Support for Arkansas Week provided by the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, the Arkansas Times and Little Rock Public Radio.

And welcome to the show this Memorial Day weekend.

I'm Dawn Scott.

Thanks for being here with us.

It is estimated that more than one in five people in the U.S. suffer from mental illness, yet most don't get treatment.

And that can have major consequences in the lives of those people.

And the ones they love.

Each year of the month of May is designated Mental Health Awareness Month, intended to spotlight the importance of mental well-being and to combat the stigmas associated with it.

On this program, we will focus on Arkansas and in this first segment, discussing mental health in children.

Later in the show, we will focus on adults and to share how families can prioritize their child's mental health and emotional health.

We want to welcome Lauren English.

She is a licensed professional counselor and a business development representative with Pinnacle Point Hospital.

We also have with us the executive director of the nonprofit organization whose mission is to help people living with mental illness, their families and the community.

Doctor Buster Lackey of the Arkansas Chapter of the National Alliance on Mental Illness, also known as NAMI.

And we appreciate both of you being here.

This is a topic that is not always easy to discuss, but it is one that is so important that we have a dialog about in our community and for our families.

And I want to start first with why our mental health and our mental well-being is just so important.

Lauren, Especially for children, because that's our focus, this first segment.

Absolutely.

Thank you so much for having me.

It's an honor to be able to discuss this.

It is an important topic for kids, and I think a lot of times people think mental health is hard to talk about.

And the more we can really take the time to put those statistics out there and talk about how mental health affects you from infancy all the way into your later life is what we really want to do because it's something that encompasses all of our lives.

It's how we socialize, it's how we interact, it's how we build resiliency and how we work through challenges in all stages of life.

And and it's part of our physical health, our mental health.

It is, you know, reading the numbers, they're tough to swallow.

One in six U.S. youth, age 6 to 17, experienced a mental health disorder each year.

Dr. Buster Lackey, talk about this.

This is a big number.

It's a big number.

And, you know, I think for Arkansas, we had 35,000 children, age 13 to 17 last year, which would depression.

But here's the kicker.

They didn't get any help because there's not a there's a shortage of mental health professionals.

We have therapeutic deserts across our state, and it's not enough to go around with all the students that we have.

35,000 a therapeutic desert, meaning there's no access to it.

There's no access for help in that area.

Do you think part of it is to an understanding of what mental well-being is and and knowing that you are in a depressed state?

Is that is that an issue as well regarding children?

I think so.

I think, you know, sometimes we focus on a lot of things in school, but we don't focus on our educating them about our mental health.

And, you know, it's okay not to be okay.

We just got to know when and where to get the help and does our schools helping is one of the questions I had to and we don't have to get to that right now, but I'm so curious.

I've noticed just in my with my own children at the schools, there are wellness centers now and there are places that they can go for rest.

To talk is so important.

Absolutely.

I think the more we can talk about it, like we mentioned earlier, we can bring awareness and schools can figure out how they can play a vital role in helping kids, because a lot of times they're the gatekeepers, the teachers, the counselors, the coaches, all of those people are role models and they play an impact in those kids lives and they spend a lot of time with them outside of the home.

So I want to talk more about the desert situation in our state and what we can do about that.

But before we get there, I think it's important to say, you know, we all experience stress.

We all have a bad day.

We all feel sad at times, especially our kids.

They ride the waves of emotions probably even more than adults do.

But at what point do you know there's a problem?

That's hard because, you know, every child's different for, you know, I've got three daughters and every each one I'm totally different.

My oldest one is very independent and you wouldn't know anything's bothering her if she's sitting across from me.

My middle one's very, you know, introvert, but she you'd notice immediately there's something wrong with her.

And my youngest one just turned 16.

And, you know, she's as tough as nails.

You know, she's she's going to just take care of herself.

And then in passing, I might find out that, oh, it just happened or this is the way I feel.

And I'm like, Oh my gosh, this is my job.

I'm not coming and talking to me.

Yeah, there are some universal signs and symptoms.

So would you say.

Lauren Absolutely.

