Making it OK to discuss mental health
Plus the news of the week: Cooper vetoes new election schedule — Michael Marsicano announces retirement — Pay raises for teachers — Are we tired of weekend snow yet
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New Discovery Place exhibits shine a light on mental health challenges; ‘it is just like any other illness’
New exhibits at Discovery Place Science in uptown help people explore mental illness and mindfulness. (Photo courtesy of Discovery Place)
By Michael J. Solender
With the pandemic entering its third year, stress has become part of our daily lives. Our mental health is more fragile than ever. Yet all too often, open and constructive mental health discussions don’t come easily. Admissions of mental challenges are often seen as taboo or signs of weakness. They’re rarely recognized as calls for help.
Today, two special exhibitions that seek to normalize mental health conversations open at Discovery Place Science in uptown Charlotte: “Mental Health: Mind Matters” and “Path to Mindfulness.” Each exhibit runs through April 10. They’re free to attend with paid admission to the museum.
I previewed the exhibitions earlier this week. Here’s what I found:
Mental Health: Mind Matters: Personal narratives, hands-on experiences and a ‘Worry Shredder’
This exhibition is presented in partnership with local healthcare provider Atrium Health and was initially developed, pre-pandemic, by the Science Museum of Minnesota. It’s especially designed for families, with the museum suggesting it’s most appropriate for ages 8 and up.
Visitors find more than a dozen interactive and engaging experiences, many providing a first-hand sense of symptoms and feelings associated with common types of mental illness such as depression, eating disorders, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), schizophrenia, anxiety and bipolar disorder.
Several interactive components involve touch screens and pull participants into quizzes and multiple choice tests on topics such as treatment approaches like cognitive behavior therapy and recognizing signs of substance abuse. One experience features a poker table set up with digital cards and challenges participants to a quiz about mental illnesses, asking questions such as, “What is the usual age for the onset of eating disorders?” Correct answers are rewarded with chips with the simulated game encouraging discussion.
Another experience highlights the concept of the brain as a complex information processing organ and offers a series of tests involving participants in logic, reasoning and memory exercises. A series of shadow box vignettes explore how mental illness was viewed, diagnosed and treated in history as far back as Roman times, through approaches used by Freud, and more contemporary practices. Visitors can try on distortion headphones, where noise is magnified, or sit in a room where random voices stream forth. The exhibits simulate experiences encountered by people with certain types of anxiety.
There’s a “Worry Shredder,” for the overly concerned (and who isn’t these days?). After writing a worry on a note card, it can be dispatched to a Rube Goldberg-esque contraption and chewed up, never to be pondered again.
Compelling narratives: One of the most compelling exhibit components is the personal narratives shared in short video clips of people from all walks of life talking about their mental health struggles and how they manage and overcome them. “To learn about history and stigma and see people talk about mental illness through their own experience, and see people talk about getting better, gives people hope — especially those with similar circumstances,” said Dr. Wayne Sparks, senior medical director of behavioral care at Atrium Health. “It’s so important to have those conversations and speak about mental illness just as it is with any other illness, because it is just like any other illness.”
Exhibit components and explainers are offered in English, Spanish and French. “As a science leader for the Carolinas, we feel it’s our obligation to bring relative content to our audiences,” said Heather Norton, chief science officer at Discovery Place. “Mental health is the key to overall health, and we want to be part of this conversation.”
Path to Mindfulness: Finding ways to relax, talking into the ‘Wind Phone’
This companion exhibition, developed by the Discovery Place team, is designed to complement the Mind Matters programming.
It highlights the benefits of reflective actions we can take to relax, connect with nature, savor quiet internal reflection and gain satisfaction through appreciating life’s smaller joys.
Strategically placed before Mental Health: Mind Matters, this smaller experience lets visitors explore self-awareness through discussions on emotional intelligence, biophilia (the human tendency to connect to other living things) and employing mind tools like mediation and relaxation in helping each of us relax and refresh.
One highlight here is a Wind Phone, a telephone booth where visitors can enter and communicate with loved ones (living or deceased). The phone booth, useful in connecting with deep emotions tied to relationships, is inspired by one developed in Japan by a gardener. He opened the booth after the 2011 tsunami and earthquakes devastated Japan as a way for visitors to have one-way conversations with lost loved ones. Tens of thousands of people have accessed replica wind phones across the globe.
