Welcome everyone to Midday magazine for this April 24th 2024 have your host James here and I'm joined right now by some good friends of ours
We have Anne Lee pack with us director of public relations and fun development and always good to see you good to see you
Thanks for having us thanks for being here, and we have Chris gets isn't gauge gauge with us mental health coordinator
With the odc and we're talking about the odc today and some other fun events that are coming up over at the odc
But if you y'all don't mind first off. I well first I want to note the great team that you guys have over there and
Accredited them and thank them for all the good work that they do in this community
One of my favorite nonprofits ever is going to be the odc and appreciate the work that you guys do so very much over there
We're gonna take some time today to talk with Chris a little bit about mental health and I it's a big topic with a lot of different layers to it
Chris so go no
When it comes to this one
I bring all that up because I think that as we're getting more and more into the mental health conversation these days for one
We've come so far with it where look at what we're doing now
We're not talking about this in a hushed voice
We're not we're not talking about this with a on a side corner with a friend and hoping nobody hears us or anything
We've gotten to a great place in society with this subject
But now I feel like this is where the really heavy lifting comes in now this and we have to put action to words
We have to do maybe the hardest thing on this subject look inward and how we ourselves are dealing with our own mental health and
What help we might need or or what have you and the other end of that others and and truly being there for others
With this topic
It's already a big one and then you bring in the odc and the clientele that they have so Chris for you
What is one of the biggest things that you would like to come out of this interview with letting people know about mental health about the odc
Well, I think an important thing to take in mind with
Especially mental health awareness month is that mental health is health. We all experience it just like you alluded to
And I think that that's an important message to get out and what goes with that is advocacy as well
We all have to be able to speak up for ourselves and some of the individuals that we serve
Spend most of their life being told what to think what to do how to do it and that sort of thing and that's what
the odc really
excels at is building skills
building
personalities helping people be their authentic cells and I think that's something that's very important to me
And I think that's should be a highlight for mental health awareness month and
Nationwide organization a nationwide organization samsa
substance abuse and mental health
They cover a lot of ground and that's kind of how they have their mental health awareness month structured is that
they take each week and they kind of highlight different age categories and on their website
They have a lot of great resources for all those categories in ways to help support people
One of the things the odc does that is above and beyond I feel is the advocacy and the the fighting for your clients and
Working for your clients and going above and beyond for them
We're touching on this in our pregame a little bit that we wanted to mention a bill. It was recently abroad
Oh, yeah, I think something that I was really excited about especially for some of the people that I support in the community is
the able accounts bill that was just recently signed
That is a resource that people can look into and as I understand it's anyone who
Qualifies for SSDI or SSI as as long as the diagnosis was before age 26
They can look into these accounts
And it's it's built along the same model as 529 accounts. So education
investment accounts and
There's just a huge broad
range of
Things that that can be used for and as far as I understand it there's
Very large amount of money that can be put into that each year and what's more is that these investment accounts
They don't count against the calculation and formulation of the individuals
Benefits which is really excellent because you're looking at a population that
May have to may be restricted to living their life on no more than $2,000 a month or $2,000 on hand at any given time
And so an account like this for some of the people in our lives that we support care for people in our personal lives
This could help them
Obtain housing they they could own houses. Yeah, you know, which is something that a lot of individuals that I've worked with
It's inconceivable to them. Yeah
It's it's an incredible one. We talked about this last week for senator testin
We're gonna be bringing it up more and more and talking about the not just this but other bills and work out and getting the word out there
This is it's an important one and especially with home ownership being what it is and some of those other factors that you mentioned there
You know one of the other things that comes up of mental health and I actually I was just talking about this with my dad over the weekend
Is is our older population
So much of this a lot of the diagnosis is that it go on these days
I've been really started when I was in high school a lot of them with HDAD and some of these other things that we had not heard the
Terminology of a lot and it became into the lexicon of all of ours and we learn more and more about these and
There is certainly Asperger's where there is that spectrum and and some of that and then there's other levels of mental health
Certainly there's a lot of layers to this
