Mental Health Matters
Todd Weatherly, Therapeutic Consultant and mental health professional hosts #MentalHealthMatters. Interviewing doctors and therapists, treatment professionals, organizational leaders, and other members of the mental health community about the importance of mental health awareness, treatment and the future of addressing mental health in the US. Discussing how to support mental health in our communities from hospitals to the dinner table and what to do when crisis arises.
Mental Health Matters
Empowering Communities in Crisis with Meredith Schweitzer
What happens when a community faces the emotional aftermath of a disaster? Join us for a compelling discussion with Meredith Switzer, Executive Director of All Souls Counseling, as she shares her expertise in navigating the intricacies of post-disaster trauma. Meredith distinguishes between the urgency of crisis management and the enduring challenge of trauma, revealing how immediate needs for essentials can evolve into long-term psychological battles. She brings to light the evolving demands of communities in the wake of a crisis, underscoring the vital role of addressing both survival needs and mental health support.
Our conversation turns to the pressing need for comprehensive mental health outreach in Western North Carolina following Hurricane Helene. We explore the strategic collaboration with Vibrant Emotional Health, aiming to craft holistic plans that span short to long-term interventions to avert tragedies like suicide. The episode shines a spotlight on the resource disparities plaguing smaller communities and the importance of local accessibility over centralization. With the 25th anniversary of All Souls Counseling on the horizon, we reflect on the growing community support that fuels their mission to serve beyond local Asheville.
We also delve into the power of mental health education as a tool for building resilience and prevention. Meredith passionately speaks about the importance of proactive mental health strategies, emphasizing a shift from crisis response to preventative care. As All Souls Counseling continues to expand its influence and resources, we celebrate their contributions and reinforce our commitment to fostering hope and healing. This episode is a beacon of gratitude and anticipation for future dialogues in our shared journey toward mental wellness and community empowerment.
Hello folks, welcome once again to Mental Health Matters on WPVM 1037, the Voice of Asheville. This is Todd Weatherly, your host. I am here today with a special community member of ours, somebody that my wife and I have known for many years now and is a very important person to respond to the crisis that we've got in our town after this terrible storm hit us all. A friend of ours, meredith Schweitzer. Meredith has over 20 years of experience in the nonprofit arena and has served in leadership capacities either in management board of directors or advisory council for more than 15 regional nonprofits. Meredith, you've been around a little bit.
Speaker 2:A little bit.
Speaker 1:You know this town a little bit yeah.
Speaker 1:You've been around a little bit. A little bit. You know this town a little bit. Yeah, she has dedicated her career to finding solutions to challenging community issues, including access to mental health services, public education and housing, and homeless. She is a graduate of Leadership Asheville and Leadership North Carolina and was recognized as the Asheville Area Chamber of Commerce's Outstanding Woman non-profit leadership in january 2021. Congratulations, by the way, um, she received a covid humanitarian award in october 2021 for the leadership at homeward bound during the pandemic. Meredith holds a ba and broadcast communications I should have you do the show from unc chapel hill. And an med and education psychology from texas a&m university. She, of course, lives here in the beautiful mountains of western north carolina with her family From UNC Chapel Hill and an MED in education psychology from Texas A&M University. She, of course, lives here in the beautiful mountains of western North Carolina with her family. And how is your family doing, meredith? Like, how are you? Is everybody okay? Your home okay and all that stuff.
Speaker 2:We're doing really well we are. We had some property damage to our home and just another structure on our property, but very minor compared to a lot of other folks, and our children are doing well, which is the most important.
Speaker 1:Well, I'm glad to hear that. Welcome to the show. I don't know that your bio even says you are the current executive director of All Souls Counseling, which is a low-to-no-cost counseling service for those who are in need of mental health care or ongoing therapy or ongoing counseling services. So a person who needs those services and might not be able to afford it or doesn't have insurance, can come to All Souls Counseling and get it for free or next to free.
Speaker 2:Yes.
Speaker 1:And you know, all Souls has been around. Now, how long has All Souls been around?
Speaker 2:We started in 2000. We are getting ready to celebrate our 25th year. Wow, really long time.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and you've been the director there now for how long?
