Dr. Rachel Riphagen – Mental Health Awareness Podcast 4-5-24

Summary

In this episode, host James Ramos and Dr. Rachel Riphagen discuss mental health awareness and the importance of breaking down stigmas surrounding mental health. They address common misconceptions about mental health, the evolving understanding of mental health disorders, challenges in mental health care access, the impact of social media on mental health, the effects of the pandemic on mental health, and the need for cultural inclusivity in mental health care. Dr. Riphagen also shares promising breakthroughs in mental health treatment and emphasizes the importance of open conversations about mental health.

Keywords

mental health, awareness, stigma, misconceptions, disorders, challenges, access, social media, pandemic, cultural inclusivity, breakthroughs, conversations

Takeaways

• There are many common misconceptions about mental health, such as the belief that kids don’t experience mental health issues or that therapy is a waste of time. It is crucial to address these misconceptions to break down stigmas.
• The understanding of mental health disorders has evolved in recent years, with a shift towards viewing them on a continuum and focusing on individual experiences. This has led to improvements in service delivery, programs, and policies.
• One of the significant challenges in mental health care access is the shortage of mental health professionals, including clinicians, behavior specialists, and psychiatrists. Funding and resource allocation are also ongoing challenges.
• Social media has both positive and negative impacts on mental health, providing opportunities for social interaction but also presenting challenges. The effects of social media on mental health vary depending on how it is used.
• The pandemic has permanently altered the mental health landscape, with positive changes including the increased use of telehealth and a greater openness to discussing mental health. However, there has also been a surge in demand for services, leading to long waitlists.
• Cultural inclusivity is essential in mental health care, and interventions should be tailored to individuals based on their cultural background, age, gender identity, family background, language, spirituality, and physical abilities.
• Promising breakthroughs in mental health treatment include a better understanding of trauma and the importance of regulating the body, as well as research on the impact of sleep on mental health.
• It is important to ask tough questions about mental health and break down the stigma surrounding it. By asking questions and seeking help, individuals can contribute to a more open and supportive society.
• In the future, it is hoped that there will be a world where people truly see and understand each other’s mental health challenges and strengths, leading to greater empathy and support.

Sound Bites

• “Kids have mental health issues. Our elders do. Every culture, every ethnic group, all genders, there’s not a population that’s not affected by this.”
• “We’ve really started to view mental health disorders much more on a continuum.”
• “One of the biggest challenges is workforce retention. There’s a massive workforce shortage in mental health right now.”

Chapters

• 00:00 Introduction: Shining a Light on Mental Health Awareness
• 02:06 Addressing Common Misconceptions About Mental Health
• 05:23 The Evolving Understanding of Mental Health Disorders
• 08:34 Challenges in Mental Health Care Access
• 12:41 The Impact of Social Media on Mental Health
• 14:34 The Effects of the Pandemic on Mental Health
• 17:55 Cultural Inclusivity in Mental Health Care
• 20:19 Promising Breakthroughs in Mental Health Treatment
• 22:12 Asking Tough Questions: Breaking the Stigma
• 28:19 A World Where Mental Health is Truly Seen and Understood

Transcript for Autism Awareness Podcast 4-5-24

Welcome to Empowering California. I’m your host, James Ramos, and you’re listening to a podcast that brings to light the vital issues impacting our state and our communities. As we acknowledge April as Autism Awareness Month, it’s important to understand the significance of autism in our society. For listeners who have inquiries or need further clarification on any of the topics discussed, you’re encouraged to reach out with your questions.

Send them to the provided email and the team behind Empowering California will endeavor to provide you with answers and enhance your understanding of the matters at hand. At questions at empoweringcalifornia.com

Together, we will explore the nuances of autism, which according to California Department of Developmental Services, affects over 177 ,000 individuals in the state of California, reflecting a dramatic rise over the past four decades. This number may vary due to the availability of providers who can diagnose individuals, as well as the stigmas

that may be associated with the autism spectrum disorder. Stay with us for a meaningful and engaging conversation that aims not just to educate, but to connect and inspire action. Thank you for turning into Empower California. Thank you for turning into Empowering California. We’ve set the stage for a conversation that promises to be an as is vital. Autism affects many, yet remains a mystery to

Now let’s turn the spotlight on our esteemed guest, Stephanie and Dr. Marissa Cogden, a mother and daughter team whose experiences and insights promise to deepen our understanding. Let’s welcome them and jump right in to the heart of the matter. Stephanie, Marissa, thank you for joining us.

We’re here to learn from your experiences, and I’m sure our listeners are eager to gain a deeper understanding of autism. Let’s get started with our first question. What is autism and how does it differ from person to person? Dr. Marissa. All right. Thank you. So it is referred to as autism spectrum disorder. It is a diverse group of conditions related to the development of the

So needs and abilities vary from person to person as far as how autism affects them. Usually it is characterized by some difficulty with social communication and restrictive and repetitive patterns. And what it looks like in each person can change over time too with their exposure to different therapies and interventions. Thank you. And Dr. Marissa.

