Taking Care of Ourselves
Show Notes:
Guests this month:
David Barber, IAEM Mental Health & Wellness Caucus Chair: https://www.linkedin.com/in/david-barber-47327b8/Â
Scott Carpenter, IAEM Mental Health & Wellness Caucus Vice Chair: https://www.linkedin.com/in/srcuvm02/Â Â
Other items referenced:
IAEM Mental Health & Wellness Caucus website (see all the resources at the bottom): https://www.iaem.org/groups/Mental-Health-and-Wellness-Caucus
Adam Grant's Work Life Podcast: https://adamgrant.net/podcasts/work-life/Â
Info on 3/21 "The State of Emergency Management" briefing in Washington, DC: https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7170602840271245312/Â
See the final deliverables and reports from the IAEM Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Initiative: https://www.iaem.org/resources/IAEM-DEI-InitiativeÂ
SAVE THE DATE: DEI Open House with President Justin Kates on 3/28 from 2pm-3:30pm ET (invite will be sent to members soon)
IAEM Student Chapters: https://www.iaem.org/groups/StudentChaptersÂ
IAEM Happy Hour Save the Date: April 4th at 6pm ET: https://www.iaem.org/Events/IAEM-USA-Happy-HoursÂ
Transcript:
Taylor Frizzell:
All right. Welcome. Welcome to the Just In Case podcast. I'm glad that you're either coming back or checking us out for the first time. I'm your host, Taylor Frizzell. Joining me as always with his bright and smiling face is Mr. Justin Kates. IAEM USA president. Hello, Justin.
Justin Kates:
How's it going?
Taylor Frizzell:
I'm great, happy, I guess belated International Women's Day, because this comes out on March 9th. So I feel very celebrated today. Thank you very much. I'll await the presents in the mail.
Justin Kates:
Thank you. I found out from our producer that we've got more subscribers. They're just, they're piling up now.
Taylor Frizzell:
We're up to five whole subscribers, guys.
Justin Kates:
People are apparently listening in. You know, what's interesting, though, is most people don't they don't realize that my article in each IAEM bulletin is literally that AI generated article from the show transcript. And so they're like, oh, wow, I learned so much information from your podcast. And I'm like, you did read it already in the in the bulletin. But, you know, whatever.
Taylor Frizzell:
I don't know. I got a compliment from my father-in-law the other day, who has nothing to do with emergency management, by the way, but they're just wonderful humans. Him and my mother-in-law listen to the podcast. And my father-in-law's in radio, has been for years. And he goes, you know, Taylor, you've just got such a good radio voice. And I was like, that is the only thing I ever need to hear for the rest of my life. Thank you so much. So I think it's my radio voice that's keeping people coming back, Justin, I'm just saying.
Justin Kates:
Yeah, sure. We'll see. We'll see how long we can keep this going.
Taylor Frizzell:
Anywho, minor tangent as per usual, but we're going to rearrange things a little bit this month. I want to start by diving right into the conversation with our guests this month, which I am so, so excited you folks are here. So welcome to both of you. Today, we are welcoming David Barber, who is the chair of the Mental Health and Wellness Caucus and vice chair of the Mental Health and Wellness Caucus, Mr. Scott Carpenter. Thank you both so much for being here, guys. I'm so excited you're here to chat with us today.
David Barber:
Thank you. We're also very happy to be here.
Taylor Frizzell:
I love it. I was saying before we kicked things off that I'm feeling like this is going to be a wonderful therapy session, which I think all of us need every once in a while. We could not have two better people to talk about all things mental health and wellness. So let's go ahead and just kind of kick things off, if you will. I really want to start from the base, if you will. And as we start to guide our conversation, I want to start by saying, what do we mean when we're talking about mental health and wellness? So I don't know if, David, you want to maybe kick us off and give us what your thoughts are on mental health and wellness, and kick it over to Scott.
David Barber:
We're going to switch things up, and I'm going to let him speak first.
Taylor Frizzell:
I love it. We're going rogue all over the place.
Scott Carpenter:
I prepared the notes ahead of time, so we're good. It's funny because I, you know, I, I started taking a look at the questions earlier and it's, I think to start with, it's like taking care of our mental health through wellness. You know, like we do such a good job taking care of physical health, um, as across the board, as a society, you know, we're, we're, we're looking to have less pain in our joints. We're looking to be lower our blood pressure, those things that are physical things that you can actually measure. Um, mentally, it's harder to measure, it's harder to quantify, it's harder to actually put that together. So, you know, and then add in, you know, what society is like, what things are going on in the world, you know, conflicts, just outside of what we do for work. But then adding in 24 seven news cycles, you know, the disasters of the day type of thing, and then add in what we do, and just really starts to file on for us, you know, it kind of takes that that that mental toll, and those things can add up, you know, it adds up to the anxiety, depression, the panic attacks, the burnout, the you know, whatever else you want to that really takes that toll. Um, you know, I think that we started really seeing that after those never ending COVID activations that just never stopped. And it was day in, day out, you know, of groundhog day. So, and we all kind of, we all kind of took that toll, um, and just exacerbated the, the need for what we're doing and the, the thought behind really, um, pulling this caucus together.
