This is a production of WEDU PBS, Tampa, St. Petersburg, Sarasota.

[music] Coming up, the recent legislative session produced hundreds of new laws, including important legislation on mental health.

There are changes to Florida's Mental Health Act and a measure to divert people with serious mental illnesses from the criminal justice system to treatment programs.

And we're exploring creative approaches to healing.

Think emotional vaccines, cope notes, and the famous painter Vincent van Gogh.

That's next on Florida This Week.

[music] Welcome back everybody.

I'm Lissette Campos.

Several hundred new laws came out of Florida's legislative session.

And while critics say that little to no progress was made in the highly anticipated issue like insurance reform and housing affordability, progress was made in the arena of mental health.

Take a look.

Senate Bill 1620 makes changes to Florida's Mental Health Act by strengthening the state's Baker Act, based on recommendations from the state's Commission on Mental Health and Substance Use Disorder.

It standardizes clinical mental health assessments that are used by providers and school mental health programs.

SB 1620 took effect in July.

It requires individualized treatment plans for adults and minors who are Baker acted and that they be reevaluated once every six months.

At minimum, it requires biannual reviews for short term residential treatment facilities, especially in underserved and high need areas, and prioritizing licensing of these short term facilities.

It changes the language used in professional medical settings to emphasize the patient as a person, instead of defining them by their illness.

Experts call this person first language.

Senate Bill 168, known as the Tristan Murphy Act, expands the Criminal Justice, Mental Health, and Substance Abuse Reinvestment Grant program.

S.B.

168 for short, will take effect in October.

It allows police, prosecutors and judges to prioritize treatment rather than incarceration in cases involving nonviolent offenders with serious mental health illnesses.

It requires mental health evaluations for people with a history of court rulings of mental incompetency, and provides pretrial mental health support.

It expands training for 911 dispatchers.

It mandates mental health screenings within 24 hours of jail booking.

And it expands the use of diversion programs, reducing the number of people with serious mental illnesses from entering the criminal justice system, instead diverting them to community based treatment and support services.

This new law is named after Tristan Murphy.

The Charlotte County man suffered from schizophrenia, was in and out of jail, and died by suicide in prison four years ago.

Tristan was 37 years old.

Joining us now is state Senator Darryl Rouson, a champion in the arena of mental health legislation and also a champion adding resources in the treatment of addiction.

Senator Rouson, thank you so much for coming in.

Thank you so much for having me.

You have been part of the commission that looked at different pieces of data and research in order to make recommendations that were ultimately adopted in S.B.

1620.

What was the most striking piece of research data that that you saw?

Well, I think I should thank the commission first of all, for its good and hard work to pull together all the data.

But what was striking to me was the number of Baker acts.

Even though it has decreased over the years, it's still very significant that 160,000 Hillsborough residents were Baker acted last year.

And we need to do something about getting these folks help when they're in crisis and not arresting them and putting them into physical custody.

What was the...how does S.B.

1620 help address that issue of patients who are Baker acted and then end up in the criminal justice system?

What specific measures are you most proud of in S.B.

1620?

The fact that it will require mental health screening within 24 hours of an arrest.

You have been part of the state legislature for so many years.

When you look at the conversations around the Tristan Murphy law, and we're talking about folks who are in the criminal justice system between mental health and the topic of prisoners.

Those are both not very popular topics.

Um, how was the conversation different this time around where you were able to get new legislation on this?

Well, in the 17 years I've been going to Tallahassee, I can tell you there's been a palpable, distinct difference in reducing stigma from when we first had these conversations.

And it has become more bipartisan.

It is neither a Republican or Democratic issue.

It's a human issue.

It's about not incarcerating those who need attention for mental wellness.

One of the things that the University of South Florida has done is name its center, um, its Substance Abuse and Mental Health Research Center at the USF.

Louis de la Parte Florida Mental Health Institute, in your honor.

Um, what was that moment like when you received that news?

It was quite an honor, and it was quite a humbling moment.

But when you realize the body of work that I've done with mental health and substance use disorders, I think it's a very fitting opportunity for more work to be done.

