Original intro/outro music:
"'Till I See Stars" by The Parachute Brigade
The sun does not always shine in West Virginia but the people always do. I'm delighted to be here.
Brandon Dennison:These are historic times in Appalachia. A lot has changed. A lot is changing now and a lot still needs to change. In our podcast we talk with change makers right square in the middle of all of this working to ensure the change is for the good. You're listening to Change in the Coalfields podcast by Coalfield Development. I'm your host, Brandon Dennison. All right, this is Brandon with Coalfield Development, something unique, a cherry on top for the podcast this month. Some of you know that we take personal and professional development very seriously at Coalfield Development. And all of our trainees and crew members are evaluated each month on a series of professional development criteria. And we do a monthly reflection, self reflection on some of the personal development criteria. The idea is we are growing as as people whether on the job or not, and we're growing as professionals during that time on the job. And to help with that growth process. We identify a West Virginian from throughout history who really exemplifies or embodies the theme that we're emphasizing for the month. So we've got Ashley Stennett, our communications coordinator here, Ashley, our themes for this month are...
Ashley Stinnett:mental health and respect. What's your thoughts on that?
Brandon Dennison:Mental health and respect? So the West Virginian for mental health is Patch Adams. Oh, nice, great movie, if you haven't seen it, Robin Williams best ever. And he's he patched was born in DC but bought a farm in West Virginia in his very innovative health clinic for people who dealt with a variety of mostly mental disorders and other types of disorders, was in West Virginia. And so he's a West Virginian honoree for sure. And he was really a doctor, but also a social activist. I mean, really pushing on how we do medicine in the first place. And one of the things I really like about Patch's approach is that he he really argued that you can't look at someone's health apart from their community and their environment and the conditions that they live in, day in and day out. So for specially for people that might have mental health challenges their typical environment is this white walled, locked down, sterile sanatorium or institute, exactly. And how can someone really heal and be healthier find joy in a situation like that. And so he he, his unique approach, and his sense of humor has really made an impact.
Ashley Stinnett:Laughter is a good medicine.
Brandon Dennison:Absolutely.
Ashley Stinnett:There was a there was a really powerful TikTok video that I saw the other day. And a guy was standing in the middle of the street. And he had a sign that said, I suffer from severe anxiety and depression. And I just need somebody to talk to. Nobody stopped to talk to him. He flipped the sign over and it said free money. And there were like, bills taped. He was mobbed. People were just ripping the money off the signs. And it's a powerful testament because mental health is a is a broad term. And Coalfield, you know, I was fortunate we had mental health training. We did mental health, first aid. One of the great advantages of working at Coalfield is the endless trainings that are, I would say, pretty invaluable CPR things I've never had access to before. But the mental health aspect, you know, my mom has worked in that field for over 35 years.
Brandon Dennison:Oh, really? I didn't know that.
Ashley Stinnett:Yeah. So I've always had kind of a personal connection to that. And it's what people don't say, is really what is the issue. It's when they're not communicating.
Brandon Dennison:And that's such...that ties into our theme for the year. We've set our theme and intention for 2023 is listening. And I think listening that you make a great point, like, you need to hear what's being said, but you also need to pay attention for what's not being said. What a great point Ashley.
Ashley Stinnett:Well, a lot of people and you know, a lot of people just need it's, it's as simple as somebody to talk to you. They don't always need a counseling or therapy session. It's just, you know, an ear.
Brandon Dennison:And from the training, you mentioned our mental or mental health first aid. I love this phrase to listen non-judgmentally right, because a lot of us is we want to say well, you should do this, you should do that. We want to...
Ashley Stinnett:Can't believe you did that. Why are you not doing this?
Brandon Dennison:And instead of just listening without judgement. Without judgement doesn't mean you have to agree with everything you're saying. But just because you're not judging it because that's their experience. And I did not know that about your mother...
Ashley Stinnett:Yeah, she, she's worked at. She was at River Park Hospital for a while she was at St. Mary's. She just retired from Three Rivers Medical in Louisa. Yeah. And spent a lot of years, you know, I think it's been a combined about 35 years of service in mental health and seen it all, I've interacted with it all. I mean, you know, it really has made her a better person. And I've learned a lot from her. You know, her through her experience. Yeah. And identifying issues in my own self, as well. And and anybody around me that might, you know, have some issues going on, or people think mental health, they always go to an extreme. Yeah, well, you know, this person is suffering from mental health issue. It's like, there's a stigma. And part of that education outreach is trying to maybe lift that stigma, too. Because you know, when you have a physical ailment, it's sometimes a lot easier to visually locate it, diagnose it, and find a remedy. But when it's on the inside, the impact is different. And sometimes the remedy needs to be different.
