Respect it, Dream it, Do it!by Donna Gibson 

Please respect my fears as they may be different than your own.  Please respect my dreams and vision because they are the only ones I own.  Please respect the decisions I have made, even the ones that haven’t been so good.  I am only leading by the examples that have been previously set for me and understand some of these examples are hard to speak of and not so good.  Please respect that I am trying to make my way in this world and live the life I have been given to explore.  I may have been someone you have seen outside carrying a sign “will work for food” or someone you passed by and handed that dollar to.  I might need help learning and moving ahead.  I am slowly creating new visions, better examples and positive outcomes instead.  Please don’t do things for me.  I want to stand on my own.  Walking beside me means I am never truly alone.  

Donna Gibson is the Bridges Out of Poverty and Parent Support Program Coordinator at Mental Health America of Licking County   

An Increase in the Suicide Rate

Posted in The New Your Times April 26, 2016

To the Editor:

Re “Sweeping Pain as Suicides Hit a 30-Year High”                                    (front page, April 22):

The report showing a 24 percent increase in suicides should be                         a wake-up call to our country. If we saw numbers like this for any           other cause of death, people would demand action.

The vast majority of people who die as a result of suicide have a    psychiatric condition like depression, bipolar disorder,               schizophrenia or post-traumatic stress. To decrease the number                   of suicides, we need to improve access to care by enforcing the               insurance parity laws so that people are not denied treatment.

We also need to reduce stigma and prejudice against people                       who have a psychiatric illness so that people are not embarrassed                 to seek help. And just as we declared a war on cancer and                     increased funding for research, we need to declare a war on                       mental illness and accelerate the funding of research to improve           treatment.

JEFFREY BORENSTEIN

New York

The writer, a psychiatrist, is president and chief executive of the             Brain & Behavior Research Foundation.

Internship Experience 

by Jessica Phillips

My name is Jessica Phillips and I am a professional writing intern for Mental Health America of Licking County.  I was given the opportunity to take this internship as a part of my degree program’s coursework.  Throughout the semester we met once a week with our peers, who were also part of the internship program, to discuss what was happening at each internship site.  We also completed various assignments which helped us learn what skills we will need going out into the professional world.  As a final assignment we were asked to write a note to the “future generation” as they enter into the professional world themselves.  Being an intern was my first step, and here was my advice:

“You may not get an internship or job with the exact job description that you are hoping for, but that is the beauty of it.  Be excited about the new path, scared about the unknown, and praise the challenges that got you where you are.  Working with MHALC has taught me a lot about the professional world and how to navigate through the challenges and be flexible.  So my advice is to plan, plan, and plan again.  Always have your dream plan in mind, but keep changing it because life will end up doing it for you anyways.  Be flexible, be scared, and most of all be you.” 

Allowing yourself to be scared or afraid is so important to me.  I believe that overcoming the things that give us fear is what will give us the confidence to do better and do more.  Working with MHALC has been such a rewarding and inspiring experience; every single person in their office is so passionate about their work that it has become contagious.  I am very thankful for my time spent with MHALC and their wonderful staff and especially thankful for time spent with my mentor, Jill Goddard.  

Jessica Phillips was an intern from The Ohio State University Newark Campus