The Mental Health and Recovery Board of Ashland County continues to invest resources to equip the region’s mental health providers with access and training to ensure the services available to residents are trauma-informed and trauma-competent. A particular area of focus, together with Judge Karen DeSanto-Kellogg, is to bring the principles of trauma-informed care into the Juvenile Court, Juvenile Probation, and those systems working closely with the court. Since Judge DeSanto-Kellogg’s election, she has taken steps to integrate trauma-informed principles into how the court and those interacting with the court operate.

What Does It Mean to Be Trauma-Informed?
A court system that is trauma-informed follows these six core principles:

Safety: Throughout the organization, patients and staff feel physically and psychologically safe

Trustworthiness and Transparency: Decisions are made with transparency and with the goal of building and maintaining trust

Peer Support: Individuals with shared experiences are integrated into the organization and viewed as integral to service delivery

Collaboration: Power differences—between staff and clients and among organizational staff—are leveled to support shared decision-making

Empowerment: Patient and staff strengths are recognized, built on, and validated—this includes a belief in resilience and the ability to heal from trauma

Humility and Responsiveness: Biases and stereotypes (e.g., based on race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, age, geography) and historical trauma are recognized and addressed

How Ashland’s Juvenile Court System Is Becoming Trauma-Informed
To make a more trauma-informed court requires training, conversations, and ongoing education for counselors, judges, social workers, and others who come into contact with juveniles in the court system. Partnering with Sherry Bouquet and Fostering Family Ministries, Judge DeSanto-Kellogg brought in the Honorable Carole W. Clark, Retired Judge of 321st State District Court of Texas, for a two-day training on “Challenges & Opportunities in a Trauma Competent Court System.”

Members of the Board and staff from all three of the Board’s contract partner agencies were present to learn first-hand what wisdom Judge Clark’s team had for our county. The Board also supported the training by offering continuing education to counselors and social workers who attended.

Trainings like these build upon past work throughout Ashland County to integrate trauma-informed care into the systems throughout our area. Five years ago, the Board offered community-wide training on adverse childhood experiences, or ACEs, an important building block in developing a trauma-informed care system. Additionally, Sherry Bouquet and Fostering Family Ministries have been conducting Trust-Based Relational Intervention or TBRI training for several years. TBRI is a critical evidence-based approach that works with persons with trauma histories safely and effectively.

We’re pleased to partner with and support Judge DeSanto-Kellogg’s efforts to address the systemic changes necessary for the courts to become trauma-informed. As Ashland becomes increasingly trauma-informed, we become a more sensitive, compassionate, and caring community where families and the health of our community are both strengthened to the benefit of all.

Learn more about trauma-informed courts in Ashland County or browse our extensive list of resources on trauma-informed care to take the next step in your organization.

There’s nothing like more daylight and warmer temperatures to inspire a fresh outlook and a renewed focus on feeling good. Here are some great ways to take care of your physical, mental, and emotional health as the seasons change here in Ashland.

Aim for at least 5-10 minutes of fresh air daily.
Spending time outdoors is a great way to boost your mood and reduce stress, particularly once it warms up. All it takes is just a few minutes of fresh air to feel rejuvenated. Warm weather is proven to boost your mood and reduce stress. Sun exposure also raises your Vitamin D levels which increases your energy levels.

Insert the outdoors into your daily routine to build a good habit: schedule time after work, on your lunch break, once the kids come home from school, after dinner, or before you head to the office in the morning—wherever you can fit it in!

Find outdoor places that bring you peace. They can be found all around our community or in your own backyard. Take a stroll down Main Street and sit for a while at Foundation Park. Pack a lunch and sit on a picnic table at Brookside Park.

Or go for a greater adventure—the Ashland County Park District has 18 different parks you can incorporate into your wellness plan. Set a goal to visit each one with a friend or family members to experience the joy and benefits of being outdoors.

Increase your exercise regimen.
The US Department of Health and Human Services recommends that adults should do at least 150 minutes of moderate-intensity aerobic exercise each week or 75 minutes of vigorous-intensity aerobic exercise. It can be hard to start up an exercise routine, so look for things that you know you’ll enjoy, like outdoor walks, gardening, bike riding, hiking, or swimming, and ask a friend to join you. The best accountability is a set date and time with a friend or family member who is counting on you to workout with them.

