May 2019 Archives

On today’s show we turn our focus on mental health and community strategies to support individual wellness that affects gun violence, crime and family healing as well. Our guest is Jina Carvalho, mental health advocate and co-founder of the Santa Barbara Response Network - a grassroots volunteer non-profit dedicated to offering Psychological First Aid (PFA) and social support for resilient recovery from traumatic incidents including disasters; suicide and violent injuries, especially among the underserved populations and youth

Gun Violence Reduction in California

Gun homicides in the US, the vast majority of which occur in our densely populated city centers, claim thousands of lives every year. To address the problem, the criminal justice system has historically relied heavily on hard-line tactics like invasive stops and seizures or overly punitive sentencing. In many places where violence is most pervasive, these strategies have done more harm than good.

A few cities around California – including Oakland, Richmond, and Stockton – are using innovative solutions to decrease the amount of gun violence. These interventions focus on dealing directly with the individual trauma endemic for kids growing up in violent neighborhoods and considering alternative ways that directly manage at risk-populations - giving counseling, job training, life coaching, relationship based services, living stipends and targeted police interventions. The results are clear; Oakland, for example, has cut its gun violence rate in half and it continues to decrease every day. Using positivity and opportunity rather than brutality and punitive punishment treats crime as what it is: a symptom of underlying problems. These new techniques might challenge "law & order" mentality, but it's proving far more effective and it's far less expensive as well. 

Community Approaches to Mental Health

Carp Connect is a program at the Carpinteria Veterans Hall that brings together eleven agencies and nonprofits to address the issue of debilitating mental health conditions. The Connect program also fights mental illness by offering companionship as a solution to loneliness, which is one of the main drivers of depression and other mental illness. Bringing together these numerous organizations provides mental health care to local residents in a centralized location for the first time. It is a tool to develop an interconnected and resilient community that destigmatizes mental illness for everyone.

Student Mental Health

The third story this week is about a more effective way of treating children with anxiety by focusing on their parents. One in eight children today have anxiety. Often, parents who want to nurture their children can become overprotective and actually make it harder for a child to overcome anxiety. A Yale study has found that after having a group of parents undergo therapy, the children in the study were just as likely to be cured of anxiety as children who had 12 sessions of the best therapy available. The children become successful by learning to learn to fight through the anxiety and cope with new situations.

On this episode of Solutions News, we are focused on business and how it can inspired to act as a force for good.  We interview Jan Mühlfeit - who served as Chairman of Microsoft in Europe until a few years ago, but more recently has been teaching the c-suite and olympic athletes alike about the importance of emotional intelligence and how to unlock each person’s and each team’s unique human potential.  We spotlight how data and transparency is being used to help corporations realize the benefits of being socially responsible, JUST to their employees and their customers, and environmentally sustainable in their approach to good business.  It’s no longer enough to pursue profit alone over all other considerations.  Business has to have heart, emotional sensitivity, a moral compass and environmental intelligence if it wants to stay relevant in today’s world.  We end the show with some great “didyaknows” and a last word on how to find happiness in the face of sudden change.

JUST Capital & Unilever

Thanks in part to consumer scrutiny, corporations are beginning to realize that social responsibility is an important way to help a consumer make a decision.  In fact it might be more effective than traditional advertising.  Rinaldo goes into detail about JUST Capital and their interesting and effective approach and then describes one great new program being implemented by a company as a force for GOOD.

The company Unilever, has started a socially responsible line called the Right to Shower Brand.  The brand offers consumers an ethically sourced line of full body cleansers packaged in recycled materials.  One hundred per cent of the proceeds from these products in 2019 will be donated to organizations that provide mobile showers for homeless communities across Los Angeles, Oakland, and San Francisco.

A program like this one has little negative impact on the profit margins for a company as large as Unilever, but it have a huge benefit for these non-profits and the homeless communities that they serve.  For Unilever, a brand like this one sets a very public example for other companies on simple ways to make socially responsible business choices.

Good Data and Public Shaming

Chinese environmental activist Ma Jun is using transparency and accountability as tactics to pressure companies operating in China to increase their environmental standards. He founded the Institute for Public and Environmental Affairs - or IPE - in 2006, which audits facilities to  pressure major corporations to change by forcing them to be accountable for the process of making a products, including the suppliers and subcontractors that a company uses.

As he has become more successful,  Ma Jun is openly accepted by many companies and has to jump through fewer hurdles.  Even more impressively, Ma has won the trust of China’s leaders over the years, meaning that he has more and more access to them.  Considering that the government mandates and regulates the economy on every level, having influence on both the corporate side and the policy side of the issue makes him extremely effective.  For his accomplishments, Ma has won the prestigious Goldman Environmental Prize as well as numerous other awards.

