Maureen Dunleavy, the senior regional vice president for the Guidance Care Center of the Florida Keys, joined Good Morning Keys on Keys Talk 96.9/102.5FM this morning to talk about the organization.
The Guidance Care Center is celebrating 53 years in the Florida Keys.
Dunleavy said, “We have all sorts of services, everything from Key West to Key Largo, dealing with prevention, mobile crisis response, detox, and have the only assisted living facility for mentally ill folks in Marathon. I think it’s very important to recognize that things that happen in our world, even if they don’t happen in our specific community impact our mental health, right? We talked about that our mental health is on a continuum, and so we all have it, and they function in a different place, depending upon what stressors we have. And of course, world events and community events can definitely be stressors. Also, I think it’s really important to mention with the footage that we see on TV or we read in the newspaper, a lot of the videos that are out there where they replay the same information over and over again can really be traumatizing and worrisome and increase people’s fears.”
How do people cope with that?
Dunleavy said, “There’s definitely always things that you can do, so the important thing is to focus on what is within your control. So much of what happens in life, is completely out of our control. We can’t control the weather. We can’t control what’s happening in Washington, DC. All we can control is our own choices, which are how we think about things and the actions that we take. So I think that’s one really important point, and we’ve talked about before, really making sure that we have many tools in the toolbox to be able to cope with what the world is bringing us, and some of those tools are free, like we’ve talked about, something as simple as getting out in nature, going for a walk, looking at the ocean, other things like trying to focus on gratitude and what things are going right and then, of course, limiting the news is really important too sometimes. So if you’re finding you’re really affected by what’s happening, to really just make that choice for yourself that I’m going to step away from it for a while, because that break can be huge. I mean, we’ve talked about that if 10 good things happen today and one bad thing happens, what is our natural tendency to call people and talk about? The one bad thing.”
Substance abuse is also another concern.
Dunleavy said, “I think that’s a really important point. So oftentimes, too, people may reach for a glass of wine or alcohol in order to cope with what’s going on. It’s important to note that alcohol is a depressant. So oftentimes, when you’re trying to escape what’s going on in the world, because it’s impacting you greatly, drinking actually makes it worse. It’s going to make your depression worse. It’s going to make your anxiety worse because it’s going to cloud your mind, and it’s going to, obviously, change your perspective. And so it’s really important to stay grounded in the now and what’s within our control. And then the other thing we’ve talked about before, the challenge is if you’re already feeling hopeless, or you’re feeling like you want to end your own life, if you are drinking on top of that, that’s going to exacerbate, make it worse. And of course, then if you have access to a firearm that even is going to make it more deadly where you may make a decision that you can’t take back.”
Treatment and programs are available no matter a person’s age, income or socioeconomic status.
Dunleavy said, “Please don’t reach out for help because you’re worried about having to pay for it. We help people, whether you can pay for it or not. I think it’s really important when we talk about mental health to recognize that, because it’s not continuum. We all have the capacity to get to the point where things seem hopeless and we don’t see a way out. That is all of us. And if someone starts to think about ending their own life, that’s the time that we really need to reach out for help, because we don’t want to lose one more life in this community. So we have a 24/7 hotline to be able to connect with our mobile crisis response team, definitely, for anyone who’s feeling suicidal, but also if there’s other crises going on, a tragic event, just having difficulty cope, they can reach a live person, 24/7, and that number is 305-434-7660, and then as soon as the script starts, you don’t have to listen to all the different options. You just press option 8 and it will connect you to a live person. Of course, if you just want to know what’s available and in your community, through the Guidance Care Center, we’ve got three sites. You can listen to this script, and it’ll go through all the programs and services. It’s important also for listeners to realize that anxiety really is, , either overestimating how likely something is going to happen or underestimating our ability to handle it. So that means that most of the things that occur or that we worry about occurring, never happen, and if they do happen, we are better able to deal with it than we give ourselves credit for. So again, I would encourage everybody to go to guidancecarecenter.org, to see what services are available in the Florida Keys. And again, the 24 hour hotline is 305-434-7660, and then number eight.”
For more information, click here: https://guidancecarecenter.org/