Exercise does more than just help your physical health, it also has been shown to improve mental health. Exercise releases endorphins, the feel-good hormones, which give you that natural high after physical exertion. Plus, outdoor exercise can be as effective as antidepressants in treating mild to moderate depression and anxiety. One study shows that individuals who exercise outside tend to spend at least 30 minutes doing more moderate-to-vigorous physical activity per week than those who workout exclusively indoors.

Declutter your life—physically and mentally.
Spring cleaning is a chance to throw open the windows, wipe down surfaces, and get rid of all the stuff that has accumulated over the last six months. A cluttered physical environment is known to reflect our internal operations, so if you’ve been feeling anxious and depressed, it might help to do some decluttering. Simplify your surroundings for a less stressful home and office working environment.

Even if your external environment is neat and tidy, your mind might still feel cluttered. Many of us think we can multitask, but it turns out that our brains can’t actually do more than one thing at a time. Instead, we’re just flying from one activity to the next, or back and forth again, which can be absolutely exhausting. Multitasking can lead to a whole bunch of unfinished projects, and that heap of work means more stress and anxiety. Try to complete one project at a time. This will give you the boost of accomplishment you need to keep going through the rest of your projects.

Decluttering can feel overwhelming. Start small. Take decluttering projects one room or one space at a time, limiting the amount of time you commit to the task each day. While you are decluttering your physical space, don’t neglect your mental space. Carve out at least 15 minutes to sort through your thoughts and feelings. Meditate or pray, journal or read, or go on that short hike outdoors we talked about above to clear out the jumbled thoughts.

Get a good night’s sleep.
With all of the fresh air you’ve taken in throughout the day and your more rigorous exercise routine, you should sleep like a baby! Not enough sleep can contribute to poor mental health, especially if you consistently get less than 5 hours of sleep a night.

To get a better night’s sleep, create a bedtime routine that helps you power down, so to speak. Turn off screens, take a bath, or read a book to reduce the stimulants that can keep you awake, and create a soothing sleep environment in a cool, dark and quiet room. These measures can help you go to sleep and wake up refreshed the next morning.

Make a diet change.
The fuel you put into your body is just as important as the activities you do to use that energy and recharge at the end of the day. Your brain benefits from a healthy diet just as much as the rest of your body. We all know we’re supposed to eat a balanced diet, but the temptations of fast food and packaged meals can often spoil our best laid plans.

Dramatic dietary changes can seem overwhelming and aren’t always sustainable. Instead of trying the next fad diet, identify one way you can make a diet change this spring. You might try to eliminate soda, reduce your caffeine intake, drink a smoothie at breakfast, eat one salad a day, cut red meat, or add one vegetarian meal to your diet each week. Once you’ve incorporated one of these changes into your diet, try to add another. This gradual approach allows you to feel accomplished and intentional instead of overwhelmed and stressed (remember that thing about multitasking?).

Set screen time limits.
The amount of time we spend in front of screens can have a draining impact on our mental health. Find the settings for your phone and impose some limits for screen time. You might be surprised by how much extra time you can find in your day for more life-giving activities simply by imposing screen time limits.

Take time to care for yourself.
Make space to meet your personal needs. Loving yourself is a part of being able to love others well. If you feel exhausted, anxious, depressed, or overwhelmed, it’s tough to be able to give more out of that empty tank. Schedule time to do some of your favorite activities this spring. Read a book, sit outside, take a walk, watch a good movie, or find some other good way to waste time…spending time doing activities you love is time well spent.

Sometimes, all the self-care in the world is no match for the circumstances that are impacting your mental health. If you feel like your ability to cope isn’t holding up, there’s help and hope. Connect with one of the MHRB of Ashland County resources to take steps toward a healthier and happier life.

These days, many of us turn to social media for news, community information, updates from family and friends, entertainment, or even just a break from our daily routine. Social media is a technological tool—it isn’t good or bad in and of itself.

