16:38:30 Who will be on interpreting us as we speak. and if you would like to ensure that that she is visible to you, you can work to pin Susan on your screen.
16:38:44 So she is always visible. alright. So with that said, we will be recording the event from now on,
16:38:52 And all of this recording will be available on our website, disability, awareness, union org in the future.
16:38:56 So if and thank you all for coming anything. you would like to get accommodations Wise feel free to reach out.
16:39:03 Just ask us in the room, or reach out via the Zoom chat, and we will make sure it happens for you with that set.
16:39:10 Thank you very much for coming. we. We are very excited to have you here. at the disability, justice, and mental health, intersectionality, panel.
16:39:18 Our goal is to illuminate the resources that exist at Cornell for mental health and disability intersections to discuss those intersections as a matter of social policy and fairness on campus, as well as to look into the ways where some
16:39:30 of the common understandings and definitions of these things may not adequately and entirely take into account the lived experiences of all disabled people.
16:39:40 I want to say upfront that this is not to be; that the disagreements that we have with any individual or any group are not meant to be personal attacks; that disability injustice is something that occurs in
16:39:52 promulgates, without even in the absence of any, in malicious intent, by any individual actor.
16:39:58 And our struck. our focus is to make sure that each individual struggle of disabled people will be understood and put to the forefront of discussions of accessibility and inclusion, and and that these do not at all have to be
16:40:10 in conflict with any one person's moral judgment so with that said we would like to discuss why we're here.
16:40:17 We are here because disability, justice, and mental health are inextricably linked.
16:40:22 The disability. Justice fight to determine. not only accessible and fair standards for all disabled people.
16:40:31 That that not only aligns with mental health, that the struggle to achieve fair and equitable mental health, care and justice and inclusion for all disabled people are things that have common goals and common aspects disability, justice has
16:40:43 so which are not necessarily aligned with mental health, while mental health has areas which are not necessarily aligned or related to disability, justice, but much of their common goals can be achieved together.
16:40:56 And so with that, said, I want to go into a few definitions of both disability and mental health as they exist today.
16:41:03 So what is this ability, according to the cdc and we'll get to the source of this In the second a disability?
16:41:09 Is any condition of the body in mind that maybe the makes it difficult for the person with the condition to do certain options, like activity, limitations, or any interact with the world around.
16:41:19 Participation restrictions. Now the first thing that i'd like to note with this is that I am citing these centers for a disease control much of the relevant academic work on disability occurs within the
16:41:31 sphere of medicine. and that is something that is important to know right off the bat.
16:41:36 But also what is important to note is that this disability is something that is defined in many different ways by many different people.
16:41:41 This is the most standard definition that you may find on the Internet.
16:41:46 But that being said, it is also important to state, the disability is a term that not all people who the medical community may identify as being disabled, identify such a one excellent example of that can be the autistic community some of
16:41:59 whom do face genuine struggles to exist in the world?
16:42:03 But do not necessarily identify as disabled some of whom believe that that label applies to them, and is very important for their common struggle, and others that don't essentially what disability is for our purposes today is going to be something
16:42:15 that an individual identifies as, and that we accept when they identify as it try to do our best at the disability, awareness, union, and Cornell as a whole, not to interrogate people who claim that Status to make sure that
16:42:27 they have the ability to self-identify, as they please, and to respect their request for inclusion and accessibility whenever they may arise.
16:42:37 Now, with that being said, it's important to then go on to discuss what is mental health.
16:42:42 Now again, i'm going to take from the cdc here, and we says that mental health includes our emotional, psychological and and social well-being.
16:42:52 It affects how we think, feel, and act. It also helps determine how we handle stress, relate to others, and make healthy choices.
16:42:56 And here is an important distinction, for mental health and mental illness are not the same thing.
16:43:02 Mental health can be, and I am not an expert, as I should say right now.
16:43:07 But mental health can be something that is perceived as a day-to-day thing.
16:43:10 But your mental health can go up down that it can be good on a good day and down on the bad day with no underlying conditions.
16:43:20 So someone who is experiencing a severe bath of depression may say that their mental health is low, whereas someone else who has been diagnosed with depression may have good mental health on an individual day. mental illness.
16:43:28 Is an entirely different thing. It generally refers to conditions that people have which have then been ascribed to them.
16:43:34 Now, an interesting thing about this is that mental health, including emotional psychological and social well-being is an extraordinarily broad category.
16:43:42 It's something that you everyone has and that's a key point here.
16:43:47 Everyone has mental health. it's not something that only interacts with a few people.
16:43:51 It's not something that only a few people deal with on a daily basis.
