BEAUMONT, Texas — After a multitude of global and local issues impacted the lives of Southeast Texans and beyond, mental health experts are making sure people are practicing self care.
The Spindletop Center is hosting their fifth annual Mental Health Symposium. The symposium will be held virtually on Tuesday, May 17, 2022.
Organizers are excited about the event and believe it will help Southeast Texans. Those who want to register or learn more can go to the Spindletop Center Facebook page.
“We’re going to have a few classes and presentation presented by two truly wonderful people,” Rita Drake, Spindletop Center crisis clinical supervisor, said. “It’s going to teach some self-health techniques, and it’s going to help everybody to just have a little bit of more information on how to reduce those feelings of stress and anxiety.”
While the symposium is the not the first of it’s kind, Drake said the presenters are different.
“One of the presenters, Amber Wood, near and dear to my heart, is our director of our crisis services,” Drake said. “And she is just so knowledgeable about mental health but particularly self-care.”
Drake described Wood as an, “active advocate for self-care,” who practices what she preaches. Drake said she knows the information that Wood will share will be helpful, amazing, and spectacular.
Drake believes the entire event will be fun, exciting and really helpful.
“Self-care for anyone in the mental health field is fully rounded and has to do with your spiritual wellbeing, your physical wellbeing but of course your mental and emotional wellbeing, how they all kind of interconnect,” Drake said.
Drake feels events like these are important because the global pandemic has put people under a great deal of stress and financial strain.
“May is Mental Health Month and we are showcasing, that it’s my belief, that no one is always physically healthy, well no one is always mentally healthy too,” Drake said. “These times that we’ve been through have made us all have stress and strain, and we forget to take care of ourselves.”
In addition to the pandemic, Drake said people are recovering from "terrible hurricanes and tremendous ice storms."
“We want people to be prepared, to be as strong as they can so when those things do happen, we can look back and say, 'I am strong. I went through all of this and survived and I'm even stronger. I got through this,'" Drake said.
Drake believes with adequate support, anyone can overcome anything. She said Spindletop has the resources and can provide the support that all people, regardless of age, need.
“Spindletop Center helps people from birth with our programs," Drake said. "Brand new babies who are having trouble walking, talking, crawling. All the way through the life span, through children services, through adolescence, adults and also up into the geriatric age.”
Drake said mental health month is a time where experts can educate people about what mental illnesses are, spotting depression when something bad happens, how to use self care and more.
"If you suspect you have mental illness, we're here to help you it that," Drake said. "If you are having these issues we're your having a stressful day, and you know it’s decreasing your ability to function, maybe this Mental Health Symposium will give ideas of how to get though those days."
Drake said anyone who needs help can call the Spindletop Canter at 1-800-937-8097, "24 hour a day, seven days a week."