Taylor Frizzell:
And I think that's going to be a recurring theme throughout today's session is kind of how, you know, we're going to talk a bit later on, I think about kind of the person first model, hopefully, which I think is what you're kind of alluding to, Scott, where, you know, we've got stressful jobs. But on top of that, we're just human beings dealing with all of those external things happening all the time that we necessarily can't control, which I think is almost more stressful to some extent. Yeah, very well said. David, did you want to add anything?
David Barber:
Yeah, just a little bit. I think that Scott did a really good job of aptly describing what we mean by mental health and wellness. But just going back to one of the reasons that we formed and started this caucus in the first place was to have a spot or a group that could provide resources, training, opportunities to promote and educate individuals, teams, groups, in both their mental health journey, whatever that may look like from day to day, which will change, and to go further, deeper, and beyond into wellness, where we go beyond the journey and start to look at ways to strengthen our mental health to the level of actually being well, which is why we wanted very much to have mental health and wellness in our name. And as we go down that road, it can provide those of us who work in this amazing field, the resilience to keep helping others, ensure our own mental health and wellness along the way, and not suffer from that burnout that we've already started to talk about.
Taylor Frizzell:
I really like that, David. And I think that I've certainly never framed it as a journey. It almost feels like, you know, mental health is very reacted to me, but I like the idea of wellness being that journey. I think that it's something we should actively be working on all of the time. No, I think that's a fantastic way of looking at it, and I think that that's also going to help inform our conversation. So thank you both so, so much. You've already alluded to this a little bit, and I know that selfishly, again, shocking. This is something that I Really like talking about I'm super invested and I think it's important to be having these conversations around mental health. which Justin, I think makes fun of me, but I just want to talk about things that I'm interested in. It's the whole reason we're doing this. That's what I tell myself. But I want to hear from you folks because you're also very passionate about it. Obviously, that's why you're here. Why are you folks invested in supporting mental health and that wellness journey, but also maybe specifically to kind of that sphere of emergency management, if there is any differentiation?
David Barber:
I'll start this time and then we'll let Scott go behind me for this particular one. I want to go back to the concept of how and why we started this caucus. It all started in, actually, at the IAEM in-person conference in Savannah, not the last one, but the time before that. And at that particular conference, there were two, only two, offerings that dealt with the subject of people's mental health within IAEM and within our profession. And an overwhelming number of the people that attended either one or both of those presentations took time to get together and say, we need to do more. And it took a little while because of COVID, but we eventually got to the point that we formed this caucus with the extent reason that we're here is to be a place and a group that can promote mental health and not have it be something that people don't want to talk about, and bring it to the forefront so that it becomes a core part of who we are as both IAEM members and emergency management professionals. Because we are affected by that, and Scott's going to talk about that, we're affected tremendously by the work that we do. And if we're not whole and healthy, then we can't be as effective as we should be for the people that we work.
Taylor Frizzell:
And I think one thing that I want to flag there too, and I think that it's exciting for me being that I've only been in the field for eight or so years now, right? Even just in that eight year period, David, to your point, there seems to be almost the shift where it's less stigmatized to talk about things like your mental health and the burnout. And so just being able to witness that, you know, just in the past few years has been incredible. So I love that the folks that the work that you folks are doing is contributing to that. So thank you. I'm sorry. Go ahead, Scott.
Scott Carpenter:
All good. Yeah. And it's funny because I I came into it, and I was trying to look for it here just a second ago, but the magnet and the card that we had, that we all got as IAEM members during COVID. And it was a combination of Mosaik and the Crisis Athlete program that they had brought out about the same time. And, you know, my conversations with David about the caucus really started during the virtual conference, I think in 2021. And, you know, he and I connected after that and really started to work on how do we make this, this needs to be a bigger thing than just a couple of presentations at the conference. It needs to be a, you know, um, so, you know, it, for, for me, you know, it's, all of this is kind of remembering why we were attracted to EM to start with, you know, and it's really that building of that helping others, but you know, we really need to take care of ourselves in order to do so. And if we can't take care of ourselves, if we're not in the best position to respond, to recover, to do the things that we do as jobs, like we're not going to be in that best position to actually take care of others when they need us. So, you know, it's a, it's a double, um, double thing there. So the, the other thing that I noted on this, um, in this question, Taylor was that, you know, the Journal of Emergency Management study that they did in 2022, and the numbers that were coming out of that study, like having over half of the respondents reporting mild to severe secondary traumatic stress in EM, over 60% surveyed were considering leaving their jobs during the pandemic, and almost 70 were considering a completely different job field. And you know, it's, it's telling, you know, it's, it's, we need to do better within our field to really make sure that we are viable, and we are taking care of ourselves. And, you know, if we, if we lost even a fraction of that number, you know, the the amount of institutional knowledge that would impact the field would just be massive, and would take many years to actually get back to where we are now. And you know, I'm, I'm not immune to that myself, you know, I think about it. That's why I'm in the middle of a change myself. So it, you know, the, it's just really important for us to find those ways for ourselves, whether it's, you know, through workforce programs, and whether it's through the workplace, or I am or other organizations, but finding those resources, find those opportunities, and really, taking that step back and taking care of ourselves and, you know, finding those, those abilities to do that.
