Milton and Mane
Welcome to Milton and Mane, the City of Milton, Georgia's official podcast—a dynamic space where community connection meets insightful conversation. Whether you're a resident, local business owner, neighboring government official, or a curious listener from afar, this podcast is your gateway to understanding Milton on every level.
Each episode is designed to bring you closer to the heart of our city, offering behind-the-scenes stories that humanize the people who keep Milton running. You'll gain valuable insights into local government operations, discover new opportunities, and hear from the voices that shape our community. Expect to learn about our rich history, stay updated on future developments, and explore the vibrant arts, culture, and sustainability initiatives that make Milton unique.
Join us as we celebrate our community, encourage civic engagement, and share inspiring stories that resonate beyond our city limits. Subscribe today and be part of the conversation that's building a better Milton, one episode at a time.
Stock Music provided by ikoliks, from Pond5
Milton and Mane
The Power of Connection: A real conversation about mental wellness
The silence around mental health is beginning to break, and Teressa Ruspi is one of the voices leading the way. In this conversation, she opens up about the personal loss that inspired her to create the LRJ Foundation and how that journey has grown into a mission reaching tens of thousands. With honesty and compassion, Teressa challenges harmful myths, shares her perspective on the importance of education, and reminds us of the life-changing power of connection. This episode is about awareness, resilience, and the simple truth that talking about mental health can save lives.
September is National Suicide Prevention Month, making it the perfect time to engage in learning opportunities, join conversations, and explore resources that support mental wellness. Our community is offering events that bring people together, shed light on the realities of suicide, and provide practical tools for both those who are struggling and those who want to help. It’s a chance to grow awareness, reduce stigma, and remind each other that no one has to go through their challenges alone.
For more information on the LRJ Foundation and its programs, visit lrjfoundation.com.
If you or someone you know is in crisis, call or text 988, the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline, for immediate and confidential support.
Join us on September 16, 2025 for From Heartache to Growth: Understanding Trauma, Grief, and the Power of Support. This free webinar, led by the LRJ Foundation and JCAC Counseling, offers tools and insights to help navigate difficult seasons and find healing.
Register here: www.miltonga.gov/traumaandgrief
With the community in mind, this podcast explores the stories, people, and initiatives that make our community unique. Each episode offers insights into local government, highlights Milton's history and future developments, and showcases the vibrant arts, culture, and sustainability efforts shaping our city. Join the conversation, celebrate our community, and discover how we're building a better Milton together.
Do you have an idea for an episode or would like to request a specific topic to be covered? Email Christy Weeks, christy.weeks@miltonga.gov
Learn more about the City of Milton at www.miltonga.gov.
Welcome to Milton and Maine, the official podcast for the city of Milton. We want to bring you closer to the heart of our community through stories that inform, inspire and connect. Each episode offers a behind-the-scenes look at the people, projects and priorities shaping Milton, covering everything from local government and future development to arts, culture, sustainability and public safety. Whether you're a resident, a local business owner or just curious about our city, this is your front row seat to what makes Milton special. Welcome back to Milton and Maine.
Speaker 1:I'm Christy Weeks, the communications manager for the city of Milton, and today we're leaning into an important and sometimes difficult topic mental wellness and suicide awareness. September is Suicide Awareness Month, a time to recognize the impact suicide has on individuals, families and communities and to talk openly about prevention, hope and healing. And so joining me today is Teresa Ruspe. She is the founder of the Lou Ruspe Jr Foundation, or LRJ, an organization dedicated to improving mental wellness and preventing suicide through creative, interactive education programs. Teresa and her team have been reaching schools and communities with life-saving conversations and resources, and I am so grateful that she's here with us today. So welcome Teresa.
Speaker 2:Thank you so much. It's such a pleasure to be here and what a great way to kick off September, being that it's Suicide Prevention Awareness Month. So really, this is our time to just dig in and shine, and absolutely it's a great time to be here.
Speaker 1:I'm so glad I got you at the beginning of September. So we've got some things we're going to talk about throughout this entire podcast that are going to be important as the month rolls on and hopefully pack a bunch of resources in for people who are listening or may know of somebody who could benefit from this information. So let's just roll into this. First of all, I want you to kind of tell us your background, where LRJ came from, as much as you want to share, as little as you want to share, but kind of give us a background as to how you got here.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so the LRJ Foundation was founded 14 years ago by my twin sister and I. We started this in the state of Pennsylvania, where our family is from, and it is called LRJ Foundation, which stands for Lou Rusby Jr, which is my late brother, who had died by suicide December 23, 2011. So two days before Christmas we had found the most tragic thing we could possibly hear is that our brother had taken his life to suicide. So that was obviously a huge shock to not alone our family, but the whole community for such a bright, vibrant, smiling, happy-go-lucky guy that is best friends, with everybody in town, to think that someone like that can end their life.
Speaker 2:And that really opened our eyes to think. You know, the typical idea of someone taking their life to suicide, you know, really doesn't have a face, doesn't have a certain definition of character, it's really just open to anyone. So what does that mean? You know what is behind that Someone that is the smiling face of the community that walks in and everyone knows their name to now had taken his life to suicide. You know what was harboring so much pain, what was missing, that he wasn't reaching out, getting the help he needed. So my twin sister and I decided to do more. We decided to take a pain and turn it into purpose, and that's when we formed the LRJ Foundation, just about six months later after his passing. And it was really a part of our healing, to be honest, and we encourage anyone that goes through any type of loss just to get involved in something because it helps your own journey of healing.