Like any tool, social media can have positive and negative outcomes. It’s positive when the photos of a loved one bring a smile to your face, you feel up-to-date and in touch with what’s happening in the world, and that string of videos from your favorite social media family makes you laugh. It can turn negative when the photos from a friend showcasing an event you weren’t invited to make you feel left out and alone, or the onslaught of news leaves you feeling sad and helpless, or the string of videos of other people’s lives makes you feel envious and discouraged.

These emotions can be stirred up in any of us, whether you’re just entering your teen years or you’re well into retirement, brand new to social media or a veteran user of various platforms.

According to the Loma Linda University Institute for Health Policy and Leadership, “There is a growing body of literature showing a correlation between social media use and depression, anxiety, eating disorders, sleeping disorders, and/or suicidal tendencies.” While social media has done an important job of raising awareness of and removing the stigma around mental health, it’s important for social media users to be aware of how their engagement with Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Snapchat, and other platforms is affecting their mental health.

Warning Signs Social Media Is Adversely Affecting Your Mental Health
There are several indicators that your social media usage may be negatively influencing your mental health. If you find yourself spending more time online than with your “offline” friends, if you are unfairly comparing yourself with others’ lives, if you experience feelings of “FOMO” (fear of missing out) and find yourself frequently checking social media to see what other people are doing (even while you yourself are out doing things), social media is likely negatively affecting your mental health.

Whenever you have a spare moment of solitude, do you find yourself immediately going to social media? Without quiet moments in our lives, we miss out on moments of self-awareness or self-reflection, which are essential for our growth as people.

If social media has become a distraction from your everyday activities, like work and school, to the point where you can’t pull yourself away to focus on the tasks at hand or get enough sleep at night, it’s probably time to re-evaluate your social media consumption.

If social media leaves you feeling more anxious, depressed, and lonely after you’ve used it, this is a clear indication that it’s time to pull the plug on your social media for a while.

Steps to Modify Your Social Media Usage for Improved Mental Health
For some people, cutting ties entirely from social media might be the best option, but many folks can improve their mental health by taking simple steps to change their relationship with the various social media platforms.

Reduce Usage
According to the same article cited above, “A 2018 University of Pennsylvania study found that reducing social media use to 30 minutes a day resulted in a significant reduction in levels of anxiety, depression, loneliness, sleep problems, and FOMO.”

That might seem like a drastic cut to some of us, but simply being more mindful of how we’re using social media can drastically impact our relationship to it. This means being more mindful of when you are using social media and setting boundaries that provide more time and space away from your smartphone. Consider leaving your phone in another room to charge at bedtime, setting up screen time limits, disabling social media push notifications, limit the frequency of your social media checks, or remove social media apps from your phone. Any of these steps can help you control the amount of time you spend on social media.

Know Why You Use Social Media
When you know the intention behind your own use of social media as well as other people’s use of social media, it can “right size” your relationship with the platforms. Define for yourself what you expect out of social media—do you go to social media to find specific information, or are you simply going to social media out of boredom? Knowing your motivation can help you discern whether you’ve crossed over into unhealthy social media interaction.

Invest in Offline Relationships
Social media can be a fun way to connect with people we don’t get to see every day, but when we allow those relationships to become substitutes for “real-life” connections, our mental health suffers. Social interactions with humans in the real world keeps us happy and healthy in many different ways. Make time each week for lunch dates, coffee, or get-togethers with friends and family, where the emphasis is on spending time with each other without the necessity of phones. Reach out to old friends or make new ones by joining a local club. Engage with the people around you at work, at the grocery store, on the street, etc. Even these small connections can lift your mood and help you feel more connected to the rest of the human race.

Avoid Using Social Media to Self-Diagnose
With so many people helpfully promoting and advocating for mental health, it can also be tempting to use that information to “self-diagnose” your own mental health. This might not be the best way to analyze how you are feeling—you might be able to name what you might be dealing with, but often this self-diagnosis misses helping you to cope with the negative emotions you’re experiencing. If you feel like you might be suffering from mental health challenges, it’s important to talk to a counselor or qualified mental health professional. These individuals are trained to help you not only name what you might be experiencing but find appropriate tools and resources for you to use to heal and recover from underlying causes.