I think any time you notice maybe and you can relate to this, like you just said with your own kids, but any time there is a lot of isolation, if they're not enjoying activities they typically enjoy, If you see them kind of not hanging out with friends, they are used to hanging out with, They're wanting to be alone in their room if their appetite changes.

If you see a lot of mood swings, any substance abuse, all of these things can be signs that there's something deeper going on and maybe they're going to other things to cope.

Sure.

And of course, as parents, you know your children better than any of us do.

So but some things to watch for, for sure.

So what are the signs, I guess, that you need to take a step to seek professional help?

Is there anything that you all would recommend watching for for for parents that may may need to know?

Yeah.

You know, one of the biggest signs that is the isolation when they start withdrawing, pulling away from family events, people like me and friends, I think that's when we can start paying attention.

What's going on, you know, not participating in events that they like, that their hobbies, their interest and, you know, not want to hang out with friends.

You know, You know, one of the things I had a parent call me to the day and said he doesn't want to play his video games anymore.

And I was like, okay, we've got to get this child in somewhere because obviously if you go from a video gamer to nothing, what's wrong?

Exactly?

Well, another number two that blows me away.

Suicide.

The second leading cause of death among people age 10 to 14.

And that's true here in Arkansas as well.

Yes.

Wow.

What do we do?

You know, this is a question that we've been kicking around and we got to find the answer.

But it's we have such a fluid environment where what may may work in Little Rock may not work in Fayetteville.

What may work in Fayetteville will not work in, you know, Pine Bluff, because just different geographic areas and different, you know, climates.

And and I think, you know, with Pinnacle Point, I know that, you know, this is one of their big, big things that they take students in when they, you know, they come because they got a suicidal ideation or plan.

You know, they're ready to commit suicide.

And most of the time parents stumble on it accidentally.

But I think to follow up with that, just if you see something, say something.

Don't ever wait, because sometimes it can be too late.

And if if you feel awkward in how to say that, just say it seems like things are really heavy for you right now.

Are youth seem different in the last few weeks and I just want you to know I'm here and I'm open to talking with you or I can help you go see a doctor or a therapist.

I can be your advocate.

I think a lot of times it's overwhelming.

When you're depressed, you don't really have the energy to even pick up the phone and call clinical point or whoever to get the assistance.

And so if you can pay attention to the signs and be able to say, just speak up, then we'll save more lives, hopefully, and that number can decrease.

Well, so many more questions, but I do want to put this out there right now as a public service.

You can kids are on their phone all the time.

So an easy way to seek help is to text, text the word helpline, HBO app, like any one word helpline to the number 6264062640.

If you're in active crisis, call or text 988988.

But on that note, because I mentioned texting and phones, do these contribute, you know, to mental health overall, like just this existence that these children have that really so many of us have in our society of just staring at the screen?

I think.

So it kind of follows in line with that isolation.

The more you're on it, the more you're maybe.

And I think there was a study recently about it really affects teenage girls because they're looking at maybe a group of friends that went out and left them out.

And so they wake up and they're instantly hit with that.

And then they go out throughout their day and think there's just a dialog running.

Maybe nobody likes me or I'm not popular or and that can be isolating in itself.

And so we're living these kind of alternate lives online and it kind of takes them out of living in person.

So I think there is a huge contributor to depression with social media and phone usage or the photos are doctored and people look perfect and they're not, you know, Yeah, they're not.

I think, you know, we we even look at limiting screen time for younger children and daycare settings and different, you know, preschools but yeah, then we just kind of turn them loose as soon as they get into elementary and we don't, we don't even monitor anymore because it's just a natural thing to have in our hand.

Sure.

It was interesting.

I speaking of social media, I actually saw a post the other day a fellow mom had a graduate this this may and noted that in ninth grade they started the year in isolation in the pandemic.

And so I have to ask if that has impacted the mental health of children.

It sure seems to have as a mom watching children, it seems to have increased or maybe it's just more highlighted because we're paying closer attention.

And I'm sure you saw that firsthand.

Sure.

I think we're kind of seeing the effects of it now coming, you know, on the other side of the pandemic.

But one thing that I think and we talked about this, the desert situation, when those kids weren't in school, when they weren't given access to care with their maybe normal school counselor or their mental health professional, they weren't being seen.

