Minding Your Business; 403; Mental Health

K-R-W-G-TV presents Mining Your Business, a look at the people, places, events and issues that impact the business and economy of Southwest New Mexico, with your host, Charles Comer. Hello and welcome to Mining Your Business, to show where we explore business, economic development, community resources and events and issues that impact our region. This week on Mining Your Business, it's the holiday season and unfortunately it's a time many suffer from depression. But mental health and behavioral disorders are a year-round concern, and one resource to get help in our areas, Maseo Valley Hospital, Director of Clinical Services, Amory Liscard is here to tell us more about what they have to offer and also the details of a treatment program for a problem just coming to light, self-mutilation. This will be a frank discussion about the issue, so I would like to warn our viewers that

some of the subject matter may be too graphic for children and viewer discretion is advised. And on that note, Amory, thanks so much for coming out. You're a busy, busy person and you made time for us and we thank you very much. Just to let folks know, we met when you came to help us do a local resource follow-up for a national PBS show on depression, and thanks for your contribution already that you've made to the station and coming out. We're going to start out, find out a little bit about you, where did you go to school, and how do you end up working in your chosen field? I grew up in the state of Massachusetts and my mom is a social worker and so is my sister, and I went to school at the University of Massachusetts Amherst and I received my master's degree at Smith College and I have been working in this field for 18 years and for some reason I decided to specialize in self-mutilation and I have found it incredibly fulfilling.

Most people shy away from this field and it's incredibly treatable and many people that suffer from this disorder suffer from it because of the fact that they don't have any other coping skills and with a lot of treatment and compassion they are able to develop coping skills and heal. So we're going to delve into that a little deeper here in a few minutes, but you're with Missy of Allie Hospital, if folks have been around a long time, what do you know about the history of the organization? We have been in the region for over 20 years and we treat both adolescents. We used to treat children, but we don't treat children any longer. We treat adolescents and adults. We also have a chemical dependency treatment center and we have been able to treat many

individuals. We have over 120 beds and have an incredible success rate and we treat individuals from all over the state of New Mexico as well as Arizona, North Dakota. We treat people from webblows, it's really, really wonderful. We have what's called RTCs, residential treatment centers and what those are kind of places where adolescents reside for 90 days, 16, 90 days, sometimes longer depending on the symptoms and we treat individuals with depression, eating disorders, self-mutilation, substance abuse, gang-related issues. Really gang-related issues, what are some of the problems that people who are involved

in that kind of thing come in with? They come in with not only gang-related issues, anger problems, anger, dysregulation, but also depression, anxiety, substance abuse, a lot of problems in the family and we help them to resolve a lot of those issues. No, rarely is it a single causation, right, you know, someone's depressed for one reason or another. It sounds like behavioral disorders and emotional disorders can sort of become very overlapping and entangling and every case is different. We're going to talk about that a little bit more. No, something that is a concern particularly because we just went through an election is healthcare and people who can't afford healthcare, is there still help out there for people who may not have health insurance that would cover services from the Sea of Alley Hospital?

Yes, many of our folks have what's called Medicaid and that's based on their income. Most people that don't have Medicaid will be eligible for some of the services that we talked about when I came last time. And so for most of our adolescents and children, it's not a problem for people that don't have any income at all. They are oftentimes eligible for services through the Department of Health. Okay, so pretty much no one's turned away, certainly because of income. Now something that we're here to talk about, it's not an easy subject, but you happen to be an expert on the field self-mutilation. Something that I actually found out only existed a couple years ago, that's one reason why I mentioned, seems to publicly finally

be coming to light. And again, a very tangled and difficult issue, but you say it's very treatable. Now let's talk about some of the nuts and bolts of self-mutilation. Let's start with what is it? Okay, I'm happy to talk about that and actually I'd love to point out the fact that self-mutilation has been around for years and years and many people don't know, but one of the people that suffered deeply from self-mutilation and suffered so, so much was Princess Diana. She was a cutter and when I say cutter, that is someone that tends to use things such as razors and I hate to use the term, but anything that they can get their hands on, wood chips, razors, you name it, anything that they can cut with. Anything that will open their skin up?

Exactly. They also will do things like bang their heads, they will get involved in relationships that are very self-destructive, they will do very, most people that are self-mutilators are not intending to end their lives and I think that's very important for your viewers to know that. They are not intending to end their lives and I think that is, I really, really need to stress that. What they are intending to do is to cope and I'm not excusing their behaviors. What I'm wanting to do is to allow your viewers to know that they are reaching out for help. So, they will do things like starve themselves, they will do all kinds of things. They may attempt to hang themselves, they will, you name it. But I read this on the internet when I was researching this, they'll hang themselves