Speaker 2:Not quite three years. January will be three years.
Speaker 1:Okay. So getting to the mark. Now it's getting juicy, yes, well, and just to kind of bank off of that, I did actually a show recently. I referenced your presentation and I referenced the one that you did at the chamber uh, the one that you coordinated for the chamber and at the time, the piece that I was hearing that I thought was just really insightful, something that you can share with others, is what's the difference between crisis and trauma, and that that crisis may be the thing that you go through and you know you're trying to survive and you're trying to make sure you you get that bottom tier of Maslow's hierarchy taken care of safety, security, food, water, et cetera just your basic needs met and then, after you kind of clear out of the crisis, get to the place where resources are flowing back and you feel like you're in a safe location and even now not everybody is in that situation.
Speaker 1:But you get to that place and that's when you start having the feelings about what happened to you and that is where trauma comes in.
Speaker 1:You've experienced a crisis and as a result of that crisis, you have trauma and you have a lot of feelings about that trauma. You have all kinds of things that happen across from a relational standpoint to a behavioral health standpoint and you know people get divorced after crises like this. And you know family relations have struggled and people become homeless, and then it's very hard for them to pick up. What are you seeing on your end at All Souls in terms of the difference between pre-storm and post-storm, like, what's the difference in people's need?
Speaker 2:Well, I think that's a great question and I did want to jump back just for a minute to what you referenced the presentation at the chamber and we did facilitate that, but that was Dr Laura Jones, who's one of our board members from UNC Asheville. She's on faculty there and she did a beautiful job of articulating that and, to your point, the crisis is the actual event and what you need in that moment and immediately following that moment in the way of having your needs met, following that moment in the way of having your needs met, you know, it's food support, it's safe shelter, it's clothing, it's all of those basic needs that we've, all that we all have, and certainly those of us who live in.
Speaker 2:Western.
Speaker 1:North Carolina have been acutely aware of what those are, ran right into them this time.
Speaker 2:Ran right into them this time, absolutely, absolutely. And then the trauma piece being all the feelings that you're experiencing, and sometimes they're physical changes in your body. And I can tell you from our perspective as service providers or an organization that is providing mental health services, we were very aware that people weren't able to actually engage in counseling, if you will. Right after the hurricane, I mean, we had clients who said you know, I know I need to come back to counseling, I need to resume my sessions. This is existing clients, but I'm not ready to talk about it structure that they had with their therapists.
Speaker 2:We also found out or realized that people needed to feel a sense of connection, but oftentimes, I know, for us we were. Our first step as an organization was to provide food support. We partnered with World Central Kitchen and Bear's Smokehouse Barbecue. We have a great friend in.
Speaker 1:Charlotte, you were hanging out with Jill huh.
Speaker 2:Who's that?
Speaker 1:You were hanging out with Jill Jill Biden.
Speaker 2:Oh well, yes, yes, I wish we partnered with Cheryl who owns Bear's Smokehouse. She's been a great friend to our organization and helped set up the food distribution site in Weaverville at First Baptist Church, and that was the way that our organization was able to be a part of providing support to our community. It wasn't mental health counseling as we are known to do, but it was a way of providing support that was needed in that, like really that first week. And so we were engaging with community members, providing support and, again, food and conversation and just listening to people and kind of being with them where they were. And then, after that first week, we started deploying therapists out into the community at comfort care sites, and that was in partnership with Buncombe County, red Cross, fema, other community partners who came together to provide supportive services.
Speaker 2:So again, we didn't really start getting to the task of providing mental health support until about a week or a week and a half after all of this, because people weren't really ready. They just needed to have their basic needs met. So we're now, you know, four weeks in, or a little over four weeks into this experience and we are getting a lot of calls about people wanting to now be connected to a therapist, to actually start coming into our center to be seen for counseling sessions or to be engaged in virtual counseling sessions. We've also been getting a lot of calls from business owners, from real estate to home builder association to banking institutions.
Speaker 2:We've heard from all sorts of industries about their need to have someone come in and facilitate some conversations with their teams around mental health, what it means to collectively go through a crisis like this. What are the normal responses to that? How should we be feeling and is this normal? And then what do we do with those feelings? So that's some of the work that we're starting to get into. But again, we're about a month out from the actual hurricane event and I've never been through a disaster like this before. But in talking with experts who are very familiar with this dynamic, that is very, very normal for a community to experience.
