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At 97.3 WZBG, third Wednesday of the month. A regular visit with the folks from the McCall Behavioral Health Network. This time, Executive Director Maria Coutant Skinner is our guest. Maria, good morning. Good morning. Welcome to the show.
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Great to be here. Thanks for joining us. Looking at the calendar, this is Pride Month. Looking at the calendar, this is also Juneteenth. So at the intersection of those two big events, it’s kind of going to be our topic here this morning.
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So our topic really, because McCall helps folks meet challenges, and there are unique challenges to the groups that are in our focus today between Juneteenth and also Pride Month. So let’s talk about, of course, the luck of having you in here on a day when we have both Juneteenth and Pride Month, and really the intersection of those two important events.
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Right. Thank you. It is a really special day, and I think we look at the intersectionality between Pride, which celebrates all of the progress that the LGBTQ community has made in terms of asserting human rights and celebrating what it means to be part of that community. And certainly, Juneteenth is a really important day and moment in our history to commemorate where finally the Emancipation Proclamation made it to Texas and the freedom finally for slaves was celebrated and recognized.
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And there is a lot of intersectionality there, and there’s also, we have to look at what it means in communities where particular folks are marginalized and oppressed, and that all has to be part of the story. It has to be what we look at in our history, and how that all connects to a sense of community and belonging today.
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So when we talk about Pride Month, it sounds as much like an aspiration as a celebration, and that is the challenge for these folks. And that gets into the whole thing of belonging, being part of this fabric of America.
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I love the way you said that, because I think it is both inspirational and aspirational. I think as far as we’ve come, there’s certainly a lot of work to do. I also recognize I am a white, straight woman here talking about Juneteenth and pride. I want to make sure that I have a very humble posture in what I’m saying.
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That world of privilege we live in.
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Absolutely. And also, I think, you know, there is privilege, there is power, and we have to recognize that and know that there is work to be done in an ally role. And recognizing that. And that doesn’t mean, like, nobody’s stepping in front of me in line to get any kind of benefit or, you know, kind of a month or a day.
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That’s not taking anything away from me. And so it’s important for me to recognize that and also look for ways that I can move that conversation forward.
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And so I’m so glad you and I are talking about it today. When we talk about moving the conversation forward, that lack of knowledge of these communities I think holds us back. Because on the one hand, if you’re trying to bridge the gap and trying to understand, you’re afraid of coming off, at least in my own personal case,
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you’re afraid of coming off as being insulting or insensitive because of the lack of knowledge. And we also, we’re living in a time of cultural and social polarization. It started off political, it’s dribbled down to our social fabric as well.
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And I think that makes the challenge even more daunting. I think it is, and it also is an opening for us to have conversations and I think especially if we belong to a group where historically there has been privilege and power that we have work to do. That that is incumbent upon us to do that research to understand where that privilege is and what we can do.
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Because if we really want to build a community that is inclusive and that is promoting health and wellness and belonging for all, then people who have traditionally been in positions of power and privilege really have to do that work and communicate that sense of belonging and community to one another, and especially to populations that have traditionally been oppressed. For that latter population, what do they need to bring to the table? For our population, those of us who are in those positions of power and privilege,
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what’s our leading role in bridging this gap?
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Yeah, so I think it is like, it’s really kind of basic. I think not only kind of making sure we’re doing our homework and getting informed, but there’s also ways that we can communicate belonging in a million little ways. So I think it’s invitations to sit down, to have conversations. And I think we also have to recognize that is a basic human right and a human need to feel connected.
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And when we don’t, when we feel lonely, when we feel isolated, there are major consequences to that. I think we’ve talked a lot about the consequences to our mental health, where there’s anxiety and depression, and there’s a straight line from feeling lonely to having all of those other mental health consequences.
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There’s also physical health consequences. And I would encourage folks to look at the Surgeon General’s report on the impact of loneliness because we’re also talking about heart disease. We’re talking about dementia. We’re talking about premature death. So this is really serious.
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And it is incumbent upon all of us to do that work, to communicate belonging to one another.
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There have been some studies, and I’ll keep this part of it brief, but there have been some studies that show over 60% of us are suffering from some degree of loneliness, that we don’t have enough human connection. And ultimately, as we talk about the groups that we’re highlighting today for Juneteenth and for Pride Month, it is that connectedness, that feeling of belonging that we have to try to restore.
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Absolutely. I think it is part of the human condition. You can be in a crowd or even with one other person and still feel lonely. Or you can be alone and not. So what is it? Where do we find that connectedness?
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I think when there is representation, I will give a quick example. I will give two quick examples. One was a work function. It was a bunch of colleagues from a bunch of other organizations. I was at, it was a business lunch, and people were kind of milling about, and I was a really shy kid. I didn’t know where I belonged, and so I’m now 55, and those kinds of feelings can come back up for me really bad. So everybody sat down.
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It felt like everybody else knew where they belonged, and they sat next to somebody, and they were talking. I didn’t know anybody, and I looked around, and it was that lunchroom feeling that I had, like, in middle school, like, oh, my God, where do I go? Who do I sit with?
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And there was this woman named Sam Quinlan who said, Maria, you can sit right next to me, and I can, to this moment, recall that feeling in my body where do I go, where do I belong to, now I’ve got an invitation and I feel like I can belong and that is relief.
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That was a tiny example. There’s much bigger, much more profound examples of both feeling a part of and then feeling part of. And we all can make that kind of an invitation to say, come, I see you, sit next to me.
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Our guest this morning, Maria Coutant Skinner, executive director at McCall Behavioral Health Network, great example of something that’s a fleeting moment, but for these groups we’re talking about today, it’s a day-to-day reality in many ways.
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That’s right.
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So really powerful stuff.
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So a rainbow flag is that same kind of invitation, I see you, you belong here. Representation, so at McCall, we have clinicians, we have therapists, we have staff, we have peers that are representative of everybody in our community. So when you walk into a space and you feel like there’s somebody who can, who looks like you or can relate to your life
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experiences, or who is being intentional, even if I don’t have the same exact experience, but I’m going to be intentional about communicating that I see you and you belong here, that matters. That same sense of relief, like I feel seen, I can feel comfortable, I can feel safe, that is a great foundation for healing and positive mental health experiences.
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Maria, great to have you as our guest this morning as always.
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Delightful, thank you.
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Once a month we get to chat with the folks from the McCall Behavioral Health Network health network right here on 97.3 WZBG and you can find them of course online health network right here on 97.3 WZBG and you can find them of course online
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mccallbhn.org. Have a wonderful rest of the day. Thank you, Maria. Thank you.
If you want to learn more check out an interview with Dr. Kat Moskowitz on being an ally to the LGBTQ+ community.