the value of those spaces. And we know that schools historically have been really important spaces for not just education but social learning, and I really encourage us to think about how we can use those as opportunities. Many of our youth are in sports or in other social settings where there's sports, religious or spiritual communities and those kind of mentoring programs, other kinds of things where there are opportunities for them to engage, and I invite them to.
Dr. Chanté D. DeLoach:And a lot of schools are moving to cell phone free policies, which is great because it forces students to learn how to be present. Many of our children don't know how, because they've grown up with technology. They've grown up multitasking. Many of us in this room may be having a difficult time just remaining present and not being on our phones, and so our youth learn from us. We model that for them. And so having meals where, okay, we're not live streaming our meal, we're not going to tweet, we're not going to post about the meal. Today we're going to actually connect and have some conversation, and so I think about every opportunity as an opportunity to engage and connect, and especially with youth, when they're at times when they may not be talking as much. It's an opportunity to ask, when they don't have another outlet, like asking about what's going on, asking about what they are scared of, what they're afraid of, what are they excited about, what are you curious about? And just connecting, engaging. But it requires us to be willing to do that as well.
Dr. Georgina Yoshioka:It just reminds me when I go in restaurants and I see again when families are together in a restaurant setting and the child is holding a phone, I see now they actually have apparatus where they actually create so they can set the phone and things like that. So I've seen a lot of advancement to that and I think as we get our kids, they're very much in tune to that. And then I've seen where folks are sitting and they're not even conversating with their phones in hand. So I think, with that but I want to add, on top of the great points that you made, is that also to add that we, in our positions and the work that we do, is we, we need to validate the resources that we're recommending on social media. And the reason I say that is because it's so important is that if you encourage a child to, maybe if they have an interest in chess, right playing chess, and you say there's probably a great forum, you could probably join, there's probably other kids and very similar. But walk the walk with them to know because, again, you don't know what they may encounter. And therefore I think there are really good resources, maybe some in person, but it's virtual, but yet knowing what that resource is, empowering parents also to be part of that again, kind of creating opportunity through virtual settings of some type of I don't know, I'm a big origami, I say that, but I haven't built anything lately probably for a while, but I have the paper and I have the books.
Dr. Georgina Yoshioka:But I haven't built anything lately probably for a while, but I have the paper and I have the books, but I do enjoy it.
Dr. Georgina Yoshioka:It's actually very peaceful. You can get frustrated if the wings aren't right, but at the end of the day, if you go online, you can engage and do something like that. So I'm just trying to say, like, most important is what we do is there really are good resources. Just know what they are, research them before you recommend them, because that really can be impactful and very, you know, positive for the child, especially for again. And then I always go to the fact is, we never what's know what's going on in the home. What I mean by that is that if a parents are working and there's a caregiver, that maybe the child then has access and the parent knows and the parent knows about it and they can check the use. I mean, I can go on and on, right, but I find more and more that I hear is that parents are disengaged or caregivers and I think we need to be more prominent in promoting that they are engaged in doing that research.
Terrance Stone:I think, with what we got really great at as an organization is putting together like super fun youth conferences for kids, like we call them. Secure the bag and back stands for behavior, attendance and grades, right, so we take these into the schools and and they're so interactive, right there. You know the kids are constantly doing like they don't have time to like if they sit there trying to take picture they're gonna miss something, right, because you know our team is up there and they're just, you know, giving out prizes and you know, then we have the speakers come out and do stuff and entertainment and just like back to back. You like it's just super stimulating for them, mentally, for our young people. So we try to do those and as well too.
Terrance Stone:I don't know who's been to the wellness conference. Oh, y'all, y'all lying, y'all been to the wellness conference. You, you better go, you better get a ticket. But the wellness conference is so interactive when you're all together and you're in a large audience that you really don't have time because you always have someone, an emcee, up there that is just keeping it going and keeping you on your toes and get up and let's play giant rock paper scissors. It's just different things Also just both of those events like that, just having kids get more active together so they're doing stuff besides posting and things like that. They still get their posting or they'll take pictures, but still they're doing more interactions with each other than interactions on their phone as well, though, too, with each other than interactions on their phone as well.
Dr. Georgina Yoshioka:though, too, and Miranda, can you share about the extravaganza event we had last year, the wellness extravaganza Because I think again bringing that to the community, we had 2,000 folks, correct?
Miranda Canseco:Yeah, yeah. So I think that's one of the initiatives that the Department of Behavioral Health is really taking on with collaborative partners of really focusing on creating those moments for the community. So our wellness extravaganza is bringing together multiple generations in carnival games, in music, in food, and it's really just a time that you can experience. Of course, it's just a free event is one thing, but just fun and just being able to not, there isn't really any technology, there isn't any of those activities, it's really just large board games and dancing, and so I think that's something that we're focusing on for just overall wellness. That's coming in October, coming in October, yes.