16:43:53 It's something just like physical and body health that everyone deals with on a daily basis, and whether it is something at the forefront of your mind at any given time or at the back it's something that all of us, would do
16:44:04 well to pay more attention to. So I want to talk about the ways that we perceive a disability, as it relates to mental health.
16:44:14 In this way. Now there are 2 primary models that people typically use in the academic community to refer to how disability is perceived, and the first one is the medical model of disability.
16:44:26 Now, when you hear that, you might think oh, that just relates to any amount of visibility that requires medical care.
16:44:31 But it's a bit more complex than that see what I mentioned earlier, was the way disability is perceived, and the way disability is perceived as a societal.
16:44:39 If you can have a lot of different connotations according to the University of Oregon, the medical model use disability is resulting from an individual Person's physical or mental limitations and is not connected to the social or geographical environment.
16:44:52 the medical model focuses on finding a cure for making a person more normal.
16:44:58 Now that's the difference. here. the medical model as a form of perception of disability, justice tends to view disability as something that needs to be treated in the medical facility or cured now like we discussed earlier given
16:45:10 the broad definitions of disability that different disabled people may have it here might not be something they're even looking for something that they don't think that they need something that they wouldn't even want if it were available.
16:45:22 To them. There are, for example, people people with mobility issues who do not want a to have any different status and ability.
16:45:31 There are people in the deaf community that Do not believe that they need to be cured and do not, and they do not.
16:45:39 And it is something that is important to state is that the medical model often treats people who do not want these things as meeting them.
16:45:46 It treats, for example, accessibility is something that requires a medical diagnosis, and that's where you'll see in many universities across the United States that in order to receive accommodations or accessibility in your classroom you have
16:45:58 to first have a medical diagnosis, and this is something that the disability, awareness you need for the record does not support.
16:46:05 Generally requesting accessibility is something that should not have access barriers to it, particularly because not everyone has access to the same quality or standard, or even existence of medical care in a given place, but also because broadly it
16:46:20 isn't a a medical diagnosis is not something that necessarily needs to coincide with any given disability. and that is what it's going to bring us to.
16:46:29 The social model of disability. Now, in contrast to the medical model, the social model of disability, use disability as a consequence of environmental, social and attitudinal barriers, and they prevent people from participating in society again our source of
16:46:41 the University of Oregon on that one. and what this means is essentially what you made you as a disability.
16:46:48 What we discussed earlier is being a difficulty doing certain actions, or participating in society, that those things are not necessarily caused by an inherent internal good back.
16:46:58 Those things are caused and said by society's willingness ability and action to make the rest of society more accessible to us.
16:47:06 For example, you may view, for example, mobility issues as a disability, and the medical model may view those mobility issues as being inherent to the person.
16:47:15 However, the social model, Maybe you disability as being created in the environment that a person with mobility issues wouldn't need to necessarily fight for inclusion.
16:47:25 If all of the buildings they had had adequate ability, support that individual things.
16:47:31 A person with mobility issues would not necessarily need to identify as disabled, or might not have those difficulties enacted engaging with the world.
16:47:39 If the they had the adequate societal support, do not need those accommodations now.
16:47:46 Identity and expertise, and this is something, that's extremely important. A lot of people engaging with disability justice do not necessarily engage with disability just because they want certain things, and because they have expertise I for one do not have a
16:48:01 degree in anything disability related. I have lived experience with the issue, but it does not make me an expert in qualified to generalize my experience to others.
16:48:11 There is a vast that amount of people in the disabled community.
16:48:16 There are a wide variety of issues concepts and opinions that they have.
16:48:22 And it's important that we understand that even expertise when not aligned with that lived experience.
16:48:27 There could be clashes And so we wanted to also emphasize that social identities are neither pre-existent in individual lines.
16:48:35 And this is according to the American psychological association that they're neither preexistent in the individual minds nor static entities in the social world.
16:48:41 There's dynamic historical and cultural constructs that are creators of and responsible to collective action.
16:48:49 The terms like disability, terms like mental health. and these are things that broader societal.
16:48:53 You drastically impacts the way. Not only experts deal with them, but the way that these systems that we live under interact within this that in conjunction with expertise, in conjunction with academic studies and discussions in
16:49:06 conjunction with people who's been many years studying these things, that it's also important for the lived experiences and connotations that affect people living under these systems have and that is an extremely important part of any discussion with
16:49:18 disability. So given this I wanted to talk about before we went on to this.
16:49:25 I wanted to talk about the the things we lack in the presentation.
16:49:30 So far we lack expertise. we we do not necessarily have all of the academic justification.
16:49:36 We can do our best to site sources but when it comes to access barriers. Much of what this presentation is is anecdotal, and so it's helpful to have people who are experts in both access barriers
16:49:47 referral appointments and inclusion if you are going to get to the bottom of these things.