And so maybe some issues that were going on were magnified during that time because they weren't able to get the help that they needed in there.

And we all felt the effects of the of the pandemic and increased anxiety and depression.

We lost loved ones, things like that.

So I do see that there was a major impact through the pandemic.

So in the last bit of time we have in this segment, I do want to ask about the desert situation and specifically, Dr. Lachey.

What what what are we doing for some of these rural communities where there are children suffering?

How can they reach out for help?

And there are programs and agencies that are trying to put centers and clinics and offices in these area.

But sometimes it goes back to the insurance.

The billboards, not not being able to ensure doesn't pay a hand off rate for a clinician to sustain themselves in a in a rural area.

So they start off there and then they have to close up and move back to Little Rock or wherever.

And I think, you know, we've got to be able to address it.

So when you open these clinics up, whether you're on a medicaid or some private insurance, it's paying a livable wage for the therapist because it's not like going to a regular family doctor where, you know, they get three or four patients in an hour.

Most of our clinicians get one an hour and then that's that's it.

So they don't get to stack it on transfer, you know, is telehealth effective in a situation like that?

It can be, I think so.

I think more care the better if they're not able to get access or get out and see somebody, maybe even in these rural communities, then absolutely, telehealth can be beneficial.

You have done especially in the, you know, COVID times.

We did I did therapy through telehealth and it worked.

It's not my first one.

I love to have them sitting down in the office with.

Sure, sure.

But, you know, if that's all we had and then I still do it right.

And it does benefit sometimes.

You just got to get used to, you know, technology, you know.

Lauren English with Pinnacle Point Hospital and Dr. Buster Lackey with NAMI.

We're going to continue this conversation after a short break.

And we have a very special four legged guest coming up.

We'll be right back.

And welcome back.

We continue our conversation on mental health with our focus now on the adult population.

And joining us, Sam Jones, a health professional at RSA Health and Conway, along with a therapy dog, Sweet Maggie.

We'll get to her in just a moment.

We also have Craig Jones, no relation to SAV, also a licensed certified social worker at the Odyssey Clinic at Uams.

And back with us, Doctor Buster Lackey, the executive director of NAMI, Arkansas.

Thanks all of you so much for being here.

And obviously, we've got to start with the star of the show here, Maggie.

Tell us about therapy dogs and what they can really do for mental health and for people suffering.

Sure.

So animals, as we know, are just very calming to people.

They just they just are people are very drawn to them.

And so, Maggie, specifically is there to get loved on by clients.

They pet on her, they love on her.

And it really does help them calm down.

She senses when they're upset, she walks over there, they get to hug her and better.

Yeah.

And there's different levels of training for different therapy animals.

Well, that's what I was going to ask.

What have you witnessed with patients?

Maybe that might be upset?

You've seen them instantly.

Calm down.

You see that?

Yes.

So I've had patients who are having like a full blown panic attack, mid-session.

And if they have the opportunity to pet and love on her, they can just take a breath and start to calm down faster than they would if she's not in session.

Yeah.

So it's been really beneficial.

We'll definitely get more with her in just a moment.

But I do want to talk with Craig Jones, the Odyssey Clinic at UMC.

What services do you offer so the Odyssey Clinic is a new for some sort of psychosis program that we're developing currently that's set to open on July 1st where outpatient clinic and we offer a coordinated specialty care.

What that means is that we offer several different types of services for individuals who are experiencing first episode of psychosis.

This could be anybody from the age of six or older who's been experiencing these symptoms for less than two years.

So we offer individual therapy.

We offer a lot of family interaction, family education, because it's also the family who's also in a crisis.

Oftentimes all these things occur.

We offer offer a careful use of medications, case management.

And one of those exciting things is we offer supportive employment and education services to help these individuals build, succeed in academic or vocational endeavors.

And we want not only help them to get a job, but also to help them be able to stay, stay successful in their and skills to be able to keep the job for sure.

I also read one in five U.S. adults experience mental illness each year.

Dr. Lackey, we've talked about children, but in adults, your lifetime mental illness begins often in the teenage years.