Dr. Georgina Yoshioka:And I remember the one story of a family who approached a team and shared that this was the only meal they were going to have for the day and that it was free. And it was just. They had dessert, the main meal, the drink, I mean it was, but it was so touching just knowing that this is one out of 2,000 individuals, but can you imagine how many may have been there and that would have may have been their only meal. So again, it's about being able to create that atmosphere, that open opportunity, that in-person and I agree with Miranda, no technology. It was just great to see people dancing and just having so much fun and seeing the families. So it was a great event. So hopefully you all can make it out for October. More information to come.
Miranda Canseco:Thank you. Thank you. So we talked a little bit about building personal resilience, so it's an interesting kind of for this panel to discuss, of an interesting way of how can we go about it as an overall community at like, a larger scale of those that are seeking connection, but as a society, and I think each generation might have its own approach, but maybe it's involved in the work that you guys are doing too.
Terrance Stone:I think I just finished a book called how to Move in a Roomful of Vultures. I've been working on it for quite some time, but it's really just about how to navigate in adverse communities and situations and things like that From my childhood to growing up and to adulthood as well, though, too. And how do you move and build resilience and be resilient in an environment like that right, where it doesn't even have to be hostile, but it's just that you have so much baggage that you feel like that is holding you back and holding you down, and how do you release some of that baggage and and let some of that baggage go, and or some of us will just find a way to carry it comfortably, right? I know my, my wife. When we leave out the grocery store and they say you want bags, I'm always like, yes, we want bags, right, but she'll figure out a way how to carry all that stuff to the car without bags. I'm like you better get some bags. But just figuring out how do you either carry it or let it go. It's better to let it go, but sometimes it's harder trying to figure out how do you let it go and how do you move forward and and how do you, um, maintain a lot of us, um, come to work and, and we're all in the field of helping other people, right, that care, like we're always caring for other people, and so, and, but the people that we're caring for, like, we don't release our problems onto them.
Terrance Stone:We have to let our problems go, somehow, leave them at the door and still be able to help someone else, um, that day, and so, um, and, and how do we do that? And that's resiliency within itself. Like, how do you do that? Like, how do you leave all of your problems at the door to help someone else get through their problems? Right, and that's a skill within itself, right? So that self-care is very important because we're always going through that.
Terrance Stone:I think I do that every day. Important because, when we're all, because we're always going through that, I think I do that every day. I have a staff, a team of people that I know that they do that every day, because our jobs is to work with young people. So how do you build that up? I don't know, but I know that I do it, right, I know that I have to get up and whatever I'm going through, I have to leave it at the door right.
Terrance Stone:I go into um, the rise program, san Bernardino County probation and I'm working with those kids every Friday is, and and I do that for one of those kids keep me grounded, like they cracking jokes on me all day in the in the classroom, and so but two, I feel like they have to see me build and build resilience and go through things and make it happen. As I'm working on them as well, though, too, because a good friend of mine passed away, dr Reggie Webb. He said Terrence, you can't hit a target that you can't see, and so for those kids that are going through things they're incarcerated, they're second and third-generation gang members I have to be that target that they're shooting for. Like you can make it happen, but you have to figure out a way to let go of that baggage or carry it comfortably, however. You want to do it, but we have to figure out how to move you forward. Basically and I think it's just being consistent that consistency kind of builds up resilience and things like that in you so that you'll be able to move forward.
Terrance Stone:I like to lift weights sometime. Occasionally. When I lift weights in a while, but still when I do, do I usually start light and then go heavy, because I feel like that builds up my resiliency and so in my mentality as well. Though too, you know, I, I try to. You know, if it's light, by the end of the day it's already heavy, but I condition myself mentally and emotionally to handle that by the end of the day.
Dr. Chanté D. DeLoach:But then you have to find a way to release that as well, though, too. Yeah, I think I want to just add that I'm fortunate to have worked or work with folks who are most vulnerable and are on their second, third, fourth, fifth chance in life, but I also work with a lot of folks that I describe as pillars in my practice Folks who are holding up everybody else, the people who are raising their siblings, people who are supporting multiple households, people who are the folks whose phones ring in the middle of the night and who answer every time and because on the outside we look good, we may have credentials, we may have graduated, whatever. Many times people don't ask us how are you doing, what do you need? And even when they do, we are often ill-prepared to answer or we don't feel that we have permission to say we need help, because we know folks who are far more needy, far more vulnerable or far less resourced than we are.
Dr. Chanté D. DeLoach:And so I constantly think about the strong ones, because lifting those heavy weights, carrying all those bags for other people is a reminder that that stuff is heavy. I think about all the bags I give my husband to physically carry, and when he tells me no, I don't want to go camping because I don't want to carry that you know what. But I think of that as an analogy for life, right, that we need to remember that we're all vulnerable in different ways and that many of us are carrying our own stuff as well as the stuff of those around us. And it's up to us that collective care to check on Dr G right To those of us who are in positions of leadership, who have a mic, who have cameras on us all the time, leadership who have a mic, who have cameras on us all the time, it's up to us to take care of one another and to remember that, yeah, show up for us as well for one another.