16:49:52 And so with that, said I was hoping that we could now discuss
16:49:57 Have a discussion or remarks from Emily Vincent, who is here, who is an expert on mental health access and referrals, who has affiliations with the
16:50:07 Counseling and psychological services on campus and as well as mental health access and referral teams.
16:50:12 And the source I have another is no problem. Would you be comfortable?
16:50:17 So I am Emily. I have a degree in mental health counseling that I caught from Alfred University.
16:50:27 In 2,019 So I also have inspectors in that in terms of personal experience, and actually as identify as disabled because of that and other fatigue related issues in terms of what I do here
16:50:44 at Caps at Cornell. I am the first person myself, or one of the other 3 members of my team.
16:50:51 The first person that you're gonna meet if you ever come into a mental health.
16:50:56 Our goal is to understand what's going on in any given moment with you, and help get you to the resources that are going to be the best fit that can be anything from connection to clubs on campus to having to go to the hospital if
16:51:12 you're in such a dire state. right the most common referral we make is either 2 short term internal services, so like the counselors that we have on campus caps is about 40 people overall including
16:51:25 psychiatrist practitioners, psychologists, other counselors and social workers.
16:51:30 The other things that we may offer are things like workshops or group services.
16:51:36 This semester we had upwards of 15 groups over a variety of different subjects, including disability, status, gender, race, and other mental health disorder. Things like anxiety or depression.
16:51:53 Our access appointments are about half hour long like I said.
16:51:57 We're gonna go over, You know what are you experiencing right now. what difficulties are you having?
16:52:01 How long have those difficulties been around? We might connect you to those mental health services, and then also work to help connect you in the community.
16:52:09 One of my biggest recommendations is for disability services because they can help provide services that we can't in mental health.
16:52:17 Nothing we do leaves the cornell health institution so we're on confidentiality.
16:52:25 Restrictions meaning we are not able to share any information about you.
16:52:28 Even the fact that you came to cornell health we can't share unless you give us explicit permission, too.
16:52:34 So what disability service is allows you to do is to tell them similar things that you would tell us.
16:52:40 But allow them to use that to help make sure that you can receive services in academic settings and in housing or other university wide settings.
16:52:50 So it's kind of a a lot of times in terms of the types of things that people stay on campus, for we might do.
16:53:01 It might be anxiety related, it might be grief related.
16:53:05 It might be just adjustment related. off campus referrals.
16:53:11 Are things that we're thinking about if you're looking for really long term counseling you want to be seen weekly.
16:53:17 Most services on campus last 6 to 8 sessions, or we usually say, about a semester or 2, if we need it.
16:53:24 Anything more than that, We're thinking that a that better fit might be off campus for multiple reasons.
16:53:30 One. They can see you more. You might be able to carry that therapist through all 4 years of college or beyond if you're living in the state of New York, even when you're not here at school, and you may be able to
16:53:41 see that counselor during breaks which we might not be able to offer you, depending on where you live.
16:53:46 Other reasons that we might go off campus are things like disability.
16:53:51 For example, we don't really have anybody here on campus that specializes in autism or in adHD beyond myself.
16:53:58 And I only run these access appointments and a group on campus.
16:54:03 If you want individual services for that, we might be looking off campus.
16:54:06 We may also be looking on off campus if you have more specialized needs. like, for example, we have a lot of students that want services in another language.
16:54:15 We don't have anybody on campus that speaks Korean We don't have anybody on campus that speaks mandarin. You don't have anybody on campus that's pending If you want any of those
16:54:25 things. we might be helping you find somebody off. Get this that can provide that service.
16:54:30 Those are the big overwhelming things with Castle with her.
16:54:37 Get it back to you. Yeah, thank you so much thank you very much for that.
16:54:43 It's great to have better idea of What things are happening on campus, and what resources are available.
16:54:51 I, in my personal experience, and i've gone through the referral process to find a specialist in autism.
16:54:56 Is that a lot of times students don't know where to start. They don't know where to go they don't know who to talk to, and they don't know who would even help them to find out who to talk to in
16:55:05 the first place, it's a lot of googling it's a lot of very stressed and asking questions of professors, and occasionally it's just being very confused in general and for that reason we were thinking that in addition
16:55:18 to in addition to and's fine remarks and very important insight that we might give an example of how of a good first step, if you're interested in mental health care, or if you're interested in accessing
16:55:31 referrals on campus, one online resource which everyone should be able to access either through the libraries or their own laptop.
16:55:38 So emma's going to show us take us through a step by step, bye to booking your first appointment.
16:55:45 If anyone's interested. okay, yeah, so like person mentioned i'm i'm i'm in dau.
16:55:52 So i'm just gonna be walking through how to create I create sorry schedule.