Finding Happiness in the Face of Sudden Change

Life often takes twists and turns that are unpredictable. To be happy, we have to drop expectations of our lives turning out a certain way. When our happiness is associated with a particular outcome, we’ve created the formula for suffering. This formula even applies to circumstances where we get exactly what we want, such as the dream job, spouse, child, car, house or (input your desire here). Because once we have what we want, our minds quickly shift to either wants or fears: We want more of what we have or fearing losing it.  Check out this blog from Dr. Robert Puff in Psychology Today to read more.

On this episode of Solutions News, we feature a fantastic interview with Women's Campaign International founder and women's rights activist Marjorie Margolies. In addition, we examine the recent collective actions taken by teachers in communities across the United States and how this is leading to long needed change, explore the benefit for profits and society when companies add women to the boardroom and the c-suite, and spotlight local activist Abe Powell, who shows what a difference one person with the right attitude and positive energy can make. We also have some great "didyaknows"!

People Empowering People: Teachers Protest & Strikes have an effect.

As blue collar jobs and manufacturing in general have declined in the US, so has the effectiveness of labor in uniting together to protect workers in the face of management and owners.  Of course systemic de-regulation in industry and commerce and anti-labor “right to work” laws that have been adopted in many states and at the national level over the past several decades have also helped undercut forcefulness of collective action.  Not that this is entirely a bad thing - for organized labor as a large machine can get just as ugly as organized corporate power brokers in grasping and hanging onto power.  

But there’s an interesting trend we’ve been noticing over the past couple of years, a revolt that’s coming from teachers across the country, which is in some ways informed by past organized labor initiatives, but in many ways is also just pure protest and it’s actually starting to have an effect, changing the landscape for our schools.  These protests represent the power of many people working together for a common cause.  We are seeing protests and striking in South and North Carolina.  In Las Vegas, in Oregon. 

Recently, there have been strikes in Oakland and Los Angeles, California and Denver, Colorado.  There have also been statewide protests in Oregon, Nevada, South Carolina, North Carolina, West Virginia, Arizona, Oklahoma, and Colorado.  In many ways, 2019 is becoming the year for successful teacher strikes.  

Overwhelmingly, these strikes are led by women partially because, “Teaching is seen as women’s work.”  Across the nation, 77% of all public school teachers are women and that number can rise as high as 80% in some states.  

These teachers are not just mobilizing around wages.  They protest a lack of supplies and resources that prevent them from offering a quality education to their students.  In the state of Oregon for example, there are only 158 school librarians - less than one per district.  The ratio of students to nurses is 1:5,481 and there are less than half the number of counselors recommended nationally.  Rather selflessly, the real focal point of the protests is that without better wages and resources, it is the children who end up suffering the most, even more than the teachers themselves.

Women taking action by raising their voices against the system are creating enough of a commotion to force the rest of society to listen and change.

Transparency and Balance in Business

Having women represented on the top levels of businesses can change both corporate culture and profit.   As of the beginning of 2018, women made up just 37 percent of management positions and 19 percent of top executive positions.  Women not only less likely to get a top-level corporate job, but they are also less likely to receive a promotion or to even ask for one, though they are often more qualified than their male counterparts.

However, this lack of female representation is actually squandering potential business profit.  

In a study of 21,980 firms across 91 countries, the Peterson Institute for International Economics found that a profitable firm where approximately 30% of the leaders were women could expect a 1% greater net margin than a firm with no female leaders. Among the companies studied, the average net profit margin was 6.4%. 

A net increase of 1% is equal to a 15% boost in profitability.  This result is more apparent when comparing a corporate board with no women to one with women. Catalyst found that Fortune 500 companies with women on the board had significantly higher returns on equity ROE (53 percent), better sales (42 percent), and a two-thirds greater Return On Investment (ROI) than companies with all-male boards.

On this episode of Solutions News, our topics are all about health and well-being: our guest is Dr. James Kwako (KWA-KHO), a family physician with a holistic approach and a remarkable new book, Mobilizing Your Healing Power. We also discuss why Universal Healthcare is a solution whose time has come; how sometimes the best medical prescription is simply more money, and after some great didyaknows, we’ll end the show with some habits we can all adopt that improve health, wellness and longevity

Universal Health Care

The first story this week is about solutions to the current healthcare crisis in the United States. Premiums have been skyrocketing and the price of drugs is many times what it is in other countries, leading to “medical tourism”. The most rational solution to the current situation is some form of universal healthcare. The United States is unique among developed nations in the world because it does not have a comprehensive health care system that helps all of its citizens deal with health care needs. Between 1990 and 2016, the United States health care system has dropped from a 6th place rank to 27th in the world – and it’s still dropping. Several current presidential candidates are proposing a “Medicare for All” type of solution. Critics of these plans point to the political and purported economic challenges to get from the hodge-podge system that the United States has now to some idealistic universal coverage without massive costs and massive disruptions. Rinaldo argues that the transition to a more comprehensive solution for every American, would actually be relatively simple if we’d just put out minds to it, and it would definitely lead to better overall health and much less expensive care as well. Most importantly, it will streamline a complicated system and save money over time.