But if it is lifelong, I mean, here we are with adults suffering usually 18 to 25 is is when we have the FIP.

The first episode of psychosis.

This is what they're dealing with.

But as well as you know, when you get to 26 and in fifties and in the eighties, we're still experiencing mental health issues.

And I think I mean, 49 million people in America have major depression.

You know, 13 million people have some type of anxiety or phobias.

You know, you're talking about 3.9 million people that have schizophrenia.

So that's just a few of the numbers, right, Because there's so many different diagnoses out there.

Sure.

We talked about signs and symptoms in children, just that sort of isolation.

But in adults, it's different.

And sometimes I want to ask, do adults even know if they're in in a mental health situation?

Know?

I think sometimes we we got a family, we got a job.

We just push ourselves.

We keep pushing ourselves until we break.

And because whatever reason, the stigma, we still have a stigma about getting help for mental health.

And I don't understand that because as much as we educate on this and we push and we say it's okay not to be okay, we have people here just reach out.

You know, this is not, you know, something that requires a lot of work on the person.

Just make the call and we do the rest.

Yeah, I do think it's important to note that for a lot of folks, they slowly drift from home in since they've got their lives.

They think this is this is think how things should be going.

And then just slowly they start drifting away from that and then they maybe have a moment, a kind of a crisis or an awakening moment where they say, I don't know where I'm at now.

Things are very different than they used to be.

I'm not sure what I need to do next.

And I feel alone.

I'm scared.

And that's one reason why the services and programs like this raising awareness, are so vitally important to let people know that you're not alone.

There are these guides, there are these places you can go, these places people you can reach out to who can help you get back to home.

And it often it is a loved one who may have to say something or may have to help someone reach out because they're the ones that are witnessing, you know, maybe a change.

And how successful cannot be.

I know that's a slippery slope because sometimes it can it can intensify a situation for a patient or sometimes it can it can actually bring the help that they need.

Absolutely.

I think coming to somebody with love is so important to being able to say and notice things are a little different now.

And I'm worried.

Is there anything you want to talk about?

Is anything that I could help you with?

Yeah, just that kind of direct connection approach ends up being so vitally important for helping people to feel safe and being able to say, I don't know what's going on.

I need help.

Yeah, I completely agree with that.

I think that a lot of times when we're talking about mental illness, there's a lot of intergenerational trauma that happens and people are told they can't they're not allowed to express their feelings and that gets carried down in generations.

And so then, like Dr. Lackey was saying, you get busy with work and life and kids and you don't realize you're struggling.

So sometimes a loved one reaching out can help.

Sure, sure.

I have read an article that trauma is now known to have been passed through generations, so sometimes it's through no fault of your own.

Which then makes me question the stigma in our society.

What do we do to reduce that?

It really is the same as a diabetes or a heart condition.

Sometimes you can't help it.

Well, now we still have people that won't rent a house or an apartment to somebody because they have a mental health issue.

So we're talking about stigmas that even go to affecting life itself.

You know, and I think I mean, we do all the education we can.

We talk about it.

We have shows like this.

We we push it out in every media platform we have.

But it still is a stigma.

Yeah, very much so.

I think one thing that's so incredibly important is helping people to realize that we all carry these vulnerabilities, these so-called biopsychosocial vulnerabilities, whether they're intergenerational, the familial, the social, social, cultural or the things that have directly impacted us in our lives.

We carry these.

And then when we have a certain degree of stress, we tend to carry that relatively well.

But when we have good supports around us and we have kind of good coping skills, good adaptive strategies, we can do that.

Okay.

But whenever these things become overwhelmed, that's when we enter distress and that's whenever it's so important that we that we recognize it first and then that we try to get that help.

Sure.

So much of it is an awareness.

You know, I was reading, too, and one of the questions I wanted to ask about was diet, because what we put in our bodies can really affect our mental health as well.

Just like you mentioned, environmental, psychosocial things around us.

Diet is a huge thing too, that I know can be triggering for some people.

Yeah, absolutely.

I mean, physiological issues are very connected with mental health, right?

Our brain and our body are so connected, whether it's trauma diet or all the things that we ingest, you know, matter of fact, our our physical health, our mental health.