16:55:59 Sorry That's the word i'm looking for it's great a caps appointment, so first you're going to log into my Cornell health.
16:56:07 That's just on the Cornell health website it's just right here.
16:56:11 My Cornell health. It might ask you for your birthday just to verify that it's you, and then once you get there, it's gonna ask you to schedule an appointment, and sit since you're looking for
16:56:21 caps that would be under mental health appointment like i'm just mentioned.
16:56:26 It's going to ask you to confirm that you are a registered student on ronald's. I think our Geneva campus and that you will be physically located in New York State a reason for
16:56:37 this is so that insurance will cover it because a lot of students are on the Cornell health at no plan, and if you're out of state that won't help it won't cover it so that's important that you're
16:56:48 in Ithaca, or on the geneva campus, when you're signing up for this appointment.
16:56:54 Yes, not legally allowed for my.
16:57:02 So we we can see that. Okay, thank you for adding that.
16:57:05 Yeah, and then select the type of caps appointment and leave the leave a callback number.
16:57:13 So like I'm just mentioned the different types of appointments So the first time access appointment to discuss your initial needs.
16:57:18 There's group counseling options that you could select and then the referral appointments to specialists.
16:57:25 If you need, like the long term or for services that can't be provided in the ifhica cornell health, and then the callback number if you're worried about leaving that number it's only for a patient
16:57:37 schedule scheduling and it confidential it won't go anywhere but there, and then find a time that works for you, and your appointment is scheduled
16:57:52 Thank you, great thank you so that's a good way to get started if you aren't sure what a first step to take!
16:58:01 But going to the final health website, and going to that appointments Page is a really good way to figure out what that first step might be.
16:58:10 That being said it's important to sort of take an overall.
16:58:13 Look at what campus resources have to offer in my personal experience.
16:58:18 Again. The resources at Cornell are very, very. There are many different types of things that you can find in Cornell that may be able to assist you in terms of your mental health in terms of your your fight for inclusion and these things are
16:58:32 not mutually exclusive to each other. You can make use of all of them at once.
16:58:36 You can take the one of them at a time and you can check in to see if any of these would be relevance to you.
16:58:45 Now, some of those resources and i'm just going to give a brief overview.
16:58:49 Here are. You have, for example, Cornell help deals with services like psychological services, student disability, services, and other things are just like physical appointments and the like.
16:59:01 You have here resources like the empathy assistance and referral service, which is run by students and gives pure peer mentoring services.
16:59:11 You also have community and affinity groups like the Disability awareness unit which can help you to find a sense of community, or to advocate for causes and inclusion on campus.
16:59:21 Do you believe you should have now? now, in addition to both those Cornell specific resources and peer resources that exist at Cornell?
16:59:28 You also have Tompkins County and ethical resources at large.
16:59:32 Those opportunities are broadly available to students, and you can reach out into the product community for help.
16:59:39 If you find them you need it for example, there are county and local men of help services that can provide a mental health care depending on what insurance you're on.
16:59:48 There are things like the Ethnica Crisis Line and Advocacy Center, which both, with all do extremely important work in the areas of mental health and and broader advocacy.
16:59:58 And essentially they are a resource. They can help Cornell students.
17:00:04 If they find that it would be most useful to them.
17:00:07 Now, beyond all of these. there are also whatever works for us.
17:00:11 If you find something that is beneficial to your mental health that makes you more secure and feel included, where do you find things that provide you?
17:00:20 That accessibility that you desire. then those are vitamins and valid because they either aren't included on this presentation or on a campus website.
17:00:30 The effect on the individual is probably what matters and the effect on what?
17:00:34 If you find something helpful nothing, we say should invalidate that at all.
17:00:40 If you find something that is useful, if you find something cared somewhere else, do you think would be useful to other students?
17:00:46 Those things are valid as long as they provide a positive impact on students.
17:00:50 So with that, said I wanted to give one of those up here resources the opportunity to share both their mission.
17:00:57 And the types of services they provide as a business and overview.
17:01:01 So, Aaron, would you be comfortable doing that? Great.
17:01:05 Thank you very much. Thank you
17:01:21 Hi! everyone! My name is Erin, and I am external coordinator of years.
17:01:27 And also talk more psychology, Major So yeah thank you for introducing here's So i'm gonna kind of expand more on what kind of services you offer.
17:01:40 As well as what our mission is campus. so So this is ears.
17:01:46 We were found that over 50 years ago, and we're an organization dedicated to empowering years to foster more empathetic and connective, and so far we can do more than students mental health involving the training
17:02:01 workshops and outreach efforts. if you realize no more about years beyond what i'm there to talk about today.
17:02:10 Please feel free to look at something here's Cornell online, or you know.
