(upbeat music) (graphics pop) - Hello and welcome to The Journal, I'm Steve Kendall.

OhioGuidestone is a comprehensive provider of mental and behavioral health services, and those services will now include assistance for those who identify as LGBTQ+.

They deal with emotional and physical stresses that that group faces.

We're joined by Victoria Graham, Northwest Ohio Regional Director of OhioGuidestone.

So Victoria, thank you for being here today.

- Thank you for having me.

- Kind of give us just a general background of OhioGuidestone because as people can see behind us, the identifying line is where new paths begin.

So talk a little about OhioGuidestone.

It's not just particularly these services, but a broad range of services.

- We have quite a broad range of services.

So we are celebrating 160 years today.

And so we actually started as a children's home in Berea, Ohio.

And so we've evolved and added on and we are now in 32 different counties throughout Ohio, but we can do telehealth to anybody in Ohio.

So really throughout the state of Ohio.

And yes, we have a whole breadth of services.

We do prevention services, outpatient, residential, recovery housing, and it kind of varies based on where you are.

So in the Northwest Ohio area, we're located in seven counties and then we go all the way down to Columbus, over to Cleveland, and we see anybody from zero all throughout the lifespan.

We really focus on like whole person centered care and so anything somebody's coming with, we try and find the right services for them.

- Yeah.

Now, do you provide those services specifically or do you help people find other resources?

- We provide them ourselves.

And so we have services, we have case management, counseling, our prevention services.

You don't have to be a client with us.

We have medical services, medication assisted treatment.

Housing where you actually live with us.

Residential treatment that's actually on our locations.

And then we do services in office, in the community, in the schools.

Basically, wherever somebody is, we go to them and provide services.

- Yeah, now I mentioned the fact that you're providing some new services for LGBTQ+.

But you've always provided services in that area.

- [Victoria] Yes.

- This identifies a specific group, but talk about the services you've provided, currently provide, and then what these new services are about.

- Yeah, so we've always had services that we would try and target to that population.

We've always had staff that wanted to work with that population, make sure that they were really accepted, felt comfortable.

But then we have this evidence-based practice.

So that's the new thing of what it is.

So before we'd just do traditional counseling, usually in traditional counseling theories, but Affirm is actually an evidence-based practice specifically for this population.

And it's a cognitive behavioral therapy approach.

And so it really works on targeting, specifically working with them and the challenges that they face.

- Yeah.

Now, when you talk about those challenges, what, when someone comes to you, what are some of the things they bring to you and say, "Here's what I need help with.

Here's the things that are causing me stress."

What are examples of some of those for this particular group?

- So we know that this group in particular just experiences a lot more things that not everybody experiences if they identify as heterosexual or cisgender.

So we know there's higher rates of suicide, depression, anxiety, really a range of mental health disorders, and then substance use as well.

So oftentimes there's a lot of substance use to be able to cope with the things that they're experiencing.

We know there's a lot of social isolation, not feeling comfortable in their new identities.

So a lot of times you might use substances to be able to feel a little bit more open or free or relaxed or explore things.

And so we know research shows us time and time again that these individuals just have higher rates and higher risk.

And so that's why we're really trying to target youth because we know that's where it starts.

So if you can get in, teach 'em good coping skills, get good support, then we can hopefully avoid some of those things that we've been seeing later in life for adults.

- Now I, under the sort of the assumption that you're seeing younger people, more of them in this particular group, is that the case that there are now maybe people are being more open about it than they used to be?

There's probably a range of things that cause this.

But you are seeing more people in the 12-year-old to teenage years now identifying this way and of course then being confronted with the challenges and the things that's out there for them.

- Yeah, so we know basically just historically, people are very discriminated against.

And so they wouldn't come out, they wouldn't talk about things because they did face violence, discrimination, very serious things.

And so we see that since there's more and more acceptance, people are starting to identify younger or at least to be able to say, "Hey, what is this?"

Because there's more awareness.

So a lot of people would feel that way but wouldn't really know what is this.

So now they have a name to put to it, they have a community they can identify with.

And we know that the sooner that we can get in and say, "This is okay, and these are some of the things you might face," then hopefully they don't have the same struggles that some people had that are in older generations that had to deal with not having any support.

Nobody saying it was okay, trying to hide or reverse that identity.

- [Steve] Yeah, worse than no support, actually anti feelings toward this particular group.

And I know that you're, you know, just starting this here.

Do people come in who are in this younger group, as you said, they're trying to see, they're trying to figure out what's going on here.