Taylor Frizzell:
And I think he made some really excellent points. The thing that sticks out to me is that we keep coming back to COVID, which I hoped to never have to talk about again, as I'm sure we all Probably did. But I think you're both making really good points, right? I think that it was this massive shift in emergency management, but I think it also was a really, for better or for worse, a good catalyst to help give a platform for some of these more uncomfortable conversations because we were all going through this massive response at the same time. And I think to some extent, I'm not a scientist by any means, I work for the government, But I think that to some extent, it made folks feel a little bit more comfortable to start talking about that because everyone was going through the same thing. Whereas sometimes, you know, we're all responding to things, but it's not happening the same time. It's not the exact same experience or similar experiences, right? Or I think COVID was one of those things that could kind of bring us all together, which was, I think, one of the upsides of COVID, if there were any. I think that might be one upside. Um, I want to kind of keep plugging through some stuff here because I did. I sent these poor guys so many questions because I have so many things I want to talk about. Um, let's kind of take a step back here. You folks are, you know, you've started this journey with the mental health and wellness caucus. You folks are heading up the show. Um, let's talk about what your plans are for the caucus this year. What are you folks looking to do?
David Barber:
Scott, do you want to start that? And we'll just go back and forth. He'll start this. I'll start the next one.
Taylor Frizzell:
As I say, I love you guys are ping ponging. Makes my job easy. Go for it.
Scott Carpenter:
And a lot of it, you know, we over the past couple of years, we've seen a, you know, David kind of alluded to that in the previous question is the the materials, the information that we're able to get at a conference. And, you know, last conference, there was a pre-conference training at Long Beach with three of our members, with Jolie, Mary, and Kim. And it was well attended, well received. And, you know, for Colorado Springs, we're looking at another pre-conference symposium with mental health content in it, as well as some, some of the sessions within the conference itself, the brain break room. So for anybody who's been to the conference, like that opportunity to take a moment away, and unfortunately, I haven't been able to get the conference. So I, I look at it and say, darn it, I wish I have a chance to do this. But, but having that ability to, to step out and step out in a in a way that's planned in a way that's not, you know, no stigma around it, it's a place to just kind of regather and have a chance to reconnect and start over and pause for a moment. So I think that's been a really great addition to to the conference proceedings. So, you know, on top of that, Gosh, I can keep going down the list here. David, do you want to hop in?
David Barber:
Sure, I'll hop in. We've got We continue to develop our resources on our IAEM caucus page, if you will, and we're working on that. We're also working on two initiatives this year that we hope to move forward. One of them is a mental health pledge concept that we can get organizations to actually state in their business statement, in their purpose, that mental health is a core foundation of what they support and work towards for their members. And we think that that could have a really great reach and a step forward so that we're not just talking about mental health, we're actually embracing it in our organizational structure and moving that forward. I'm super excited about that. And then there's also a potential that we might develop a member assistance program, which is not completely in mental health, but certainly has a huge benefit in the mental health of those people that might run into a temporary problem that we can provide some assistance to. And we just We want to be a group that is active and doing things and not just say, oh, here's some resources you can look at. We want to develop a feel and a confidence that people can come to our caucus, find things, and move forward. And of course, we're also going to continue on with the IAEM Stronger Stories program Carrie has kind of, and I know I'm stepping in something that Scott's going to talk about in a minute, but Carrie started that. And then now we've taken, the caucus has taken ownership of that. And we're just trying to find new and more creative ways that we can provide avenues for people to tell their story.
Taylor Frizzell:
It's like I planted you in the audience there, David. That's a phenomenal segue. Thank you so much. I do want to take a second, though, to add, we'll add the link to the Mental Health and Wellness Caucus's webpage to our notes so that folks can get direct access to that so they can see the resources that you folks are putting together. And also just learn a little bit more about some of the work that you folks are doing. I'll give a big shout out to those brain break rooms at the conferences. I'm a very extroverted person, but even just to go in and like take a breath for a hot second, it's very overstimulating with the amount of people there. So I just a huge applause for just that is phenomenal. But yes, to your point, David, I do want us to talk about the I am stronger stories. I'm so excited that this is something that you folks are going to be continuing, because I think it's an incredible avenue for folks to not only tell their stories, but I think there's also some comfort in hearing from other folks about their stories. I know I attended the session at the most recent conference, and I found that just listening to folks talk about their experiences was very powerful and very moving and somehow therapeutic for me. Which I think, you know, I don't know if that's the intended goal, but I know it was very helpful just for me to listen and feel like I was surrounded by kindred spirits. So I do want to turn it over to you folks to tell us a little bit more about what the IAEM Stronger stories are. And perhaps if you are looking for some folks to get, you know, rallied around that, that would be an awesome time to maybe give a plug for those. I'm just saying.
David Barber:
Scott, maybe I'll take this one first. Scott will talk about the history of it a little bit. I want to talk about the entire premise of the stronger stories. It was and is that the very act of telling your mental health story, our journey, as may be the case, is both cathartic and therapeutic for you and for those who hear it, like you just said, Taylor. And it has proven to be true on many levels as we have developed this concept and moved it into reality. We get people who attend the IAEM Stronger Stories sessions and report that they are very moving, very powerful, like you just said, and helpful to them in their own mental health walk. And we've got others who tell us that it's now become the main reason they want to attend our conference is so that they can either go to or be part of the Stronger Stories sessions. And not just in person, but virtual. We have opportunities in both of those. And the hope that we have and the direction that we want to go is that we keep this movement going And hopefully, we can encourage other people in our wonderful profession to take the Stronger Stories concept and move it into their own organizations so that it cannot just be something that happens at the conference, but each group can provide an avenue for that to happen within their organization because it is helpful for both the tellers and the listeners.