The Mental Health and Recovery Board of Ashland County has a network of these mental health professionals available to help you through whatever challenges you’re experiencing. Visit our website for more information.

The winter doldrums can bring any of us down, especially as winter drags its slushy feet into the months we expect to be like spring. With the decreased amount of sunlight and chilly weather, we tend to hunker down in the house for long stretches of time. A cup of hot tea and a warm blanket is great comfort, but after a while, being cooped up inside can wear on your emotional, physical, and mental well being. Here are some tips for how to make sure your whole body stays healthy and fit during these long winter days.

Eat a Healthy Diet
Your immune system has a lot it’s up against during the months we spend indoors. Providing your body with the right amount of healthy nutrients keeps your whole system in tip-top shape. Choose a diet filled with fruits and vegetables, lean proteins, and whole grains, and try to avoid eating lots of sweets and processed foods.

Foods like mushrooms, garlic, citrus fruits, herbs and spices, yogurt, apples, bananas, onion, and chicken soup all support your immune system.

Stay Active
When it’s cold out, the idea of bundling up and going for a walk might not sound that appealing, but exercise is an important part of your ongoing wellness. Even a short, brisk walk can go a long way toward keeping you fit.

The Salvation Army Kroc Center in Ashland has an indoor track that is open to the public for free, or even take a stroll around the local Home Depot or Walmart to get your steps in. Thirty minutes of physical activity a day can help you maintain or lose weight, improve your mental health, reduce anxiety, lower blood pressure, and improve your quality of sleep, according to the National Institute of Health and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Get Outside
Okay, it’s cold, but winter is also one of Ohio’s most beautiful seasons. Explore the paved paths of Freer Field or Byers Woods, or strap on your mud boots and tromp around Sandusky Woods and other serene parks in Ashland County. Just being out in nature is proven to improve our mental and physical well being.

Reduce the Spread of Germs
With cold, flu, Covid, and other viruses more rampant during our winter, indoor months, good hygiene, hand washing, keeping your distance from others who are sick, sanitizing frequently touched surfaces, and avoiding touching your face can reduce your chances of getting sick and spreading illness in the community.

Stay Hydrated
Water is our body’s purification system. It flushes our system of waste and toxins through urination, perspiration, and bowel movements. It helps us maintain the right body temperature. It lubricates joints and protects sensitive tissues. But in the winter, because we’re not as active, we might not notice being thirsty or dehydrated as easily, and older adults don’t sense thirst as well as younger people, which also can cause dehydration to go unnoticed.

The amount of water adults need varies from person to person, but the best way to ensure you stay hydrated throughout the day is to drink a glass of water with every meal, when you take medication, and when you are socializing.

The U.S. National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine recommend about 15.5 cups (3.7 liters) of fluids a day for men and about 11.5 cups (2.7 liters) of fluids a day for women, keeping in mind that about 20% of our fluid intake comes from food. The old recommendation to drink 8 glasses of water a day is a reasonable goal.

Make or Listen to Music
Studies have shown that listening to music over a long period of time has a cumulative effect on our mental health, reducing levels of depression. Another study says that listening to “feel good” music for just five minutes can make you feel happier, more satisfied with life, and more joyful.

The effects are even greater when you are actively making music. Singing, dancing, and drumming all release endorphins and can alter your mood. So, turn on your favorite tune, sing along, and get your moves on!

Be Creative
Sign up for a painting or ceramics class at the Tin Can Chandelier. Pull out a sketch pad and pencil. Write a poem. Journal. Bake. Knit. Whittle a stick. Creativity is another natural mood booster that can reduce stress, lower anxiety and depression, and improve overall satisfaction in your life.

Read a Good Book (or Series of Books)
The days are long, especially these cold, winter days, and while it might be tempting to sit for hours binge watching your favorite Netflix series, it might not be the best choice for your mental well being. Reading, on the other hand, has been proven to sharpen your cognitive abilities, reduce stress, and lower levels of anxiety and depression. Find a good series or pair up with a neighbor to share a good story, and then get together to talk about it (now you’re socializing and reading, two things that are good for your mental health).