17:02:18 So these are the surface services that we offer. So first of all, I go over what tier mentoring is, which is our main mental health service that we offered to
17:02:34 So pure mentoring is basically hours that offer private conversations with your staff who are trained to offer empathy, active listening and mental health referrals.
17:02:42 So these are informal conversations that could be centered around topics common to the student experience like adjusting to college or grad school.
17:02:52 Stress social connections and I identity so we're unable to provide support for issues like those with the clinical focus, or as soon as had ideation.
17:03:03 Since we are not qualified as metal professionals, but we are also trained in getting students connected to their relevant professional resources.
17:03:09 So please check out our website with the peer mentoring time Slots and corresponding staff members are now available.
17:03:17 So more about the pure mentors themselves. The relationship with the pure mentor.
17:03:23 That has is brief rather than long term. However, since pure mentors each serve at certain time spots.
17:03:32 Anyone can choose to drop by and speak to this same mentor if they wish to continue the relationship and the conversation.
17:03:39 A final note about peer mentoring all staff are trained and required to keep all conversations private, however, under circumstances where the pure mentor believes that the speaker is at risk of harming themselves or others we're
17:03:54 obligated to connect them to emergency and healthcare professional.
17:03:58 And lastly, we are located on the top floor of will it straight?
17:04:03 We have 2 rooms, so private conversations are allowed to take place, and we also don't record anything about the students identity unless they explicitly tell us to
17:04:15 The next service that we offer is training. So we have a lot of engagement for training every year, and basically, training helps the trainees become better at listening to and building rapport with people around them and to support a variety of student
17:04:32 interests, the skills presented in our training. So this can help enhance your purpose.
17:04:38 Personal and professional relationships by improving your empathy communication and listening skills.
17:04:43 So firstly, beginning training has to be completed before enrollment in advance training.
17:04:50 Beginning training is intended for anyone in the Cornell community.
17:04:53 Like students, faculty and staff who wish to develop
17:04:57 The basic skills of listening empathy referral and leadership.
17:05:01 Next advanced training builds upon beginning training to address more specific topics relevant to the college or graduate student experience and and to provide extensive opportunities to practice.
17:05:13 Your skills The curriculum of advance training includes practice, role plays and presentations by campus and community experts on various topics relevant to Well-being and previous topics have include have been
17:05:30 cultural awareness, relationship, dynamics, body image alcohol or drug use, identity exploration.
17:05:39 And more So for more specific questions i'm always we have our website, with like all the information about
17:05:48 So yeah, the next service we offer is workshops.
17:05:52 Like this one. So we promote mental health around campus by hosting workshops and Well, in a lot of this workshops we cover skills like empathy actively and also additional ear skills that someone can choose to
17:06:05 bring into a conversation to for the convey. We also, have case studies that we told to fit organization that requested the workshop.
17:06:17 And finally, organizations are facing. Is that select any of these, any combination of these skills?
17:06:21 How they see fit. So finally, some, if some of you are interested in how you can join airs and be more involved.
17:06:34 These. this diagram shows what kind of what type to be more involved in ears.
17:06:41 So whether your final goal is to become a staff member and Empathy Chair simply develop your empathy skills.
17:06:49 The first thing to do is sign up for beginning training.
17:06:51 So training at all levels is offered, Every semester and more information can be found on our training page.
17:06:58 So. Oh, yes, and so if you would if you're curious as to an empathy terrorism space.
17:07:07 People have to go through 4 h in total of here's true training
17:07:14 And finally, at the end, you are certified to be an empathy chair, which is a point of within your own organization that people can come to if they want someone to provide the empathy and provide active reviews You may also
17:07:29 go on to become a staff member, such as a peer, mentor, or apply for Ears board.
17:07:35 Once you have completed advanced training, although simply wanting to further develop your ear sales, is also encouraged.
17:07:43 So on behalf of ears. Thank you for letting us come in.
17:07:47 Yeah. So a big part of improving the mental health thing I, Cornell, is fostering empathy and active listening, and it is our hope that through pure mentoring training and workshops we can empower everyone to create a caring.
17:07:59 community. Oh, thank you very much.
17:08:09 Hey? Thank you very much to to the fuel from ears.
17:08:12 So one thing that I that I wanted to elaborate on that one thing that I want to elaborate on before we get to the question and answer up period is the ways that you can see that these resources
17:08:28 both supplement each other, and are also work alongside each other, that that if you need support and you don't, and the appointment is too far away, you can't get access to mental health professional when you need it there are things like
17:08:43 the if you could crisis line that you can refer to that that will give you immediate care.
17:08:49 And if you can't and if your situation is not the type that that crisis language handle if is a less urgent thing that you do, you feel like you just need to talk to someone then peer mentoring services
17:09:00 like years, and fill that gap and that in the end.