With your 15 years of experience, could you explain how autism is diagnosed in our community? Yes, so autism can be diagnosed by qualified professionals. In my professional opinion, I believe having a comprehensive team, people with diverse backgrounds, such as a neuropsychologist, developmental pediatrician, behavior analysts, and other professionals working together to diagnose.

autism. think that is the most comprehensive way to do it, but there are other ways. They use a lot of different assessments and observations of the kids, and then they talk to the families as well. And sometimes I know that their own pediatricians do the diagnosis, but I still believe that the best one is the comprehensive team approach. Let me just jump in real quick. There are two autism assessment centers located in the Inland Empire. The first one is in San Bernardino.

on Tippecanoe, and the second one is in Riverside. And they’re coordinated through efforts of IEHP and a coalition, and that’s a really comprehensive way to get diagnosed. And if you’re not have auti – if you do not have autism, then they will help you find resources for what the diagnosis is. So that works out really well for a lot of families.

Well, thank you. And Stephanie, as a board member, what resources does the Inland Empire Autism Society provide for families? I know you’re instrumental in working on the facility on Tippie Canoe as a one -stop area to be able to have the testing of that done in one local location. Can you elaborate more on that? Well, the Autism Assessment Center has been around for about five years, four or five years.

And it was initiated by a coalition of us working with autism in San Bernardino County and started by IEHP. So that is a real boon for our area. However, there are other resources and some of the resources that we provide to over 20 ,000 individuals living with autism in Inland Empire and over 60 ,000 families are affected by…

by people with autism in our counties. We have resource specialists at the Autism Society that can provide guidance and support. They provide information about school programs and regional center issues and medical insurance, social security, and in -home services. We provide health and wellness programs, mostly free for families or very low cost.

We also have monthly webinars and we are also working on projects for meaningful change in how we approach autism in the Inland Empire. We have found that we’re all working in lot of silos and it’s not working. You know, our mental health and our behavioral health and our law enforcement are not all working together. And this is detrimental to everybody, not just our families but to the people involved. So…

One thing I would like to say though, in our organization, most of our staff members have autism or have family members with autism. So they understand truly what the needs are of the families. And that’s a big asset for us.

Well, thank you for that. And you brought up the behavioral health component. And I know we’ve known each other for some years when I was on the county board of supervisors. And we worked hard on crisis stabilization units. Are those crisis stabilization units also trained to deal with those suffering within the autism spectrum? They should be. I know right now there’s a lack of resources.

for our families going through crisis. There have been certain events that have happened recently that highlight that, that sometimes families are in crisis and they don’t know where to go. And so they end up just calling the one entity that they know of and it may not end well, but I don’t think there’s enough available for our families and our children in crisis. And I think, know, when families are diagnosed, is…

they receive the diagnosis, then maybe we should be able to provide them a list of resources, but we also need to have those resources available because I know there’s not too many facilities in the local area and that includes Orange County that can actually serve kids that need to be in a hospital. we’ve seen more of our kids going through severe crisis and there’s no residential programs for them in the actually many in Southern California.

And that is one thing that we’re very concerned about. Thank you. Thank you for that. Could you talk about the challenges and rewards you’ve encountered on your journey working with the autism community?

One of the rewards I’ve seen, we have, our autism society has grown quite a bit in the past 10 years and it is due to training through the Inland Empire Community Collaborative and we have an awesome staff with an awesome director. And so we’re able to provide more information and work more with representatives in the political arena.

Our current CEO is going to be on the law enforcement committee at the state level working with them so we’re able to provide many more resources for our families in the community, which is a huge, huge win for us and for the families. Challenges are, we’ve already kind of touched on with crisis and employment. And I think you’re going to expand more on

So I listed challenges as funding, sometimes resources for those of us that have in -home service businesses. Hiring has been somewhat difficult in the recent years. And then just working collaboratively as professionals serving different areas of needs. So I’m a behavior analyst, but there’s also other specialists that serve the population. So just being able to work together to serve the community to the best of all our abilities and provide the services that they need for rewards. I would have to say I’ve been in the field for a while and I started as an interventionist, meaning I provided direct service to the kids.

For me, one of the biggest rewards is when a family will find me years later and tell me how well their child is doing and know that I had a small piece in the success for that child. But they also had wonderful supporting families and lots of resources, which is definitely beneficial. But those stories are wonderful to hear that they’re now in school getting a computer science degree, where they’re playing piano and they’re playing sports and they’re able to function and just have a very happy and healthy life. So those are the meaningful things.

That’s great. How does autism affect communication and social interaction for individuals? Well, just as we all struggle with different things, our population with autism also struggles differently depending on the individual. But as far as diagnosis, social communication is one of…

the deficits that they base diagnosis on. So they struggle in different ways with social communication. And again, that can look different depending on the person. So some of our kids and the people we serve are non -verbal. And then we need to have AAC devices and those kinds of things so they can communicate. Some have great verbal skills, but they may have a hard time communicating their wants and needs clearly to someone else. So it looks different for everybody.