Speaker 1:You're becoming your own EAP. Huh, I mean, I think that you know providing. I would say that providing connection and just food and comfort is mental health support, even though it's not technically counseling, you know.
Speaker 2:Exactly.
Speaker 1:It's very much mental health support, even though it's not technically counseling. You know it's, it's very much mental health support. And you know I also wonder whether or not the, the, the therapists and the counselors that you've got working with you are obviously people, are, are are processing things that are going on for them. You know that are. You know we had this loss in our, in our family.
Speaker 1:Maybe we lost a home and we've got this you know we had this crisis experience and they're processing those things, but are you also seeing them? You know something like this shakes the tree. You know what I mean. Like it, it shakes the proverbial relational tree. Are you seeing families and you may not be seeing this, you know yourself directly but, um, are you hearing from families and seeing families come up with stuff that is you know old family dynamic, stuff that has emerged as important whereas before it had not? Like is it? Has it stirred up people up to an extent where they're having to reevaluate their family system, reevaluate the relationship they're in, reevaluate the work that they're doing, and that kind of thing Is that? Is that coming up in your, in the sessions and in the people that are coming to you for support?
Speaker 2:Well, absolutely, and I think that that's a very common experience when you have a life altering scenario like what we've all experienced. People are trying to make decisions about whether or not to rebuild their homes, whether or not to try to salvage their business or just let it go, based on where it was located and if it's still standing a lot of people are making decisions about their ability to stay in this community.
Speaker 2:So you know, I know people who've already left the community and we're hopeful they'll come back. But that is a very common response and so certainly all of those responses can lead to stressors in the family dynamics, just relationships that they have. And I mentioned earlier that we're getting a lot of calls from business owners and just from the industries across our community who are really wanting to provide support to their teams because they are recognizing that the collective stress that we've experienced is impacting the work teams and they want an opportunity and a really a vehicle for for talking about that and processing that. And so that's how we feel we can be a support is is by providing a mental health facilitator for those conversations and also for validation that we're all in this together.
Speaker 1:We all have feelings. It's really hard.
Speaker 2:It is really hard, and sometimes those feelings of difficulty and anxiety can bubble up in the most unexpected times. I've certainly experienced that myself. You can think that you've got it all together, and then something triggers you and reminds you of something, or just feels overwhelming, and so that's a very natural response, and so I feel that the work that we're doing and really all mental health providers, is being an outlet for that, a way to process and talk through those feelings in a healthy way, but also a validating way.
Speaker 1:Well, and you and I are talking about this as well, which I'm certain is a component of what you're experiencing and what we're probably going to see more of as time goes by and people are looking at some pretty big choices in their life, but you're working, partnering up with somebody that's going to help, that has helped in crises like this, but you want to be able to address things like suicide, suicidality and people that are having that are experiencing mental health crisis.
Speaker 1:Talk a little bit like are you seeing that emerge? We're already like. I just you know there's a new yorkers new yorker article that just came out about how social media is driving teens to just have far more, um, serious mental health issues and suicide out and suicidality, and suicide is among them and is really big to the extent they're being sued because they don't regulate the usage and all that other kind of stuff. Are you starting to see some of that increase in number coming into your center in our community, or is it something you're really just ramping up to be prepared for, because you know it's going to come? Like what Like? What's your experience with it so far?
Speaker 2:Well, I know that we've certainly had a few deaths due to suicide in our community in the wake of the hurricane, which is incredibly tragic, and certainly anytime one person is lost it is a tragedy, and so I also understand, based on conversations I've had with I mentioned earlier that we're having conversations with Vibrant Emotional Health, based out of New York City.
Speaker 2:They are mental health experts who have been doing this work for a very long time in a lot of different communities across the country, I think even internationally. They respond to communities following disasters to provide mental health support and disaster response teams, and so one of the things that they've been very clear about is that if you don't have a very robust mental health response with short, mid and long-term plans, that the expectation is that you will see a dramatic increase in the loss of life over the next year, and we don't want that. We want to be responsive and proactive and we want to shore up as many resources as we can to make sure that we've got resources out in the community, and certainly I live in Buncombe. Our mental health organization is located in Buncombe County, but we are very well resourced here because we're based in Asheville. We recognize that, while there are still needs in Asheville. There are significant needs around us.