Speaker 2:It doesn't have to be starting a nonprofit organization, but maybe joining another nonprofit, getting involved in your community and finding some type of connection to do good for others, because that in turn did well for ourselves.
Speaker 2:So we decided at that time my sister is a health and physical education teacher at a local high school Valley View High School where we graduated from and my brother had attended as well, so she was, during her health classes, had realized that there wasn't much education directly to the health classes to youth high school, middle school age students on mental health. So we thought what more of a better place to start was there? Because we realized some of my brother's biggest problems, issues, challenges, hardships that we, when we started to rewind back to try to dig in to see where was my brother struggling the most, what was he struggling with the most, was during his middle school, high school years, those very hard times in our lives that can shape us or transform us in many different directions by the people that are surrounding us, the information that we're getting, not just the school academic education but the life skill education.
Speaker 1:And we realized that wasn't there. Let's make them take a whole bunch of math classes, because I use my calculus every day, every day. Right, make them take a whole bunch of math classes because I use my calculus every day, every day right, oh, it's I. It is one of my top skill sets that I've used over the last 35 years? Not a bit. Couldn't remember, I'm not a thing, but there's no actual, like you said, life skills. You take a cooking class. You learn how to sew on a button, If you're lucky these days.
Speaker 2:Those were the best days. I remember those to today. I love those classes. Correct Balance your chapbook.
Speaker 1:All those things, and I don't mean to interrupt as you're going along. When my daughter was in high school in Colorado, we lived in a teeny, tiny town, I think, max 7,500 people year round. You know, in the summertime it escalated. It was crazy town, lots of people, lots of visitors. Small town. She's a sophomore.
Speaker 1:Her best friend takes his life, friend takes his life, and my daughter did not know what to do with herself, with her, how to help her friends, how to help the family. She didn't know what to do. She started a prayer group because it was all she knew. So every morning before school and she put up flyers and she told people. And so the community, what started out? Just a handful of students and me started bringing in the community, uh, churches, the pastors, the parents, the students started we would have 50, 60 people standing outside the school at 7 AM, just because at 15, she's not going to start a non-profit, so to speak. Not that she probably couldn't have, but it wasn't where. So she turned to what she knew and I think in a lot of those situations that's what you're grasping at is what, how, what do I know that can help me work through this?
Speaker 2:and I love that and that's. And that's exactly how this turned into.
Speaker 1:Right.
Speaker 2:And we had decided because we noticed that there was a lack of the nonprofits or just even a program to support. There is great programs out there, but are the schools using them? Are they effective? Are they efficient? Does it make sense? And so we knew we had to do something.
Speaker 1:Right.
Speaker 2:And so we decided to start right there in the health classes. We went right to our school, to our alumni and where our brother walked down those aisles, where we walked down those aisles and we're like we would love to start a mental health education program here and get to the kids, because every student has to go through the health class every single year, so we knew we would touch every single student by the end of that school year.
Speaker 2:That's where it started from. There it blew up over the last next five years into 40 different schools, 125 different organizations, and then moved on to the state of Georgia and we launched into Virginia as well, because that there showed us that there was a need and a want for more mental health and wellness education programs in the schools?
Speaker 1:Absolutely, and I'll tell you the response that our, our school had, and it is no fault of anybody, because everybody wanted to do something. So, um, at the time I was a cheer coach, my partner and I, we go and, um, my coaching partner, we go to this meeting and there's therapists, town therapists, there's the principals, there's everybody you can think of. We're sitting around, how are we going to? What are we going to do? And the only thing that we knew for sure because my, my coaching partner was also the pastor's wife, so she did a lot of youth work she goes.
Speaker 1:Let me tell you how this works. You guys are gathering in a gym talking about this afterschool at you know five, six o'clock in the evening. She goes and, yes, you have attendance, but it's not the people you need to reach. The people you need to reach are on the phone calling me, telling me they're having a hard day or they're struggling because they don't want to show up in public to put that out, there for somebody to judge them, and the parents don't want to go. My kid needs help, or maybe we need help because there's still that stigma, which we'll talk about throughout this that for some reason, reaching out for help is a bad thing yeah it is, and that's the hardest part is, sometimes these presentations.
Speaker 2:We'll look around the room and see the one or two students that are really paying attention, or we'll be gazing down or ones that are really just kind of taking it in, and we say, even if we reach one that day, we did our job and that's it. It's, how do you get out there? And it's just the connection. I love that prayer group had gathered people together because it showed that no one's alone in what they're going through and we have to come together. We know connection is one of the most important things for suicide prevention, for our mental health. The opposite of that is loneliness and that's disconnection. Disconnection Very much like addiction, exactly, exactly. So these things are so powerful. When it comes to, we want to take away that stigma and it seems like this is such a hard thing to tackle and it's really not, because all it is is a lack of connection, a lack of education.
Speaker 1:So all we have to do is increase connection, increase education, and we're doing our job when it comes to some type of prevention and let them know that, hey, if you don't want to come and talk to me, these people down here they're all here for you. These people down here, they're all here for you. There is somebody out there that is more than willing to listen, that can provide that ear, that can provide that support, that can provide that resource. If my kids wouldn't want to come to me, I want them to be able to go somewhere Talk to somebody Easy 988 suicide prevention crisis line.
Speaker 2:It's picking up your phone and texting 988. It's calling Instead of 911, you're calling 988. You have an anonymous person supportive on the other line that our children can talk to anytime throughout the night, throughout the day, and connect to somebody. So it's just do these youth know that that number is available and it's making it known. It's having a community like the city of Milton, having our schools, our parents be aware of all these little tips that are out there and have our access to us become available and need to use them. We just need to use them and I think the more that these kids feel comfortable doing that and it starts like conversations like this we're talking about it.
