Ep 39: How to Talk About Mental Health in Classrooms and with Friends with Mental Health Pioneer, Ross Szabo

Mental health is important, talking about it is hard and that is exactly why my guest, Ross Szabo is consistently sought after as a go-to teacher on the topic. It was awesome having my friend in the diner and we kicked things off chatting about Pennsylvania diners and circus fries. We then took a classic James hard left and we talked about how Ross got into doing mental health work and the time he tried to take his life in high school. He told me about rebounding from bullying and being labeled from sharing his story. There were some of the role models who helped him early on that I loved hearing about. I then asked him why Physical Education is taught in schools but Mental Health Education is not. One of the reasons is because mental health is often approached from a reactive place, and that is something that needs to be changed. Ross told me some ways teachers can bring mental health work into the classroom. We then shifted focus to men and mental health – what happens in adolescence that needs to be undone later.

About the Guest:

Ross Szabo is an award-winning pioneer of the mental health movement. During his 8 years as Director of Outreach at the National Mental Health Awareness Campaign, he helped create the first youth mental health speakers’ bureau in the country and personally spoke to over one million people. He is currently the Wellness Director at Geffen Academy at UCLA and CEO of the Human Power Project. He has spoken to over 2 million people about his experiences with mental health, written 2 books and created a curriculum that is used by over 200,000 students. He also knows how to track lions in Botswana and enjoys running, but never runs from lions.

Connect with Ross and learn more:

Website: http://RossSzabo.com and www.humanpowerproject.com

Instagram: @rossszabo

Twitter: @rossszabo