Dr. Georgina Yoshioka:I was thinking about the baggage and I'm just going to shout everybody right now I am the worst packer. So when I go on a one-day trip, I have a big bag, and then I have my bag with the computer, an extra screen, all the hookups, and I get a lot of comments from people and all I say is stay in your lane.
Dr. Georgina Yoshioka:That's all I can say and it makes me feel better. But with that and I probably people will say when I come to work I am a bag lady, so I do have multiple bags and probably that's why I have a bad back, but not to go there right now, let me just say I think for me, what I think about is for the county department of behavioral health. We have about 1,200 employees employed through the department of behavioral health. We're the size of two states for a county. I think what we think about is how do we reach out to communities, and the importance is that every community is diverse, right, we think about even where we live and how the differences of living in a city and how it's so different when we drive through certain parts of it. But I think the most important what we need is advocacy. We need awareness, we need to be able to know what the resources are. I think what it is is that when people, when it comes to time for resources, is when people are at a point of need or in crisis, and that's not the time in which we need to do education on the resources. We need to get people where they need to go. One of the things for us is what we have under our public relations, outreach and services is that we're everywhere in the community because we want to raise awareness. I myself I've done it. I've been on Ontario Airport doing the 5K run. I'm there at the table. I see my team working really hard, doing Narcan training, bringing awareness, bringing our services, talking about employment opportunities. But it's always about the fact is that we have to be the voice and I think we have to be embedded in our communities and we have to also acknowledge that.
Dr. Georgina Yoshioka:Department of Behavioral Health, we don't do it all. We do not. We are just a small piece of it. Half of our budget goes to contracting services to our diverse providers and it really isn't for our providers. We could not reach everybody that we need to reach. So with our providers, it's really important because a provider creates an office or establishes a service in a community, those that are working there are going to be aligned to that community. So that's why it's so important that we work hand in hand. It's a collaboration, it's a partnership. Again, when we know a Terrence, we can't do it alone. We work with Terrence. You take it out to the kids, you take it out to the different communities. We can't do all of that and that's why we're so appreciative of that.
Dr. Georgina Yoshioka:But when we talk about how do we get this to the community, we have to walk it into the community, we need to put it into action and we need to give notification of what's there before a person needs it. If they take it home and it's sitting on their counter, it's better than sitting in our office. So we really want to be able to say we need the ambassadors, we need it. So all of you that are working with your clients at the end of the day, even when they're walking out, give them a document about crisis services. Why? It's not to say that they're going to be in crisis, but if they ever are, that document is with them, it's in their home, it's there available if they need it.
Dr. Georgina Yoshioka:A neighbor, a friend, someone calls them. Hey, guess what? I have this information. We have a website. I'm sure we can say to everybody go to the website. Media, social media, right, but the idea is ultimately I'm still old school, everybody knows if you go to my office, I got stacks of paper. Don't ask me what's on them, but probably gotta throw it away. But it really is a time where someone asked me something, I'll be like, oh, hold on one second, I have that right here, and so, again, I think it's really important that we we get this messaging in the community, and it's it's an everyday job, it's not something that's a one and done, so we just really need to be able to do that, for for.
Miranda Canseco:Thank you, and I think you kind of summed up some of our conversation of it is a collective effort like that. You said that where the Department of Behavioral Health is only one piece and it takes all of us to have that understanding but then also be able to be advocates to walk the walk. There's so many resources and components. I want to just highlight, before I forget, just Dr Deloach's moment of meditation. When is the last time that any of us took just a brief moment? And then how can we take that moment into our communities, into our networks? You don't need to be a direct service provider to have an impact. So, thank you, thank you to all of our panelists this is not the last that you'll see of them into our networks. You don't need to be a direct service provider to have an impact. So, thank you, thank you to all of our panelists. This is not the last that you'll see of them. We are going to take a brief break and then, if you have not submitted your questions, we'll come back and then see what the audience has to ask for each of you. So, thank you. All right, welcome back everyone. Welcome back, welcome back.
Miranda Canseco:Thank you to everyone that submitted your questions. We do have quite a few from the audience for our wonderful panelists. So the format for this section is I will read out some of the questions that were submitted and then we will have some rapid fire to end us out. Sound good, rapid fire. It's not too rapid, it's like Jeopardy, no buzzers or anything. And these ones, any of our panelists, you're more than welcome to jump in. But one of the first, I guess, is directed to Dr Deloach. What is the name of the artist who sings the song that we listen to during meditation?
Dr. Chanté D. DeLoach:Great question. A beautiful artist by the name of Cleo Sol S-O-L. Cleo Sol, and the name of that song was Know that you Are Loved song was know that you are loved.
Miranda Canseco:Thank you. Next question we have. It has been noted in this discussion that modeling is key as people. From my experience, being genuine is the key to building relationships. How have each of you fostered genuine relationship building within your professional roles?
Terrance Stone:They're looking at me. I think one is just being genuinely consistent. Basically, you're always going to get the same tearing stone when you see me, basically, and so I try to model that. But also, too, with my staff, my team. I think I spend more time with my staff than anybody else because I'm at work every day, all the time doing something, time doing something and so, but also, too, I know that I would never send them to do nothing that I either have did or or would not do, like I would never send you into a fire that I have not walked through already.
