TAY Virtual Wellness Center Takes on Bullying

The MHASF Virtual Wellness Center is organized by the Transitional Aged Youth [TAY] Action Team. This is a free opportunity for youth [ages 16-26] to connect with their peers and engage in presentations geared toward assisting TAY in their transition into adulthood. Topics will include but are not limited to professional development, support in pursuing education, life skills, mental health & wellness, and more. The next presentation is Tuesday [9.27.22] from 4-5 PM [PDT] via Zoom in collaboration with MAS-SSF’s TAY advocacy members. These teams will be sharing tips and resources that will keep young people safe from bullies, helping to understand student rights.

MHASF sat down with TAT facilitator, Mimi Mier-Rosales [they/she/he], to discuss their work in TAY advocacy, all goings-on at the Virtual Wellness Center, and the future generations of mental health.

What is the Virtual Wellness Center?

The Virtual Wellness Center is part of the TAY Action Team, and it came about as we were doing advocacy [to create] a physical wellness center. We wanted that to be in San Francisco, and we were having some challenges with that. Amidst COVID, and a lot of things being virtual, we thought about what we could do. So with that, these services we wanted to be available to youth. We thought of having a virtual wellness space on zoom—there would be presentations, workshops, and also just activities. The idea being a space where youth could come together and connect with each other. It could help with isolation, but also learning more about the services that are out there for youth specifically around mental health.One of the biggest goals of the Virtual Wellness Center is assisting TAY in their transition to adulthood—helping with career planning and decision-making; furthering education and support with college; wellness, both physical and mental, things like that. A lot of the time, these subjects aren’t explicitly taught to youth. Some young people also might not have parents who have experiences with insurance, and the parts of adulthood that a lot of people have to learn on their own. We wanted to create a space that was free and pretty accessible where youth can access that knowledge, along with getting support from us as a team and other youth who join the Virtual Wellness Center.

How much effort of the Virtual Wellness Center is designated to helping TAY navigate social systems?

Yes, specifically school and the workforce, but also just life skills that are needed—like I said, insurance, rent, mortgage. There’s a lot of terms that I still don’t understand and a lot of folks have to try to learn those things themselves. It’s applicable to anyone, really.

How has the Virtual Wellness Center helped young people already?

It’s helped youth learn more about what services are out there. Another part of the Virtual Wellness Center is that we will invite other organizations or other experts on topics to present. So, for example, when we first launched in January of 2022, one of our first sessions was with an intuitive eating specialist. It was about nutrition and having a healthy relationship with food and your body, which was a new concept for me. I had never heard of what intuitive eating was. So you get to learn about these new concepts or different services available across California.It also helps with connecting with each other. I feel like with the whole lockdown, and everything being virtual, a lot of folks felt lonely and isolated. Even if you’re getting on a call with folks that you don’t know just being around other people who are like you—similar in age and experience—can help with that loneliness. We’ve also had some sessions around like workforce development. So we’ve done some resume building, cover letter building, sharing how important networking is. The TAY Action Team was there to support the youth who join that session, and we were all offering our support to help folks build their resumes, giving tips and whatnot.I feel like It’s helped youth in many different ways by socializing, learning about what’s out there. And also just learning more about the topics we do cover, like mental health. There’s so much to learn about mental health. I feel like folks have a pretty general understanding, but there’s always more that we can learn. We’ve explored topics around the language that you use when talking about mental health, and folks who struggle with it. And how you can have more language that isn’t so ostracizing, and things like that. So that’s how I would say that the virtual on the center has helped youth already.

What sort of challenges are young people facing these days?