Do you have people who maybe attend some of these things and then say, "Well, okay, this has cleared my mind, I don't know that I'm this, I'm not LGBTQ+," but it helps them decide, figure out their identity.

Is that, would that be a good way to describe it?

- So I don't know with this particular program, like you said, we just started it.

So I think in general when people come to us, they have that free space to be able to say, "Hey, what is this?"

And I think that's true for like any identity somebody has.

So they're like, you know, "I'm feeling this way."

And we can kind of talk through like, "What is that based in?"

I think most of the time when people come to us, they're pretty sure this is how they're feeling.

And once they kind of talk it out, they're like, "Oh, okay, maybe this is something that I'm not alone with."

But I think like anything, somebody comes in and once they talk it through, they can be a lot clearer or feel just more confident what they might be experiencing.

- Yeah, because there, and as we know that there are, although there are support systems out there, not maybe as inclusive and as effective as we would like them to be, and just generally in the population, it's still considered a minority group to some degree.

And yet, like any other group, people do have trouble sometimes accepting the situation or just don't understand it.

Obviously there's that problem too.

When someone comes in, and I know you're just working on this, but you have other clients in this area.

What are some specific, what's like one of the specific things they say, "Here's what's really causing me a problem as I go about my daily routine, this is what I'm facing.

How do I deal with this?"

- I think it would, my biggest thing that I notice is isolation or fear of being judged.

So that might be for the culture that they're in, the religion that they're in, not feeling like they have a lot of other people that identify that way around them.

Especially when you get to communities that maybe aren't as big of a city.

So, you know, outside of Toledo, when you get into some of these smaller towns, there might not be as many people that they can feel community with.

And so that just brings a lot of isolation.

And we know as humans, we're a social being and we like to be around people and feel included and accepted.

And so even if they are just concerned, maybe they won't be.

So maybe they haven't even yet had the experience of being discriminated against.

That fear is very strong, and you want to just blend in.

And so I think that's the biggest thing.

So when they can come in and talk to somebody and say, "Oh, I feel some social connection and somebody is telling me this is okay and I can be free and talk about who I really am," that can be so helpful to really be able to express yourself and feel confident in who you are.

- Okay.

Back in just a moment with Victoria Graham from OhioGuidestone here on The Journal.

Thank you for staying with us here on The Journal.

Our guest is Victoria Graham, Northwest Ohio Regional Director for OhioGuidestone.

We were talking about some of the stresses and the challenges that people in this particular community confront and have to deal with.

And you were talking about acceptance and one of the groups, I always wonder too, has it gotten better now with people who are identifying this way as LGBTQ+ with their families?

Has that changed any, I mean, because obviously we always see the worst examples of lack of acceptance sometimes with your own family.

Is that something that's still out there?

Is it, has it gotten better or are we still dealing with a really serious issue there?

- I think it's still a very serious issue.

Mostly it's so serious because family is so important.

And so that's the first place you feel accepted.

That's the first place you learn attachment, bonding, that things are okay, that should be kind of your practice area.

Where you can do some things wrong and somebody will still accept you and love you.

So if you don't have that basis, that can be very hard to form relationships going forward.

And so sometimes you would get into not so positive friendships, romantic relationships.

It's really important to have that support from a young age.

I do think that it's getting better.

So I think that a lot of where that came from was people just not being educated, being afraid of it themselves.

You know, coming from an older generation that no one talked about it, to have a child that had it.

So now as people are seeing more and more to it, and also seeing the effect that it had on people.

So I think that unfortunately, seeing what some of the older generations went through and that we know that there is such higher rates of suicide and mental health issues, I think that's helping families to say, "Wow, I really need to be supportive of this."

And I think there's also more support for families.

So actually in this model, one of the things that we have is to be able to give support to families.

- [Steve] Ah, okay.

That was gonna be my next question.

Good.

- Yeah, so if they're like, "I wanna be accepting, but I don't know exactly how to."

We can point them to good resources.

So it can be as simple as just learning the right words to use, maybe how to talk about a difficult conversation or having another person there.

So a lot of times we'll have a family member come in and we'll help facilitate that conversation because I think a lot of people are just afraid to say the wrong thing.

But then that makes silence, and that's the biggest issue.

So I think that it's easier just to say, "I want to learn, help me learn."

But sometimes it's really hard to ask that person in your life to teach you.

So there's other avenues now that we can help to get people educated, help see how can we support people.

So I do think it's getting better, but I think that it's still just the most serious issue.

- It's still there, yeah.

Because I guess as you said, a lot of people just don't know how to even approach the subject and are either afraid of saying the wrong thing and creating more of an issue.