“Find two bucks and call me in the morning”

The second story this week is about a unique approach to treating illness by actually helping the patients find more financial assistance. Dr. Gary Bloch started the process about ten years ago in Toronto, Canada, working to help treat illness by solving the underlying causes and stresses that exacerbate illness. Especially for low income patients, taking simple steps to help them sign up for social programs they qualify for, but are usually unaware of. In the past year, Dr. Bloch has helped an average of 30 patients a week earn up to $1,700 a year. Other programs are sprouting up across Canada and even some in the United Kingdom, demonstrating that a holistic approach to medicine solves more than the just illness on the surface by focusing on root causes as well as the presenting medical symptoms

Lifestyle choices that affect health outcomes

This week, the Optimist Daily ran an article about how letting go of anger is linked to longevity, health and overall wellness as people age. For our last story tonight, and as a salute to our guest, holistic healer Dr. Jim Kwako, here’s six lifestyle habits that have been shown to help you live longer and better:

• Pay attention to contentment and positivity! Having a positive outlook is linked to health, to better recovery, and to living longer. For example:

1. Learning to deal with anger effectively raises health outcomes, reduces mortality
2. Creating a gratitude practice that gets you in touch with the positive everyday & leads to more happiness and higher health reports
3. Being generous also increases a person’s report of good mood, and good moods are linked to better health and longer life. 

• Practicing stress reduction methods -- including meditation, exercise, laughter, & being in nature - whatever gets your blood flowing, your mind calm, your belly relaxed - keeps you mentally sharp, physically sound and emotionally balanced throughout the lifespan - and helps you live longer.
• Don’t smoke cigarettes - or anything with nicotine. 
• As Michael Pollan says: Eat food, not too much, mostly vegetables. Eating naturally produced, minimally processed foods is linked to longevity in cultures around the world, especially in places that emphasize vegetables, low-calorie proteins and whole grains - Nuts and legumes are also great. And really - don’t eat too much. Lowering caloric intake has been linked to longer lifespans in everything from fruit-flies to humans. Also maintaining a healthy body-shape is linked to longer life.
• Establishing healthy sleep habits, and getting good sound shut-eye is linked to living longer and better.
• Cultivating & enhancing a good social network: Learning how to communicate with the people around you - most importantly family members and other loved ones - in non-defensive, open-hearted, non-dramatic, conflict resolving ways - to is a great way to preserve positive relationships throughout the lifespan, and having close friends is linked to living longer.

The two most important takeaways are moderation and mindfulness. In the chaos of everyday life, focusing on all of these aspects can be challenging, if not impossible. The solution is to focus on taking small steps to make these responsible practices habit over time. And while it might be tough to do for all of these steps, moderation is a safe bet to stay healthy.

Jina Carvalho is Director of Communication for the Glendon Association, a nonprofit organization dedicated to saving lives and enhancing mental health by addressing the public health issues of suicide, violence and disturbed family relations. They fulfill that mission through research, education and training in the mental health field as well as to the general public.  Visit them at www.glendon.org and www.psychalive.org

Ms. Carvalho, was also one of the original founders of the Santa Barbara Response Network (SBRN) a grassroots volunteer non-profit dedicated to offering Psychological First Aid (PFA) and social support for resilient recovery from traumatic incidents including disasters; suicide and violent injuries, especially among the underserved populations and youth in the Santa Barbara. She is currently serving as SBRN's Managing Director. 

www.sbresponsenetwork.org

Ms. Margolies is a global trailblazer in women's rights who articulates the powerful effect women have when they are fully included in every deliberative process.

In 1992, Marjorie was the first woman ever elected to Congress from Pennsylvania in her own right. Marjorie served on the Committee on Energy and Commerce, the Committee on Small Business and the Committee on Government Operations.

In 1995, Marjorie served as the Director of the United States Delegation to the United Nations Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing. At this pivotal conference for women’s rights, 189 countries signed a Platform for Action that pledged to further the rights of women around the world. 

Inspired by peer leaders in U.S. Congress and at the Beijing conference and committed to the work that had to be done, in 1998 Marjorie founded Women’s Campaign International. Since then, WCI’s programs have been helping women find their voices by giving them tangible skills in political leadership, conflict mitigation, economic empowerment and civic engagement.

In 2016, President Obama appointed Marjorie to serve on the Presidential Commission for the Preservation of America’s Heritage Abroad.

In addition to her work with WCI, Ms. Margolies was a journalist with NBC and its owned and operated stations. She was a contributing correspondent to the Today Show, Sunday Today, A Closer Look, CNBC and Real Life with Jane Pauley. Marjorie’s reporting won numerous awards including five Emmys. She also taught at the University of Pennsylvania for twenty years. She has worked as a Woodrow Wilson Fellow, a Senior Fellow at the Annenberg Public Policy Center and received a Presidential Appointment to the VEF Foundation.

She is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania, a CBS News Foundation Fellow at Columbia University and is the author of four books.

Marjorie is the mother of 11 children with 20 grandchildren and one on the way.