But one of the things that I think about a lot and I was talking with my dad about is is our relatives our older relatives and
You know these things did not just just because we just started to diagnose them
Doesn't mean that this is the first time that they've been around in human history
Yeah, I have a great anecdote for that and something that I love to compare this to when you're talking about diagnoses
and
Anything in general a lot of people make comment. Oh, it's all over the place
There's so much mental health now everybody's getting worse. There's it's it's increasing all this is happening
That's kind of a red herring if you want to think of it that way
For example, if you look at left-handedness
A short time ago. I want to say even like pre-1970s
There were individuals that were prevented from writing with their left hand kids would honestly
Kids would have their hands tied behind their back during writing lessons. Thanks grandpa
And before my grandpa, but he did that to me. I was born left-handed said I had to write right
So before that you had maybe less a fraction of 1% of left-handers
For the best data that we could get around that time frame
After we stopped doing that, but lo and behold, I think the number now is like in the 12 to 15% of people are left-handed
so when we
Reduce stigma when we make it okay for different presentations to be part of the social fabric that we have
What do you know? There's a lot of these people around there's a lot more of this going on and
It's a really multifaceted issue, but yeah, the elder generations are a group that it's very important for resources to be built up to support their mental health as well
Because there's just a lot of baggage for things that they went through you know in their lifetime. Yeah
Our understanding of humans and our brains and how all of that stuff plays
So much has changed so much
We just weren't able to diagnose so many of we didn't know what to look for so much back in the day
And and so many of those individuals have gone decades without any care without any even thought of this
And so many of them are walking around right now that might have some of these things that they and they don't even know
It's why having an older adult support group like the odc has is so important
I wanted to touch on this a little bit too with you Chris. Yeah, as I understand that see
That's a group that is gonna be the adrc and
In Steven's point. I'm a big fan of both organizations. I get I do that sometimes. I apologize
Yeah, that that would be a group where they meet for peer support
They have psycho education, which is not as scary as it sounds
Just a matter of kind of learning some of these things yeah
And for an age group as we had said before just it wasn't even brought into the equation
When you look at older adults that may have you know, they may be going through loss
You know, especially at the you know as you age and get older you start to lose friends family
and
What's more with the care system that we have
You may be in an environment where you don't get a lot of interaction where you don't get a lot of support on a day-to-day basis and
It can be very isolating and so anything like this to bring people together and support one another
I think some phenomenal resource and I'm glad that you brought that up. Yeah, the adrc
I believe they meet every third Wednesday and I think that's it the flyers is 10 a 10 to the lover
10 to the Steven's point adrc
The Lincoln Center you can find out more given them a call seven one five three four six one four zero one three four six one four zero one
We certainly will be bringing this up and covering it as as we go along on our morning shows and and such and
Chris I also wanted to mention that the odc as the
A great event coming up in May as well as part of mental health awareness month
There's a mental health matters together. We thrive this this event coming up as well
Yeah, this is this is hosted by
NAMI for Portage and Wood Counties
It's also put on by prevents suicide portage county and portage county health and human services
This is a pretty large event. It's going to be on May 15th. That's a Wednesday
430 to APM
They have a lot of different things. There's some lived experience panels
You can hear what it's like for people who are living with persistent mental health issues
And there's free food as as supplies last
Resource fairs so there will be different community organizations
That'll have things set up. I'm sure lots of free swag everybody likes that so make sure you come down and
Just kind of experience some of the things that are out there to help everybody support their mental health this coming month
Nicely done Chris. I didn't expect you to do that, but I didn't I wasn't trying to put you on the spot
You really I glad you love your job because I don't want you to take in mind, man
All right, you're good at this. I don't need to do with that. I need this gig
I you're dealing with a one-time radio radio speaking forensics
First and so you know, yeah, I came to play
Chris when it comes to this subject as as we're kind of wrapping up our part of the conversation here
What are ways that we as a community can help you do your job help those in the odc help our community that are
Struggling and dealing with these things. How can we be more supportive as a community? I
think having conversations like this
trying to have
Just a humility
With regards to this because however strange or foreign
That these concepts might sound their people's lived experience. This is what people are going through and
Uh, in a lot of ways we just have to understand that you know, we may not understand fully what people are going through
