Comics! And a disconcerting song!
Also, hey, let's help kids and LGBTQ people and LGBTQ kids, who are people
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It’s not about Ducks
Just got off the Zoom with Kate Beaton, beloved comic writer/artist of Hark! A Vagrant and creator of the new graphic novel Ducks: Two Years in the Oil Sands.
It’s an account of the time she spent working in northern Alberta as part of the massive operation to extract oil from sand in that region. She was one of very few women working amid men, substance use disorder, depression, loneliness, and generally the kinds of conditions in which humans are not meant to exist in.
It’s a hell of a book. Would make a great, if challenging and sometimes upsetting, Christmas gift.
Kate is well-known to history geeks with senses of humor for Hark! A Vagrant, her comics series that actually began on her off-hours working in the oil camps.
Here are some of those strips for you to enjoy.
Episode coming soon!
Speaking of comics, Ellen Forney is on the show on Monday
She’s a Seattle comics artist who draws and writes about many things, including her bipolar disorder.
In her latest book, Rock Steady, Ellen proposes a mnemonic device to remember the steps of self-care. As she explains in Psychology Today, it’s SMEDMERTS.
SMEDMERTS is: get good sleep, take your meds if that’s part of your therapy, eat well, see your doctor or follow the therapy that works for you, practice mindfulness and meditation, exercise, keep a routine, have plenty of coping tools, and maintain a solid support system. Most of those are therapies in their own right, but they need to work together holistically to be most effective. There’s also a lot we need to incorporate into our lives, outside of a clinical context.
Stuff! We got stuff! To buy and have and give!
I’m so very excited about our new DEPRESH MODE MERCH STORE.
It features shirts! Beanies! Hoodies! Sweatpants! Mugs! Blankies! And note cards!
And sweatpants that didn’t fit in the original screen shot!
Most of the stuff has the show name on it but all of it has "I'm glad you're here." So you can buy it because you love the show or just because you're glad someone else (or you yourself!) is here!
Things you already know department: Youth mental health is so very fucked up
Latest messaging from same comes from the Washington Post, which says the problem is vaster than we realize. Me, I think it’s about as vast as I’ve realized but you and I spend a lot of time on this stuff.
The article says school districts are responding with money and hiring for mental health help, which is great, but there’s a difference between wanting to hire people and actually being able to do so:
In many areas, even when money is in hand, hiring is not easy. As this school year opened, nearly 20 percent of schools reported vacancies in mental health positions, according to federal data. Schools often said they employed too few staff to manage the caseload but also complained about difficulties finding licensed providers, the data showed.
“We simply don’t have enough people in our profession to meet the need,” said Kelsey Theis, president of the Texas Association of School Psychologists. When families seek private therapists, “sometimes there’s a wait list of months and months before they get help,” she said.
In Maine, waiting lists grew so long last year that school counselor Tara Kierstead began looking out of state for therapists who had openings — a solution that was not practical for many families.
“It was the hardest I’ve ever had to work to get resources to people,” Kierstead said. “I know some kids who were never seen.”
Biden administration adds supports for LGBTQ mental health
The government is doing more than talking the talk:
The Health and Human Services Department doled out nearly $110 million in October and November for nonprofit Vibrant Emotional Health to ratchet up the 988 hotline. The main focus is to help those at risk for suicide and marginalized groups, including LGBTQ communities, for whom the need for services is high.
Why is this so necessary? Because certain forces have gone to war against LGBTQ people:
Lawmakers in Tennessee, Oklahoma, Arizona, and Iowa each have introduced at least 10 pieces of legislation during the 2022 session deemed “anti-transgender” by the Freedom for All Americans Campaign, while over 20 other states have put forth bills as well. Likewise, “anti-LGBTQ bills” have been put forth in over half of US states.
The most high-profile actions include Florida’s Parental Rights in Education Act—the so-called “Don’t Say Gay” bill—limiting discussion of gender identity and sexual orientation in school, along with Texas’ move to investigate parents of transgender youth for alleged child abuse.