Healthy Brain Banter blainewinters

Mental health is becoming a more talked about health concern in our society and is becoming more prevalent. Have you ever thought about where people can turn when they are having a mental health crisis? In Utah County there is an amazing resource called Wasatch Behavioral Health. the Wasatch Behavioral Health Receiving Center in Provo provides crisis mental health services to adults in Utah and Wasatch Counties. Their goal is to provide immediate access to mental health evaluations and consultations to the people in our community. The Receiving Center is staffed with social workers, human social workers, nurses, case workers, and peer support specialists round the clock who are trained to respond to suicide and other mental health crises.

According to the CDC 1 in 8 women experience postpartum depression. The symptoms of postpartum depression and psychosis can be quite serious. If you are experiencing these symptoms, reach out to your healthcare provider. If you are experiencing suicidal thoughts please call 988 for immediate help. Today Whitney Bassett will be interviewed about her experience with postpartum depression. 

In this episode, we will discuss the experience of working outside the home and the relationship that has with mental health. Many parents choose to work, which requires balance and self-care on top of the duties associated with raising children. Our guest shares insights on what she and her family have done to cultivate their relationships, while progressing in their careers.

Being a parent of a child in the NICU can be both physically and emotionally exhausting. This episode discusses tips for parents as they endure this experience with their baby. 

In this episode we will discuss mental health in the LGBTQ+ community and how to be an ally. According to Mental Health America, 4.5% of the U.S. population identifies as being lesbian, gay, or bisexual. Of those, over 39% reported having a mental illness in the past year, which is nearly 5.8 million people. To put that into context, that is more than the entire population of Kentucky. Additionally, LGBTQ+ teens are six times more likely to experience symptoms of depression than non-LGBTQ+ identifying teens. LGBTQ+ youth are more than twice as likely to feel suicidal and over four times as likely to attempt suicide compared to heterosexual youth. I would like to clarify that identifying as LGBTQ+ is not a mental illness but the members of the community do experience higher rates of mental health issues. Finally, while not all people are a member of the LGBTQ+ community, everyone can be a supportive ally to these members. 
 
In this episode we will be interviewing Dr. Ben Schilaty. Dr. Ben Schilaty works as an Honor Code administrator and adjunct professor at Brigham Young University. He holds three degrees from BYU: a bachelor's degree in Latin American studies, a masters in Hispanic linguistics and a masters in Social Work; he also earned a PhD in Second Language Acquisition and Teaching from the University of Arizona. Dr. Schilaty learned Spanish and Portuguese during his mission in Chihuahua Mexico, and when he lived in Bolivia, Peru and Portugal. He taught Spanish for a decade at the middle school, high school and college level. He is the author of A Walk In My Shoes: Questions I am Often Asked as a Gay Latter Day Saintand cohosts the podcast "Questions from the Closet" with his friend Charlie Bird. 

Poor mental health and stress can negatively affect employee Job performance and productivity, Engagement with one’s work, Communication with coworkers, and Physical capability and daily functioning.
Mental illnesses such as depression are associated with higher rates of disability and unemployment.
Additionally, even after taking other health risks—like smoking and obesity—into account, employees at high risk of depression had the highest health care costs during the 3 years after an initial health risk assessment.