Justin Kates:
You know, Dave, I'll tell you, over the longest period of time, I really didn't understand the value of doing these types of things with mental health and wellness. Frankly, I saw it and said, just suck it up and just get through it, was my perspective. And it wasn't until a number of years ago I had a sort of a very traumatic experience where a car drove through my house and it was an extreme event. And what I ended up doing was that year I gave a presentation at the New Hampshire Emergency Preparedness Conference about that story, but also tried to apply it to emergency management in general. you know, this idea of how I wasn't prepared for it and how I wasn't ready for this type of experience, but also really about the The traumatic experiences I dealt with afterwards, not being able to sleep and all those types of things. And you're absolutely right. You know, that being able to sit there and tell that story, uh, was, was a big, was a big deal for me, you know, being able to just get through that. So, uh, absolutely support that. I, I, it was a, it was a game changer for me. Once you go through that experience, then you're bought into it.
Taylor Frizzell:
Here's hoping no more cars drive through your house, Justin, because I'm glad it was therapeutic. I'm glad it was therapeutic for you. I hope you don't have to go through that again. That would be unfortunate.
Scott Carpenter:
You could share your story at the conference.
Justin Kates:
Yeah, I've thought about that. I mean, it does apply to emergency management, and then I already have the slide deck all made up too, so that's at least one less piece of work I have to do.
David Barber:
But we have openings at both the virtual conference and the in-person conference in Colorado Springs. So just let me know, and I'll put you on the venue.
Justin Kates:
All right. There we go. All right. We just solved a problem here today. This is the whole point of this. That's right.
Taylor Frizzell:
And we've given more for Justin to do, which is one of my favorite things in the world to do. So thank you all for helping me with that. That's my greatest, most favorite hobby. Scott, would you like to add anything to this?
Scott Carpenter:
I think you guys have covered most of it. You know, I think the history behind it was Carrie had started this, you know, around her experiences on January 6th and had built it from there and what she's been able to start and have this momentum behind this and the the feedback that she received after her presentation on this just was just it's been incredible it's been incredible to see it's been wonderful to see the response to it and and yeah i mean you guys have touched on everything that uh that i could think of to say anything more about it but it's been a great uh Um, great chance for folks to actually share externally and then get it out. Um, but also understand that, you know, they're not alone. You're not alone. We're all in this together. It's a team sport.
Taylor Frizzell:
I know we try and keep these podcasts kind of hyphenated. So we're really just kind of going very high level about. A lot of these subjects, but I do encourage folks to, to look more into some of these initiatives, including the IAEM stronger stories. Because I'm telling you, it's a phenomenal thing that's being done. And if you don't feel comfortable sharing your story, just listening to it really is, I have found to be very helpful to your journey. And it sounds like that was the intention to do so. Yeah, I really encourage folks to look more into some of those initiatives. Like I said, we'll put links to everything in the description boxes and whatnot. So I'll be there for folks to look at.
Justin Kates:
So one thing on that, I mean, you mentioned about maybe not being comfortable to share the story in person. One of the things I do know that Carrie had worked on, first of all, we keep just saying Carrie. I don't know if the listeners know who Carrie is, but Carrie Speranza, she's the first vice president right now. One of the things she worked on many months ago was setting up a way on IAEM Connect where you could do an anonymous post. And so I believe that functionality exists where that can be done on a sort of an IAEM Stronger Stories section. And I think some people might feel more comfortable writing about their story rather than speaking about their story. So that's certainly another option that may be just as useful to both the person who's writing the story as well as the folks who would read it and sort of reflect on it.
David Barber:
Yep, and that is still available and we kind of tried to expand upon the variety of ways that people can quote unquote tell their stronger story by providing some art supplies and some molding clay and even a way if people wanted to in song tell their story, our music, we provided those opportunities at the Brain Break Room. And we had a few people dabble in that. It was our first exposure. Maybe we'll get some more delving into that aspect of alternative ways to tell their stronger story through art and music at Colorado Springs.
Taylor Frizzell:
That's incredible. That really hits on all the ways that folks can communicate. So that's awesome that it's an experience that everyone gets to have regardless of their comfort level with speaking and being in front of people. That's incredible. That's very cool to hear. I want to shift the conversation a little bit away from kind of the specifics of IAEM and the caucus. And I want to have a conversation about the bigger emergency management sphere, if you will. And I'll preface this by saying that, you know, I want to talk about kind of this like personal wellness first model. And what I mean by that is really focusing on yourself as a human before we're worrying about, you know, all of the work things, if you will. I think historically, it's been your job is your identity, in some cases, Your job is why you're getting up in the morning. And maybe that's just specific to EM folks. I think that we certainly. A lot of the folks I know, I think, tend to to be that way. And so I want to just kind of hear from you folks what you think. About this personal wellness first model, do you think that the field of EM is shifting more towards that model of we are people before we are work your bees? And if not, what do you think we can be doing better to shift it to that personal wellness first? I threw a lot at you. I'm so sorry.
