7 minute read
Mental Health
Mental Health is Health
please get help! • StarCare Specialty Health System Mental Health Hotline: Call
Mental Health is Health. United Way believes that mental health is health and that 806.740.1450 or text StarCare to 67634 Speak with a qualified mental health professional (QMHP) who can provide access to a variety of confidential and anonymous services for everyone should all care for mental health just the same coping with disaster common reactions and for managing stress caused as physical health. Many studies have shown uncared for by uncertain times. mental health issues can lead to physical problems such as • Texas Youth Hotline: Call or text 800.989.6884 or Chat high blood pressure, headaches, digestive issues, and sleep Provides free and confidential services to youth, their parents, and other problems. family members of youth in crisis who need help finding a counselor, safe
So mental health really is health. shelter, legal information, other local referral information, or just someone
Many people recognize a need for assessing mental to talk to. health issues, but are not really sure what to do about it, think counseling is not affordable, or don’t know how to • SAMHSA’s Disaster Distress Helpline: Call 800.985.5990 or text TalkWithUs to 66746 Provides immediate crisis counseling for people who are experiencing find a counselor. emotional distress related to any natural or human-caused disaster. The helpline is free, multilingual, confidential, and available 24 hours a day, seven days a week. • National Suicide Prevention Lifeline: Call 800.273.TALK (8255)
Your HR manager Many health insurance plans cover counseling, but a lot of or Chat with Lifeline; En Español 888.628.9454; People who are deaf, hard of hearing, or have hearing loss call 800.799.4889 people are not aware of this benefit or how to access it. Free, confidential crisis hotline that is available to everyone 24 hours a day, seven days a week. The Lifeline connects callers to the nearest crisis
Your doctor center in the Lifeline national network. These centers provide crisis coun-
Your doctor or a doctor if you don’t have a physician you seling and mental health referrals.regularly see - a doctor can help assess what type of therapy you might need and give you a referral. • Crisis Textline: Text HOME to 741741 Available 24 hours a day, seven days a week throughout the U.S. The
Your pastor Crisis Text Line serves anyone, in any type of crisis, connecting them with
Many pastors are trained in lay counseling which means they a crisis counselor who can provide support and information.are not licensed counselors but have received some training in counseling. That may just be the support you need, but if you • The Trevor Project: Call 866.488.7386 or text START to 678678 need something more, a pastor can help you get connected. A national 24-hour, toll-free confidential suicide hotline for LGBTQ youth.
Your school counselor School counselors have a lot to do these days and often we think more about them when it comes to academic testing and • Trans Lifeline: Call 877.565.8860 for US and 877.330.6366 for Canada college prep, but school counselors are trained to support the Trans Lifeline’s Hotline is a peer support service run by trans people, mental health needs of youth. If she thinks that your child could for trans and questioning callers. benefit from ongoing counseling, she can help you get con• Veterans Crisis Line (VA): Call 800-273-TALK (8255) and press nected. Ask specifically about the TCATT program which offers option 1 or text 838255; People who are deaf, hard of hearing, or have telehealth services to public school students. hearing loss call 800.799.4889
Communities in Schools Free, confidential resource that connects veterans 24 hours a day,
If your child’s school has a Communities in Schools site seven days a week with a trained responder. The service is available to coordinator, he can help you get connected to a counselor or all veterans, even if they are not registered with the VA or enrolled in VA therapist. He can also provide some basics skills training such healthcare. as anger management.
Hotline/Immediate Help Find resources below to help get started or consider talking to
1 Corinthians 13
New International Version
1 If I speak in the tongues[a] of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. 3 If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast,[b] but do not have love, I gain nothing. 4 Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5 It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6 Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7 It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. 8 Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. 9 For we know in part and we prophesy in part, 10 but when completeness comes, what is in part disappears. 11 When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me. 12 For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known. 13 And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.
What’s on your mind?
Send your “Viewpoints” to: Golden Gazette 2022 82nd St. #101, Lubbock, TX 79423
If we could look into each other’s hearts and see the challenges each of us faces, I think we would treat each other with more love, kindness, compassion and patience. It’s not supposed to be like this
By Mary Ann Edwards
It’s not supposed to be like this.
That’s so very true.
So, how did we get here? There’s no one answer.
But I do think we all know we’re living in an extreme world of absolutes.
Extreme views, extreme anger.
Absolute beliefs and absolute division.
Those extremes are a detriment to working together or even finding some sliver of common ground.
We’re focusing on the extremes – on both sides. No one listens to anyone else. It’s just whose side you’re on – and that’s the absolutely correct side – all the time.
But that’s not where the vast majority of us live.
I think we’re all tired of listening to those extreme, self-serving perspectives.
How about starting to have a real conversation and listen to some of our youth. I’m often amazed at their perceptions of the world and their ideas.
Talk to them. Communicate. What comes out of them may just be the beginning of change.
I know many of those young people. I’ve taught them. Yes, they are young and inexperienced, but make them part of the solution. They have ideas and energy, and many of them realize they are living in a messed-up world. They may not cure everything, but it’s a start.
And we need to start something, somewhere.
A bunch of legislators (many funded by big pharma or the gun lobby and trying to win re-election) will never be the answer to leading the change we need.
Try combining the energy of youth and the wisdom of age, and maybe, just maybe, it won’t continue to be like this.
Lubbock,Texas 806-744-2220
GOLDEN GAZETTE is published monthly by Word Publications, 2022 82nd St., Lubbock, Texas 79423.
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Staff: Jo Anne Corbet, Dr. Elva Edwards, Mary Ann Edwards, Randal Hill, Calva Ledbetter, John Martin, Gary McDonald, Cathy Mottet, Cary Swinney View the Gazette online:
