Summary: Michele Hart is a licensed clinical social worker and the co-author of <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Mental-Health-Emergencies-Recognizing-Handling/dp/1578266742/&tag=authorhour-20" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Mental Health Emergencies</a>. More people are suffering from mental health illnesses than ever before and with so much stigmatization surrounding mental health – many of us find it difficult to speak out. Today we talk about how to help the people that you love and that you work when they’re facing mental health emergencies like depression, anxiety, substance abuse, eating disorders and suicide. We discuss the importance of self-care, listening and how to be an acute listener for those in need.<br> <br> <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Mental-Health-Emergencies-Recognizing-Handling/dp/1578266742/&tag=authorhour-20" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"></a>Get Michele Hart’s new book <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Mental-Health-Emergencies-Recognizing-Handling/dp/1578266742/&tag=authorhour-20" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Mental Health Emergencies</a> on Amazon.<br> Find out more at <a href="https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/549575/mental-health-emergencies-by-nick-benas-and-michele-hart/9781578266746/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Penguin Random House</a>.<br> <br> Charlie Hoehn: How did you get started?<br> Michele Hart: My journey started about 25 years ago. I’ve always worked with youth, and my sister in law had a traumatic experience happen in her life at the time. She was kidnapped, and we went through FBI and many agencies. This was a year-long process.<br> As I was moving through the process, I realized that the only person really that helped was a social worker.<br> That’s when I made the determination that I wanted to be a social worker. I wanted to be that person that could break through all of the red tape. Break down all of the barriers and give people access, get information, while helping them and supporting them emotionally.<br> <br> She did that for me and my family, and it turned out okay and everything worked out. But the only thing that stuck with me was the social worker that helped me through this. From that point on, I started college and a bachelor’s degree and couldn’t get enough of social work. That led me to my career for the last 25 years.<br> Charlie: What is your specialization?<br> Michele: I’m a licensed clinical social worker and I have been an LCSW for the past 18 years. I am employed as a middle school social worker doing therapy in groups in the school. We’ve expanded this mental health framework into the schools have decided this is needed within their own buildings. I have the opportunity and the privilege to be that person.<br> Writing Mental Health Emergencies<br> Charlie Hoehn: How did you come up with the book’s idea?<br> Michele Hart: The beginning of the Mental Health Emergencies is an amazing story that brought Nick to the place where he felt this book was needed. Nick is not a clinician by trade. He was a QMHA and working as a business director at the agency I worked at.<br> QMHA is a qualified mental health associate, which is somebody who is not really licensed to do therapy. However, he found himself time and time again being in the first responder position because clinicians are busy in a small world community.<br> That’s where I met Nick, and through his experience (which is the opening story in the book), he decided that this is something everybody needs to know. When he approached me about the book, I agreed wholeheartedly. This is the question that’s always brought to me and I find myself answering it over and over again, so why not put this in written form and let people have it.<br> The idea was Nick’s, and I jumped right on board and offered the clinical perspective. I helped with firming up from a clinician’s point of view, how can we help people.<br>