And in an effort to try and find that medium ground right there, that middle ground of being able to say, "I want to understand, but I don't know how to ask you how I can understand."

When you have that situation, what are some of the techniques you use with family?

You mentioned in fact, maybe you have a third party come in and help facilitate sort of that initial conversation.

But when you have family members say, "Well, I'm struggling with being able to do this."

How do you approach them to say, "Hey, here's some of the things you can practice, think about, that will help you with this situation."

- So I think education's always the first thing.

So let's look into this.

Let me give you some resources to figure out what this is, how this person might be feeling.

Being able to connect to support groups, maybe hearing other people's experiences, support from other family members.

So there can be some supportive groups for family members going through this, that they can talk through some of those things.

So really support's number one.

And then I think just having your own awareness too.

So if I'm feeling some type of way about this, where is that coming from?

So what is the shame that I'm feeling?

Why am I not being supportive of this individual in my life?

And is that something that maybe I need to work through internally and maybe see what it is within me that is causing me to not be as accepting as I should be?

- Yeah.

Because I know that we, you know, we're obviously decades into this.

This isn't something that's brand new.

We go back to the seventies, the eighties, when things started to change and get better for a group like this.

But it's still, as you said, people grew up experiencing certain things.

Parents who are parents now, their, you know, their parents, whatever.

It's a lot of experience to kind of overcome maybe some of the not so appropriate ways to deal with this.

So you're talking about changing people's sort of attitudes and you mentioned education.

What are some of the questions that people ask when they come in and say, "Look, I really wanna do this, but explain to me how I can be better at this."

I mean, what do you, how do you answer that first time other, you're gonna tell them, "Here are some techniques you can use that," what are some of the things you would help them with, specifically?

- Some of it, going back to not wanting to say the wrong thing, like understanding pronouns, you know?

That can be very confusing, but that's a very basic easy thing.

So just encouraging somebody, "Hey, use the name that they wanna use."

Or maybe they're trying out different pronouns and figuring out what works for them.

So instead of maybe being frustrated about that, just walk that with them.

So maybe they wanna be called this this week, next week, it's something else because they're trying to learn and figure out what's best for them.

- What's right for them.

Now, when you talk about the pronouns, because that everybody, we hear that all the time.

Kind of walk us through the pronoun, I know this is a little more specific, but, through the pronoun sort of situation.

So if I want to identify differently what people say, "Oh, that's him, he, whatever."

And I say, "No, no, that's it."

What would, how does that sort of work?

Because someone say, "How should I address you?

You don't wanna be called he, you don't wanna be called a him."

Walk us through that whole pronoun situation where people who are trying to navigate that, who just haven't had the background in it, don't have an understanding of it.

- I think the easiest thing is don't assume.

So I think that's the number one thing that people run into, is that they assume someone's pronouns.

And so you would look at me and maybe how I'm dressing and you would assume my gender, but maybe that's not how I identify.

So I think it's always safe to use gender neutral pronouns.

And so they, them is a really easy way to be able to not offend somebody and then they can say, "Oh, this is how I identify."

Also starting that up front.

So if you, so for example, in our email signatures, we have our pronouns.

On our office boards, we say what our pronouns are.

So it gives an open space for someone to be able to come in and say, "Hi, I'm meeting you for the first time.

What are your pronouns?"

So usually when a client starts with us, instead of assuming it, we ask them.

So we say, "What pronouns do you use?

How do you identify?"

And then that informs us for the rest of time.

So I think just not making assumptions would be the easiest way, and letting somebody tell you what is best for them.

- Now some people would say, "Well that makes me uncomfortable.

Trying to just, not being able to just say what I think is the right way to say it."

How do you change my mind on that?

If I say, "Look, I, you know, you are what you are when I see you," how do you change my attitude toward that?

Someone who says, "You look like a she, you look like a he.

I don't understand why you wanna be called something differently."

How can you change my mind about that?

- I think it's hard to change people's mind.

- [Steve] Okay.

I think that we look at intention.

So do you want to make this person feel comfortable?

Do you want to try and cause as least harm as you can?

Is what is happening for you that would make you feel uncomfortable with that?

And I think it's really exploring that with people to be able to say, "Do you not want people to feel comfortable and supported around you?

What is really the hold up here?"

And I think that usually what I found is people feel like it questions them.

They're like, "Well, would you assume that I'm not this gender?"

And it's like, it's really not about you.

It's making everyone feel comfortable.

- [Steve] Yeah, okay.

You say it's like, yeah, you kind of have to put yourself in the other person's place and say, "Oh, how would you like to be misidentified by someone?"