17:09:04 When you do get to that then when you do get to that first appointment with a with a psychologist, or with a mental health or regular health professional, that that also isn't necessarily the last step that there are other things
17:09:18 beyond that that you can see, and that there are a wide variety and broad diversity of different types of mental healthcare and health care. In general.
17:09:27 You can seek at any given time and then it's always a question of asking for refining.
17:09:31 What you need, and figuring out where you need to go.
17:09:34 But there is always a place you can go to, but to find those things.
17:09:39 And then ultimately, our goal here is to make options for people who who do.
17:09:45 We do identify, disabled who are struggling with their mental health or anything along those lines under.
17:09:52 We want to make sure that the information is accessible to them as possible, to make sure that the barrier to receiving proper mental health, care, be barrier to live in a comfortable and accessible life.
17:10:00 Here at Cornell is never not knowing where to go right it's never not understanding what is available to you, because that is broadly the most tragic thing that can happen when resources are available.
17:10:12 When they are there, when they could save lives, when they could support people when they could make life better.
17:10:17 But they just aren't no when they just aren't made aware of because that is something that would truly be a problem.
17:10:25 And so in doing this, our primary goal is to make sure these resources are more widely available, to raise awareness unintended and to work on, to work on creating an environment where everyone knows as much as possible Now, as a group that focuses
17:10:39 on disability. A lot of our focus is going to be on things like referrals, access to what you need in order to find what can help you the best.
17:10:49 When I and I feel like my personal experience might be helpful here.
17:10:54 When I first went to caps I when I first went to a psychologist in general, it was my mom. it was.
17:11:01 It was my mom and I talked to her, but I never actually been to a normal psychologist that I was not really to. when I did but end up going to one.
17:11:10 I ended up bouncing around psychologist a psychologist. Them were as good as my mom, but they just kept bouncing and bouncing around the different ones.
17:11:19 Until I found one. they're really thick for me and that person went a little deeper than others that I had had had experience with certain people.
17:11:26 And they said, you know what carson a lot of what you're describing here doesn't sound like something that I necessarily deal with on a day to day basis.
17:11:36 Do you mind if I refer you out to someone else?
17:11:38 And I said, Yes, and that's when my search ended I found someone who worked for me, who was going to work with me to to discover certain things.
17:11:47 Who granted gave me a couple of which is horrifying, but did ultimately help me find a environment where I was comfortable.
17:11:56 Help me find a diagnosis which while it didn't lead me to seek a cure. When I when I discovered that I was autistic, it did allow me the capacity to find communities that I felt comfortable in it allowed me
17:12:10 to get the capacity to focus my therapy on things that would be more beneficial to me and more tailored to the way that I think
17:12:17 And it just dropping, made my experience a lot more positive.
17:12:19 And so I think that the one piece of advice that I would have from my own experience for anyone listening to this or watching it, is ultimately, if things are working that doesn't mean that they'll never work that that sometimes finding out something
17:12:33 else finding out what else is available, trying to broaden. Oh, your knowledge of what is possible and available to you, can be a good move to make.
17:12:44 And so with that, said I would like to move on, if possible.
17:12:47 To to our Q. A. section. Now, the way that this will work is if anyone wants to.
17:12:54 First we will say, if anyone wants to share their experiences with mental health, for now on the record on the recorded, are you free to do so?
17:13:03 This recording will be put on our website after this. But if you would like your experiences to be added to the record we would love to give you that opportunity.
17:13:11 If you have any questions you would like to ask on the recording, you will then give you the opportunity to ask those
17:13:18 And then, finally, following that, we will turn off the recording.
17:13:21 Any questions you would like to ask for any discussion you would like to have off the recording.
17:13:26 We will have so first off does what anyone like to share their experiences on the recording at anyone at all.
17:13:37 Yeah, do you? Wanna: Would you like to come up with Yeah.
17:13:40 Wow! Thank you.
17:13:46 Alright, yes, I don't really speak in front of a lot of people, usually.
17:13:54 Hi! everyone my name's will and I guess to kind of start this Q and a session. i'll begin talking, you know, about my experience at the intersection of Mental health and disability especially here, for now I myself.
17:14:08 I i've been I knows officially as having autism spectrum, disorder.
17:14:15 And i've had this diagnosis for quite a while I've told the story a couple of times.
17:14:21 But my when I I was really young my mother in particular, noticed that I was different.
17:14:30 You know I wasn't nor I wouldn't I wouldn't play with other people wouldn't interact with them.
17:14:38 I have younger sister, and she is normal by societal standards. they're probably interacting socially and getting to get.
17:14:46 I would just kind of sit in the corner, and not really kind of just pile of my own, you know, in a way, in a sense.
17:14:55 And this is as soon as we got to like education in school.