So those within the autism spectrum, when the challenges they face are the same challenges that everyone faces. So let’s not forget that they’re still going through these types of challenges in life also. But we need to be more open in understanding and listening to individuals of that sort. And we did work with the Miracle League, which put together a baseball field.

where then those on the autism spectrum could play baseball and they were engaged. Now they were no longer watching their siblings play. They were the ones playing and their siblings were watching them. That’s a highlight in someone’s life. Thank you for everything you do. What are some effective strategies for supporting someone with autism in social settings?

So for us, since my background is a behavior analyst and I do use applied behavior analysis, so we use those techniques and we teach them certain skills in the home and then we’ll take them out into the community to help them generalize and apply the skills in real life. There are other interventions that are useful depending on the needs of the person. So speech is helpful, social groups are helpful, and I really think one of the most beneficial.

things for the population is inclusion. Just being able to be included and participate in different events and not having that stigma attached to it. Well, you have autism, well, you can’t do this. I think, we’ve been working with some of the school districts on this issue and it has to do more with employment because it’s difficult for them sometimes. So we’re working with CTE programs in a couple of school districts, for instance, Montana.

heavily involved in getting more of the kids in special education across the board, not just our kids. This applies to all special education involved in CTE and those kinds of programs so that they feel more at ease when they go out to an employer. And then working with the employers to talk about what the needs are and Goodwill has been helpful with that, doing some of that monitoring with the employees.

The Phoenix Corporation in Riverside is doing a lot there, about 30 % neurodevelopmental people working for the company and we’re excited to work with them. That’s great. And you touched on it, but can you discuss the role of education and therapy in the development of a child with autism? Education and therapy and intervention are crucial in the development of children with autism. And it’s always great when, again, we can work collaboratively.

But I think it boils down to having an accurate assessment so we can really individualize the services we provide in school and in home and in the community for our population with autism.

Yes, and parent training. So as a component of our in -home services, we do provide parent training. I believe parent training is crucial because you don’t go in and you when you have a kid, you’re not given a manual for your kid anyways. But then your kid is diagnosed with autism.

you may not really know what to do above and beyond. So providing those resources as needed and also giving them someone, so a resource such as the Autism Society to where they can reach out if there’s an immediate need to have an answer for a question that they have or there’s a problem going on, the Autism Society has a great number of resources.

One of the things we are providing, we got a grant from the state and we’re working with CLASA and it’s a Hispanic group of parents that we’re teaching how to be better advocates for their parents, for their kids and we’re hoping to expand that program so hopefully the grant we just wrote will do that.

And the different myths and misconceptions around autism, and you touched on it to a family, a mother, a father that now is faced with some decisions to make, there still is some stereotypes within not only the state of California, but the nation, and parents knowing how to reach out and get those resources that are available to them.

We have to be here in the year 2024 and bring awareness in April to parents that might be struggling of where to go to let them know that they’re not alone, that there’s a whole network out there available for them. So how do we move forward with these common myths about autism and how do we dispel

I talked to my CEO about this because I was a little concerned about what I might say. But she suggested two myths, one I’d like to read because it’s kind of cute. Yeah, I know, I’m nervous. On TV, you usually see autism in a white male who is brilliant but quirky. Fact, autism spectrum disorder is a diverse condition that affects individuals across various racial and ethnic backgrounds.

both males and females. Yes, there are people like Sheldon Cooper from the Big Bang Theory or the good doctor, but there are so many other people with autism who are not represented on TV. And the other one is about emotions and relationships. They can be involved in quality relationships. have a member on our board who works for RCOE, sorry, works for RCOE, lives on her own.

and is amazing and I would love for you to meet her sometime. Her doctor’s sister is in legal department at the state level. So they have a really good relationship and it just goes to show you that with the right resources and the right caring people that good things can happen for our kids. Not everybody’s going to be successful because it is a spectrum.

But there is a lot more opportunity if we can all work together.

can be successful in their own

What message of support would you give to someone who has just learned that they or their child has autism?

The fact is that one in, of course, one in 22 in California is on the spectrum. You are not alone. There, we provide lots and lots of different resources on our website, and if you can’t find it on there, we have people who answer the phone and talk you through it, or you can come in and we’ll talk to you and help you find the resources that you need. The important thing is that they educate themselves on how to deal with this.

It’s difficult being a parent anyway, but a parent of a child with special needs is extremely difficult. And so you’re involved in the daily process of working with the family and the child, but you can’t plan for the future. So we really need to do more parent engagement, and I think that’s part of the success that we’ll see.

Is there anything else you think our listeners should know about autism that we have not discussed yet? And just the statistic, one in 22 have some type of autism on the spectrum.

Do you have any more information on that that maybe to share with our listeners?

I do not, just to remember there are people out here that can help you when your child’s newly diagnosed. There are people out there that want to help you and support you and we do care about your well -being and your child’s well -being. I think that’s important to remember because sometimes it can be very isolating and they can feel like they’re alone. So just remember that there are people that really do want to help. And if the Autism Society is ieautism .org or you can call us at 951-220 -6922. Well, thank you for bringing this much needed topic and information on Empowering California on Autism in April.