Speaker 2:We're sharing it, and you're right. Same thing with my kids. They don't want to hear things from me all the time. Oh, I am the last person my kids want to hear from on the regular.
Speaker 1:But the point is is that you know, you always use the old adage it takes a village, listen, and I have friends that my kids will talk to. Oh, yeah. I talked to so-and-so the other day. Oh yeah, I talked to so-and-so.
Speaker 2:the other day you did yeah.
Speaker 1:Okay, cool, I'm good, I don't need to be the one, but making it okay to do so is who you're surrounding yourself with that's it.
Speaker 1:That's it, yeah, wow. So, as we're talking about this, we're kind of talking about why awareness matters, right, we're, we're getting down that path and the ultimate point of it is connection, right? Okay, so tell us a little bit of the common myths or or misconceptions that can happen along this path, because people tend to listen to other people that may or may not have the complete story you're listening, but you can't always believe what you hear.
Speaker 2:Right, and those myths that the most common I hear and it bothers me to say this, you know is speaking of us going to school presentations. There's some parents here that were coming in to do a mental health suicide prevention talk. They're worried that if my daughter hears you talking about suicide she's going to think about it and that's the biggest myth out there. The more we talk about it, the more they feel comfortable, that they have a platform to open up, that they now feel that the stigma is reduced or the thoughts that are already in their head are being validated and confirmed, that, oh, I'm kind of just like everybody else. Oh, there's other people thinking like this like I am, even though it's not good thoughts.
Speaker 2:They may be dark thoughts or deep thoughts, but they're real and they're not being rejected anymore. They're not being blocked, they're being, they're being heard. So if you.
Speaker 1:The thought process is if you don't talk about it, it won't happen. And that is absolutely not true?
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's not, and we've seen that time and time again that when we set that platform and provide the opportunity to have conversations, people actually talk, and whether they're sharing a story of someone else, whether they're talking about their own struggles because we all have struggles, we all have challenges every single day it's just making it more real.
Speaker 2:So you know, that's some of the things to me that I've noticed over time, that even society has become a little bit more comfortable, with which has been really, really great to hear, Like thinking about the 14-year span from where we started to where we are now, and I think society has just put so much pressure and expectations on life these days, let alone our youth, that parents are just screaming for help. So if they hear that there's a presentation going on or resources available, please talk, please help. So I feel too, that it's become a little bit more accepted from my position anyway, which is really really great. So that's some of the things I've noticed that I'm grateful to hear. I don't know why somebody would think that it would be so difficult at times to share something hard when the majority of time our life paths, our days, struggles.
Speaker 2:We're going through are challenges.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and I do, kind of people don't share. And I'll take from my perspective because you don't, and this is just in the past. I was a super quiet kid in high school. I mean super quiet. I don't, and this is just in the past. I was a super quiet kid in high school. I mean super quiet.
Speaker 1:I don't know what happened somewhere around college Christy shifted. At any rate, I was a super shy kid. I was really worried about that when I had my own children and and my middle son he's a little shyer than everybody else, but you know nothing. Like I was man, I did not want anybody to think there was anything off with me. I didn't want anybody to think that I was anything different. And I come from the generation where, yes, I am super close with my parents but I did not go talk to them ever. Hey, mom, I got a problem. Nope, that was not what we did. So the thing of it is is that as we grew up and then we have children, you start to see the evolution of sharing education and being okay talking about these things, which warms my heart, because I think that it takes a special person and a special organization to be able to step into these shoes and help people find that voice.
Speaker 2:Yeah, If that makes sense. It does, and I appreciate you saying that because I think for us at LRJ, I've always just been a very high energy, just positive mindset person, and that's when I turned Mindset Matters into LRJ Foundation and our mantra is better than yesterday. So everything we focus on is our mindset and really when we think about struggles, our hardships, it really comes down to mindset. When we have feelings and emotions to deal with, we're overthinking, we're going down different rabbit holes, we're thinking of things that are going to happen that probably won't even happen. So it's really it comes down to your mindset and we have to build a strong, resilient mindset. When it comes to me, that is suicide prevention. That is the resiliency, that perseverance that you have inside you, that it comes from yourself. You could have 5,000 people telling you every single day focus on this, take care of your mental health, your health. Someone, at some point in your life you have to take responsibility for your own health and wellness.
Speaker 1:You do.
Speaker 2:And really understand that if your mental health is slightly off, it's going to throw everything else off throughout the day. Your physical health is going to start getting affected, your jobs, your relationships your sleep, your eating. It starts affecting every single thing. So when we're talking about suicide prevention in the month of September and we're talking about education and connection, we're talking about your overall wellbeing.
Speaker 1:It starts with that. So why can we go to the doctor for everything? We have eye doctors, we have dentists, we have your, your yearly physical exam. You have all these things that we are so accustomed. But why is checking in on your mental health? Why is that such a big deal that we can't? Why? Why?
Speaker 2:not Exactly, and that's where the mindset has to change right. That's where, when we talk about building a resilient mindset and your coping skills and the way you think and your perspective on things, it has to come down to your own wellbeing. Sometimes we say it's okay to be selfish sometimes I just told this to my son the other day I said listen, it's okay to not be okay If.
Speaker 1:If the one thing that you get done today because you are having one of those days is make your bed gosh, be proud that you got that done and check it off your list and know that it's okay to get through the rest of the day. However, you you know how much energy you need to pour into it, or how little energy for the day because you do not have. He's a he's a top performer kid. He's always put that on his shoulders. Yes, and it's literally just because his whole goal through school wasn't that he loved it, it was to be better than his brother and his sister, because he was the youngest. You know, and I didn't do that, believe it or not, I promise you listeners, I did not do that. I am competitive like embedded business, but I never once had to put any pressure on my kids about their grades or their accomplishments. Never did, because what they did was, if they put their self into it, I was good. But on the backside of that, you have all those unspoken things.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and I can relate. My oldest is like that as well, and I think it's very common these days. Yeah, these are adolescents, are older teens. This generation is incredible.
Speaker 1:They're coming out of high school sophomores in college.
Speaker 2:Yeah, they're unbelievable Things we never could do back in our day, oh heck, no. So I mean talk about challenges and pressure and anxiety and stress. Yeah, okay.
Speaker 1:A lot of it. I don't want to grow up today as a teenager, throw on social media and see how well that does so for them more than any generation.
Speaker 2:Really, their mental health needs to be a top priority Correct, and them learning how to navigate this while they're navigating life and figuring out next steps in careers and being the top of the top and all those things, and they'll eventually realize what matters and what doesn't matter soon. But they have to learn to pause when feelings, emotions, get high, how to take that pause and that break and know, like when we say things you know. So your son had a crazy busy day. He's trying to achieve all these things and if the best he did today was just make his bed, okay, tomorrow's a whole new day.
Speaker 2:All you have to do is be 1% better than you were yesterday. Right, that's it Every single day.
Speaker 1:And it doesn't have to be in the same area that you were less it every single day, and it doesn't have to be in the same area that you were last yesterday. Yesterday you were work focused, Tomorrow maybe you're. You are mental health focused. Maybe the next day it's physical health. It's one of those things that you have to accept where you are at that moment.
Speaker 2:Yes, agree. And then what's going to help advance you to what it is you're doing? Are you a student? How?
Speaker 1:can I be?
Speaker 2:better in my academics today? Are you going to help advance you to what it is you're doing? Are you a student? How can I be better in my academics? Correct, are you going to work in the job force? What do I need today to be the best at my job? Probably a good night's sleep, making sure you're eating healthy rest sleep, you know, and which we don't get enough of.
Speaker 2:So, not really, no, but all these things. Everyone just needs to kind of slow down and make this really good checklist on what can better their mental health and see what fits the box for them, right, because everybody's different, everyone's unique, everyone's special, and what's going to work for me is not going to work for you, right? Or my 17 year old. And having all these schools be on board, parents be on board, communities be on board. If we all have the same messaging, the same mindset, the same perspective, conversations, all the stigma is just nowhere anymore.
Speaker 1:It goes away. Yeah, so, as we're talking along those lines, say, I go to an event that you're speaking at and you are me with the resources and the knowledge and and the things, maybe it's not applicable in my life, but I see somebody down the road a neighbor, a colleague, somebody else's child that maybe reaches out to me. What are the warning signs I'm looking for? What's going to alert me to know that maybe I have some information to share, or maybe I can give them the name to somebody that can help them?
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's a really great thing, and there's two things I want to add on to.
Speaker 2:that is you know, it's really hard sometimes to notice warning signs, but there's definitely clear indicators out there. You know I'm not a mental health professional and work with a lot of mental health professionals, but just being an advocate and things I've learned alongside of our therapists, you know there's obvious things sometimes when you're around certain people for a certain amount of time, you know there's obvious things sometimes when you're around certain people for a certain amount of time, people have certain habits, people have patterns. You will start to notice those habits and patterns change. You'll notice that even maybe the way they walk is different, maybe they're carrying their head down more, they're not as vibrant as they used to be, or maybe they're over-vibrant, maybe they're over-happy all the time.
Speaker 1:They never used to be that way.
Speaker 2:So what are they kind of hiding, you know? So it's just being observative, it's really just listening Sometimes not always asking people what's going on and just kind of being there having a conversation, making them not feel alone. Sometimes it gives them that opportunity to open up and talk Exactly, but the mood is the biggest thing. I think it's their patterns and behaviors that we can share with the parents, the teachers, the teachers mostly. They see our kids probably more than we do Every day all day long.
Speaker 2:My kid will be in a room for a couple hours. My teacher, I know you saw her more than I did today.
Speaker 1:Right.
Speaker 2:You know. So I have a good relationship with my daughter's school counselor and cheer coach and things like that, and they have been the most amazing resources for me because they see them all the time. So it's these educators, it's the coaches. You don't have to put more pressure on them, but you're in that position so you have to be informed of all these things. And parents sometimes too, my daughter's friends, may be a little bit more open and friendly with me about stuff that I could share back with their parents, because I maybe see them a little bit more. I maybe had more of a conversation with them more than their own parent did.
Speaker 2:But it's just really paying attention. When you get to know someone enough, you see slight changes. I think I notice a lot for teens and what we've heard is their sleeping patterns too. They are more fatigued, more usual. Yes, we know hormones and everything is changing and they're growing and they're all those type things. They may have had a late night, they have an early morning, so they're tired. Okay, one off here and there, but it's different when they're sleeping all the time. Their serotonin is super low. They don't have that brain activity which they should be at their age.