It's not about the honor.

It's not about the name.

It's about preparing next generation leaders to deal with the very defining challenge of our time.

And that's mental health and substance abuse.

The research center at USF will be conducting, um, sustained research that will contribute to workforce development and things like that.

What are some of the other areas that you're proud of, of the work that will be done there?

Well, the peers.

Uh, peer specialists, it will build upon that.

And in fact, what we say in the program of recovery, the therapeutic value of one addict helping another is without parallel.

And to the extent that those who have lived experiences can reach back and help, those who are going through will be monumental.

And sharing those lived experiences is something that you have done for many years.

Um, when you visited recently, the facility that helped you in that final moment of treatment?

Um, what was that like, and what has been the reaction when you share your story?

Well, it was a shiver bump moment, if I can borrow an old phrase, going back to where I last got clean and realizing the broken condition that I was in and how they helped me build up, uh, to what I ultimately embraced.

And that was a program of recovery.

Um, tell us about the visit to Palm Beach when you spoke at.

There was someone in particular that you were looking forward to meeting.

Tell our viewers about that.

Well, my last counselor in treatment.

In fact, people always ask, well, which treatment was the best treatment?

I say the last one.

Which counselor was the best counselor?

The last one.

And his name was Bob Uzo.

And his son, who's now a lieutenant with the Palm Beach County Fire Department, was able to come and hear me tell my story.

And he is.

It's come full circle.

His father was there saving lives, saving my life, helping me to look at my issues and address them.

And now he's writing to scenes, emergency rooms, overdose settings, and taking people to treatment.

So he's doing what his father's work was, and I had a great chance to visit with him.

How old was he when you first met with his father?

He had to be all of 12 or 13 years old.

That's incredible.

Is there anything else that I've not asked you that you'd like to share with our viewers before we we go to the next segment?

Well, just that we need to stop locking people up in jail, incarcerating them for what could be a good diversion to mental health.

Senator Darryl Rouson, thank you so much for joining us.

Thank you for having me.

Health conditions and addictions negatively impacting our mental health are not the taboo topics as you just heard, but they are difficult ones.

Experts say that today's social media makes it too easy to label people and reinforce those stereotypes.

But an international art exhibit now in Tampa is hoping to change that.

Van Gogh The Immersive Experience has welcomed more than 8 million visitors so far during its worldwide showings.

It started out as a celebration of one of the most influential artists of the 19th century.

137 years after his famous sunflower series, alongside images of Vincent's paintings and eloquent letters, are bits and pieces of information on his bouts of manic and depressive episodes and possibly bipolar and mood disorders.

The unexpected result?

A creative experience opening the door to conversations about mental health struggles.

He could have shut down.

He could have just said, I can't handle this.

But instead, and we see this in the over 700 letters that he wrote to his brother Theo.

We see him saying, I want to create beauty.

John Zoller is Exhibition Hub's executive producer.

After his death, he was diagnosed with multiple mental health disorders such as borderline personality disorder, bipolar disorder.

Alcoholism.

Potentially schizophrenia.

uh, insomnia.

These are all things that he suffered from throughout his life that were not able to be diagnosed because we didn't have the tools that we have today.

One of the things that we ask in the exhibit is, had those tools been available, would Van Gogh have gotten some of the treatment that he needed in order to have lived a more fulfilling life and given us so much more artwork.

Using virtual reality technology to bring his paintings to life, and musical scores composed specifically for this exhibition.

It delivers a message that talent and accomplishment can come from the same source, where mental health struggles exist, that every human has value.

Van Gogh's most famous painting, Starry Night, was actually created just after a paralyzing episode where he was unable to move.

Really.

But as he broke out of that, we we he he created Starry Night and a lot of his flower paintings, his famous sunflower paintings, and so many of his other beautiful flower paintings that he made were also him trying to channel his pain into beauty.

And that is a message for all of us in terms of what do we do when we're down?

How do we how do we find that light within ourselves?

Joining us in the studio are two more creatives using different approaches to healing and wellness.

We introduce you to Johnny Crowder, the man behind Cope notes, and Dennis Harten, who is here to talk about emotional vaccines.