17:14:58 This this problem. Well, this problem, I say problems sorry for saying that this this trend could be seen and my mother got worried.
17:15:07 My mother has is a first generation immigrant from Korea, and she was the oldest of 4 people. from my grandfathering grandmother, and she in many ways had to act as a mother for them so
17:15:21 she was more experienced with how kind of grow up, how to interact.
17:15:27 And you notice when I was growing up and I wasn't like that she suspected requirements while that there was something up normal with me.
17:15:36 I haven't really brought up my father here, but he recognized it, but he was a lot more willing to just kind of let it sleep under the rug.
17:15:47 Not really what about it? So by the time I hit elementary school as a 4 fifth grade, i'm sorry I'm not.
17:15:56 This is kind of like the building to that point school was really was really tough for me.
17:16:03 I didn't go to the best school but just interacting with everyone made it difficult, and as time is going on, I think where the intersection of the halt comes is really there you know I I was i'm on the spectrum, and
17:16:18 I had a lot of trouble in the classroom, you know, interacting with teachers.
17:16:27 Most teachers, and really being able to focus on socializing and also just doing well in school.
17:16:33 I think the mental health problems kind of just began there I mean I didn't know what the time, but I think that the seed was kind of selling there, and by the time I hit sixth grade my mother got me officially
17:16:44 10, you know. Carson talked about these tests they make you do in there.
17:16:49 They're a little intimidating mine last for approximately 2 days.
17:16:53 They last the whole 2 days, essentially whole bunch of them I don't even remember where.
17:16:58 But yeah, and That's Why, i've got the official diagnosis and a top really small school after that school's name is outlook in Dallas.
17:17:09 Texas. i'm from Texas by the way classes were very small there. It was very inclusive welcoming caring community, and that did a lot of wonders I would not be here.
17:17:20 If it wasn't for this school so I did well there when I came to Cornell. I went to Arts and Sciences Biggest college here going from an 18 person high school Class Class to Cornell you know not only are the the kids
17:17:40 here pretty capable, but it's a bigger school much That was a big adjustment for me in many ways mirroring how it was when I first kind of out into the world of education elementary school people here, a great you know
17:18:00 like everyone here. And just believe you, Artists Union have been very helpful.
17:18:04 Yeah, I think one of the reasons I really joined is, I really wanted to explore this, and I mentioned my father, and, you know, talk about this whole medical model.
17:18:13 That was a pretty foreign concept to me when I first learned it, because, you know, I had always been taught, you know.
17:18:19 Okay, we need to figure out ways to to to cover this up in a way, not really.
17:18:24 You get to as normal as possible, and this whole societal part of it was really not known to me until I really got to court.
17:18:34 Now I mean my old school output, small, nice, inclusive school, I guess, in a way active to mask it, and it helped me.
17:18:43 But you know, I guess you know I you college in a way as kind of the bridge plane, you know, becoming an adult.
17:18:51 So being able to really see it away from home away from the influence of your family, family, and parents is it's quite eye-opening.
17:19:04 I guess i'm just kinda babble on here so
17:19:11 I think the biggest thing is that for me intersection is is that they're obviously not.
17:19:17 They're obviously tied you know if you if you're if you, if I is disabled and in this world, what we try to be as normal as possible. and if you don't fit into that you know that that can really have a huge
17:19:32 impact it's kind of repeated itself when I first got support.
17:19:37 Now my first semester was really right but you know as I gotten used to it.
17:19:44 Obviously it's it's tough for everybody but I think because of my even a little bit more time.
17:19:52 But you know, not only getting used to the to the hustle muscle of college, especially when my core now, but also getting to know about getting to really learn about these perspectives, and disability is was huge for me, because I I really
17:20:10 I didn't really understand that social the societal part. I was only experienced that I am exposed to the whole medical side of it.
17:20:19 Okay, we need to try and find some cure for you or something.
17:20:23 And hearing about the societal part is was really big for me.
17:20:28 It gave me a whole new perspective. goodbye I didn't think about, you know, and it really helps me.
17:20:34 It helps to empower being a way to, you know. Be comfortable with my disability, and to even use it to my advantage in many ways and to, and it kinda makes me unique.
17:20:46 That sounds maybe a little cliche, but you know I I for me at least, that that's a big part of even being a part of day.
17:20:53 You. it's really a happy to in this short time to expand my horizon on that.
17:20:58 So you know, in the top part. Yeah. So you know, during Covid, my last year of high school and some other stuff it really reached
17:21:10 Reached a climax, reached the peak. there and my first best Here is Great top, and in many ways connected to my on the spectrum.
17:21:19 But it's it's getting better school not exactly is pretty difficult the time it's getting better overall
17:21:35 Thank you very much. Well, thank you very much. I I someone told me saying that I think is this very apropos?
