The Hogg Foundation often characterizes its mission as being one "to transform the places where people live, learn, work, play, and pray." That third word, work, is the focus of today's episode. In observance of World Mental Health Day and its theme, "It's Time to Prioritize Mental Health in the Workplace," we discuss how we can transform workplaces into spaces that support mental health. We also discuss structural factors that make real change difficult. We have brought back a previous guest, Dr. Ryan Sutton, an associate professor in the department of education psychology at the University of Texas at Austin and a former postdoctoral fellow for the Hogg foundation.

Related Links:

• World Mental Health Day 2024
• Women Knowledge Workers in Higher Education Show Themselves Out
• Opportunity Plus Struggle: Three Workplace Rules Peer Supporters Should Know

For the month of September, the Hogg Foundation is celebrating National Recovery Month. Throughout the month we’ll be highlighting the creativity, resilience, and leadership of people in recovery from mental and substance use conditions, and the many things our grantee partners are doing to transform mental health in their communities.

For this episode, we talk to two friends from within the Hogg Foundation’s wide network of changemakers. First, Jason Howell, executive director of RecoveryPeople, about the new film Humanly Possible, which explores the journeys of people recovering from substance use conditions. The film was produced with funding support from the Hogg Foundation. The second segment is a conversation with Hannah Slyzk, a past recipient of the Hogg Foundation’s Moore Fellowship for doctoral research, about youth mental health.

Related Links:

https://hogg.utexas.edu/recovery-month

https://recoverypeople.org/humanly-possible/premiere/

https://hogg.utexas.edu/rethinking-youth-suicide

Historically, the mental health system, and the conversation surrounding it, has given more value to the expert opinions of providers and clinicians than the experiences of those living with mental health conditions. For well over a decade now, the Hogg Foundation bas been elevating the visibility of mental health consumers and has thrown its full weight behind the peer support and recovery movement. But right at The University of Texas at Austin, there has been the full flowering of a peer support consumer specifically for students. Called Longhorn SHARE, it was launched in 2022 with the support of the University's Counseling and Mental Health Center. In this episode we talk to Adrian Lancaster, coordinator of Longhorn SHARE and a staunch advocate for student peer support.

• How Peer Support Improves Community Mental Health

• Peer Support in the Criminal Justice System

• Peer Support for Young Adults

• A New Mental Health App Comes to UT