Yeah.

Alcohol and drugs is a huge thing which often people will self-medicate because they know something's wrong, but they really don't quite know what to do.

I'm getting my anxiety.

Where do you get your therapy?

Yeah, she keeps kind of wanting to come to me, so I'm just petting so.

And we see this in adults.

We also see the type of job or the type of career they have can affect, for example, law enforcement, first responders, and they are less apt to get treatment or go to a counselor because of the type of job they have and the perceptions.

And as opposed to maybe somebody that has, you know, an office job where they're encouraged to get help and to get, you know, see somebody for this.

And Dr. Lucki, correct me if I'm wrong, you work with the Department of Public Safety here in Arkansas, right.

Overseeing the the is it some 14,000 law enforcement officers and you're saying some seek help, some don't.

Yeah, so I do a wellness director for for the agency and and we're constantly you know since the first of the year we've had 29 critical incidents where we've responded to work with law enforcement officers across the state.

But that's not even touching the ones that have the different traumas and the PTSD for for first responders starts the first day.

They show up for work and it goes the entire career and and beyond.

Yeah, yeah, and beyond.

And, you know, it's when they're saying that two years if I retire after, you know, 30 year career in law enforcement I want to live about two years and then die and it's just this is really mind blowing when there's so many resources that we can provide.

Yeah.

Craig, I want to ask you to about treatment and the success of treatment.

Is it successful?

You We've mixed messages in our society.

Oh, you know, some say, oh, it doesn't matter.

It doesn't help to talk to people or the medications aren't effective.

They haven't really found good medications.

But then I don't know that that's true.

Fundamentally, it's not true at all.

People do get better now.

Get better.

That is something that, however, we need to broaden that.

Sure.

When we talk mental health, we often don't talk about cures.

These are not these are not the kind of conditions in which a person can take a medication or complete a course of particular therapy, and all of sudden it's all done.

They're never have a problem with it, a work like that.

Yeah, it does require an ongoing maintenance and that what that means is that the things that we may learn in therapy, for example, about ourselves, ways to adapt to the world, ways to overcome these things, the utilization of medication, which often can be a bridge to that.

And for some people that this may be a lifelong need.

For others it may be just a short term made sure.

But the things that people people learn in therapy, these are things that hopefully they'll take into their lives.

And my hope is that they kind of become their own therapist in the sense they can reach back and say, you know, I learned about this, and this situation seemed similar to what I dealt with before I got through that.

So maybe I can work with that now.

Sure.

Sure thinks I'm in the weeds right now so I know what I need to do to get out so that I don't have a crisis type of situation.

Absolutely.

I mean, it's sort of like and I'll just add to this briefly, but it's sort of like if you broke your arm and the doctor said, if we put a cast on this, that's going to help heal faster, that's what you need to do for your healing.

It's the same idea with mental health, with medications or treatment, like you're doing something to help yourself heal, but it's an ongoing healing process.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

I do want to speak briefly about her and what you do to train a dog for a therapy.

Sure.

So Pet Partners is great in central Arkansas.

That is who we initially went through.

And then any AKC certified places, fine.

But basically they just go through and vow to make sure that they can be around other people.

And yeah, yeah.

That they're comfortable around other people.

That's all I want to before we're about out of time, but I do want to make sure and give a note to phone numbers that you can contact if you or a loved one is in crisis.

First and foremost, you can if you're in a crisis, call or text nine, eight, eight.

You can also chat or text text the word helpline, any one word 262640.

The numbers on your screen there to NAMI, Arkansas one 800 8440381 and Pinnacle Point Hospital so helpful 800 8803322.

Dr. Buster Lackey thank you so much Craig Jones with the Odyssey Clinic at UMass.

Of course Dr. Lackey with NAMI and Sam Jones with the RSA Health in Conway, along with Sweet Maggie.

We appreciate you all being here.

Thank you so much.

And that is it for our program.

We are wishing you and yours a wonderful Memorial Day weekend.

We'll see you next time.

I'm Don Scott.

Support for Arkansas week provided by the Arkansas Democrat Gazette, The Arkansas Times and Little Rock Public Radio.