or use a news for a very short time, just for a very brief amount of asphyxiation as a lot like the cutting, that pain somehow, they find a coping mechanism in that and so there's so many forms, I also understand people will burn themselves with cigarettes, chemicals. Exactly, yes and I apologize because I drew a blank, some of the other things they will do are, and I don't mean to tell you these things to give people ideas because I don't think that most of our teens will be reading or watching this, but what they'll be doing hopefully parents will be or other helpers. That's exactly what I intended on having a very open and frank discussion rather than giving anybody ideas, more informed those who may have loved ones that they think something is wrong with and therefore giving them the telltale signs, so some other methods that

that's what they do is they will take ice and before they take ice they'll put a lot of salt on their skin and usually they'll do it in visible areas and they'll do it in that area because they want people to notice. It's a cry for help because they don't have the verbal skills to say I need help. So they'll put a lot of salt and then they'll put ice and it will burn a whole through their skin. They'll also take things like rope and pull it, they'll take something like an eraser and rub it back and forth. At Macia Valley Hospital we do not allow erasers, we do not allow them to use salt and ice, we do not allow them to use, I hate to say this, but we do not allow them many people that are cutters or self-mutilators to use pencils because they'll take the sharp end and the

pencils that they are allowed to use are this big, there are golf pencils and they have to sign them out, they'll go like this back and forth, hope themselves, yes and it's very, very sad. They will do anything they can to harm themselves. Now there is an age bracket, I noticed, a demographic that tends to do this, seems to cross racial and cultural lines in the US, but there is an age bracket, who does this? It actually tends to be more common in women, it tends to be more common in teens, there's a term called emos, I don't know if you've heard that. That's a cultural group, it's a young cultural group, like a particular type of music. My daughter is not an emo fan, but she explained what it is, so yeah, it's a lot of guitar and a lot of music about depression and those kind of things, right?

Yes, they were a lot of black, they tend to cut in areas where it's very visible. The patients that I tend to be very concerned about are patients that cut in areas or burn in areas where it's not visible. So there's kind of a continuum of self-mutilators, the ones that I tend to be, if you will, less concerned about are the ones that are doing it in areas that are visible. The ones that I'm extremely concerned about are the ones that do it on their stomachs and their inner thighs. When I see someone that does that, or I have a patient, because I tend to get those patients referred to me for consultation, I tend to think about abuse, and usually I tend to think about sexual abuse. Now, how does this facilitate coping? You've mentioned that many times, and it's a common belief, this is a coping mechanism. It's been determined to use better terms.

How does it facilitate that coping for the cutters? That's a great question. That's a really great question. Most of these folks tend to not have anyone that can listen to them or will listen to them, and so what they tend to do is internalize that they are bad. And I know that that made to the person that's not working in this field. Why would that, this person is a beautiful person, there's nothing wrong with them. They're great, they're bright. Most of these people, and I have a patient right now, I'm working with this young individual, actually, a male, Haya, Q, and I, Q of 140, horrible, verbal skills. And he cuts everywhere, and in places that he has not told his family that he's gay.

And so he has so much shame, and so his way of expressing that he is a bad person is to cut on himself. As we've been working together, and he's been sharing with me his shame, and I've been kind of validating to him that he's not a bad person, and that, you know, the things that he's been doing, and that he's done in his life, that are really, actually, really normal things, normal high school things, are okay. He's actually decreased his cutting by about, I would say, 75%. And can you get someone like that to 100% recovery? Yes. And you have documented cases where these people are better, they came, they didn't understand, they didn't have the communication skills.

So I understand from my research that it's common for this to start, you said, I read four to one, women over men. So four times, more women do it than men, but quite often starts in those adolescent years, where the hormones are going crazy and your body is changing, and I think anyone would say, if they look back, people, basic, you know, basic standard American upbringing with good parents, you know, I think anyone would say their adolescence is the toughest time. Oh, it's awful. So these kids, so do you get a lot of tweens and young teens in this program? Absolutely. What would you say, just percentage wise? I would say as far as self-mutilators, the tweens, and most of our self-mutilators are in that age bracket right now are probably about 60%.

Yeah. So, and is it something with some people, you said lady, lady died, did she cut all her life? Oh, she started cutting at a very young age, probably about the tween age. And continued up until the last days of her lives, most of life? Yes, and she also was bulimic. Oh my gosh. Yes, which is also a form of self-mutilation. Now that leads me, this is just one of those topics that there's so many questions that pour out from your head as you're talking about it. But one thing I really want to make sure to get in before we get into more details about treatment is telltale signs. Now most concerned parents, really trying to keep a good eye on their kids when they're in those formidable years of teens and tweens. But some, there may be parents out there who don't know the signs.