Connect, Laugh, and Be Grateful
Make time for friends. It doesn’t have to be fancy, just invite someone over for a cup of coffee or tea, or meet them out at Downtown Perk, Goldberry Roasting Company, Vines Bakery, or one of our amazing Ashland restaurants. Socializing is good for your mental health.

And laughter, especially laughter with a loved one or friend, is indeed good medicine. But so is gratitude. Incorporate a habit of gratitude into your life, and you’ll discover that gratitude is a natural fuel for joy, and joy a natural fuel for more gratitude. Instead of a downward spiral of anxiety and sadness, it’s an upward spiral of joy and gratitude.

And Get Enough Sleep
Sleep needs vary from person to person and from each stage of life, but most adults need around 7-8 hours of sleep a night in order to function well. Go to bed and wake up around the same time each day, even on the weekends, to keep your body in rhythm and fully rested.

You can make the most of this cold weather season and keep healthy at the same time. For more mental health resources, visit the Mental Health and Recovery Board of Ashland County.

Journalist and author Sam Quinones documented the growing drug problem in America in articles, interviews, and in his most recent books of narrative nonfiction, The Least of Us: True Tales of America and Hope in the Time of Fentanyl and Meth (2021) and Dreamland: The True Tale of America’s Opiate Epidemic, which was selected as one of Amazon.com’s Best Books of 2015 and winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award. The Mental Health and Recovery Board of Ashland County is thrilled to welcome Quinones to Ashland as the keynote speaker for our RSVP Conference.

Quinones has a history of immersing himself into the setting of those whose lives he covers to fully understand what their experiences are like. He lived in Mexico for 10 years as a freelance writer, covering stories on the country’s politics, immigration, gang members, and taco vendors. While in Mexico, he interacted with drag queens and recovering drug addicts, street gangs and congressmen, polygamous Mormons and promoters of the Tijuana opera scene.

Following his stint in Mexico, Quinones worked from 2004-2014 as a reporter for the L.A. Times covering immigration, drug trafficking, neighborhood stories, and gangs. Out of this season came his award-winning book, Dreamland.

Dreamland garnered much recognition when it was released. The book catalogs the explosive impact of addiction on communities across the country. Combining his abilities as a storyteller with his fact-gathering expertise as a reporter, Quinones deftly narrates the catastrophic consequences of prescribing the highly addictive painkiller OxyContin in the 90s and the massive influx of black tar heroin throughout the nation, and how these two collided to ravage towns across the U.S. to this day.

Quinones’ follow-up book, The Least of Us: True Tales of America and Hope in the Time of Fentanyl and Meth, which was published just last fall, documents the next stages of the opioid epidemic. How has the situation evolved, and what is being done in communities hit by addiction, mental illness, and homelessness? The book investigates how drug use has been transformed in the last few years, particularly how the synthetic drug fentanyl is infiltrating communities and destroying lives.

To write The Least of Us, Quinones hit the road again, to investigate Mexican drug traffickers and the towns across the United States that are rallying with fierce hope and relentless faith to rally around those who are most often forgotten and discarded by society, “illuminating the striking truth that we are only as strong as our most vulnerable.”

Quinones will speak at the MHRB of Ashland County’s annual RSVP Conference on March 30, 2022. Mark your calendars and come prepared to be challenged and inspired by hope for the future of our communities.

Register for the RSVP Conference today and watch this short clip to learn more about Quinones’ most recent book:

When traumatic events happen in our lives, it can be difficult to move forward. Trauma impacts our physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual health, and without the guidance and support of our families, mental health professionals, and our community, we can resort to unhealthy coping mechanisms to handle the damage trauma inflicts on us.

The Mental Health and Recovery Board of Ashland County works closely with several systems in Ashland County to assist families and young people impacted by trauma. To help individuals impacted by trauma, these systems use a trauma-informed strategy called Trust-Based Relational Intervention (TBRI).

What Is Trust-Based Relational Intervention?
TBRI is an attachment-based, trauma-informed intervention that is designed to meet the complex needs of vulnerable children. Using TBRI, parents, and guardians can learn how to help children develop resilience following traumatic events.