David Barber:
All right. Scott, you want to go first on this one? I think that you've got some good things to say on this. Sure.
Scott Carpenter:
You know, I I definitely think there is a shift. I think, and it's not just EM, though, too, it's broader workforce in general, like we noticed this during post COVID, where there was a, you know, a remote work return to the office type of thing that was a shift in in how we're, we're, we're dealing with, you know, Um, how we see work and how we view work. Um, but you know, in EM it's starting to, and there's definitely more conversations that are happening. It's not universal for sure. Um, but there are some definite sincere investments being made towards that better work-life balance, you know, by organizations, by individuals. You know, by IAEM, you know, as an organization here, we're doing a much broader push to bring that related mental health related programming to the conferences and the information we're sending out to members. So, you know, it's taking that continual, gradual, incremental movement forward. And there's times where it's going to feel like it's not doing things. There's times that it's going to feel like it's going a million miles an hour. but we're definitely shifting it. And, and the mentality is shifting and that, you know, expectation and how we approach work and those conversations of how we approach work, you know, the, the type of conversation that, I don't know if you guys listened to him at all, but the work-life podcast from Adam Grant, you know, those, those types of conversations and those types of balances that are out there. Um, and, and, you know, the expectations shifting to, um, you know, it could be generational, it could be all sorts of things, but the expectation of long shift after long shift after long shift, and without a break without an opportunity to actually decompress, and providing the type of critical incident, debriefings, peer support, those types of methodologies in to our, our EM staff. You know, police and fire are doing that in many, many different places. So having those types of opportunities to first staff to decompress, having those conversations in the workplace and having you know, wellness programs that are out there. I know that lots of folks are providing headspace. I use 10% happier, those mindfulness types of apps, EAP, counseling, any type of resources that are out there to help staff manage some of these things. And the thing is, too, is encouraging staff to take advantage of those without that stigma, without that judgment. And that's part of the biggest shift.
Taylor Frizzell:
And I think that that's interesting to know. I was listening to a webinar a couple of days ago, very similarly, where folks are kind of pulling some data around this new workforce environment, right, where some folks might be able to work from home more or, you know, and how that really is opening folks up to have a little bit more of a flexible work life, right? They can be human beings and they can leave at three o'clock to pick up their kids from the bus. and still feel like it's okay and they're contributing to work and contributing to the things that they're doing in the office. And so I think to your point, there are certainly some shifts happening in the overall workforce, which is exciting to see. I think it's an incredible momentum and to your point, hopefully we get there eventually, right? Slowly but surely. Dave, did you want to add anything?
David Barber:
Sure. If I can impress one thing upon those of us here and those of us that are listening is I would love to see, and I agree with Scott, that we are definitely moving in the right direction. But there are some places that are further along than others and some areas that are further along than others. But one thing that I think speaks really well to the personal approach to this, and it's something I would like to get across to everybody, is change the terminology from work life to life work. Because if our life is not in order, our work can't be what it needs to be for the people that we serve. And just that simple transition of those two words can go a long way towards how we approach the things that we do to help one another. That if my life is not right, then I can't be as effective at work as I need to be and as my community wants me and needs me to be. So I think that that's a hugely important thing. It's a small thing, but it's very important. And if we can get to everybody making that switch, that will be another huge step down this walk that we're taking towards making mental health A core value for everyone.
Taylor Frizzell:
I always like to pull one snippet that I say that if I could cross stitch on a pillow. I would. And I think that this one is life-work balance, because it's just so key, and it's such a simple thing we can all be doing to make a pretty significant impact, I think, on emergency management and just the people around us. So thank you for saying that. And when I eventually learn how to cross-stitch, that's the first thing going on a pillow, so.
David Barber:
Well, you'll have to send us pictures of when you make that.
Taylor Frizzell:
I thought you were gonna say send it.
David Barber:
Well, if you make a bunch of them, you can send us pillows. We'll use it for the brain break room, okay?
Taylor Frizzell:
I was afraid you were gonna say that. No, no, no. No, cause it'll take me like a week just to make one and it won't be good. And so I'll spend the next 30 years of my life cross stitching the three of us pillows. Oh man. I do want to just kind of wrap up this session with one last question, because I think that we'd be doing ourselves and the listeners a disservice if I don't ask this question. But if the two of you could share your favorite resources or the most valuable resources that you might have for someone who is struggling on their wellness journey, or maybe they're in a patch of not a great mental space, what are some resources that we can share with folks?
David Barber:
Scott, you want to go on that one?
Scott Carpenter:
Yeah, I'll start, sure. So, and that's the thing, there are so many resources out there, there's so many things and websites to go to. what we tried to do as a caucus, we tried to boil down a handful that might be of use for EM. So on our caucus website, we have, you know, we have a link section at the bottom of the page towards the bottom of the page with, you know, some organizations like Green Cross or the National Alliance on Mental Illness or International Critical Stress Foundation, SAMHSA, you know, those those types of organizations are out there that would be supporting this. But always, you know, there is also, and we talked about it during a couple of our meetings, and it came into reality last year, I believe it was, if somebody is in immediate crisis, and they need somebody to talk to, there's 988. So this was a pretty major shift and major push nationally, to actually have a crisis line. And 988 was instead of you know, dial in 10 digits or dial in whatever. It just makes it so much simpler, so much easier. If somebody needs immediate help, call 988.