Gentlemen, thank you so much for joining us.

Thank you for having us.

Explain, Dennis, what an emotional vaccine is.

Well, it's developed out of demand really that surfaced during 2020.

But Dr. Meyer helped me create.

And really he's the brains behind it.

Right.

30 year duly board certified physician psychiatrist.

and I just, I questioned him one time.

He's got 30 years of knowledge in his head.

But I can't put him in front of all of my clients.

So how do we solve for that?

So it became really an evolution that today has turned into these massive library of 350 plus videos in English and Spanish that are about three minutes or less, and they're very action focused.

It's really how to live a healthy and happy life and kind of 2 or 3 minutes a week and just constant, repetitive small bit sizes of microlearning really, that now have turned into even training sessions and a lot of things.

So you said that this started in 2020.

This was the start of the Covid 19 quarantines.

Yes.

Um, how did you all decide what the topics would be?

What was the biggest need and how has that grown over time?

What's fascinating is now that I look at the library, I go back and see and look at the content that's been produced.

And because doc comes up with the ideas or things would be happening in our own lives, it's really, you know, I can actually point to moments where things surfaced with me having new grandkids and my children in relationships and just work related issues and things that doc was dealing with.

He had.

I know you may remember a couple of massive strokes and walked out of the facility a few days later with no detriment.

And so it's just been a lot of things that have happened, just everyday life challenges.

And I recognize being in the insurance industry, that so much of our attention and our focus is reactionary.

But Nami says people will wait ten years before they reach out for treatment.

So how do we get way ahead of that?

And I was really focused in our health plans on how do we keep people from becoming diabetic.

If we get them healthy and happy, they don't become diabetic.

It saves in the health plan.

Well, no one talked about the fact that if Dennis is going to become diabetic, it's probably because he ate all the cookies, right?

So it all starts in our mind.

And so I really started to put some attention on that and just found there's a massive gap.

There's one not any discussion around prevention.

Johnny's one of the few that I became friends with during some of this journey.

That is on the preventative side because everything's so reactionary.

Right?

So Johnny is is his his vehicle that he uses for resilience.

And mental health care is very different.

It's not your video, it's the text messages.

explain to our viewers what Cope Notes is.

Logistically, yeah.

It's literally it says on our website we text you.

You feel better.

So it's like we send you one text per day at a random time that contains health education content.

So like a psychology fact, a journaling prompt, an exercise that's written by a real peer with lived experience, like someone who's been through it themselves, reviewed by clinicians based on proven psychology.

But the point like he brought up is just it's micro-content.

This is like a ten second interaction.

And what matters over time is that consistency.

So, um, I'm kind of a psych nerd.

I went to school for psych, and the, um, the cool part behind what we do is each of these little interventions trains the brain to think differently.

So it trains the brain to combat automatic negative thought and stress, anxiety, depression.

And then what's really cool for me, like I grew up with mental health conditions.

So I care a lot about like prevention and intervention like Dennis mentioned.

But then I also care about all of the people who say, oh, I'm good.

I don't need to go to therapy, I don't need medication, I don't have a diagnosis.

I say, great, how are you going to stay happy and healthy and safe?

So what's cool is that we've also proven that for people who live with depression, anxiety and stress, these little ten second messages can reduce those things.

But equally importantly, people who don't live with those things.

We can help prevent those things by increasing emotional intelligence, resilience, coping skills, focus.

So it's really it's designed to be not like a root canal because that's like a specialty thing.

This is like a toothbrush and floss.

It's something that everybody with teeth can use.

You're building resilience one day at a time.

Explain to our viewers what Cope notes is.

How do you describe it in your typical elevator speech?

It's literally daily text messages that train the brain to combat stress, anxiety and depression.

How did you come up with the concept of texting when so many people were thinking at that time about creating apps?

You didn't go that route?

No, and I want to be clear about what I deserve credit for and what I don't.

So I will start with, I deserve credit for.

I. I went to school for psych and I was studying abnormal psychology and neuroscience.

Like how and why the brain changes.