Terrance Stone:Basically, so just them knowing that and and seeing that. So when Dr G earlier talked about just being out in the community and community engagement and outreach, I did that already. Or sometimes, when they go out there and they set up, I'll pop up for a little while and say hello to the people and hang out and give out some stuff, just so they know that I'm not too big to give out stuff and be in the community and make sure that the community know who we are and things like that.
Dr. Georgina Yoshioka:I think that the key, you know from a professional lens, is about the you know, again, as Terrence mentioned, like you know, working, living by example. I think the importance is to and I would just mention this is that I'm human, I make mistakes, I am going to make mistakes. I think the key is to be apologetic for it as well, but also to know that and acknowledge that a mistake has been made. Because, again, sometimes in roles and for many of us, in our professional roles, especially when you're in decision-making role, sometimes you have to make decisions on the whim. It may not always seem like the right decision, but the idea is to know that it's the best decision that can be made in that time. It doesn't mean later it cannot be changed or cannot be modified or cannot be modified. But again, I think, ultimately is being able to even set up here today and be out in the community and share your story, to know that, outside of my life, of my professional work, I got here based on the fact of my lived life and without that I wouldn't be who I am today. And when people may ask you the question, if there's something you could change in your past, what would it be and ultimately I always say there would be nothing I would change because I wouldn't be here today. So I think it really is about modeling the importance of be you know, be, acceptance of who you are and it's okay, we're not perfect. Again, everyone asks me if someday I'm going to write a book. I get scared because I have to then write some truths and the reality is, you know, there is a time to tell that story. But I think there is times where I not always made great decisions and I've had to live behind those decisions but ultimately have grown from them. But knowing, as I look out and just seeing the audience here, I know as many of you can resonate with that to know is that we are human, we're not perfect, we're going to do our best to do what we can with what we have and basically, again, model that to all of you and especially in professional leadership roles.
Dr. Georgina Yoshioka:It's really about mentoring individuals. So someday you'll be the one who's sitting up here Because I do look to retirement. I mean that's the idea. I mean 27 years. I'd like at some point to transcend into the next world of no phone calls, no emails, no policy reviews. No, I can go on right.
Dr. Georgina Yoshioka:But the idea is again, and one of the things I also do on my spare time is I actually teach. I actually find a lot of joy in teaching and the reason why I do it is because that is my way of giving back to the next generation. And again I've learned the next generation is not the young generation, it's an array of generations, because even as myself, as an older adult going back to school, I encounter individuals who are now coming back to school, who now have gone through their life and their journey and obstacles that they've overcome to come back. So for me, it's about being able to create that work and that educational component and saying to all of them this is exciting, because I know you're the next generation that's going to come in and carry the legacy of all the great work that we're doing every day.
Miranda Canseco:Thank you. Next question that we have from our audience is one of the most powerful tools in life, which requires no professional experience, is to simply ask someone how they are doing and listen when they respond. Paying attention to those around you matters, but it's also important to know resources when it can become too much for you. What are some resources that you would recommend?
Dr. Chanté D. DeLoach:That's a great question One. I think it's great to be available to people and to be that listening ear that showed her to cry on and to have boundaries around that, to know how much of that we're able to hold and when it's time to encourage people to use other resources, including other people. In terms of resources, I think it really depends on what the person would benefit from. I think there are always religious and spiritual resources, there are resources for physical health, there's exercise, there's all of those things, and then there's professional help, which obviously I'm a practicing psychologist I am a big supporter of. Obviously, there are county resources, and so I think, really, being specific, I love warm handoffs, meaning pull out your phone right now, not a I'll send you later, because anybody like me who, if you don't do it right now, it may or may not get done, or it wakes you up in the middle of the night remembering to do it. And so pull out your phone right now, let me show you right. If I'm on campus, oh, walk with me, I'm going this way, and so I will physically walk someone to an office and talk to the people that I know there. Or, if I can't, ask for Martha, ask for such and such and say that I sent you Because people are much more likely to take advantage of those resources.
Dr. Chanté D. DeLoach:But if you aren't sure who or what resource would be most beneficial and we don't always, and that's okay or what resource would be most beneficial and we don't always, and that's okay we don't have to know or have a personal referral for every need that everyone has. You can say you know what, I don't know, but I know who does right and connecting them to that. So I'm a big fan of really personalized kinds of support and referrals and resources that are accessible, and so if somebody can't afford to pay out-of-pocket for something, that's okay. We have other resources. Thankfully, you have what was it?
Dr. Chanté D. DeLoach:1,200 DPH a really large, magnificent DBH team here in this county. There are hospital-based referrals. There are so many different avenues, and then there are books, there are podcasts like this one that folks could benefit from. So I also like to share resources, not just in that moment but later. Right, if I know somebody's struggling with something and I come across an article, I come across a song, I come across something. You know what I was thinking about, you. I know you've been going through, you know, or I know you're still grieving, you're still whatever. It's been a minute, but you know what? Here's this resource.