What are the signs that your kid may be cutting, maybe taking part in self-mutilation behaviors? Okay, great question. For many, I would say looking for a youngster that's wearing long sleeves in the summer. So an inappropriate weather, inappropriate clothes for the ones. Yes, withdrawn from the family. Not like most teens want to hang out with their parents, because that's a pretty thing. Yeah, you're usually pretty embarrassed to be seen with them all, right? Exactly. Exactly. A decrease in their grade performance, a change in their friends. Looking out, I think it's really important for parents to look at the friends. Look at the patients I'm used to using those terms. A youngster is hanging around with and just looking for those signs because a lot of

youngsters are kind of bragging about self-mutilation behaviors. Believe it or not, they're kind of proud of it. So there's actually a community of kids out there that meet and greet on the internet and talk about their certain methods and those kind of things. Now you started off the show and I'm glad you did by saying this is very treatable. Yes. What do you do with these people? You get one of these kids in, one of these cutters or self-mutilators. Where do you start by making them feel better? Sometimes you have to often have an eating disorder and those kind of things, but in your words. In my words, I would say I always meet initially with the parents, get a sense of what they've observed because oftentimes we will, the parents will say, you know, I found bloody

towels, bloody clothes, so that's another warning sign. You know, there's a lot, a lot of blood, you know, a lot of hiding the food, a lot of vomit in the toilet, you know, a lot of warning signs. And then meet with the identified person and develop rapport and then work together as a system, work together as a family and develop the fact that it's not shameful, you know, not shame the patient and not shame the person into, there's something wrong with you, you know, that okay, I always say you're doing the best you can because we have to remember that this may be a 12-year-old and they really have limited coping skills. I mean, and I'm not trying to say, hey, go for it, go, you know, cut away.

But the fact is that, you know, they're, they're really, a lot of these kids, their parents are working really hard just to make it in these economic times and these kids go home to empty homes or they're struggling to make it academically. And so I also talk about, you know, what do we need to do as far as, you know, hiding, not so much hiding, but, you know, putting away things that may be dangerous, also having family meetings every night, having individual family meetings, having support groups for kids that are cutting. And if there is another issue like sexual identity confusion or any other issues, eating disorder issues, getting them in support groups. Because that has has a huge impact. Absolutely.

I know, I have, I have a loved one with a needing disorder, 10 or 12 years to recover, but it was a huge part of what helped her recover. Of course, she was on medication and she received professional counseling, but when she knew that she could talk to us, her family, her direct family, about her problems and the things she was feeling, that was a huge breakthrough for her recovery. Have you found that to be the case with these kids? Absolutely. And if there is some, even hint of that, getting a doctor to a psychiatrist to do an evaluation for medication is absolutely essential. Now, we only have a handful of seconds left, share with our viewers what the contact information from Macia Valley Hospital is. Where can they call, what can they do if they think someone they know or they themselves need help?

Okay. Macia Valley Hospital is open 24-7 and we're open every day of the year. We provide free evaluations and regardless of what kind of insurance anyone has, and I just got a call yesterday from a parent that was having questions. I talked to that parent at length, so the number is 382-3500 and all you have to do is call up or just show up. And you guys will give us help and share this book, real quick, the title and the author of this book. You said that could offer some good information to people out there. I don't know if I should hold it up. Yeah, you can. Okay. This is the best book. It is called Bodily Harm and the authors are, well, the best person is to look it up by Wendy later, Ph.D. and this is the best book. It has exercises and it's all about self-injury and it's based on a program in Texas.

Fantastic, and so the book is Bodily Harm and Breakthrough Healing Program for Self-Injurers and Emery Liscard from Macia Valley Hospital. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you for having me. Well, it's time again for our weekly piece. Here on Mining Your Business, it showcases some of the hardworking entrepreneurs and business people in our area. We call it the NYB Local Business Feature. Tracy, Table 24. This business was inspired from my love of the theater and film and it was my major in school with studying theater and I had a dream that one day I would love to own a restaurant and I thought it would be a themed restaurant and an expression that's really common in theater is before you go on stage, everyone says, break a leg for

good luck. So I came up break a leg, break a leg and we went with the theater style theme for the restaurant. That's how this whole thing developed and this is our state entrance. The business was opened June 22nd of 2008 after about a year's worth of planning and studying. We started construction on April of 2008. We opened with a silent opening, we did a soft opening, we didn't tell anybody that we were here because we wanted to do it right. Make sure that we had high quality of food, excellent presentation. The thing with our menu is that we wanted to offer breakfast dishes that were a little more unique and slightly upscale over what other things have been offered in Las Cruces. We have a lot of traditional breakfast dishes and we also have a lot of recipes and breakfast dishes that have been developed by our chefs here that are totally unique and not offered

anywhere else. It's one of our latest creations have been our bundled eggs. This is for the bundled eggs, our special which is a white wine chestnut, a piece of cinnamon to make. I wanted a place that had fabulous service and excellent food and a wonderful price that would be more or less to me a place where my friends could come home and have breakfast. That just about does it for this week.

If you have a question or comment about the show, you can call the mind in your business hotline at 646-7350 or email me at Charles Comer at Yahoo.com. For information on upcoming shows and an archive of past shows, you can log on to www.krwgtv.org. Again, I'd like to thank my guest, Anne-Marie Liscard, from the Sea of Valley Hospital for coming on the show. Thank you so much for watching. I'm Charles Comer. Here's hoping you have a great one. Thank you. Thank you. spiders. Why do I hold you yet again? Swing into action with this master of

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