Taylor Frizzell:
Thank you so much. And we'll definitely share the link to the web page so folks have access to all of those resources. I think that I know that there's something there for everyone, regardless of where you are in your wellness journey. And again, I would encourage you to check out all the incredible work that the caucus is doing, quite frankly. I will give you two one final moment if there are any parting messages you would like to leave folks with as we wrap up this mental health and wellness conversation.
David Barber:
I'll just say that we are always looking for members. Our caucus is made up of a very diverse group, both geographically, professionally, and the type of groups that they serve. It's not if somebody thinks, oh, mental health and wellness, I got to be a mental health professional to be involved in that group. Not the case. We are from a variety of different walks, but we have one common purpose. We believe that mental health is a core value for the emergency management field, not just in IAEM, but beyond, like you said before, it's bigger than IAEM. It's core to making people's life work balance be where it needs to be. So we're always looking for new members and we're always looking for fresh ideas to make the journey better for everyone.
Taylor Frizzell:
You heard it here first, folks. Get involved, get invested. It's an incredible group of folks, truly, that the work that you guys are doing is phenomenal. Just a big thank you again to the two of you. I don't know, well, I do know what it is, but you two just have such calming personalities that it's just so wonderful to have conversations with you. So thank you both so, so much for being here. I genuinely hope that this opens folks up to knowing more about some of the resources that exist. making them feel a little bit more comfortable about having these conversations that might seem a little bit uncomfortable. I really do hope that we're able to keep this dialogue going, and thank you again for the incredible work that you guys are doing. I'm going to turn it over now to Justin, and he's going to give us an update on all of the things that are happening at IAEM-USA. Justin?
Justin Kates:
All right, perfect. Well, yeah, thank you again, David, Scott, for jumping on and providing some great understanding of what this caucus is doing moving forward. And this just goes to show you some of the things that IAEM is doing across a very wide spectrum of emergency management. This is just one piece of it, but you can see how much impact they're making and how important this topic is. So this month, similar to last month, we've gotten a ton of stuff going on. And unfortunately, what ends up happening is each month, everything just continues to pile up more and more and more because more and more people are seeing all the cool stuff that's going on and say, oh, let's add this to the plate and let's add this to the plate. So Yeah, it is very busy. We're also preparing for our board retreat, which is taking place in April. And the board retreat is the opportunity where we go and we approve the budget. We go through and work on a lot of the sort of work plan for the next 12 month period. The last few years, we've been spending a lot of time on our strategic plan. Thankfully, that is out of the way now, and so we can focus on some new topics this year. I would say keep an eye out on IAEM.org because we do have some plans for some opportunities to maybe engage with the board during the board retreat. We're looking at how we might be able to do something around the topic of DEI, Especially now that we've just had those recent recommendations released. So there may be an opportunity actually for folks to engage with the board while we're all together in Louisville, Kentucky this year. Some quick updates. When we talk about my three priority areas for the year, mentorship, representation, and advocacy, we've made some good progress over the last month. For mentorship, we've met with the team that's working on putting together our mentorship program, and we're going to be scheduling a meeting here probably towards the end of March where we're actually going to go through and finalize the details of this new program. We're going to try to do a hybrid where there'll be an opportunity to sign up to take place in a cohort-style mentor program that'll take place over a 12-month period. Then there'll also be a database that you can go to, similar to the current AEM-CEM mentorship program where you can go and find uh, the right mentor that you might just want to have an ad hoc relationship with over a period of time. So, uh, we'll be releasing some more information about that. Hopefully in the next month or so, once we get everything locked down on that. Regarding representation, over this past month, we participated in one listening session with FEMA on the Homeland Security Grant Program, but there's another one that will be coming up. Date hasn't been scheduled. FEMA's asked us to find some folks to help provide the emergency management perspective, and that'll be on the topic of the National Level Exercise Series. What are the things that emergency managers are looking for there? So I appreciate all the folks who have signed up to help us by participating in these listening sessions, providing their views, their perspectives, and making sure that emergency management's at the table for these types of discussions. I also recently posted on the IAEM Connect about a request that we got from the Voluntary Organizations Active in Disaster, National VOAD. They are looking for representatives to sit on their committees that they have, their ad hoc committees. And so the majority of those folks that are on those committees are from Red Cross and Salvation Army, Southern Baptist, the variety of VOADs that are out there. But this is important to have emergency managers there at the table as well, because a lot of times we have to partner with those organizations during a disaster. And so I hope that folks will sign up and be willing to represent IAEM and the emergency management perspective within those groups as well. Then on the advocacy front, we had a meeting with the Advocacy and Awareness Caucus about the Emergency Management Program Hiring Toolkit. And what we'll be doing is putting up a template outline for this toolkit up for folks to comment and provide recommendations. We had a good first review from the Advocacy and Awareness Caucus, and they provide some really great feedback on that. Beyond just our sort of educational advocacy that the Advocacy and Awareness Caucus is doing, Government Affairs Committee has been doing a lot of legislative advocacy as well. And one of the things that we'll be doing coming up March 21st is we're going to be going to Washington, D.C. with our partners from the National Emergency Management Association and big cities emergency managers And we're going to do a visit there where we'll go to the Senate building and give sort of an outlook on the state of emergency management. What are the things that are our biggest issues right now that we need assistance from our folks on the Hill? And that'll be taking place from 10 a.m. to 1130 a.m. Eastern Time on March 21st. Folks are welcome to