Dr. Georgina Yoshioka:I just want to add a personal resource on top of that For me. Remember, I mentioned earlier that I'm a big paper person, right, one of the things I I do is I have a paper calendar and basically what I do is I actually plan my year. So, in that, what I do is I basically will put in everything I do every day, because that helps me and, if you saw it, I'm and I color code, by the way, so I have certain colors for certain activities and my highlighters, whether it's personal or work, things that are organized and helps me compartmentalize what I have going on. And every Sunday is when I fill out the next week. Every month I do in advance. So one of the things is I book trips, I do things. I reach out to my family hey, I'm going to go out to Carlsbad, do you want to join? I'm looking at this weekend hey, I'm going to go here and a balance between my personal and my professional life, but still have a bird's eye view of everything going on. So that's the only thing I would say.
Dr. Georgina Yoshioka:The second thing that I just want to add is one of the rules I have set for myself is, at the end of the day, when I go home and no matter who I talk to my 10-minute limit of talking about work After I reach now it's not 10 minutes per person, because I won't have friends. What I'm talking about is 10 minutes max and I highlight something that I feel is relevant, that I need to share, that I need to get off my shoulders or anything like that. It's usually my sister, but the idea is and she doesn't have good advice, so that's actually shortens the 10 minutes, but the key thing is I'm able to then cut it off, and it happens so many times you can just find that you keep talking about it, talking about it. So it's important to put a time limit. It's okay, and then just say, okay, that's it for the day and that's it, and put it to rest Because guess what? Tomorrow it's going to be there.
Miranda Canseco:As an extra tip to that, a similar practice is I'll send voice memos and that's like a nice, because it doesn't have to engage in a dialogue of let's just like sulk into this, let me just get it off my chest and I see, oh my gosh, I talked straight for five, six minutes about a situation and I have the opportunity to delete it after, and so that's always kind of like a good release of also taking care of myself. Another question that we have from audience is how can employee take care of their mental health when they work in maybe like a high-paced environment but still remain positive for their clients?
Terrance Stone:I think just that self-care, like you have to do, stuff that you like to do to decompress and relax and things like that. Meditation, like we just did earlier, right? Or simply, you know, going to the gym. That's what I do. I go to the gym, I work out before I start encountering people so I can get all that out. Then I say, hey, how you doing.
Terrance Stone:After that, and you know whatever helps you to decompress, you just have to start and just do that. Be faithful to yourself in that. Basically, I don't care if you go get your nails done and your toes and all that stuff Y'all know what y'all talking about. Just whatever it does to help you to woosah sometimes, and just be faithful. A lot of times, we're faithful to everyone but us, but we have to learn it's okay to be faithful to yourself as well, though, too.
Dr. Chanté D. DeLoach:I would just add intermittent breaks throughout any and every day. Some years back I had a colleague who was a smoker and would take smoke breaks and would stop by my office and she started inviting me and I was like you know what I could use a break? I don't smoke. But so she's like, yeah, take it. So her joke was come take a non-smoking smoke break with me. And um, she smoked a lot. So I.
Dr. Chanté D. DeLoach:I didn't know that in advance when I agreed to this, but she started taking me on her smoke breaks and it was actually really helpful. It would just break up the day and it wasn't that long. She'd take, you know, whatever number of puffs and we'd chat, so it was also a good way to connect with her. It forced us to be outside. I lived in Chicago at the time so I didn't always appreciate that part, but yeah, it got me into the habit of taking intermittent breaks during the day just to move around, just to go outside to connect with a colleague or, if I'm working from home, to connect at home with my husband. And so, yeah, intermittent breaks, because we will always have something due. There's always going to be, um, a deadline. The fast pace, slow pace, it doesn't matter. Take breaks.
Miranda Canseco:I was just going to ask a follow-up of did you find that you showed up better after these breaks? Because often the misconception is like let me just go through all of these email, let me go through all of this work, and I don't want to lose those 10 minutes yeah, I think my colleagues and students, and probably clients as well, will agree that my tone is a little better if I've had a break.
Dr. Chanté D. DeLoach:I think people know if I'm taking care of myself. Even my loved ones know. I always know that I may be a little edgy when my husband, my daughter, like, hey, you need to go on a run. You know you need, why don't you go and do that? But yes, absolutely, I feel better. But also I think I'm more productive and just the quality of how I'm able to show up after those few minutes of a non-smoke smoke break can be helpful.
Terrance Stone:What was she smoking?
Miranda Canseco:Oh geez, I'm just playing, I'm just playing.
Dr. Georgina Yoshioka:I think one piece I'd like to add is that it's how you start your day. One piece I'd like to add is that it's how you start your day. And it's funny as I'm looking at Maribel right now, because I came to her one day and I said you know, I learned this new concept. And she was like what was that? And it was called. I said it's check your weather. And for me it's like when I get in my car it all begins there. Right, you wake up in the morning you can already already tell the direction. So when you get in your car, I've learned to my music. So I've learned like, avoid hard rock, anything like beat, because then I'm just like, okay, I gotta get to work.