A necessary conversation: Kudos to Discovery Place for providing the community a platform for open discussion surrounding mental health. This is a moment when our youth are particularly vulnerable. More than 140,000 children in the United States have experienced the death of a parent or grandparent caregiver from Covid alone, according to the American Academy of Pediatrics’ parenting website, Healthychildren.org.
AAP noted emergency department visits for children with mental health emergencies rose by 24% for children ages 5-11 and 31% for children ages 12-17 in early 2020 compared with the same period a year earlier. Emergency department visits related to suspected suicide attempts rose 50% among girls ages 12-17 in early 2021, compared with the same period in 2019.
Removing the stigma associated with depression and other mental health challenges can make a big difference for people in managing their way back to health. I know being able to connect with others made a difference for me as I struggled with depression many years ago. I wrote about my experience in 2018 for Charlotte magazine. After it was published, I was astonished at how many people reached out to me sharing their struggles.
“This experience is designed to give people language, tools and experiences to begin to have conversations about what it means to have a mental illness, that it is treatable, and OK to discuss,” said Norton, about the new exhibits. “For families, this means they can look at how to explore this content as a family, start to have conversations and have a journey that’s best for them.”
Michael J. Solender is a Charlotte-based freelance writer. Reach him at michaeljwrites.com.
Related Ledger articles:
“Teen isolation prompts worries about mental health” (Feb. 5, 2021)
“Amid Covid-19, anxiety and depression risks grow” (May 11, 2020)
Today’s supporting sponsors are Whitehead Manor Conference Center, a peaceful, private, and stress-free space for your organization’s next off-site meeting or event. Conveniently located in South Charlotte, Whitehead Manor is locally owned and operated and provides modern meeting capabilities with attention to stellar service!
…and Soni Brendle:
This week in Charlotte: Another weekend snowstorm, pay raises for teachers, Foundation for the Carolinas CEO to retire
On Saturdays, The Ledger sifts through the local news of the week and links to the top articles — even if they appeared somewhere else. We’ll help you get caught up. That’s what Saturdays are for.
Local news
Another winter storm: For the third weekend in a row, snow fell in Charlotte. Warmer weather is expected next week.
Bob Dylan to blow through Charlotte: (Variety) Bob Dylan announced 26 tour dates for March and April, including a March 30 stop at Ovens Auditorium in Charlotte. Tickets go on sale Monday. Dylan is 80 years old.
Education
Pay raises for teachers: (Observer) Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools approved a budget that provides an average raise to teachers of 2.5%. Other school staff will receive bonuses and payment supplements. Superintendent Earnest Winston said: “The CMS team has taken on even greater responsibility at a time when they already were overburdened. To them, we say thank you, but we understand that is not enough.”
Politics
Republican battle for Senate: (Politico) Former U.S. Rep. Mark Walker says he’s staying in the U.S. Senate primary against fellow Republicans Rep. Ted Budd and former Gov. Pat McCrory. Former President Donald Trump offered to endorse Walker for a House seat if Walker dropped out of the race. Walker trails Budd and McCrory in the polls. The winner on the Republican side is expected to face Democrat Cheri Beasley, the former N.C. Supreme Court chief justice.
New election schedule vetoed: (WUNC) Gov. Roy Cooper vetoed a Republican-backed measure that would have pushed the state’s primary elections to June 7. They are now scheduled for May 17. Courts are deciding on the legality of Republican-drawn electoral maps.
Business
Foundation CEO retiring: (Biz Journal, Axios Charlotte, Observer) Michael Marsicano, CEO of Foundation for the Carolinas, announced his retirement, effective January 2023. He has run the foundation since 1999, and under his tenure its assets increased from $245M to nearly $4B — making it the country’s sixth-largest community foundation. A search is on for a replacement.
Hospitals criticized on charitable care: (WBTV, Observer) North Carolina Treasurer Dale Folwell criticized the state’s nonprofit hospitals for billing poor patients who should have qualified for charity care. The report said there is no clear public data on how Charlotte’s two big hospital systems handle the medical debts of low-income patients. It said: “North Carolina hospitals reap lucrative tax breaks to care for the poor. Their communities help bear the burden for these tax breaks, but hospitals’ charity care varies wildly, with little accountability.” Atrium Health and Novant Health said their charitable care programs are generous.