And then it's like, "Oh, when you put it like that, I kind of get it."

- [Victoria] Yeah.

And what's wrong with it?

So if you ask somebody's pronouns, like it takes 30 more seconds, you know, like what really happens?

- [Steve] Yeah.

Yeah.

But the idea is to make everybody as comfortable and as, yeah.

Yeah, that's, and I think that's the tricky thing.

Because as you said, sometimes people just don't know how to even ask the right question.

How to approach it initially.

They want to do the right thing, but they're afraid to broach the topic because they don't wanna make a mistake.

Which then leads to a lack of communication, lack of education.

And now nothing starts to function the way we'd like it to function.

So yeah.

Back in just a moment with Victoria Graham from OhioGuidestone here on The Journal.

You're with us on The Journal.

Our guest is Victoria Graham from OhioGuidestone.

We've talked about a lot of things, but this specific program is called Affirm.

And it's aimed at youth who identify as LBGTQ+.

Talk specifically about what this program is and the activities are gonna take place.

Because some of them have already started, but there's a whole series of things.

How so people can get involved, and take advantage of the resource that's out there.

So talk about Affirm a little bit.

- So Affirm is an evidence-based practice.

And so it looks at working with youth, but there's also models for caregivers, adults.

And it's really focused on like the basis of it is starting with somebody being accepted.

And so what Affirm is, is that I'm affirming your identity.

I'm saying that you have a safe place, that I'm gonna listen to your experiences.

I'm not gonna come in with these preconceived notions or assumptions.

We are gonna start from a place of acceptance.

And then from there we look at how are you navigating your life and what could we maybe do within your control to make things different?

And so I think we've talked a lot about all of the things that people might experience and we can't always protect people from that.

So you might not always have a supportive family.

Your school may not be supportive.

There might be all these factors, you might experience discrimination.

So how do you deal with that?

And so some of those higher rates we know come from the stress of being a minority.

And then if you add in any other kind of identity to that.

So if you have a race, an ethnicity, any other kind of minority, that just couples it in.

- Stacks onto, yeah, double, yeah.

Increases the stress.

The potential stress and challenges.

Now I noticed that when you look at the LGBTQ+ group, you've divided them into demographics.

There's a younger group and an older group.

It's still within that 12 to 17 range.

So talk about the reason for why younger versus an older teen group.

- So this model can work from 12 to 21.

But when we were looking at building our groups, we said, "Is a 12-year-old really having the same experiences as a 21-year-old?"

And so we know there can be benefits from a 21-year-old saying, "Look at all the things I've been through and look at how I've come through that."

But we want it to be very comfortable for that individual but also for the family.

So especially when you're dealing with youth, we want that guardian to feel comfortable that they're not gonna be with somebody that's talking about things maybe out of their developmental range.

Or that they might be experiencing more than they should.

So that's why we were really intentional with the group, so that it really felt like your peers and you are really on the same page with things.

And so that's why we divided it up that way.

Because we really wanted to be able to build community and hopefully there'll be a support network for each other too.

- Yeah, and I guess that makes perfect sense because obviously a 12-year-old, the good news is maybe has not experienced some of both the good and the bad that come through this by the time you've become 17, 18, 20, 21, that kind of thing.

When you see that, what are some of the, I know you mentioned a little bit some of the differences, but someone who comes in who's 12 or 13, do they have typical questions that they ask or feelings that they present when they come into to these particular groups?

- Yeah, I think that when you're younger, you're already in just such a stage of questioning.

So we know just in human development, when you're that age, everything is a question.

You're just wondering "Who am I?

Where am I in this world and everything, what's my career gonna be?

What does my life look like?"

But then when you have somebody who's college age, well I might have already pitched my career, I have a friend group, maybe I'm already living by myself.

There's a lot of differences that come with that.

When you look at 21, I'm already drinking, maybe I'm going to bars, my social scene can be very different than when I'm 12 and I'm going to the mall or the movies and my mom's driving me.

So I think there's just so many differences in like the environment that they're in.

And I think that by the time you get a little older, you have a little bit more comfort in your identity and you know a little bit more about what life is like, how you work in relationships.

But sometimes when you're 12, I mean it's just a whole new world.

- Well, and you made a good point earlier, the fact that, especially in that group, all of the things that are part of that anyway.

Then you add this to it, it becomes a situation where it's one more stress point, one more challenge, one more situation.

You're like, "I'm not sure about this either."

And so that is really insightful, how that would work.

- [Steve] Obviously you've got programs set up for this and I know there are various dates and times where people can attend these sessions and kind of become involved in this Affirm program.