Dr. Georgina Yoshioka:But I think it's a matter and you know, try not to have too early of phone conversations. I'm still working on that. Sometimes I feel like I can get a lot of work done. But I think it's about checking your weather. If you know that your day is already stormy, to try to be able to make some self-reflection, to realize like, what's causing that? To know, because if you don't have that under containment when you go into the office, it'll present and even though you may try your best not to so every now and then, Maribel Maverick, she said to me she's like gee, check your weather. So I think you know it's a good thing, because it's sometimes and it's probably you may not even know how you're presenting until somebody says that and then you realize because, even though you may feel you're trying to portray a certain way, it may be what's physically on the outside that someone's seeing. So thanks, maribel for that. But I think, again, it's something that it's really important is how you start your day and then, as I mentioned earlier, how you end your day, because I think a lot of times we, we don't we.
Dr. Georgina Yoshioka:It's really important is how you start your day and then, as I mentioned earlier, how you end your day, because I think a lot of times we don't. It's everything in the in-between, and someone talked about, you know, working in a high-paced type job. We're drawn to that. So many of us that do that. It's because it's something that we're drawn to, we actually do really well. It's when we forget to take the time to realize what we do well and realize that we need to make decisions about how we take care of that, because it's something that, again, it's inherent in us, like we, just we constantly go, go, go, but it's when we start coming down from that, and there's that's where you need those resources though out, those outlets, times with friends, families, outings, things like that, doing things that are going to find a pleasure watching, watching TV.
Dr. Georgina Yoshioka:I don't know about you guys, but I'm a big hallmark watcher, I'm huge, and I know the story. I already know, I already know they're going to find someone, fall in love, and it's going to be happily ever after I got it. But the idea, though, is, when you're sitting there and you're just vegging out, right, you're just like, wow, this is great, great, and I find myself crying sometimes, like I'm like, why am I crying? Like I already know, right, but the idea is it's calming, and I think that's really what we do is we all have to find our own way to find resources that will make us realize that, hey, I'm taking care of myself, but the next day, when I go in, I know that I'm going to feet are going to hit the ground, because that's what I do best.
Miranda Canseco:Thank you. Thank you. Another question we have is what are some challenges you have faced with boundaries as professionals and as caregivers?
Terrance Stone:Large sigh, I think. Well, boundaries, like in my position, I'm the executive director, been executive director for close to 25 years, so you always have to find those boundaries, like I said earlier, like I'm around my staff and my team more than anyone, like I think I just go home to sleep and eat and then I come back to work the next morning and so and so, with that too, you just have to, you know, have it in the back of your mind. Now, I'm very mission-minded and purpose-driven, right? So that's always in my mind. Did we get it done? Like I don't care what we've been through today, how stressed we are, whatever, at the end of the day did we get it done? So that's what I'm always thinking about, like that day.
Terrance Stone:So everyone on our team, they have a specific mission or purpose or chore that they have to do within an organization to make stuff happen. And too, I joke a lot, lot around, joke around a lot, see and and with that too. So I have to check that, because somebody, I say something, and then someone just popped my head and it's fall out my mouth and I didn't realize I said it to afterwards. I was like you know, I I shouldn't have said that I'm bad, but it it was funny though right, and so, even with those boundaries as well, though, too. Also, too, just being with we have a great team and just knowing, like you know our staff go through things personally, you know they lose loved ones and, you know, go through relationships up and downs and things like that, and go through relationships up and downs and things like that, and just knowing how far to indulge in this conversation. Do you want to know this conversation? Is this conversation going to get me in trouble? Things like that? So I'm always thinking about those actions towards when I'm working with my team as well.
Dr. Chanté D. DeLoach:We could talk about boundaries all day right.
Dr. Chanté D. DeLoach:Boundaries can be really hard for me, given I approach people and I approach my work from a space of love and a real commitment to the healing and well-being especially of people who look like me.
Dr. Chanté D. DeLoach:My boundaries with work have strengthened, as I've learned, boundaries with family and in my personal life, and that's been a journey like for so many people. I'm a lot better at it now because, I have to right, I'm older, I can't do as much, but also as a parent, I will always steal from myself but never from my daughter and, as you know, with a child who has health needs and that kind of thing, I need flexibility and want to show up. I need to show up in different ways for her, and so I think as I have lived and I have grown, I have come to better understand how to set limits, how to honor those limits for myself but also for the people around me, and also to show up in ways that are meaningful, because when I don't honor my boundaries, then I'm going to be resentful and be giving people the side eye around me and that's unfair. It's unfair to them when I didn't set in or honor my own boundary, and so for me that's been a journey, and I'm so much better at that today.
Dr. Chanté D. DeLoach:People that I work with know that I have hard limits around like nope, that's my family time I, you can inform me of something and you know I will get back to you on that and and I feel okay, guess what? Nothing terrible has happened. And so you know when you live enough and you know and have survived real emergencies, real traumas, real horrors. It also allows you to keep other things in perspective, and so that also has been really helpful for me.