Speaker 2:So instead of them pounding Starbucks drinks or caffeine energy drinks, things like that, to keep them going they're probably not in a good healthy state, maybe not mentally healthy, physical healthy we have to start paying attention to these certain things Like why are they oversleeping? Are they not getting enough sleep? You know watching these patterns. Hey, is everything okay? Do you need some help with your homework? Do you need a tutor that maybe could help to get you better earlier, like all these helpful things we could insert in there to kind of guide them and push them, try to get them back on track. But it's definitely noticing their mood, their changes, patterns, behaviors.
Speaker 2:We've seen things before that people are contemplating or thinking about suicide. They really start to have more of an outgoing personality because the pain for them. They soon to know that it's going to be gone and they don't have to go back to that dark place in a way anymore. They start giving away possessions because they want someone else to have it when they're gone, which may be unusual behaviors for them. So again it falls back to behaviors and patterns. If this person's not usually doing these things, something's going on and then it's okay at that point to start asking hey, is everything okay? I've noticed that you've been sleeping a little bit more than usual. Are you feeling okay? It's okay to ask these questions. It's even okay to come straight out and ask hey, have you ever thought about hurting yourself? You've never thought about suicide, have you? If you, if you did, that's okay. But I want to know that I'm here for you because I don't want you to take that too far.
Speaker 2:Um, it's okay to directly ask, Cause sometimes what we've heard is somebody's waiting for them to take that burden off their chest and finally have the chance to just yeah, you know, I have.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I'm sitting here thinking about that as if I could have put myself in that position and just the amount of tension that built up in my throat, like how scary are those words for a parent to have to say Necessary, absolutely. And you talked about community and having you know the, the teachers and the school administrators that see your kid, probably more so. Short, short, quick story here about a year after my daughter's friend took his life she's a junior, she was there was a big cyber bullying thing going on with a, an app. I remember that an anonymous app.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and she. There was nine screens of people just tearing her apart. Now, mind you, they identified her by her initials in her grade at the time but she was the only one that had those specific initials, particular grade was not hard to figure out.
Speaker 1:It was obviously somebody, or multiple people who knew her and knew a lot about her, and so I. It was over a long weekend, so it came to be Tuesday and she's sitting in my car and she sat there and I said you don't have to go in there. And she goes. Yes, I do. I said you actually don't, she goes. Mom, everybody in this school has read those posts. I go, you don't have to go in there, we can wait another day, whatever you need. She's like. She sat there totally silent and she goes.
Speaker 1:I know why Kyle did it. Every ounce of everything just drained out of me and then she decided she was still gonna go in in. I was on the phone. I'm calling everybody in that school that I knew. I was like please keep your eyes on Sarah. Today she's, she's in school. Principal was on her, my, my friend up at the front desk, the school counselor, one of her teachers. Everybody had eyeballs on her because she acknowledged the understanding of the mindset and that's all it took to just paralyze me. And at the end of that long ordeal because we went through a whole bunch of things, trying to figure out who it was, which eventually we did. They don't know that. We know, but we did because we couldn't take any legal action, because there was no actual name. There's no proof to say that those initials in that grade were hers.
Speaker 2:And.
Speaker 1:Sarah looked at the SRO and was like I'm not worried about me, I have my group, I have my family, I have the support she goes. But what about the one that doesn't? What are you going to do to help them? And I went. Oh my gosh, how does she have the wherewithal, the the maturity, the empathy to be able to take herself out of her own situation and worry about the next kid and bless her for that? You know she's pretty territorial. She's a pretty independent kid now, but gosh darn it. She had such a point and the SRO said all I can do is watch these sites. I can't do anything else. Our hands are tied.
Speaker 2:See, it's youth like this that just take action, do what's right and look out for others. Look out for others, look out for your neighbor, and that's what more needs to do these days, and just from observing my daughter's circle and hearing the conversations, I have noticed that lately. And they do, some don't, some are still going to be the cattiness.
Speaker 2:Some are still going to have the cliques, there's still going to be teenagers in high school. But I've seen it and it changes someone's whole day. It could change their life. There's the one girl that's in a, one year older than my youngest and she's got a smaller group of friends. She gets picked on, so she reaches out to some of the younger girls. They, they all, cheer together and this girl is the most kindest, sweetest soul and she's always someone gets hurt on the team. Oh, what's your favorite drink? What's your favorite candy?
Speaker 1:Because the next day she wants to bring her something.
Speaker 2:And then she's the one turning around and getting bullied, but then she's the one always coming back and being there to support others. It's like a boomerang she just takes it in and she's sending it back out. She takes it in and she's sending it back out, and we hope and pray that she's not still harboring and harboring. And it's building and building, like they say. You know that glass of water the last drop is before it spills over.
Speaker 2:We don't want our kids to get to that place, but how much more can they take? Sometimes, and the social circles is making our youth understand, you know, there is only so much that somebody can take. When you're coming at them and putting them down every day and they're feeling isolated and not alone, like, put yourself in their shoes Because I love a Pete. They're children. Yes, how would you feel if that was you?
Speaker 1:And I think that's.
Speaker 2:What more needs to start doing is put yourself in someone else's shoes, and if that was you right, would you want to be in that place? Would you want to feel like that every day? We, these conversations, have to start changing, and that's where the mindset and perspective has to start changing of our youth, and I know it's hard because their brains are still growing and developing.
Speaker 2:They can't always think they're always thinking about the me, the me, the I, what I want, what I need, what's beneficial for me, and I know that's very common and typical of the mind just the brain of our adolescents during this growth phase. But I do feel that there's a different place in time than we were 20 years ago.