Really easy to find that information, right?

There's, you can just look online, Facebook, all of that, all the social media.

- [Victoria] Yeah, so we've been really trying to do outreach, which is why we're so happy to be here today to talk to you about it.

So we're just trying to get anywhere that we might be able to get to somebody.

And so we have some groups that are running in Bowling Green, some in our Perrysburg office.

We have a virtual option, but it's really just the start.

And so what we want is anyone just to reach out to us.

And so we have contact information on there for if you want more information.

We have somebody that's a manager in one of our offices that just wants to talk to anybody who's interested.

So it can be a family member, the individual themselves, anybody that wants more information that we wanna link them to the right place.

And then we're gonna figure out what's next.

So if this is successful, how many groups do we need?

Do we want to keep doing this all the time?

Do we do it more individual?

We're really just trying to gain interest and see how big of a need is this in our community?

Because we think it's a need, but we want everyone to tell us themselves how much they want this help.

- And obviously it's the open door policy.

Just knock on the door at least.

We'll we're gonna, yeah, you'll have a, you'll get a sort of a chance to hear what you have to say and then we'll see, yeah, where we wanna direct you or what the next step would be.

But the door is open if you want to at least access and ask a question about the service.

Now you guys provide obviously a lot of other services as well.

It isn't just about this and you've been doing that for a long time.

So talk about some of the other OhioGuidestone services that are out there for other populations as well.

- Yeah, so this one's a little different because we're running this as a prevention group and so you don't have to be our client.

So we do an informed consent just so everybody knows what's going on with the program and that everybody knows what they're getting into, for other services, usually you're a client with us.

And so that would involve you coming in, we would meet with you, talk to you, see what kind of things that you need, and then we would recommend what service we think would be best for you.

And so for counseling, we have individual, group, family counseling.

Case management is somebody that actually like goes into the community with you and helps you to practice things, get linked to resources, work with other providers, advocate on your behalf.

Our psychiatry program we have for mental health or medication assisted treatment for substance use.

And so that would be just anything that you would think you would want medication for, then we could have you meet with one of our providers to see if that would be appropriate.

We have recovery housing that's located in Toledo and Napoleon.

And so that would be an individual in substance use recovery that feels like they need a little support.

Then we give them housing to help them feel comfortable to be able to be back into the community.

- [Steve] To relieve that stress level, that stressor as well.

- Yeah, locally we also have residential treatment for substance use for males.

So if they feel like "I can't do it on outpatient, I really need to stay somewhere," we have that located in Napoleon.

We also have a specialized service for fetal alcohol spectrum disorder.

So we are one of three diagnostic clinics in the state of Ohio that can help to identify and diagnose and treat fetal alcohol spectrum disorder.

We have dialectical behavior therapy, which is a specialized therapy that really works at like complex, difficult to treat mental health.

We have EMDR, which works with trauma.

So we have all kinds of services.

So that's why we say just call us and we'll try and point you in the right direction.

- Yeah, and it's good to know that that resource is there and you have, as you said, you've got multiple locations.

And if you look at the OhioGuidestone site, you can see yeah, you're multiple locations across Ohio, not just Northwest Ohio, but this is a comprehensive sort of a distribution of resource activity.

If someone's sitting out there right now with any of the discussions that we've had, any of the areas like, "I need help here," what's the simplest way for them to just pick up the phone and call, and say find an office or just a general number to call?

- Yeah, I think that the website is what I feel like a lot of people, especially a younger generation likes because they can explore things.

So our website is OhioGuidestone.org and then they can look at, we have tons of information on there of all of our different services.

We have information on mental health, substance use, and then there's a button right there to request services.

They can put in their information and then we'll call them.

So sometimes we find that even making a call can be really difficult if you're struggling.

So this is a step where you don't have to talk to anybody and then we'll call you and you can answer when you're ready to get enrolled.

We also offer walk-in services in some of our offices.

So if that day you decide that you want to get some help, then we can have you walk in and be able to see our services.

So really no wrong door is what we look at.

- [Steve] Wow, yeah.

Fantastic.

Well thank you so much for coming on and talking about this and hopefully people will respond and will say, "Okay, this resource is there.

Maybe now is the time I can contact you and take advantage of that and help with my stress, my mental, my behavioral situations that I'm dealing with."

So thank you so much for coming on.

- [Victoria] Thanks.

Thank you for having me.

- You can check us out at wbgu.org and of course you can watch us every week on WBGU-PBS.

We will see you again next time.

Goodnight and good luck.

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