From my perspective, I would say that some of the biggest challenges youth are facing these days
are their own mental health and well-being in general. It’s something that is affecting us right now, with the state of the world. I feel like with youth—and their struggles—a lot of the time they’re brushed off, or not taken as seriously because they’re young.Even me personally, I’ve been told a lot, ‘Why are you stressed out? You don’t pay bills,’ or this and that. There’s so many different things that can affect you and that do affect youth. I feel like adults
aren’t always super considerate of that. Having an understanding from adults about how important our mental health is, and how prevalent mental health challenges can be, no matter your age. That is a big challenge.But I do see it getting better, especially nowadays. Another challenge, I would say, is accessing services for youth. I know that there are a lot of services out there, especially in San Francisco, which is a great hub for a bunch of different resources. Being able to find those resources can be a big challenge.

Are there any upcoming events at the Virtual Wellness Center to get excited about?

Yes, there are two upcoming events for the Virtual Wellness Center that I’m excited about. This month, at the end of September we’ll be having a session in collaboration with another TAY action team. So to give a little bit of context, there are about fifteen TAY action teams all across California in different counties and cities. The TAY action team we’ll be collaborating with for September is the Sacramento TAY action team, and they are with an organization called MAS-SSF. Their focus is the Muslim American population, and they will be giving a presentation about bullying.This time around, though it is actually catered to youth and adult allies [adults supporting TAY mental health]. This session will be sharing about student rights: when it comes to experiencing bullying, how to identify bullying, identifying the difference between harassment and bullying. There will also be tips for parents on how to support their children. That session will be on Tuesday, September 27th [9.27.22] from 4-5 PM [PDT].Then in October we’ll be having a SOLVE session [Sharing Our Lives Voices and Experiences], and it is a stigma elimination program. We try to highlight that recovery is possible, to provide hope for those who might be currently struggling with their mental health. So we talk about stigma, and then we have folks share their story with their mental health struggles, and how they overcome it, and what they’re doing today.That will be happening on Tuesday, October 25th [10.25.22] from 4-5 PM [PDT]. There’s one registration link for every session, and you can choose which date you would like to attend on that registration link.

Is the TAY Action Team involved in advocacy?

Our current involvement with advocacy is mainly around a state bill called Care Court, and we’ve done we’ve also supported and/or opposed other bills [related to mental health]. We will usually write a letter of support or opposition as the TAY Action Team, and then we will send that out. A lot of our advocacy in the past couple of years has focused on trying to get a TAY Wellness Center running, and so we’ve done two council meeting presentations to folks who work for San Francisco City and work in City Hall to share what our efforts are, get their support, but also any type of insight.Currently we have been advocating to oppose the Care Court Bill.

What is the Care Court Bill? 

Care Court is a bill that would essentially leave hospitalization for mental health conditions up to a judicial group. People could receive involuntary hospitalization, for their mental health challenges. They can also court order medications. So pretty much people would be forced to take medications that they might not want to take, and/or be in treatment that they might not want to be in.
When I read about Care Court and learned about it, the first thing that came to mind was conservatorship, where your autonomy is completely taken away, and pretty much given in the hands of somebody else to make those treatment decisions for you. and of course they are advertising it as something that’s helpful.

How does the TAY Action Team cut loose? 

On the first Friday of every month our team members come together, and GrubHub is provided for everyone, so that we can all virtually eat together. If we were meeting in person we would have food available. There’s many things that we do during the social hour. We’ve had times where we just talk, and you know, have fun, and then other times we’ve watched movies together on Zoom and we’ve played games, like JackBox or Skribblio.So that’s of course a designated time for us to have have fun and socialize, but even during our general meetings that we have, or our one on one check-ins, we’ll laugh and talk to each other about our interests. We talk about shows that are out, movies—we’ve talked about tattoos and piercings, which I love, cartoons like my background. So we do try to keep a good balance of having fun and being serious and professional in our advocacy, and our members are really good at that. They’re super professional and dedicated to their work, but they also know how to have a good time.
And last, but not least, we do have a slack channel that the TAY Action Team uses, and then we have multiple channels on there to socialize, share opportunities with each other, or resources. We share pictures of our dogs or fun memories that we had. So yeah, that’s how the action team likes to wind down and have fun.

Thank you. Thank you for taking the time to talk to me and share info out there, and thank you to anyone who’s watching, reading, or listening.