Speaker 2:Absolutely these children can handle situations much differently and better, and that they can be more aware, they can be more cognizant, they can have more, and I really think that's because people like you and organizations like you guys are out there talking about it, telling them that it's okay.
Speaker 1:They don't have to do it by themselves, they don't have to go about this alone.
Speaker 2:I think that people have a high sense of their own wellbeing when they put their own wellbeing first, their own health first, how important it is, how much time and effort and consistency it takes to be you know, I'm very big into health and nutrition and working out and meal prepping all this it takes a lot of time and effort it does and when you put that you got me on that one a girl. It takes a lot of time and effort. When you put that much time and effort and consistency into something but see results and progress, it changes the way you think about things and your perspective. So you have a different outlook on things. So I know how I feel after I'm eating well and exercise and how much of a better person I am.
Speaker 2:Others may not be in that mentally well place, so they're not able to support others Well, they're not able to be kind and show empathy because themselves may not be in a good place, right. So that's why sometimes, when we, like your daughter I mentioned, when she's okay, I can handle this, I can do this, but what about them, right? We have to start thinking that other people are labeling people, coming at people, saying the hard words, isolating people. There's something deeper there going on Right With them individually. So people that are usually Hurt people hurt people.
Speaker 1:Exactly.
Speaker 2:Exactly so. I think that's why it goes back to being responsible for our own health and well-being, because if you don't tell me what's going on with you, I don't know. I'm not a mind reader. I can't look at you and say, hey, I think you're a little bit stressed today, or unless I can see something.
Speaker 1:You ever see me and I look stressed girl, you'll know.
Speaker 2:Go the other direction. You're reading me like a book.
Speaker 1:And sometimes people can't even no words.
Speaker 2:all pictures I agree, and there's definitely some people like that's got those forward signs. But then at the end of the day really and that's when why it's so important in lrj we come into presentations, we have fun, we have people up on stage, we do games yeah, let's talk about.
Speaker 1:I want to hear about what y'all are doing and how you're putting this spin on these presentations to engage these kids because, goodness knows, with all the entertainment that they have in their hands, how do you engage them?
Speaker 2:Yes, and it's making them a part of it. You know you, if you're engaged, that means you are participating, You're a part of the conversation. So we change it up constantly. People have different learning styles, so we've incorporated everything possible into presentations from music, from short videos that we may watch within it, from activities people sharing a story. They're chanting in the crowds. If there's a birthday, we're singing happy birthday to somebody. We have people come on stage. So it's different age groups. Right, we educate elementary, middle school, high school. Do we do? Teacher education, development, parent in services. We're touching all, all people that touch students' lives.
Speaker 1:And that was one of the things. When we all got together and started talking about how we were going to reach these kids, I'm like, why are we not talking to them in elementary school? Why are we not making that part, you know, that whole well-being piece, part of every day? It takes like this much time per day and by this much time I have my fingers spread apart because I know nobody else can see it but you.
Speaker 1:But a very minor amount it does. Why are we not working that into every day? It can't change the curriculum that much, and especially with the elementary students.
Speaker 2:When we come in, it's a course. We're not going to come in and talk about suicide prevention.
Speaker 2:We're not talking about anxiety, depression, things like that. We're talking about the beginning stages of the foundation of everything. So we're talking about emotions. We're talking about feelings If our body is feeling a certain way, what that means and what we can do about it. If it's not making us feel good, what do we talk to? Who's available? We talk about happy emotions, sad emotions and how we can feel all these throughout the day, and those are okay. When we do something throughout the day, if we do an action, say we make our bed and straighten our room, oh, we know that that's going to make me feel good, because I feel organized I accomplished something.
Speaker 2:My mom is going to be happy. I did my chore Right. You feel accomplished, you feel proud of yourself. That's a good feeling, right, and you can go on and most likely you're going to do something else. Well, because you're in a good mood, you're in a good mindset and those good habits continue throughout the day. If you start, like I say, you wake up on the wrong side of the bed. If you start, you don't make your bed Um, you can't find your notebook because it's under the covers, because you're not organized or you're not ready for the next day.
Speaker 2:You forgot that you're going to school. You're stressed oh, you forgot to study for the spelling test that you have. You bomb that. Then your mom was like, oh, why didn't you study? It's now you took your life a different direction, correct, right? So we give these kids real life scenarios and situations and then we're like you know what happened to you that made you stressed? And they're all raising their hand and they're giving us I got out of bed. Yes, right, I didn't eat my four fruit snacks right I only had two.
Speaker 2:I only had two of them so it's, but that's a big deal to them Correct.
Speaker 1:So we'll recognize that and we'll acknowledge it Absolutely, whatever it takes At the playground.
Speaker 2:You know, sam did invite me to join the football game over here and that made me sad. Yeah, that would make me sad too. We're talking about real life situations that they can relate to. How maybe they can change that conversation. Hey, maybe if you went up to that group and be like hey, do you think I can join you? Guys, I would like to play. Um, that's showing being assertive, it's showing being confident and that's those things we try to insert as character building skills too early when they go no, you can go okay.
Speaker 1:Yep, I just thought I'd ask yeah, exactly right, and then we could talk pretty mature for an elementary school. But if you start teaching them how to do that and being okay with both, if you ask a question, your answers could come in either form and you've got to be okay with it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so it's really starting those conversations early and we've had so much fun with that. That's great. We're doing an elementary presentation on the week of suicide prevention week up up in Pennsylvania and we've been with this school for 13 years. That's amazing since we started the organization. We've been in school every single year, along with many up there, because that's where we founded the non-profit was in Pennsylvania, and it just shows the dedication and consistency of these schools having this conversation a part of their curriculum and that's the message we want to share is with schools and communities.