Dr. Georgina Yoshioka:So I'm gonna give you two sides. So, from a personal side, with my brother and I've shared in different forums that my brother has lived with mental illness since he was in his early 20s and, as for me, I'm his primary caregiver since we lost my father three years ago and in this role it's a balance between being a sister but being the responsible person who has to make decisions for him, both financially and for his medical care. Now, good news is I have a good. My brother and my sister are very much doing things, very supportive with that. My brother lives in a facility and, again, knowing that my professional side and the job that I do, and knowing when I walk through the doors of the facility I have to keep my hat on as a sister. It's so easy to find with that boundary that you could cross over and begin to question things. But I have to have faith in regards to understanding and being on the professional side of knowing what it is to operate a facility and what those challenges are, but what the positives are is to operate a facility and what those challenges are but what the positives are, and seeing that every day when I talk to my brother and when I see him, he looks healthy, he looks well. He might complain here and there it's always about snacks, but we got that covered. But the idea, you know, again, it's that it's that crossing over and being able to be that person can that, can flip the hat in regards to ensuring that he is well taken care of, which he is. So I get emotional about it because, again, it's my older brother and at the end of the day, you know, as a sister, it's always my primary responsibility to ensure that he, you know, he's living his best in his 60s. But with that, on the flip side of it, one thing I've learned through my time and I've been I've carried my role in leadership positions since a very early age. I would say my first leadership role, just so everybody knows, I worked at Chuck E Cheese, but with that I was a team leader. I kind of took on these roles and I always liked to do that. But I've learned now, even in the role that I am today, as the director of a department with 1,200 employees, over a $700 million budget, and the idea is I have a great team.
Dr. Georgina Yoshioka:But what you do find is it's a very lonely position and I think what it is is most people may not think that, because you think, like, how could it be so lonely? Well, I remember the day when I was in the department and I was a clinic supervisor, when I promoted to a program manager, when I promoted to a deputy, I had more resources in regards to people that I could go to and I can talk to and I can consult, and I can have conversations and have those in the weeds moments and maybe do some complaining again, because it's part of the role, right when we're in these different types of positions. But when you find yourself, as you begin to move up, one of the boundaries is about being in these positions where you don't have that ability to do that and is a loss because, again, sometimes you do, at the end of the day, go home and just feel like, wow, you know, who can I talk to, who can I say? That's why I got 10 minutes with the family. They don't care, they don't understand if I'm talking about SB 43. They're like, okay, great to know, thanks for sharing.
Dr. Georgina Yoshioka:But the idea, though, is, again, I think, when we talk about the boundaries, this is something, and I think, your dedication, you want to promote your team, you want to foster what the asks are, the needs are, but then you're in between this pulling force and trying to create that balance. That's that boundary, and sometimes it can be very challenging, but the worst is when you feel like you're doing it alone. So I think at the end of the day it's really about, I think it's a juggling act right between your personal, but also within your professional.
Miranda Canseco:I like how all of you touched on that. It's a learning process. It's constant learning. It's not something that is necessarily black and white, of just set those boundaries and just go by them. It's definitely not that easy, but we're each trying to, on a daily basis, try to achieve that. So those are the questions that we have from our audience. A segment that we have at the end of each of our podcasts is just some rapid fire myth busting. So what is a mental health myth that you would like to debunk? And it could be just overall stigma, some of the barriers, myth about resilience. What have you encountered?
Dr. Georgina Yoshioka:I'm going to say that talking about mental health is not a weakness, it is a strength, and it's one that in which we must endure and know that mental health is every day part of everybody's life. And to know, most importantly also, is that when people say there's no resources, there are resources. Understandably, as mentioned earlier, is that we have to get the education out there, the advocacy, and so there I look across this room and say for all of you to be here today is that you are that person, so please spread the word to know.
Dr. Chanté D. DeLoach:Yeah, I was just going to say that depression is something you can just shake off, that you can just cheer yourself up from that depression. Yeah, just to underscore that, especially clinical depression is significant and can be disabling for people, and some folks can struggle with that off and on for a good chunk of their life. And so, yeah, let's avoid trying to just cheer people up and instead trying to see them, hear them and try to show support in ways that they can feel and ways that they need.
Terrance Stone:I want to say that in the African-American community we do have mental health and you cannot cure that with ginger ale.
Miranda Canseco:That was your mic drop moment. Any final comments from our panelists as we wrap this wonderful discussion up.
Dr. Georgina Yoshioka:I would just like everyone to give applause to our panelists that are next to me, please Dr Jewel and Dr Terrence. I just want to thank everyone for being here. Miranda, great job. Just want to give a please give a round of applause to Miranda and her team for putting the great this wonderful venue. I know they were here super early, I have a feeling, but with that, again to acknowledge that May is mental health month and the great activities that have presented and that we're able to raise awareness. We appreciate you all being here. It's so important looking out and being able to say just how proud I am to be the director for department of health, and not only that, to know that, as a individual who has a mother who would live with mental illness, as well as a brother, to know that I appreciate every day your dedicated work and your willingness to come and make a change for individuals to know that they can have optimal wellness in their life, and you are that person that brings them to that journey.