attend, so if you're in Region 3 or if you want to fly from California to go to this hour and a half event, you can feel free to do that. Would recommend business attire show that emergency managers are professional and we would welcome your participation in that. So more information will go up in the show notes about that as well. We're also just finishing up or going to get approval from the board on the IAEM legislative priorities for 2024. And so those are, you know, a lot of topics around pushing for emergency management performance grants, supporting some of the big bills that are out right now, some of which, you know, this is a great example, again, of mental health and wellness. Mental Health and Wellness Caucus worked with the Government Affairs Committee to support some legislation around around that topic as well in the past. So IAEM is very active in this space and we use groups like Mental Health and Wellness Caucus to try and identify ways that we should be doing some work, additional work in this space. One of the priorities that we're looking at for this year is how we can better support the National Weather Service in some of the funding needs that they have. They are really under some difficult circumstances with the federal fiscal year 24 budget. which is really a significant drop in what they need in order to maintain the level of service that's necessary for emergency managers. And so we've got a team in the Government Affairs Committee right now that is working to put together some templates and graphics that we can use as an association to help tell the story of what's going to happen with the National Weather Service budget. And really, we're shifting our focus to federal fiscal year 25 right now. because the 24 budget is basically already locked down at this point. There's not much more we can do there. The Energy Caucus, they kicked off this month and had a great start, so they're already thinking through some of the first activities that they're going to be working on, so we're excited about that. And then you probably all, those of you that are IAEM members listening to this, received a letter from me about the release of the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Recommendations. So real quick, just to kind of provide everybody an overview here. We've had this 11 month engagement with a DEI consultant who really looked at the association from bottom to top. on our policies, our governance, our programs, the services we provide to say, all right, you know, how can we ensure that this is something that's trying to be as inclusive as possible to all emergency managers? How can we ensure that we are providing equitable services to the emergency management community? And how can we increase the diversity of our membership, our leadership, and really the types of things that we have going on within the association? So they did two readout sessions last month to really close out this project and then submitted their findings, which was an assessment of the demographics of the association and some of the findings from their surveys and results that they did on their listening sessions that they did. And then also a recommendations report. And the recommendations has a guide for us to understand what are the things that we need to start working on as an association over the long term. So the letter that I wrote basically outlines what our next steps are. And at this point, it's up to us. It's up to us to take this on and figure out how we're going to implement this. It needs to be a member-driven, approach, we need to get the members to really step up and figure out how we can chip away at becoming a more inclusive organization. So my thoughts are to hold an open house this month, later this month, where we can have an open dialogue with the members about ways that we can push this forward. And I hope that we'll get great participation during that. So keep an eye out for an invite there. for that open house when we get it scheduled. We also met with the student chapters this month to really figure out what are their needs and how can we increase student membership across the association. They provided some great feedback as well. And then one component of our safe events initiative also finalized this past month. Again, if you're not familiar with our safe events initiative, we're looking for ways to ensure that our conference and other events that IAEM puts on are a welcoming environment, a safe environment for all attendees. And we took the proactive step to work with our partners from the National Emergency Management Association, the National Homeland Security Association who runs the National Homeland Security Conference, as well as big cities emergency managers to figure out what are ways that we can commonly across all four organizations try and make our events safer. And so they came up with four common activities that all associations are going to be able to do, including putting together some additional work to ensure that when people sign up for our events, that they acknowledge the policies, that they've read the policies, that they understand our harassment policies. Also making sure that we're advertising all the different reporting mechanisms that we have for our events. and trying to identify how we can get that information out in our conference apps and any other printed materials that we have, anything like that. Doing an announcement at the beginning of each event to make sure people know about reporting as well. And then putting together a compact across all four organizations expressing our commitment to having safe events. Now that just explains the four strategies that we've come together between the for national emergency management organizations. But we also still have a project underway with our members to identify additional strategies that our association might be able to put in place. And that project is still continuing on. But our hope is that in addition to the four organizations that we've had involved in this, that state level emergency management associations and other organizations might also jump on board with this to make sure that their events are as safe and welcoming as possible. I mentioned last month that we're working with FEMA behind the scenes to put together a study of emergency management, organizational structures and resources, basically looking at the state of emergency management. And our team that is working on that from the IAEM perspective has been working with the folks at FEMA and Argonne National Labs to start working on that planning. We're really excited that IAEM has a really significant role in this. We'll be helping to actually house some of the surveys and helping to do a lot of the outreach for this to make sure that we get as much participation as possible. And then last but not least, we mention this every month, but we've actually got one coming up very soon here, the virtual happy hour. We'll be doing that on April 4th at 6 p.m. Eastern time. For those of you that attended last month, you'll remember that it was a great event and that we really want to get as much participation as possible. You'll see more information about that in the show notes. So I'll turn it back over to you, Taylor.
