S7E6: Mental Healthcare: From Stigma to Solutions

Eccles Business Buzz Podcast

The mission at Circles Salt Lake is “building community to end poverty in Salt Lake County.” They do this by building bridges of friendship and community that support individuals and families on their journey from surviving to thriving, ensuring that everyone they work with has enough money, meaning, and friends to thrive.

Leading this critical mission is Executive Director Michelle Crawford. Starting out as a volunteer in 2017 and working her way up to run the organization, Michelle is a passionate and kind member of our community, working fiercely to help those with less.

In this episode of the Eccles Business Buzz host, Frances Johnson sits down with Michelle to discuss eradicating poverty through community building, intentional friendships, personal transformation, and systemic change.

Michelle shares insights on the challenges faced by people living in poverty, the role of social capital, and the importance of community support in achieving financial independence. The episode also highlights the significance of volunteers, the impact of economic instability on the community, and practical steps for fostering economic empowerment.

Eccles Business Buzz is a production of the David Eccles School of Business and is produced by University FM.

Episode Quotes

On defining what mental health is

[05:12] When you’re talking about mental health, you’re talking about well-being, that sense of well-being. I’m okay. And I know how to navigate the problems in my life, and I get through it, and I have an adequate amount of resiliency and reserve to take on struggles. I ask for support when I need it. I’m willing to talk about what’s going on with myself. And that’s really what it is, just that sense of well-being. That’s what mental health is where you’re able to engage in your life in a way that represents who you are and what you want to do.

The transformative vision of the Huntsman Mental Health Institute.

John Huntsman’s legacy is council. The nine children looked around and they’ve had mental illness in the family and substance use disorder in their family, and they wanted to make this their legacy. To actually change mental health on a national level across everything, including, uh, looking at policy reform on a federal level, payment reform, access to care, uh, best practice, specialty, personalized care, all those kinds of things. a big part of that, so what they’re funding right now is this Stop Stigma campaign, which is a national campaign that’s intended to go out the next 10 years.

What contributes to the mental health crisis?

[21:18] Mental health is the number 1 disability in the world now. And so part of what contributes to all that, as you know, is the whole social environment, particularly kids. How do you interact with your peers? How many people get bullied, isolated from the rest of the pack, don’t feel like they belong early on and how that carries through. So, creating an inclusive environment where people just get accepted for who they are, and they can be a part of the overall social contract without having to be the popular kids or whatever, you can be whoever you are and fit into that is a critical piece. And of course, we all know that there are these different benchmarks that really require a lot of going from elementary to junior high, junior high to high school, high school to college. It’s a critical thing. The more you can do to create that kind of wellness environment and inclusivity of everyone, the better, because we’re social animals and what contributes as much to mental illness as anything is isolation.