Speaker 2:To parents out there hey, share with your school that there's a nonprofit out there that comes in and does live, interactive mental health and wellness education programs and they come in for free and do it. So let's bring them into your school and have this conversation. It should be conversations by third party organizations like us. It can be also by the school counselor. It can be signs hanging on the wall in the throughout the. So they're seeing it everywhere, they're seeing it all day. It's the consistency that they're seeing. Oh, there's that 988 number. That's the suicide prevention line. Oh, it's okay to not be okay. Oh, I read that poster yesterday. Oh, last week. In this presentation I learned about managing my emotions and the difference between stress and anxiety, and if I'm constantly stressed, I may be dealing with anxiety.
Speaker 1:It's not just stress anymore.
Speaker 2:They're starting to notice that, wow, there's ways I could take care of my feelings and emotions, to make me mentally better, because they're surrounded with ways to support them. So we just have to make me mentally better because they're surrounded with ways to support them.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so we just have to make this a part of our daily conversation. And it's 2025 people. This should be something happening every single day in our schools, in our conversations, because throughout the day, any given day that we wake up, there's something that we have to figure out, fix, find, make happen deal with right, Shed tears from you. Know, we're not just waking up oh you know, it's another perfect day.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's not how it goes in my house, me neither I mean, I get there kind of sort of on some days and that's okay.
Speaker 2:Some days it's a couple hours yeah and that's good enough for me.
Speaker 1:I'll take an hour. I'll take an hour of it. I'll take an hour of good any day of the week.
Speaker 2:It happens to all of us. So, at the end of the day, why do we feel there's stigma talking about mental health or suicide prevention when we all go through the same? Stuff just a different story, a different way, a different conversation but it's the same.
Speaker 1:So much of this conversation weaves into addiction and all of the things that go on in that world and how people still don't talk about it and they don't address it. And you know it's one of those things, that which comes first the chicken or the egg, Is it the mental health issues or is it the addiction? Is it the addiction that causes the mental health? You know there's so much to be looked at at that moment. You know what I mean and my history is in addiction treatment like nine years of it, and I learned a lot in that world and it was a nonprofit and I have a lot of respect for nonprofits and the way that they move their mission along for the good of others and a lot of, as in your situation, it was born out of pain, yeah, but the amount of good that comes out of it, it's just off the chain.
Speaker 2:Well and I appreciate you saying that, because I think there's so many nonprofits doing great work A ton of them.
Speaker 2:And they're needed because they fill the gap. That's the biggest thing I can say is that you have your government organizations right, you have your common programs, academics that they have to follow certain things in schools. Nonprofits fill the gap because they can really kind of isolate and narrow down to very specific topics and like, say, addiction for example, things like that or mental wellness that we're focused on and really fill those gaps that larger non-profits or larger companies can't do yeah and it really it's nice to, but you, you can't.
Speaker 1:You can't say that you're the be all. You, I fix everything. No, you can't.
Speaker 2:It takes a village, it takes it does organizations to come together and partner. We've partnered with several non-profits nonprofits because we can't do it all.
Speaker 1:And they have a slightly different edge than we do, or a different niche or a different perspective that can reach, maybe somebody that you cannot Exactly, and that's amazing.
Speaker 2:And that's why the list and I love how Milton has the tab on their website for Milton mental wellness and it's list of resources, a variety of them. We have that on our website as well too, and there's just a bunch out there and you say, oh, there's so much, I don't know where to go Start somewhere.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Start somewhere, so tell us your website. Yeah, so it's lrjfoundation. Yeah, start somewhere, so tell us your website. Yeah, so it's LRJfoundationcom.
Speaker 1:Okay. And I'll have those in the show notes.
Speaker 2:I'll have all your contacts and website and everything We've kind of broken down on the top, to you know, on the top of the website, by programs. So, we have for middle school, elementary, high school, and you can dig in there and see the different topics for every different age group, making it really specific for all. We talk about workplace wellness, we talk about teacher education, parent.
Speaker 2:We have a blog section too. That's got a lot of great articles and things like that just for reads, or maybe direction to another nonprofit's website or government national website. That's got more resources. But I think that what we can do is maybe kind of promise ourselves throughout this month of September because the reason that awareness months happen whether it's another October breast cancer awareness- for example.
Speaker 2:it's about education and awareness. So we have the opportunity to become more educated and to find those prevention tips, to find those prevention tips, to find those numbers and resources to have on hand. So let's use this time to really find what's available and if we can take five minutes a day while we're scrolling, maybe on social media or have a little bit of downtime and read something educational, read a post, an infographic that's going to lift our mindset, change our perspective on something or learn something new.
Speaker 2:I think that for me, that's going to lift our mindset, change our perspective on something or learn something new. I think that for me, that's something I've kind of promised myself that I would do is try to just learn something new. I think that's the biggest part of prevention is just small bits of education. Like you've said, if I run into a friend or a coworker or a neighbor and we come into this conversation, there may be something you read, there may be a website you came across that can find it helpful and you can share that with someone that can help somebody else.
Speaker 2:So we have to be prepared for ourselves, but also be prepared for others who we come across. I think that's part of being a human being is being there for others and being there for ourselves and doing all we can to help others in this world, because there's a lot of people out there that are just in really hard places at this time of life that may not be able to help themselves. So if I'm in a good mental place at this phase of my life, I have to step in and help someone that's not Maybe one day down the road. It was a life-changing moment for him and he's now in a good place place and he can now pay it forward.