Speaker 2:And a lot of those smaller communities don't have the resources that we have, and so that's something that's on our radar as being very, very much a priority, and we want to figure out how we can connect those who are in smaller communities who are dramatically impacted, like old fort and swananoa, and chimney rock and marshall and all of those areas that um are small and um, again don't have the accessibility literally the accessibility to those resources, because they've had their infrastructures wiped out and are in the throes of rebuilding right now.
Speaker 2:And so we want to make sure that we've got a comprehensive plan to address those needs, and so that's why we're having conversations with Vibrant Emotional Health, we're talking with community leadership from other areas to make sure that we are doing this in partnership. We want to make sure that we're not making assumptions about what those needs are, but working with local leadership in those areas so that we really have a true understanding of what the needs are. So, then, that you know, whatever that response looks like, it is exactly what they need.
Speaker 1:Right. Right, you know and correct me if I'm wrong, but it creates a bit of a let's not call it a turn in direction, but it's definitely augmenting what you know All Souls. Counseling in its history has been about, like you know, it's been a resource, for history has been about, like you know, it's been a resource for people to come to and, you know, get counseling and if they need it. But you know, you're turning a lot more outward now to a population in need, and it's a I mean largely in mental health. It's like come to us if that's what you need, but you're going, you're doing a lot more of that outreach, a lot of them, a lot more of that. Hey, we're here if you're in crisis. Like, what does that? What does that look like for you as an organization? You know, probably virtual therapist is one of those things that really helps and everything else. But how has that changed the way that you structure and organize what you're doing and in serving community?
Speaker 2:Well we are. Our mission is to serve those who are in Western North Carolina. Our mission is to serve those who are in Western North Carolina and, admittedly, because we're located in Asheville, the majority of or the bulk of our services has been to people who live in Buncombe County and communities that touch Buncombe County right, Like Haywood, Madison, Henderson counties. But I guess we've realized through this crisis that we have an opportunity to really live out our mission and to truly be for Western North Carolina, and it's not that we weren't trying to do that before.
Speaker 2:And we've certainly been able to provide virtual services for people outside of an area from Buncombe County, but this really hits home for us that you know we want to be. We want to truly impact the entire footprint for us, and that's the Western North Carolina region that's been so impacted by Hurricane Helene. So for us it means getting out more into the community and meeting people where they are, whether it be at a public library in Marshall or the FEMA site at King Creek Community Pool out in Fairview. It could look a lot of different ways, but we also recognize that we can't expect people who have so many barriers to service to actually get into a car and drive over and see us at our center on 35 Arlington Street. We need to be more accessible.
Speaker 1:And might not still have Internet, you know, or have very limited capacity to even get out of their area.
Speaker 2:Right.
Speaker 1:We're still seeing some of that exist and you know places that have been torn up and still have trees down and might not even have power. We're still, you know. I think the closer you are to kind of the town, the more it's starting to look like. Well, maybe life's returning to normal a little bit here and restaurants are open again, but you still have to use a port-a-potty to go to the bathroom, exactly.
Speaker 1:A hand-washing station at the front door, so it's not quite normal. But you know, out of sight, out of mind, we don't see these outlying. You know communities that exist that got devastated, um, and you've got people still out there in need and trying to find resources and get to you. I think that that's really great. Have you seen being a nonprofit, um, that, uh is also about to hit 25 years? Have you seen a bolster in in donations for for the work and doing the outreach and everything else? Have you, have you seen more people trying to get involved and give as a result?