17:21:45 They said, do you know what they do? Do you know what smart people call cliches sometimes?
17:21:51 Is the truth and and I think that that's that's oftentimes that people say things the same thing because they're true.
17:22:00 So thank you very much for that. what anyone else like the share their experiences.
17:22:05 If if not, we can move 2 the question and answer.
17:22:09 So would anyone like to share alright? seeing none We'll? We'll go to some some questions I see we have a little bit of time left.
17:22:22 Oh, as always feel free to grab the pizza that's always the thing.
17:22:24 If I have to walk home with it i'll eat at all but but, anyway, we have one question.
17:22:29 I believe in the chat and then they ask
17:22:34 If if Aaron would be, would be willing to answer this question.
17:22:38 How does yours work to be inclusive i'll disable people in the training and in the peer mentoring?
17:22:44 How would you be comfortable answering that question? Yeah, if you were willing to come up?
17:22:51 Thank you. Thank you for that question, though.
17:22:57 Oh, hi! so Oh, that's a really good question so I was in training
17:23:02 So training is every week for 2 h, and the first hour is kind of like a manufacturer where training staff members kind of people in the ears would go over the skills that are relevant to our
17:23:16 syllabus, and then the second hour we split up into smaller groups.
17:23:19 Where people have a chance to kind of express like that inclusivity that you're asking about.
17:23:25 And we try to like practicals where people can actually use the skills that we teach in conversations to make everybody think, Yeah, I wouldn't say there's any like for Now, I don't think we have any like
17:23:42 activities to like related not really to physically again, because we aren't.
17:23:48 We are not like mental health professionals or a platform to deal with.
17:23:53 Disability specifically. So that is why interfering?
17:23:59 Of course we are there to offer support of course on and and kind of be there with that person, through whatever it is they're going through at cause, as we have mentioned throughout the session, mental health is inherently tied
17:24:12 to disability. we're here to like kind of actively listen to what they might be going through.
17:24:17 Because of the disability, but we are also not kind to kind of help them with the exactly so.
17:24:27 Like, I said before, we are trained to give referrals as well, so we can help you. kind of get connected to the appropriate performance and resources.
17:24:37 Does that answer your question
17:24:42 Yeah, it does. Thank you. part of I guess what I was getting is sometimes like any time that I've sort of had training about like how to be a good listener.
17:24:57 I think it often assumes a very like neurotypical and non-disabled speaker and audience, so it might be really helpful to also incorporate into the training, or, if it's not already
17:25:13 incorporated things like different people listen differently and things like being respectful about people who might not like eye contact and things like that as
17:25:30 It's actually really interesting that you bring that up because So I run workshops that other like other organizations across Cornell campus requests and one thing one skill that we teach that belongs under the
17:25:45 category of additional year skills that we use to convey.
17:25:48 Empathy is acronym called role set.
17:25:52 So the E one of the e's and most it is So Rosa is basically an acronym for kind of physical features that we want to be displaying in order to convey that we are actively the same for a
17:26:05 person. So one of the ease and real estate stands for eye contact. And actually one of the caveats that we teach with skill is that there are so cultural and also person to person like idiosyncratic variations So
17:26:21 For example, we know that some cultures believe that it is appropriate and disrespectful, disrespectful to keep, to maintain too much eye contact.
17:26:30 So we always like, teach our Chinese to be aware of those kind of variations.
17:26:36 But also that is okay to make mistakes, and that if you do, just apologize for it, and then like, make sure that you keep that in mind from there on.
17:26:50 After
17:26:51 I think we have a second question. we have yeah thank you very much.
17:26:56 We Haven't. Second question that says are all of these services available to graduate students.
17:27:02 Do you know, if you could, you could answer that. So all of app services are available to undergrads and grad students.
17:27:09 There are some groups that are run that are specifically grad students only, or specifically undergraduate only.
17:27:15 But for the most part all services at paths are available to all students on the theca or gene by campuses, regardless whether they're a grad student, professional student or undergraduate student thank you and then
17:27:31 as asked for the affinity. Groups via does not have 0 barriers to entry.
17:27:38 If you're interested in engaging with it. anyone can we do not ask for even for you to identify.
17:27:44 Okay in any particular way. We only ask that you'd be interested in the concepts and disability justice, and and committed to working towards a more accessible place.
17:27:55 I have yet to meet anyone who is openly against accessibility.
17:27:58 Sometimes people into a very good job, but that's not necessarily
17:28:04 But but broadly, we believe people we we don't like access barriers, and we don't have any in our club.
17:28:10 But yeah, does anyone have any extra questions you would want to ask on on the record?
17:28:15 If not, does anyone have any questions at this point I I will end the recording?