Mental health, many health officials say, is an important factor in a healthy lifestyle, as aspect that helps individuals stay motivated and striving for finding purpose in life.
For that reason, taking care of one’s mental health is vital, officials say, pointing out that understanding one’s own struggles and the signs within others is key.
For those and other reasons, the Clinton Alumnae Delta Sigma Theta Sorority chapter hosted a forum for physical and mental health Saturday morning, hoping to help those attending better understand the correlation between mental and physical health.
The event was moderated by Larry Sutton, president of Sampson’s NAACP chapter.
The forum featured three keynote panelists: Sharon Miller, Dr. Veronica Stevens and Phyllis Goodman, all who shared advice and lessons learned from their practices.
Keisha Speller-Person is the chair of Physical and Mental Health for the chapter. She and her committee helped put together the forum.
“The start of the fiscal year for our sorority, we talked about different events that we wanted to take place monthly,” Person explained. “So, because May is Mental Health Month, we decided to consider doing a mental health forum. We worked on it, me and my committee. We wanted to be able to get it out to everybody, so that everyone can come out and maybe have questions and answers for our panelists.”
Person highlighted the various backgrounds of all three panelists as the reason why they were chosen to speak.
“Everybody had a unique background as to what they could bring to the table as far as mental health is concerned,” she said. “Each one of them brought there own perspective. (Miller) was a licensed clinical social worker. She deals with the veterans, and I think that’s a large part. Every county has veterans, so that was very important. (Stevens and Goodman) work as a nurse practitioner and an RN, respectively, in an in-patient setting, so I just think each perspective brought about different things for people that were here today.”
The audience asked a few questions to the panelists throughout the forum, wanting to know how to recognize signs of depression and mental illness, how to reach someone who might not be as open to speak out, and overall awareness in being able to assist someone who might be struggling with mental health issues.
“I think that we all have been in an environment where we know somebody that may have been dealing with something as far as mental illness is concerned. Therefore, it’s always good to recognize ‘hey if I’m in this environment and I can ask that question, then maybe I can help somebody else that’s closer to me,” Person emphasized.
She also praised Sutton for his method of moderating the questions for the panelists.
“He did a phenomenal job when it comes to asking questions,” she said. ” I had no idea that those were the questions that he was gonna ask, that wasn’t even shared with our panelists. It was basically off the cuff, the answers the panelists said. I thought that was very important, because it made it personal. Even with the people that came that were not a part of the sorority, it still made it personal. There is a reason for them to be here, whether they know somebody or they have actually worked in the profession. It was very meaningful.”
While the rainy weather outside might have limited community turnout, it also enforced Persons’ desire to advertise more events, like the forum, in the future.
“I just wish that other people could have come out,” she stressed. “The weather was maybe not on their side today, but, honestly, I think moving forward we can see how we can improve. The one thing that I think is going to help us is advertisement. We’ve got to be able to get it out more so we can have more participants. I think that’s kind of a hang up in terms of how we get other people in to these events. We just need to work on a little bit on advertisement for the public. That’s one of the biggest things that we really need to get out there.”