Speaker 2:We have. We've been very fortunate and we have a pretty diverse funding model. We have grants from private foundations, we have grants, we have a federal grant, we have a Buncombe County grant as well and, of course, a lot of. I mentioned private foundations, but also private donors. We do a couple of fundraisers a year, but one of the things that we recognized a couple of years ago is that we had a great opportunity to really share our story. We've been doing wonderful work for almost 25 years, but we've also been what we describe as small and mighty and haven't really tooted our own horn, if you will, and so we started getting pretty strategic about how we share our stories and our narratives, because people don't know to help us or to provide support if we aren't sharing the stories of impact, and so we've had a much stronger social media presence. We've created our Green Ribbon Society, which is a leadership giving circle, which has really made a difference in the donors that we're able to.
Speaker 1:Tell me more about that. What is that?
Speaker 2:Yeah. So any donor who gives at least $1,200 per year, which is what we equate to about a length of treatment three to six months of treatment for an individual is about $1,200 in terms of what we pay our therapists, and so that was a nice giving amount that we could articulate to donors to say this is how you're impacting someone's life. You're providing a whole round of treatment, if you will, or those sessions that they don't have to pay for because you as a donor are providing that and you're giving them this incredible gift. And so anyone who gives at that level or above is part of our Green Ribbon Society. And so anyone who gives at that level or above is part of our Green Ribbon Society. They are invited to a few special events throughout the year private events they also get. Oftentimes they'll get announcements earlier than maybe the community might get those announcements. So there's certainly some benefits, but ultimately it's about building these relationships with these leadership donors who are really close to our organization.
Speaker 1:That's cool, that's really neat. Well, you know my time, you know I've I've referred people over to All Souls Counseling that are coming into community and I also try to mention it whenever I'm talking on the show, because I really think that people they don't, and I think crisis helps us move this needle a little bit but people don't think of their emotional needs as a need.
Speaker 1:You know, you know you need money, you need food, you need water and shelter and you need all those things. And then you know your emotional needs, or your your psychological needs, your mental health and mood needs. They take this kind of backseat, unless they are kind of at crisis levels. Right, you know, people don't seek help until they really don't have any other choice, and I I mean I see that you know the the work that I do, of course, is with people that are a little bit more intense than your regular clientele. They're going to hospitals for their psychiatric needs and things like that.
Speaker 1:But you know, there are always families that are involved. They're always, you know, they're so focused on either managing the crisis or helping a loved one or doing these other things that they it's even hard for them to take the suggestion that they have, they have a need and they should probably do something about receiving support about it. No, I'm fine. If my person is okay, then I'll be okay. And I think that you know, even Gen Xers and any generation that's that's older than us is are like no, you just bury that somewhere and you don't deal with it.
Speaker 1:We're still grappling with some of the you know, some of both stigma but also, I think, part of it's lack of awareness around mental health. And you know, which is what I was really glad to see in the presentation that you did, or that Dr Jones did when she was, when you did the virtual workshop at the chamber what is it that you could like? I know that you had a plan to do a little bit more of that and you're going into workplaces. They're asking you to do trainings and everything else. What does that look like for all souls in terms of the the? Well, you know where's the arm of that. Are you doing more trainings out in community? What is it that you're doing to kind of like, do this raise awareness piece other than fundraisers, obviously, but like, what else is All Souls doing out there in the community to educate and teach?
Speaker 2:Sure, well, you mentioned the chamber presentation and that was actually the first of a series of six mental health Mondays. Yes, and so anyone can join that it's. There is a virtual format. There's also an in-person format in the boardroom at the Asheville Area Chamber of Commerce. We want as many people to join us as can because we feel like it's a valuable mental health resource. It's free, it's on a Zoom link and we've got I believe we've got three more left. I believe we've done three or four out of the six already.
Speaker 1:Okay.
Speaker 2:Um, but again it's mental health Mondays, um, after that we're going to see what the what the need is.
Speaker 2:We we're certainly open to continuing something like that moving forward. And, um, as I and you just mentioned again, we've been getting so many requests from businesses about having someone come in and kind of walk them through a conversation around mental health. A lot of the requests include mindfulness and breathing exercises, which we just love because we've been doing that for a while now. Love because we've been doing that for a while now. We actually start every staff meeting with a mindfulness moment with our therapist, adam Lewis, and so we love when we get these requests because we feel that embedding or integrating mental health practices into your daily life and your daily work life is really beneficial, not just for you as an individual, but for your team and for your work culture. So we plan to continue that. Exactly what that's going to look like, I'm not sure we are talking to some other nonprofit partners who kind of specialize in training to be a part of that as well. So we're hopeful that we can have some collaborations that will create even greater impact in our community.
