Mental Health And Wellness Radio

Mental Health and Wellness Radio looks into what it’s like living with generalized anxiety disorder. In this energetic discussion, we get personal accounts of living with anxiety from host Jenee Darden and guest Jay Scott Smith, a reporter with TheGrio.com. In the second segment of the show Jenee discusses a treatment that helped her with anxiety called ACT or Acceptance and Commitment Therapy. She speaks with her ACT group facilitator Dr. Eugenie Hsu, a psychologist based in Berkeley, CA.  

Mental Health and Wellness Radio host Jenee Darden heard a lot of good things about Zumba from her friends. She decided to see how the Latin-inspired dance workout is good for the body and mind.  Jenee and PEERS intern Kelly Tong visit Just Dance Ballroom in Oakland. They get their Zumba on with instructor and professional dancer Eduardo Vargas.  *Photo is of Eduardo Vargas. 

Mental Health and Wellness Radio looks back on the lives of mental health activists Darnell Levingston, 54 and DeWitt Buckingham, 64. Both men are the founders of the speakers bureau, Black Men Speak. The members of Black Men Speak deliver speeches and talks about mental health and share their own stories of recovery.  Host Jenee Darden speaks with Gigi Crowder, Ethnic Services Manager for Alameda County Behavioral Healthcare services; and Black Men Speak members Joe Anderson and Kenneth Davis. The show concludes with Jenee's final interview with DeWitt Buckingham. 

Mental Health and Wellness Radio host Jenee Darden is in Portland, Oregon for the Alternatives Conference. She looks back on a short interview that packed a punch. Jenee speaks with Walter Hudson, a veteran and mental health advocate who shares his wellness plan. Have you heard of Post Traumatic Growth? If not, you have to listen. And if you have, you've got to listen. 

Mental Health and Wellness Radio is at the Alternatives Conference in Portland, Oregon.  Host Jenee Darden sits in on a workshop about a program offering free wellness and counseling services to veterans and military families. The Returning Veterans Project is based in Portland and serves people statewide. Jenee chats with Executive Director Belle Landau and volunteer clinician Margaret Eichler. 

Mental Health and Wellness Radio travels to Portland, Oregon for the 26th annual Alternatives Conference. Alternatives is the oldest conference run by and for consumers (people with mental health challenges). Host Jenee Darden drops by the "Helping Our Communities Get Back On Their Financial Feet" workshop.  She talks to presenter Joe Powell about how financial stability and financial literacy can make a great impact on one's wellness. Joe Powell is the executive director of the Association of Persons Affected by Addiction (APAA) in Dallas, Texas. He also serves on SAMHSA's Wellness Initiative Steering Committee. 

Have you or a loved one with mental health challenges experienced euphoric spiritual enlightenment? What about deep spiritual bleakness? These are examples of spiritual psychosis or spiritual emergency.  Last month a groundbreaking conference on this issue was held in Oakland, Calif.  The event, "Psychosis as a Spiritual Crisis and Opportunity for Growth," was hosted by Alameda County Behavioral Healthcare Services and the California Mental Health and Spirituality Initiative.  Mental Health and Wellness Radio host Jenee Darden interviews Dr. Michael Cornwall, a psychotherapist who has helped people in spiritual psychosis. He was one of the speakers at the conference. Dr. Cornwall blogs at www.madinamerica.com. Photo from Flickr comedy_nose  

The PEERS documentary Shine follows the lives of three East Bay youth recovering from mental health challenges caused by trauma.  One is a survivor of sexual abuse, another overcame depression after being paralyzed from an armed robbery and the third youth speaks on coming to the realization in her teens that she had a mental health challenge.  The entire cast speaks with Jenee Darden about youth, mental health recovery and how the community can be more supportive of young people.  Guest are Markeeta Parker, a mental youth advocate, Arthur "AR" Renowitzky, a rapper and founder of the Life Goes On Foundation; and Brianna Williams, Lead TAYi Coordinator for PEERS. TAYi stands for Transitional Age Youth Initiative.  Photo credit: Jan Sturmann (L-R)Arthur Renowitzky, Brianna Williams, Markeeta Parker

Members from the Pool of Consumer Champions share touching stories of how Jay Mahler has changed their lives. The POCC is a group launched from Jay's vision and leadership. Their mission is to improve the quality of life for people in Alameda County living with mental illness.