Brandon Dennison:But it should be taken as seriously. Treated, not stigmatized, treated. For respect. We have Anna Jarvis, who's the founder of Mother's Day. She was a West Virginian in Taylor County, maybe there's now her hometown now has the international shrine to motherhood. And it's I mean, it's people come to visit from all over the world, it's known as the birthplace of Mother's Day. And that ties so nicely to respect, you know, taking time having a mindset of respect to acknowledge that none of us has got where we are alone, we've all had someone, somewhere along the way that cared for us, showed compassion supported us. For many of us, our mothers top the list, sometimes not, not all of us, but but for many of us. And I just the whole point of that holiday was was for respect, especially this was in the early 1900s when moms in particular, societally were not feeling very much respected at all. Right? They were sort of contained to a certain role by and large, and it was just assumed they would do it and not a lot of people would say, thanks for it. It was just an assumed social fact they'd stay in the home. They raised the kids. Interestingly, it's cool you brought up your mom, you know, you're tying the two together for a seamlessly there.
Ashley Stinnett:That wasn't intentional.
Brandon Dennison:Yeah. That's beautiful.
Ashley Stinnett:Yeah, mad respect for my mom. We've been through it all. Nearly a horrific tragedy. I think I told the story once before the house fire that we suffered through together. Yeah. And, and barely made it out. I mean, that was like a really shocking experience. But yeah, I mean, it's hard to believe Mother's Day is getting closer to us. And, you know, the respect that goes into that. And the respect for Appalachian women. Can you imagine what our society of this planet has endured? For eons? I mean, that's, you know...
Brandon Dennison:A lot of strong strong mountain women.
Ashley Stinnett:And not and, you know, not to downplay the struggles of, obviously, men and women, you know, all people outside of our area. But we've taken a lot of stuff. We still are. We still are and the perseverance to all that really speaks volumes about just the mom's in our area, just everybody that's had to endure that. The two are married perfectly. Mental health and respect.
Brandon Dennison:Yep, they go. They go together. Very much so. So same, same, same to me to Happy Mother's Day to my mom, if she's listening. My mom taught in the community college system for many years, was educator and you know, it's been on the the elders at the church for many years. Distributed there and...
Ashley Stinnett:Did your love of coffee come from your mom?
Brandon Dennison:It might have! Mom is a big coffee drinker. She does cream and sugar in hers or just cream actually. But my black coffee? My dad drinks black decaf coffee.
Ashley Stinnett:The old man hammers the black coffee that it's so funny. You say that the it's similar with us? Mom is cream. Dad is usually just straight up. Like, it's like it's just so like predictable. Yeah, when I hear you say that. I laugh because it's like makes sense. Yeah. So I do the best of both worlds.
Brandon Dennison:You know, interestingly...what do you mean by that?
Ashley Stinnett:Well, some days it'll be black and then other days, where you're like, dude, you're the latte guy, which is today.
Brandon Dennison:Playing the latte guy. Yeah, right, anything to get through the week, man. So interestingly, Anna Jarvis became disappointed with Mother's Day. She thought it became overly commercialized. And she actually ended up starting a petition to after she got it established, she started a petition late in her life to to rescind it.
Ashley Stinnett:No kidding. Yeah, no, that's 100% spot on. I think
Brandon Dennison:Do away with it because it became so commercialized. So there's a quote here it says a printed card means nothing, except that you are too lazy to write to the woman who has done more for you than anyone in the world. And candy. You take a box to mother and then you eat most of it yourself, a pretty sentiment. So another thing I like for both for Anna Jarvis and Patch Adams, they're both sort of quirky, that that's us to a tee. And I will say you could probably prickly figures. And I think that's classic Appalachian too. I mean, we have character, we are ourselves. You know, there's start a petition almost for every holiday for being over good, there's bad. We're not always the most polished, but we care a lot. And I there's something in that quirkiness of Appalachia that I like, too. commercialized. Yeah, I mean, you'd really, I mean, it's just I wonder what she thinks of Christmas.
Ashley Stinnett:And the candy, I'm thinking like Halloween, and Valentine's Day, we just had Valentine's Day. And it's another one...
Brandon Dennison:And that stuff can it can all be fun. I don't have as big a problem with but her point is well taken though that you need to keep the respect at the core of it. You know that all that stuff can be nice, surely likes a nice gift. But remember, there has to be a genuine meaning and respect at the core of this stuff. And Anna Jarvis represented that. So those are thoughts for the personal development professional development theme for this month.
Ashley Stinnett:Very good stuff.
Brandon Dennison:We'll pick it back out next next month. It'll be fun. Thanks, Ashley.
Ashley Stinnett:Yes, sir.
Brandon Dennison:Change in the Coalfields is a podcast created by Coalfield Development in the hills and hollers of West Virginia. This episode was hosted by Brandon Dennison, and produced and edited by JJN multimedia become a part of our mission to rebuild the Appalachian economy by going to our website Coalfield-Development.org. To make a donation, you can email us anytime at info at Coalfield0Development.org and subscribe to our newsletter for more information on the podcast. You can follow us on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn by searching Coalfield Development. Check back soon for more episodes.