And I learned about something called ecological momentary intervention, which is basically taking clinical learnings, like something you might learn in therapy, but you deliver it in non-clinical settings, in bite sized pieces.

So like at home, at work, you're sitting in traffic or you're cooking dinner and something pops up on your phone that makes it integratable into your lifestyle.

So I'll take credit for some of that.

I won't take credit for making it not an app because I actually couldn't.

I went to school for psychology, not technology, so I don't know how to code.

So the original version of cope notes was like me texting people health education content from my phone, and it eventually became like a technology platform.

But I think part of we were really relieved because at the time I started working on this in 2017 and everyone was like, it's got to be an app.

And I didn't know how to tell them.

Like, I'm 24 and I don't know how to make an app.

Um, but now we look at like how, uh, SMS infrastructure has grown and changed, and the likelihood of you reading an app notification is 1/50 the likelihood of you reading a text message.

So if we're in the business of delivering health education and interventions, people actually have to read them for them to work.

So we're very grateful that we chose texting instead.

So you just said a few seconds ago that the first Cope Notes messages you delivered, you sent from your phone?

Yes.

Uh, at this point, how many years later you've surpassed the 5 million messages?

Yes, we just passed 5 million this week.

And you're not.

I don't want to imply that you're sending them from your.

Can you imagine?

That's that's really incredible.

Over 5 million.

Where are, where are the people who are receiving the messages?

Is it just here in the U.S.?

So that is another statistic that blows my mind.

We have users in 97 countries around the world, which is ridiculous to me.

Um, I've only visited a couple, so I can't wait to see the rest.

But what's really cool is this started as I'm from like the.

If you can't tell by looking at me for like the metal and hardcore and tattoo and skateboard kind of community.

So when I built this originally, it was for people from that subculture who were like, I don't trust therapists, or I don't want to go to a church, or I don't want to talk to anybody.

And I was like, man, how do I help these people?

But then now we're serving like school districts and hospital systems and governments, and it's like a hundred times more.

It's way more integrated into a lot of people's lives than I originally dreamed.

So my, my dream for coconuts was this.

What it became is much larger.

And the videos are one of the things that Dennis, you've said is that we need to make it easier for people to feel comfortable with the idea of reaching out for something that makes them feel better.

Mental wellness.

Well, it's really, I think, from our seat we believe that the answer is our community.

Right.

There's you really can't as much as the legislation and the legislators are trying to solve for this, we can't put enough therapists in the community.

We can't fund it enough.

We can throw all the money at it.

In the world, there's a massive shortage.

And so from our seat, we really believe that we can actually be the first line of defense for those that are around us.

Right?

I'm friends with Johnny.

I know if he's having a rough day, I might notice it as a friend of his before he's going to reach out for therapy.

Right?

That's the average Joe that grew up in Kentucky like I did.

We learn all of these things the hard way.

How much of an impact would it make if we would know it or could learn it ahead of time?

We teach our kids, right?

We don't put them in cars without car seats, and we put helmets on them.

But there genuinely isn't a public health policy around some of this that I have found.

And while I believe stigma has gotten better, it's certainly a big topic of conversation.

We still don't openly discuss these things.

So.

So things like text, things like videos, um, kind of meet people wherever they are.

Um, so you are your background is in insurance, the insurance industry, your background is not in mental health or, you know, therapy, things like that.

How did your worlds come together?

Yeah, I didn't even study this.

I've learned all of this the hard way.

If you grow up in Kentucky, we invented a lot of the addictions that I think have spread through the world.

And so ultimately, I was asked to kind of lead an addiction recovery group through church that I was wildly ill equipped for.

I just I was just to moderate the conversation.

But I learned people have, you know, traveled down this path.

And as I was studying the health plans that I do build for clients and schools, everybody's interested in why is my health plan costs going up?

Well, it's very obvious.

If we don't deal with things at stress and anxiety, they turn into sleep deprivation and we don't eat properly.

And we 80% of our claims people don't know this are self-inflicted, right?

Smoking, high blood pressure, diabetes.

And when you look at the rising cost of health care, it infiltrates everything that we do.

In fact, I didn't share this with you, but coming in, I got a text that the Minnesota shooter went to school with a very close friend of mine's son in elementary in Lexington.

It's filtering everywhere if we don't deal with it at those levels, it's only going to get worse and we really can't throw enough therapists at it.

So if we don't get preventative, then what is the answer?

I'm big on.

I can't fix the whole thing, right?

I know Johnny's done and made massive impacts, but he and I collectively can't fix the whole thing.

But we can do some things, and what I believe is the right answer is pulling our community together.

Doc has pulled together.

We've now developed this care champion community, where we want to certify the layperson with very basic content that will allow them to go out and help those that are around them in a safe and healthy way.

And that way, the ones that do need therapy can get in front of the therapists we do have.

As you both look ahead, just to round out the interview, as you both look ahead to an area of most need mental health space has a lot of layers to it.

What would you say is the the area that you would like to see progress made in?

And Johnny, I'll start with you.

Yeah, it's hard to pick, but two come to mind immediately.

So I love what Dennis was mentioning.

Like there's lots of people who are unlikely to seek out care.

So the important part, like you said, is getting care to them.

So for the people who won't go to therapy, for the people who won't take medication.

Like what are the options for like my ideal ratio of care provider to care receiver is 1 to 1.

Like how great would that be?

Everybody has like a buddy, and the closest that we're going to get to that is like symptom self-management is like equipping people through health education.

So I think I look at two main areas to do that.

One is the education system.

I think like, man I went to when I was in school, there was like the Dare program.

So you're learning about cigarettes and they show you that picture of the I don't know that I 100% agree with the way that that was done, but I remember it.

I remember the picture of the lungs, the cigarette smoke, and I remember that it was part of school.

So I think I want to equip kids with this knowledge, and then I want to equip the educators who are sowing into these kids, because a really healthy kid with four really unhealthy teachers is probably going to become an unhealthy kid.

So I care about the educators and the educators.

And then the same is true in like the care provider world.

I care a lot about people receiving care, and I care a lot about the people administering the care, because if those people are burnt out and bitter and exhausted and they're quitting all the time, it affects the quality of care.

So I think education and healthcare.

But then I think specifically the people who are receiving the services and the people who are giving them.

Dennis in the in the arena of insurance and paying for things like preventative mental wellness.

What would you say?

There's so much money put into the treatment.

As somebody develops a condition, there has to be more time and attention put on.

Really.

It's, you know, the beautiful thing.

And this is what I learned after just asking doc for help for the last five years personally, just to understand what can be done.

The answers actually are simple, right?

We need all the clinicians.

There's a huge gap there, so we need more attention on that.

So I appreciate what the legislators have done this year to solve for some of that.

We have some great crisis tools.

Right.

The crisis center of Tampa Bay is fantastic.

So when people do reach that point.

We have that.

But the biggest thing has got to be if we don't get ahead of it, what is the answer?

So the simplest answer is maybe not a clinician.

Every single time it's a friend, it's a relationship.

It's back in our community.

It's in our churches.

I told doc a long time ago, I said everything that I needed to know that I've learned from him.

I actually probably was taught in church when I was eight years old.

Right.

And so the simplest answer is, the good news is it doesn't always take a therapist, but we've got to have them available.

And we need to help people figure out when, you know, help them understand if they're not okay to go get the help that they need.

Well, thank you for joining us today on this important conversation.

We really appreciate you making time for us.

We do have a final program note for viewers wanting to see the Van Gogh immersive experience that we talked about earlier in the show.

Here's the information.

It's in Tampa, July through October.

The creators have adapted the experience to each venue on this global tour.

And as we said, they do approach the mental health struggles that Van Gogh really struggled with throughout his lifetime in Tampa, they've transformed a former car dealership on North Dale Mabry for this exhibit.

Again, it will be here through October.

Our thanks to this week's panelist, Johnny Crowder, Dennis Hardin, and also State Senator Darryl Rouson.

On behalf of the entire team here at WEDU.

Thank you so much for watching.

[music] Florida This Week is a production of WEDU, who is solely responsible for its content.