Mental health rights advocate Jay Mahler is retiring from his position as Consumer Relations Manger for Alameda County. As one living with schizophrenia and an advocate for others with mental health challenges, he has seen the good, the bad and the hopeful in the mental health system. He speaks with Mental Health and Wellness Radio host Jenee Darden about his 40 years of activism and what's next in his life.

In the United States, an estimated 3 million people with severe mental illness have a 25-year shorter lifespan than the general population. Alameda County aims to eradicate this problem locally through the 10x10 Wellness Campaign. "Mental Health and Wellness Radio" host Jenee Darden speaks with the campaign's Manager Cardum Harmon.

"Mental Health and Wellness Radio" attended the 2012 CASRA Conference in San Mateo, Calif. to catch up with award-winning journalist and science writer Robert Whitaker. He speaks with host Jenee Darden about the pharmaceutical-drug industry, how some studies show short-term medical use results in higher rates of recovery than long-term use and why there is a growing trend of children being prescribed psychiatric medication. Whitaker is the author of "Mad in America" and "Anatomy of an Epidemic: Magic Bullets, Psychiatric Drugs, and the Astonishing Rise of Mental Illness in America." Photo: Robert Whitaker Gives a Lecture at the 2012 CASRA Conference.Photo Credit: Jenee Darden 

**This story won a 2012 New America Media Award for Outstanding Community Reporting-- Radio.*** A small film generating big buzz is "Dark Girls." The documentary brings to light the issues of colorism and its effects on darker-hued women in the black community world-wide. In this special episode of "Mental Health and Wellness Radio" host Jenee Darden explores the psychological impacts of colorism on black women. Darden interviews "Dark Girls" producers/directors Bill Duke and D. Channsin Berry; psychologist Dr. Dietra Hawkins, and she has a candid conversation about growing up a dark-skinned black girl with PEERS Empowerment Assistant Christal Byrd. 

Head next door to the Paramount Theatre in Downtown Oakland and visit PEERS' "See Me, Not My Diagnosis" mask display. While participating in a mask workshop created by activist and artist Adella, mental health consumers created the pieces. They express their bouts with stigma and perseverance through self-love. "Mental Health and Wellness Radio" host Jenee Darden explains the purpose of the exhibit and introduces the artists' inspirational stories.   Mask by Jader Tadefa

"Mental Health and Wellness Radio" visits a conference on Asian Americans, spirituality and mental health. In part one of our coverage, host Jenee Darden learns about the martial art Qigong and how it can be used as a wellness tool for such diagnosis as depression and anxiety. She interviews Dr. Randy Sugawara of Qi Recovery. Dr. Sugawara is a psychologist and martial arts instructor.  Photo by Mr. Moses Ma

After a divorce, the sudden death of his grandmother and a near-fatal car accident, writer and comedian Brian Copeland  sunk into a deep depression. His one-man show “The Waiting Period” is a humorous and dark look at Copeland’s bout with depression. The play covers 10-days Copeland waits for the arrival of a gun he plans to use for suicide. “The Waiting Period” is a follow up to his smash autobiographical play “Not a Genuine Black Man,” which holds the record for the longest running solo play in San Francisco. Copeland hosts Bay Area television talk show “7 Live” and “The Brian Copeland Show” on KGO radio in San Francisco. 

On Saturday October 1, 2011, PEERS hosted its first Mental Health and Wellness Walk at Cesar Chavez Park in Berkeley. PEERS Podcast host Jenee Darden gives you an audio tour of the day.

The PEERS Podcast is on location at the 25th Annual Alternatives Conference in Orlando, Florida. Host Jenee Darden takes time for giggles at a laughter yoga workshop led by Grace Karen Sweet, Director of The Average Miracles Foundation near Santa Cruz, Calif. Sweet explains why this type of yoga helps those with mental health challenges. Photo by Jenee Darden

The PEERS Podcast is in Orlando, Florida for the Alternatives Conference. Host Jenee Darden drops by the “Restoring the Spirit” workshop about spirituality as a mental-health wellness tool. Can Truong, director of the National Asian American Pacific Islanders Empowerment Network, explains how his spirituality brought him through recovery. Photo by Jenee Darden

Michael Schratter has been traveling the world on his bicycle for just over a year. The Canadian schoolteacher is cycling the globe to raise awareness about mental health stigma through his “Ride Don’t Hide”campaign. Schratter is now wrapping up his tour in Canada and expects to roll up to his Vancouver home next month. PEERS Podcast host Jenee Darden spoke with him during his stop in Montreal.  Photo of Michael Schrattter cycling in Mexico.