Speaker 1:Prevention, not just repair.
Speaker 2:Yes, yeah, yes.
Speaker 1:Yeah, the earlier you can start dealing with things like that, the less likely it is that become a real problem, though crisis is a tendency just to it's big enough an event, right, you know that's what trauma looks like and people aren't ready to process trauma right away. I think trauma processing, in my experience, is something that you do lifelong.
Speaker 2:Sure.
Speaker 1:It has its own. It has its own trauma, has its own life cycle.
Speaker 2:It does.
Speaker 1:You know we'll come up, you know, when we come up to the year anniversary on this event, I think there'll be a lot, of, a lot of stuff that comes up for all of us and it's like, you know, anniversaries or something, man, they really hit you.
Speaker 1:Death of a spouse, death of a parent, big event that takes place, we celebrate them. But even when they're not something you celebrate, you feel them for sure. So I'm just so glad to see that you're doing so much. Like you know, it's almost like All Souls Counseling is doing a lot of flowering as a result of crisis, and therein lies the kind of nobody wants to invite crisis. Right, we always.
Speaker 1:If we could have not experienced this, we would have preferred that, but it's always interesting to me to see the kind of brilliant things and new things and hope that springs for people, resources that come up and places that grow and respond to the need and, as a result, become a greater presence and community. And certainly have my vote that um, that what you do and how you do it, um should be a much larger presence and just mental health awareness in general should be a much larger presence, and not just this community but communities around the nation. Um, and I'm just very, very glad that you're doing your work Before we get to the end of our time here, meredith, anything you want to make us aware of, anything that people should be paying attention to, ways that they can donate to All Souls. Give us the nitty gritty.
Speaker 2:Sure, well, the easiest way to really get people connected to what we do is to encourage them to go to our website, allsoulscounselingorg O-R-G, and there are a lot of article links, there are announcements and updates. It's a great way just to see how we've impacted the community over the years and also what we have planned for the future, and we've also got links to community partners on that website as well. We also have I mentioned earlier, we have a pretty strong social media presence. We have Instagram, we have Facebook and LinkedIn, and so we encourage people to get on and follow us for timely updates, announcements about partnerships and new initiatives. So I really encourage people to follow us that way, and certainly we're always taking donations because we, as you mentioned- we will accept any form of support at any level.
Speaker 2:How about that? But we are in a period of growth because of what has recently happened and we were already on this kind of this trajectory. But this has really, I guess, sped that process up and we've been very fortunate to have some donors reach out and say they want to be a part of it. They really believe in what we're doing and they want to underwrite that, and so we've. We've been fortunate to have some, um, some great gifts come in just to support that presence out in the community. But we also recognize that this is a marathon and not a sprint and so, as busy as we've been the last month, we're going to continue to be busy, um, for months and years to come, and that's um, it's exciting, it's daunting in some ways because we know it's going to be a heavy lift, but we're excited about being able to do the work and, and specifically, being able to partner with others in creating hope and healing for our region in Western North Carolina.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think it's fair to say but I have mixed feelings about it that mental health care is a growth industry.
Speaker 2:Yes.
Speaker 1:And I hope that what that means is not just this kind of crisis response and serving people who have, you know, very acute care needs and, uh, long-term care needs, but but moving that needle a little more towards the. You know we respond to people's need before they have, you know, crisis needs, before they have right needs, before they, you know, relationships are destroyed and things happen and, um, their life falls apart. Like you, you know, maybe we could reach a point where we acknowledge and we serve one another in a way that causes those things. We are more on the prevention side than the response side, so I'm really glad that we've got people like you and All Souls Counseling as a part of that resource and leading some of that charge. We intend to support you as well, meredith. It's been great to have you on the show today. Thank you, yeah, thank you. This has been Mental Health Matters on WPVM 1037, the Voice of Asheville. Meredith, it's very good to have you and we'll talk to you and see you soon, for sure.
Speaker 2:Sounds great. Thanks, Todd.
Speaker 1:You're welcome.