Month: May 2023

This Mental Health Month, ‘Look Around & Look Within’: Your surroundings say a lot about your mental health

Posted on May 4, 2023 by - Uncategorized

May is Mental Health Month. Illustration shows families outside.

This article is from Mental Health America.

 

Take a moment to consider your surroundings. Do you feel safe? Do you have access to health care and grocery stores? Does your home support you, both physically and mentally?

This Mental Health Month, challenge yourself to look at your world and how different factors can affect your mental health.

Where a person is born, lives, learns, works, plays, and gathers, as well as their economic stability and social connections, are part of what is called “social determinants of health” (SDOH). The more these factors work in your favor means you are more likely to have better mental well-being. However, when it seems like the world is working against you, your mental health can suffer.

While many parts of your environment can be out of your control, there are steps you can take to change your space and protect your well-being.

  • Work toward securing safe and stable housing: This can be challenging due to finances, age, and other reasons, but there are a few things you can try, such as reaching out to state/local agencies to secure housing, removing safety hazards in the home, or finding another space (such as a community center or friend’s home) where you can get the comfort you are missing at home.
  • Focus on your home: Consider keeping your space tidy, sleep-friendly, and well-ventilated. Surround yourself with items that help you feel calm and positive.
  • Create bonds with your neighborhood and community: Get to know the people living around you, join or start neighbors-helping-neighbors groups, and support local businesses to challenge gentrification.
  • Connect with nature: Hike in a forest, sit in a city park, bring a plant inside, or keep the shades open to absorb natural light.

If you’re taking steps to improve your surroundings but are still struggling with your mental health, you may be experiencing signs of a mental health condition. Take a free, private screening at mhascreening.org to help you figure out what is going on and determine next steps.

The world around us can be both positive and negative – bringing joy and sadness, hope and anxiety. Learn more with Mental Health America’s 2023 Mental Health Month toolkit, which provides free, practical resources, such as how an individual’s environment impacts their mental health, suggestions for making changes to improve and maintain mental well-being, and how to seek help for mental health challenges. Go to mhanational.org/may to learn more.

Great Minds with Lost&Found podcast: Creating Social Infrastructure with Mental Health in Mind with Sarah VanVoorst

Posted on May 9, 2023 by - Blog, Podcast, Thought Leadership

Great Minds with Lost&Found Host Joel Kaskinen listens to Sarah VanVoorst speak during the recording of the episode.

Content Warning: Great Minds with Lost&Found episodes contain mature themes, including mental health, suicide, addiction, and others that may not be appropriate for all audiences. Listener discretion is advised.

In this episode of Great Minds with Lost&Found, host Joel Kaskinen talks to former Mental Health Community Resource Officer with the Sioux Falls Police Department, Sarah VanVoorst about social infrastructures in the city and how different entities work together to help improve the mental health ecosystem. They explore law enforcement, nonprofits, and other agencies that work together to decrease co-occurring disorders, and support folks who are struggling with mental illness and other behavioral challenges.

To learn more about the work that Lost&Found is doing to prevent suicide among youth and young adults, go to resilienttoday.org.  Follow us on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn and YouTube (@resilienttoday).

 

Listen on Spotify or find other listening options on Anchor.

You can also watch this episode on YouTube.

Lost&Found chapters raise awareness, funds in Run for Our Lives 5Ks

Posted on May 10, 2023 by - Uncategorized

Three of Lost&Found’s student chapters planned 5Ks to raise awareness of mental health concerns as well as funds for their chapters in April. Late winter weather unfortunately forced the cancelation of the event planned for Dakota Wesleyan University on April 1, but two 5Ks were held: one in Sioux Falls on April 15 for Augustana’s chapter and one in Vermillion for the University of South Dakota’s chapter.

Find photos from the Sioux Falls event here, and of the Vermillion event here.

Great Minds with Lost&Found podcast: Supporting Survivors of Suicide Loss with Dakotah Jordan

Posted on May 16, 2023 by - Blog, Podcast, Postvention

Dakotah Jordan, right, speaks with Great Minds with Lost&Found Host Joel Kaskinen during the recording of the episode.

Content Warning: Great Minds with Lost&Found episodes contain mature themes, including mental health, suicide, addiction, and others that may not be appropriate for all audiences. Listener discretion is advised.
In this episode of Great Minds with Lost&Found, Joel sits down with Dakotah Jordan, the Survivors Joining for Hope Coordinator with L&F.
SJ4H is a direct service financial assistance program for families struggling with the loss of a loved one to suicide. One of just two programs in the state of South Dakota offering postvention support through financial assistance, Survivors Joining for Hope is a unique program powered designed to relieve the financial burden for families of suicide loss. Learn more about this program here.

 

To learn more about the work that Lost&Found is doing to prevent suicide among youth and young adults, go to resilienttoday.org.  Follow us on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn and YouTube (@resilienttoday).

 

Listen on Spotify or find other listening options on Anchor.

You can also watch this episode on YouTube.

Great Minds with Lost&Found podcast: Advocacy, Education, and Peer Support Programs with Melissa Renes

Posted on May 23, 2023 by - Blog, Education & Advocacy, Podcast, Student Programs

Melissa Renes, right, speaks with Great Minds with Lost&Found host Joel Kaskinen during the recording of the episode.