Speaker 1:Right.
Speaker 2:And go and help someone else when someone else is in a lower place in life. There's going to be that ebb and flow. Yep for sure. And we have to just jump in. There's times where I've been in low places and been really down and just not in a good place, and I've had people come next to me and lift me when I needed it.
Speaker 2:And then I turn that back and do it to others at times. So we're always not going to be 100%, nope. So when we feel like we are even maybe 90%, we always have a little bit in us to help towards others and honestly, that kind of fills our cup.
Speaker 1:It does. It really does. So you mentioned just a few minutes ago about the Milton Mental Wellness page and I want to be sure that we touch on this before we wrap this up. So September 16th we have a webinar and it's something that Milton does every year and that is what brought Teresa to me, and I was sitting there listening to her and reading these emails back and forth as we're all discussing this and I was like, oh, I need her on my podcast. So, thank you, milton mental wellness.
Speaker 1:But we do have a webinar coming up September 16th. You can register on our website. It's miltongagov forward slash trauma and grief. Yes, we, yep, we are covering. You have brought in some fabulous therapists and an entire group that's going to speak on this, and it doesn't matter what type of trauma or grief or what came first or whatever. This is going to be one of those webinars that will be super informative and highly encourage people to join in, because at some point in our lives I don't care who you are you have experienced something, yes, and so we want to invite you to join that. And then, coming on October 25th, I'll let you kind of fill in, because I believe you have all the details on this one. It's something that we are in partnership JCAC, I believe.
Speaker 2:Yeah, this is going to be great. It's going to be an in-person event at the Milton Community Center on October 25th, which is a Saturday, from 10 to 2. It's going to be focused on mental well-being for the whole family. So there's going to be events, valuable resources, engaging activities, workshops you can attend, mental health booths that you can visit, grab resources, small educational talks. Um, there's gonna be free barbecue there, which I love barbecue, so uh blake's barbecue is going to be there.
Speaker 2:There's going to be informative lectures on suicide prevention, learning some practical strategies to gain confidence on discuss mental health topics. There's gonna's a really cool one on parenting in a digital world.
Speaker 2:So that's gonna be really, really good, yes, and understanding children's behaviors, which is really great, like we were talking about before those behaviors and habits. So it's gonna be about three different short workshops that people can pop into. There's gonna be a lot of fun going on that day. It's gonna be at the Milton Community Center and that's free to the community. So again, like you mentioned, on Milton's mental wellness tab, all this will be listed. But September and October is really a time where we can have some great education and find these resources in the community that a lot of counseling centers like JCAC is putting on, the LRJ Foundation in schools in the community and many others throughout the area, that Foundation and schools in the community and many others throughout the area that we really can grab some of these great education, save it for when we need it or give it on to someone else when they need it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I love that. I love that. How can people get involved with you as we, as we wrap this up? Cause we've been, we've had us a solid chat here, Can people get involved with LRJ?
Speaker 2:Yeah, absolutely, we would love that. I mean we want people to be very active and being proactive in reaching out to their schools to bring us in. People can reach out to me and say, hey, let's get this into your classroom to connect with your school counselor. The more we could have on Team LRJ, the more education we want to get to the communities. We want to rally in a community, whether it's bringing it to your children's school or there's doing something in your community, bringing us in for a lunch and learn at your workplace. We do our annual presentations with MetLife, for example. We go in. They have an annual walk that they do. They take a noon lunch break. Employees go outside and walk in the parking lot we have an education session afterwards.
Speaker 2:So people are getting out, getting sunshine, boosting their serotonin, yes, and they're just feeling a lot better, getting some fresh air, and we're coming inside to an education session. We would love people to kind of come together and say hey, let's bring a positive conversation to the workplace of schools and let's increase community mental wellness love it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, love it. And all all these details I promise I will put in the show notes to make it easy for you all to connect with. Is there anything you wanted to share before we tune out?
Speaker 2:no, this is great. I'm excited to connect with with more people and and educate thousands of more students. To date, lrj foundation has educated 80 000 youth. Oh, my goodness and adults that face-to-face education. So we would love to continue to increase those numbers and touch more lives and change mindsets and just encourage people that whatever they're doing, they can do better than they did yesterday and decide to make that happen.
Speaker 1:I love that I love it all. Teresa, thank you so much for sharing not only your story, but all these important insights and resources, and conversations like this one remind us that suicide is not just a statistic. Mental wellness, mindset, all those things. They're not just words that are floating, they are real people, they are real situations, they are real families and it's a real community. And so, while it's never an easy subject to talk about openly, it is one of the most powerful ways that we can break the stigma and save more lives. So for that I'm so grateful you being here For anyone listening who may be struggling, you are not alone.
Speaker 1:Please reach out, whether it's to a friend, a family member or by calling the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline at 988. Help is here and your life matters. To learn more about the LRJ Foundation and the incredible work they're doing, please visit their website at lrjfoundationcom. Thank you for joining us for this important conversation during Suicide Awareness Month and until next time, take care of yourselves and of each other. Thanks for listening to Milton in Maine. We hope this episode gave you fresh insights into what makes our city so special. Stay connected and don't miss an episode by subscribing to this podcast on your favorite platform and following us on social media for all updates. Favorite platform and following us on social media for all updates. And, of course, if you want to learn more about the city, visit us online at wwwmiltongagov for resources, news and upcoming events. Until next time, thanks for being part of the conversation and we'll see you on the next Milton and Main.