But the important part is to be there for them
help them as needed
You know talk to your elected officials. You know
Talk to schools. Mm-hmm. Listen to schools if you need to. Yeah
Just do your best to educate yourself on what's out there. There's a lot of resources and I
I think that it's really important to share all of these things and just understand that
Things are always changing
One small thing you mentioned ADHD. There's a huge cohort of people being diagnosed with ADHD
I'm 36 I think yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. 36
People in my age category when ADHD was being diagnosed very frequently
You generally got diagnosed if you were bouncing off the walls
There's a whole group of adults that are finding out that they have ADHD. It's just got a different
Different presentation. Yeah, there's combined type in attentive in addition to the hyperactive
So as these things change, it's not that things are getting worse necessarily. It's not that things are
The goal post is being moved. Yeah, we're enhancing our understanding through
The work we're doing in the community with the people we support and the people that
Research this stuff and it's important that we continue moving in that direction because we're helping it a ton of people
If I could piggyback off that for a second too. I think of this subject a little bit metaphorically
well sort of
Sort of like the internet and our phones and tablets and everything when this first started to become very popular
And almost everybody had one in their hand
The big fear was well that younger generation
They're never going to take their faces out of their phones
And never going to take their faces out of tablets
We got to get on that and everything and I I work with a lot of the younger generation
I talk with a lot of that and I have not seen that what I've seen is
Arge at my generation I should say
I'm 47 and my generation seems to have a problem with tech and not being able to put the phone down and be driving and having it in their hand and a lot of these things
Because we didn't grow up with this and and we're getting used to it. We're learning as we're going here the younger generations
They've had computers in front of them for their whole lives. They're a little bit more adapted to this
Have that grace that same grace that you have with your hopefully with yourself and with others of your generation when it comes to this subject
Because while there are a lot of kids growing up where mental health is talked about and they're understanding of it and everything
There are so many generations out there that are just now getting to this front
And just now starting to be able to look into their own brain and they're all mental health and
Every human being on the planet deserves to feel comfortable in their own skin to to feel good about their day
And feel good about themselves. This is how we get there by being more open about this and by being more caring
It's a society giving each other more grace. Yeah, and I think that um
One thing that you mentioned there and what I kind of got from that is and a potential answer to it is mindfulness as a concept
Yeah
Being present
With the people around you and yourself
You know you just really and that is a huge thing that is
Being pushed right now and we're trying to get that out there that it's important to do those check-ins with yourself
Be aware
Do I have time to set this aside right now how important is this thing that I'm doing right now
What else could I be doing with my time um and so that that's that's where a really great segue and to
Something coming up very soon is the be kind to your mind event that's going on. It's too good at this
He's too good. I think he's gonna take my job
I don't have to show up anymore
No, you're so right. Let's talk about this great up kind of a kind to your mind event. Yeah, we're gonna be there
I will be there
There's going to be food trucks
There's gonna be lots of different events going or different different presenters different booths
And it's just gonna be a great opportunity to kick off mental health awareness month by presenting what's out there for people
Different resources different ways to access them and just ways to take care of yourself
Mm-hmm, and this event is gonna be taking place over at steel king
Uh, this be kind of your mind event. Oh, I'm sorry. I thought they were together. I was gonna segue into you
I sure no, but that's not good. You're not you know, he was gonna talk about it. I did a horrible job
So much better at this you're done. He's he's he's better at this and I'm telling you the be kind of your mind event is happening
Sunday May 5th 11 to 2 over at steel king
This is hosted by juniors women's club. Uh, it's gonna have food trucks all kinds of other great stuff to it too
Chris and you're gonna be there? Oh, yeah, yeah, I'll be there
Odc is gonna be there will I'll be there at the table. So yeah, come say hi
It's gonna be a good event. We'll talk more about this uh and lead people are send people there and uh get
We're excited about these kind of events got a lot of great events coming up and uh not now talk to you now
Put you on the spot because I wanted to talk about the open house. Uh, I got this great open house coming up
Actually going out today. Yeah, so so we've got our spring open house happening at milkweed market starting today through Saturday
We will be open this Saturday our hours are 10 to 3
There's gonna be 20% off
Some of our home decor
Items and we also started a new partnership with the cookie jar who's gonna now be providing some fresh baked
Goods each week. Um, they've got some real uh