TBRI uses three different principles:

Empowering Principles to address physical and environmental needs,
Connecting Principles for attachment needs and engagement, and
Correcting Principles to disarm fear-based behaviors.
By following these principles, families can understand better why a child is behaving in such a way and address that behavior with empathy, compassion, and the tools to meet the needs of that child.

Connecting Principles
Trauma can disrupt our ability to connect with children, and the disruption can come from both directions. Connecting Principles invite the adult in a relationship to analyze what they bring into various interactions with their children that might be impacting the health of that relationship and offer guiding strategies to build healthy attachment between a parent and child.

When an interaction with a child isn’t going how you hoped it would, it’s helpful to take a step back and be mindful of how you’re feeling in this moment. Our own physical and mental well-being impacts our ability to interact well with others. Are you hungry? Are you tired? Are you distracted?

Just as our present circumstances can impact our interactions with children, so can past events. Did something happen to you in the past that is triggering a response in the present moment? What does your own childhood tell you about the behavior you are currently experiencing?

There’s so much more encircling every interaction we have with our children than just this one conversation. Mindfulness strategies help us assess what is going on in our own lives and in our own past that may be contributing to the tension of the moment.

In addition to Mindfulness Strategies that can help you be more aware of the added dynamics between you and your child, Engagement Strategies are practical tools that can help you connect with people and form healthy attachments.

Engagement Strategies are easy things you can try today to connect with the kids in your life. Strategies like valuing eye contact, behavior matching, playful engagement, healthy touch, and authoritative voice are all tools you can use to create connections.

Empowering Principles
Our physical environment plays a significant part in how we respond and recover from trauma. Empowering Principles contribute to this process by addressing a child’s environment and physical health to make sure these needs are met.

Ecological Strategies acknowledge the challenges that trauma poses to a child’s ability to transition from one task to the next in their day and in their life. These strategies establish an environment that allows children to be successful and heal by providing structure and familiar, comforting routines. This scaffolding establishes rituals that become points of connection and attunement throughout their day.

The external environment addressed by Ecological Strategies is matched by the internal health needs addressed by Physiological Strategies. These strategies help a child’s brain and body excel. Research shows that over 85% of children from hard places have some sort of sensory need beyond that of a child who has not experienced early developmental trauma. Therefore, understanding how to interpret behavioral outbursts as possible sensory needs and then meet those needs is key in providing felt safety for our children.

TBRI recommends that children should eat a protein-rich snack every two hours, drink water consistently, and have a sensory-rich experience at least every two hours. This routine helps create stabilization in a child’s brain and body, which limits behavioral meltdowns and emotional outbursts.

Correcting Principles
When behavioral problems arise, TBRI provides a framework for correcting that behavior. It employs two strategies: Proactive Strategies and Responsive Strategies.

Frequently, a child’s behavior has to do with how a child has learned (or has not learned) how to get their needs met. Our children need to be taught the skills they need rather than be punished for not knowing the appropriate manner to behave. We can lead a child to develop those appropriate behaviors by adjusting our own approach to correction.

Proactive Strategies are taught to children during calm times when there isn’t a behavioral problem, and Responsive Strategies provide tools to parents or guardians when a child is in the middle of having a behavioral outburst. These tools offer research-based methods to calm a child and teach them skills to eliminate problematic behaviors in the future.

One approach to this strategy is the “re-do.” When the behavior isn’t what you expect from them, this provides your child a chance to try the behavior again in a playful and engaging way.

For example, your son yells, “Get me juice!”

You might respond with, “Whoa, buddy! Are you asking or telling? Why don’t you try that again, please?”

This approach avoids escalating the situation. No one is in trouble, your day keeps moving forward, but we have taken an opportunity to rewire the brain around the correct way to do things. It is far better to emphasize and practice the right way of doing things than it is to dwell on the wrong way.

TBRI is a powerful model for helping our young people recover from trauma and grow into healthy young adults. To learn more about TBRI and what it entails you can check out the Karyn Purvis Institute of Child Development’s website and YouTube channel, read The Connected Child by Drs. Purvis and Cross, or attend the Hope for the Journey simulcast training near you.