Terrance Stone:so thank you to all of you also for everyone in the room as well, though, too. You are a small part of something major, basically because we have a whole army of people out there that couldn't even fit in this room, but they will see them, or they'll see us on the podcast. But just stay in the fight. Just make it happen. Be resilient within yourself to help other people be resilient within themselves as well, though, too. Thank you.
Dr. Chanté D. DeLoach:I'll just say thank you all for having me. It has been really just a great conversation and to be in great company today, and I hope that each of you is able to take even something small that you learned here today a new insight, a new tool, a new resource, a new something that you're able to take forward with you and to share with somebody else who was not here today.
Miranda Canseco:Thank you. Let's hear it up one more time for our wonderful panelists. Thank you all for joining me up here. Thank you, thank you, thank you. We do have some short remarks as a PSA, but before I pass it over to Carol, I do want to just bring up Eden Havtigidgis up here to be recognized. She is the one that planned this, was her brainchild, so bringing us all together, that made this happen. Thank you, thank you, thank you. From bringing together our wonderful panelists to writing out some of the questions, finding the venue, just a kudos to our wonderful part of our public relations and outreach team, eden Habtigidgis.
Eden Habtegiorgis:Thank you so much, miranda, and again, thank you guys for being here. Most importantly, mental health is real. Wellness is important. Make sure you share everything that was talked about today. I want to say thank you to Miranda for allowing me to be able to just be as expressive as I wanted to be, but also to my team. You see them at every outreach event. You see them everywhere. We are trying to promote wellness and yeah, so thank you so much and yeah, so thank you so much.
Miranda Canseco:So we had a great, great discussion here today. I hope you have some major takeaways that you can take into your practice, take into your personal lives, but we also want to just share some of our training opportunities that we facilitate from the Department of Behavioral Health. So I'd now like to welcome up Carol McDonald, our Community Outreach Coordinator. Thank you, carol.
Carol McDonald:Try to put it in here. Hello everyone, you hear me okay, yes, okay, good, five minutes till afternoon. Hello, my name is Carol McDonald. I am the Community Outreach Coordinator with the San Bernardino County Department of Behavioral Health. Thank you all so much for being here today. I hope you feel well-fed, engaged and hopefully really inspired by the conversation that we had here today. I'm happy to have the chance to share some valuable and potentially life-saving training opportunities that the department offers to support the wellness and safety of our community.
Carol McDonald:Dbh offers free mental health and suicide prevention trainings open to all community members teachers, health workers, faith leaders, law enforcement really anybody who is in a position to help, whether it's a small team or a large group. They're designed to give you the tools to recognize and respond to mental health or substance use challenges in those around you. Mental Health First Aid Adult Training is an eight-hour course that teaches you how to identify, understand and respond to the signs of mental illness and substance use disorders in adults. This training is offered to anyone 18 years or older. Dbh also offers Youth Mental Health First Aid Training. This is an eight-hour course that focuses on helping youth ages 12 to 18 who may be experiencing mental health or substance use challenges. This training is ideal for anyone 18 or older who regularly interacts with youth as I know many of you do such as parents, teachers, coaches, youth leaders and more. Both mental health first aid trainings improve mental health literacy and reduce stigma, which is key to early prevention and something this department prioritizes because it's so important.
Carol McDonald:The department also offers trainings related to suicide prevention. The Applied Suicide Intervention Skills Assist Training is a 16-hour, two-day interactive workshop that provides in-depth training to recognize when someone may be at risk for suicide and how to help them. All community members 16 years or older may attend this training. Our department also offers Safe Talk Suicide Alertness for everyone. This three-hour training helps you recognize and support someone who may be having thoughts of suicide and connect them to appropriate resources. All community members 16 years or older may attend this training. It's also important for me to mention that these trainings are not only for professionals. They're for all of us, because we all have the power to make a difference, whether you're a coworker, a friend, parent or neighbor. Knowing how to recognize the signs and respond can save lives, so these are really essential tools.
Carol McDonald:To view our current training schedule, you can scan the QR code behind me. It'll take you straight to our website and you can head to the events tab for full details on what we have coming up. And if you're interested in bringing one of these trainings to your workplace, your school, your church or community group, we'd love to make that happen. So please stop by the DBH resource table located just outside. Our team's ready to answer your questions and help you begin the process to get a training scheduled.
Carol McDonald:At the training you'll also find our outreach card with our email inbox, so feel free to reach out with training requests, outreach requests or other questions. And lastly, we want to hear from you. Are there any types of trainings you'd like to see the department offer in the future? If so, please email us your ideas. Your feedback helps us better serve this community in a way that's tailored to its needs, with intention and with partnership. Thank you again for being here today and for supporting mental health awareness and safety across San Bernardino County. We hope to see you at one of our trainings or any of our other events this year. Thank you so much.
Miranda Canseco:Thank you, Carol. Well, that concludes our Resilient and Real Summit. Thank you all for making it a priority and being here today. Thank you for being here. Have a great rest of your day.