Taylor Frizzell:
Thank you for either intentionally or unintentionally planning the happy hour to be right by my birthday. I'm flattered once again that we have an opportunity to celebrate me. Great.
Justin Kates:
Yes, I'm sure we'll mention that. I'm sure we'll mention that during the event.
Taylor Frizzell:
Oh, I want to be cognizant of everyone's time. I know I've taken up quite a bit of it today. But if you'll bear with me just two more minutes, I promise I will give you back to your families in two minutes. Normally, this is where we do kind of the Ask the President section, if you will. And I would bombard Justin with questions that folks have written in about, but I want to kind of flip it back to the three of you. And I'll put myself out there as well. But In the spirit of our wellness journeys, if you will, I would love to hear what folks are doing as part of their own wellness journeys, hopefully to inspire someone to maybe incorporate that into their own wellness journey. I know I started doing 10 to 20 minutes a day of some sort of physical movement, going for a walk, stretching, yoga. Sometimes it's an actual proper workout, but I know it makes me feel mentally thousands of times better. And 10 and 20 minutes is not an intimidating chunk of my time, like a 45 or 60 minute workout is. So I'm gonna harass all three of you now, and I'm so sorry, cause that might stress you out, but I think you'll do fine. So Scott, I'll start with you. What is one thing you're doing as part of your wellness journey?
Scott Carpenter:
One thing. that I've been doing is I have a daily meditation practice. I got into this probably before COVID. And thankfully, it's been a great resource. It's been a great opportunity. I've tried to get, you know, at least five, 10 minutes a day, if not more, and just taking that time to recenter and get out of my head. um has been phenomenal for me and gives me a chance to actually take that pause and take that step back and and breathe through things instead of getting reactive so it's a journey for sure but um it's it's been wonderful it's been a really good good thing to get into i love that david what do you got for us nope um
David Barber:
I will give you a couple of things, and I'll say why it's a couple. About a little over a year ago, I took a course at MIT that MIT offered called Search Inside Yourself. And it's really all about wellness and mindfulness. In that context, two things came out of that. Besides the incredible learning experience that I had, we were partnered with somebody in the group to be kind of like our sounding board throughout that course, which was a two-day course. And we were asked to stay in touch with that person for a month after the course. A year later, my partner and I still meet once a week. And the first thing that we do is do deep breathing exercise. So that is wonderful. But beyond that, one of the concepts about mindfulness that we embraced in the course was mindful activity and you you said that you like to walk. I like to walk also and I found that being mindful as you're walking is a really great great way for me at least to just let go of all the things that can build up tension wise in in my life and it's amazing what you can hear and experience and the feeling that that gives you when you're mindfully walking. And so that's what I'm doing on a regular basis, along with my weekly touch in with my partner from that class.
Taylor Frizzell:
Oh, I love that. And good shout out to MIT, by the way. I'm here for it. Justin, do you have anything you're doing as part of your mental health and wellness journey?
Justin Kates:
Well, I think when I look at my days, I think the number one opportunity that I have to support my mental health is I take a long shower. And I know my wife hates this, okay? She really hates this with a passion. I think actually pretty much anybody where I'm staying hates the fact that I do this. But to me, this is the time where I can think, and I don't have my phone, and I don't have my smartwatch, I don't have a computer, I don't have any of that stuff. There's no notifications, there's no bubbles popping up and saying you need to respond to this. And to me, it's almost like the only point in the day that I have to just think, just me. There's no disruptions or distractions. And especially, it has been most important over the last six months that I've been really homeless. I don't have my house. So I don't have a way to sort of separate myself and go somewhere to just be by myself. I was working remote for the entire period of COVID, go to a new job, and I'm actually working in an office where it's an open office environment. So throughout the entire day, it's constant distractions and pinging from different people, and it's just a lot of stuff going on. And so really for me, that shower is the only time where I just have to just think about the day, think about what's to come in life and all of those things. So I think that's me.
Taylor Frizzell:
I love that. And regardless of the fact that it's probably hindering your wife's mental health and wellness journey, and irritating all of the environmentalists, I'm here for it. It's like your form of meditation. And I think that's fantastic. I, I commend you for it. You know, you got to do what you got to do to make your own wellness journey happen. Thank you, folks, again, for for having this conversation for sharing your experiences for providing some resources. Like I said, this is something very near and dear to my heart. So I love that we were able to have this conversation today. As we do wrap up, I just want to remind folks again to send in your questions for Justin. Check out our web page. Listen to the podcast. Write us five stars if you could. Not to brag or anything, but I think we're doing a pretty good job. And reach out to us. What do you want to hear about next? We want to make sure that, well, I know I'm enjoying this and hopefully Justin is. We want to make sure that the stuff that we're talking about is also interesting and valuable to all of you as well. We'll link a ton of stuff in our show notes, so please check that out as well. And of course, we will see you all next month.
Justin Kates:
Absolutely. We'll see everybody next month. And again, make sure you go to justincasepodcast.org. That's where you'll find the show notes. You'll find the links to the various platforms that we have this podcast on. And you'll find the link to be able to ask me a question for next month. Thanks a lot, everybody. Talk to you soon. Take care.