Sports
Charlotte FC star: (Axios Charlotte) Charlotte’s new pro soccer team, Charlotte FC, spent $5M for Polish striker Karol Świderski, age 25. He’s the club’s first “designated player,” which means he’s not subject to salary cap rules. “Świderski is Charlotte’s equivalent of a franchise quarterback,” Ashley Mahoney of Axios Charlotte explained.
From the Ledger family of newsletters
A Plan B for the transit plan: (Transit Time) With the city’s $13.5B transit plan in limbo, there are alternatives to waiting for the legislature’s permission for a sales tax vote, writes WFAE’s Steve Harrison. The City Council could raise property taxes to get it moving, but that would be politically difficult. Or council members could scale back the plan and focus on improving bus service, which would require less of a tax increase but mean shelving plans for a light rail expansion.
Remembering Charlotte’s “Jazz Diva”: (Tuesday 🔒) The Ledger’s weekly obituaries newsletter for paying members recalls the life of Tammy Greene, who became a jazz promoter in Charlotte known as “the Jazz Diva.” “She brought world-class musicians to the city, to the region and really help to put Charlotte on the map as a location where great music took place,” one colleague said.
Bling for your dog: (Wednesday 🔒) A new store at SouthPark Mall offers $179 leashes and $79 harnesses embellished with crystal bones. Spending on pets is on the rise.
Jobs for workers with disabilities (Friday 🔒): When Lindsey Braciale started Advocations in 2009 to place people with disabilities into jobs, many employers thought it was a charitable thing to do. Now, amid a worker shortage, some companies are finding it as a way to boost their talent pool. Last year, her firm placed more than 250 professionals into fields including hedge fund management and healthcare administration.
The show goes on: (Monday) High school musicals are returning to the stage this spring for the first time in two years, but rehearsing and staging are a little different this year. Choreography has to be mindful of physical distancing. “Students have missed participating in theater and are more open to just trying so they can be part of the experience,” said a theater teacher at Myers Park High, which is performing “Mamma Mia” this spring.
Wait for books gets longer: (Monday) You might wait longer for books placed on hold at Charlotte Mecklenburg Library. The library says supply chain delays and worker shortages mean “some titles have been delayed or canceled altogether.”
First look at Ballantyne rooftop restaurant: (Wednesday 🔒) The new AC Hotel by Marriott in Ballantyne Village will have a 14th-floor Asian-French restaurant and bar called Hestia that will be Charlotte’s highest elevated rooftop restaurant outside of uptown. It will open later this year. The Ledger got a sneak peek this week (with renderings!)
Colony development moves forward: (Monday) The Colony development in SouthPark expects to have its first apartments available in June, and work should start soon on a commercial building that would include a Publix. We got the update from the developer, as part of our “You Ask, We Answer” series on Charlotte development.
Robo-umpire supervisor needed: (Monday) Major League Baseball has posted for a job in Charlotte helping oversee a test of an automated system to call balls and strikes at Charlotte Knights games.
Land sale near stadium (Wednesday 🔒): Asana Partners bought nearly 5 acres of land behind Bank of America Stadium for $36M. It includes The Foundry development as well as developable space.
Closing classes or not? (Wednesday 🔒) Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools Superintendent Earnest Winston said publicly this month that a few classes have shifted to remote learning because of Covid, but the N.C. Department of Public Instruction has no record of CMS doing that, according to files The Ledger obtained under public records laws. Schools districts are required to report those moves to the state within 72 hours. CMS did not reply to The Ledger’s request for comment.
New airport lounge: (Wednesday 🔒) An independent airport lounge is expected to open by the end of March in Concourse A at the Charlotte airport. It is called The Club CLT and will be open to people who have certain travel reward credit cards that come with a program called Priority Pass.
Kate Plus 8 Plus DaBaby: (Friday 🔒) Kate Gosselin of the reality show “Jon & Kate Plus 8” has moved to a $750,000 lakefront home in Troutman, 35 miles north of Charlotte, according to what seem like reputable reports from tabloids. Troutman is also home to rap star DaBaby, The Ledger revealed in October 2020.
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