Nice uh flower sugar cookies today and assaulted caramel chocolate cupcake. I think they looked delicious. So
So you know come on in and and see what's happening over at milkweed market. We'd love to have you
Um also wanted to just share um, of course we have our painting with purpose tomorrow
But it sounds like the class is full
But what I wanted to share and I want people to be watching for is that we will be having a summer
Series and it's gonna be held in a park and so there will be room for additional
People to join us. So be sure you're following our events on our milkweed market page so that um, you can
Join us over the summer and be a great activity for for some kids. It's a free event open to the public
So would love to see more people coming one of your more popular events the painting with purpose
A lot of people like this event. Uh, it's a really smart idea to expand that and getting outside a little bit
I love that idea. Yeah. Yeah. Well, and we've been selling we've been filling up
Regularly now and so we want to have some opportunities for some more people to join us and you know
Summer the kids will be out of school and uh, enjoy some weather and and you know make it make it a larger event
So yeah, you know, so have your uh second, I believe annual cash raffle going on. Yeah, so our cash calendar raffle is happening again this
This year in the month of june
So we have $3,300 and cash prizes to give away
We actually just started selling tickets yesterday. So if anybody's interested, they can reach out to our um
Main office here at odc in wisconsin rapids our tickets are selling for one for ten three for twenty
And it's always a great event and all the drawings are held on Facebook live at 11 o'clock
Um, and yeah, I think it's gonna be another great
Great month of cash calendar who doesn't love a little cash, right? Oh, yeah, and in this area loves raffles
Yeah, like if you're having an event out there and you're planning event make sure to have a raffle involved with it because it
It then it just increases the popularity of it so much
It's their fun. There are a lot of fun. It's fun to have for the the work or workers over there to be able to be involved a little bit and have
Giving these away
It always feels good giving stuff away, especially money
That's always a great feeling and this is another way we get to support the odc
We get to show you guys that we have your back that we believe in what you're doing over there
Just by buying a simple ticket from a raffle you are showing that you believe in the odc doing these kind of things
And keep that in mind when we're talking about ink splash or milkweed market or any of these events
Whether you're spreading the word about them or you're about purchasing things there
You're investing in your community. This is an investment. Yep. Absolutely. Absolutely. Yep. So we're we're super excited and
You know, we can we sold some tickets to people in Minneapolis and or county last year that were winners
The other cool thing is your ticket always goes back in so even if you win
Your ticket goes in for the entire month
So yeah, you know, we record this you don't have to are you sure about that? Do you want to put it back in there?
Absolutely
Absolutely, that's really cool. That's actually very cool
Yeah, it was it was a real good mix and you know, it wouldn't be possible
You know, you talk about the support of odc
all of the
Cash
That is
Given away is donated to us by supporters of odc and so it really is a great opportunity those businesses are so supportive
They're listed in our calendar so that you can see what businesses are supporting odc
So that you can also support them as well
And then by selling the tickets. I mean, that's really where the fundraising comes in in last year
We raised over $25,000 in our cash calendar raffle. So
It really is a good event for us. It was a long way. Yeah
As we're wrapping up the last minutes we have here
Did want to mention that you guys are going to be at Red Cross blood drive coming up as well
We have a Red Cross blood drive coming up May 9th from 10 to 3 at odc and Wisconsin rapids
if you're interested in
Donating blood you can go to redcross
blood.org and enter the name odc and that will come up for you as well and then just also a reminder
On May 15th from 4 to 8 p.m. There's a taco john's benefit night. So
If you're out and about and you
Percent of the proceeds that night will also be donated to odc
So and then Chris and I are also looking forward to our very exciting for hope gulf benefit
Which is May 31st that is completely sold out
But it's going to be the final wrap-up of
Mental health awareness month and all of those proceeds go to support our mental health programs and planning
So and keep in mind everybody that may is mental health awareness month
Be the good do some good out there and be good to yourselves
Thank you both so much for the time for everything you guys do in this community really appreciate your
Chris if people have follow-up questions they want to get in touch with you. How can they do that?
Oh, oh jeez
Should I send them to the website send me yeah, yeah, probably reaching out to
Sure odciinc.com is the website. You should have bookmarked that odciinc.com
And how about you Ann? Yeah, send them to the website or you can always call the main office at 715 424
2 712 that's 715 424 2712
And our great front office staff will get you connected with who you need to speak to appreciate y'all
Thank you so much. I will talk again real soon. Sounds great. Thanks
Well, a more midday magazine for you tomorrow right here at 97 5 FM 13 20 AM WF HR. We are locally grown radio