Content Warning: Great Minds with Lost&Found episodes contain mature themes, including mental health, suicide, addiction, and others that may not be appropriate for all audiences. Listener discretion is advised.
In this episode of Great Minds, Joel chats with L&F Program Manager for Education and Operations Melissa Renes about the student programs that Lost&Found offers on college campuses around the state of South Dakota and in the Minneapolis area. Suicide is the leading cause of death for youth and young adults in South Dakota, which is why our student programs are so critical. Lost&Found is striving to create safer and more resilient communities through education and advocacy for youth and young adult mental health. Learn more about L&F student programs here.

To learn more about Lost&Found, go to resilienttoday.org.  Follow us on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn and YouTube (@resilienttoday).

Thanks to 4Front Studios for shooting, editing, and producing Great Minds with Lost&Found. To learn more about 4Front Studios, go to https://4frontstudios.com/.

Listen on Spotify or find other listening options on Anchor.

You can also watch this episode on YouTube.

Fellows from Malaysia, Indonesia spend time at Lost&Found

Posted on May 23, 2023 by - Blog

The fellows took pictures with Lost&Found staff during their last week here. PIctured from left are Benny Prawira, Sean Thum, Cody Ingle, Melissa Renes, and Gesine Ziebarth.

Lost&Found was one of several nonprofit organizations in Sioux Falls to host professional fellows from the Young Southeast Asian Leadership Initiative (YSEALI) program of the United States State Department for three weeks in May. These professional fellows are between the ages of 25-35 and brought significant professional experience from their home countries in Southeast Asia to local organizations, supporting work such as the development of AI tools for diagnosing autism or enhancing suicide prevention and suicide loss survivor training. Of the 30 fellows placed around the United States through this program, five were in Sioux Falls.

The two fellows who worked with Lost&Found were Benny Prawira and Sean Thum.

Benny Prawira (he/him) is an independent psychological researcher with lived experience. He founded the first youth-based suicide prevention community in the country in 2013, Into The Light Indonesia, with a particular interest in meeting the needs of equity-deserving groups by involving lived experience experts. He currently serves as lived experience advisor for the Wellcome Trust Mental Health Team, the digital mental health equity program at UBC, and various research programs with the University of Manchester and the University of Indonesia. Besides his advocacy and research works, he provides compassion-focused mindfulness-based training and wellness coaching services.

Sean Thum is a medical doctor specializing in Psychiatry at the Hospital Sultan Abdul Aziz Shah Universiti Putra Malaysia. He serves as a Policy Officer with the Malaysian Health Coalition, and his professional interests lie in the field of mental health, especially on the topics of increasing the availability and accessibility of mental health resources in the region. Outside his career in Psychiatry, Sean is a co-founder of Tenang App, a mood tracker mobile application delivering integrated and value-based solutions to primary healthcare in Malaysia, as part of Angsana Health. Apart from that, he writes a column at Sin Chew Daily, and has published over 50 articles covering the topics at the intersection of public and mental health. In his free time, Sean goes on long hikes and runs a marathon annually to raise funds for Hospis Malaysia.

“Lost&Found prides itself on meeting the needs of our community using the best knowledge and practices available. To have Benny and Sean join our staff elevated that perspective and gave us global insight and community that is rare and tremendously special,” Lost&Found Executive Director/CEO Erik Muckey said. “Our team will be forever grateful for this experience!”

Other Sioux Falls organizations that hosted fellows were South Dakota Voices for Peace, the South Dakota School for the Deaf, LifeScape, and the LSS Center for New Americans.

The staff took a group photo during Benny Prawira and Sean Thum’s last week at Lost&Found.

Great Minds with Lost&Found podcast: The Impacts of Trauma and Violence on Mental Health with Michelle Trent of The Compass Center

Posted on May 30, 2023 by - Blog, Podcast

Michelle Trent, right, of The Compass Center speaks with Great Minds with Lost&Found host Joel Kaskinen.

Content Warning: Great Minds with Lost&Found episodes contain mature themes, including mental health, suicide, addiction, and others that may not be appropriate for all audiences. Listener discretion is advised.
This episode of Great Minds features a conversation with Michelle Trent, Executive Director of The Compass Center, about her work with sexual assault, domestic violence, and human & sex trafficking victims and survivors. We explore the impacts of trauma on mental health, as well as how agencies like The Compass Center and Lost&Found can work together to improve systems of care in South Dakota.
The Compass Center is committed to assisting survivors of violence throughout their healing process. They offer crisis response, therapy, support groups, advocacy, and education for victims of sexual and dating violence. For more information, check out The Compass Center.
In the case of emergencies, call the 24/7 hotline at 1-800-IN-CRISIS. If you or someone you know is facing a mental health crisis, call 988. If you are a veteran facing a mental health crisis, call 988 and then press 1.

To learn more about Lost&Found, go to resilienttoday.org.  Follow us on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn and YouTube (@resilienttoday).

Listen on Spotify or find other listening options on Anchor.

You can also watch this episode on YouTube.

 

Thanks to 4Front Studios for shooting, editing, and producing Great Minds with Lost&Found. To learn more about 4Front Studios, go to https://4frontstudios.com/.