Kinder Series 2010
Thomas Merino
The Glassell School of Art is proud to present a series of exhibitions at the Kinder Morgan Building in downtown Houston. The series features artworks by Studio School faculty and students, highlighting the depth and variety of courses that the Glassell School offers.
Each exhibition is on view in the building's lobby at 1001 Louisiana Street. Open Monday through Friday, 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. For more information on this exhibition series, contact glas...@mfah.org or 713.639.7500.
The Kinder & Braver World Project: Research Series (danah boyd and John Palfrey, editors), is presented by the Born This Way Foundation & the Berkman Center for Internet and Society at Harvard University, and supported by the John D. & Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation.
Objectives
This working paper series publishes short papers that synthesize existing peer-reviewed research or equivalent scholarship and provide research-grounded insight to the variety of stakeholders working on issues related to youth empowerment and action towards creating a kinder, braver world. The papers grow out of different types of research (e.g., social science, mental health, medical, legal) and are aimed at different audiences (e.g., youth, parents, teachers, school boards, religious leaders, policy makers). It will be developed in phases, and over time will cover a wide range of topics related to youth empowerment and the development of kindness and bravery. The first phase, intended to provide insights to the new foundation, involved topics related to Youth Meanness and Cruelty. The second phase focuses on Youth Movements for Social Change and The Role of Youth Organizations (see the call for papers).
We welcome feedback on these materials. Submissions, feedback, and other related queries can be sent to: kbw-s...@cyber.harvard.edu.
Die Kinder (The Children) is a six-part British television political thriller miniseries, written by Paula Milne and directed by Rob Walker, that first broadcast on BBC2 on 14 November 1990.[1] The series, which starred Miranda Richardson and Frederic Forrest, follows housewife Sidonie Reiger (Richardson) as she tries to rescue her children, who have been kidnapped by her ex-husband, a former radical activist. She enlists the help of private investigator Lomax (Forrest), as they find themselves caught between her husband's past associates and an international array of security service operatives.[2]
The series co-starred Hans Kremer, Sam Cox and Derek Fowlds. The series aired in the United States as part of PBS' Mystery! strand of programming. The series has never been released on DVD.[3] A novelisation of the screenplay by author Gavin Richards was published on 25 October 1990, three weeks prior to broadcast.[4]
Rachel Fellowes:
Hello and welcome to Better Being with me, Rachel Fellowes. I'm the Chief Wellbeing Officer here at Aon, and I'm passionate about resilience in the workplace, and it's linked with performance and wellbeing. So, today, only around 30 percent of us globally identify as resilient. This has a huge impact on our mental and physical health, as well as organizational productivity, agility, innovation, and workforce engagement. So, in this series, I discuss what can be done about the issue with thought leaders and subject matter experts. And we all dive into what actions we can take to build and support resilience at the individual, team, and organizational level in the modern workplace.
In this episode, I'm going to be talking very specifically about mental health in the workplace and how to tackle the stigma that's still associated with this area of ill health. And we know that companies more and more are talking about this and taking it seriously. And I've even come off a meeting today with a CEO asking, "I'm really keen to do something, but how do I get there? What does it mean?" Et cetera. So, we're going to dive into all of that. So, Aon's wellbeing survey released earlier this year showed that 83 percent of employers now have a wellbeing strategy, up by 25 percent from 2020. However, the problem is far from solved.
So, if we take a step back and look at things like the World Health Organization, they estimate that at least 15 percent of employees or colleagues are experiencing symptoms of mental health conditions. If you then place this in the context of a specific country, maybe look at the statistics of the American Psychiatric Association reports; that's a long title, employees with unresolved experiences such as depression now escalate up to about 35 percent, and their impact on the economy can be framed as at least 200 billion a year.
And having said all this, this is based on statistics that we know. And I'm about to introduce a guest, David Beeney. David is a mental health advocate, an expert, and a campaigner and founder of Breaking The Silence. So, even within that title, Breaking The Silence, is data therefore we don't yet know because people are hiding this issue. David has a business dedicated to helping others consider, including businesses, how better to understand the issue of mental health and what to do about it. So, I am really looking forward to this conversation because it's so timely and so needed, and I'm especially looking forward to David's view because his insights are so unique on this particular topic.
David Beeney:
Thank you, Rachel. It really is great to be here today. Yeah, for those who don't know me, my name is David Beeney. I spent 36 years working in magazines and newspapers in the UK. But throughout that 36 years, I had a big secret, a really, really big secret. And what was my secret? My secret was I was battling in private with my mental health. Even I'm surprised when I look back at my life, Rachel, that nobody knew about it, nobody. I'm sad to admit that includes my ex-wife for 28 years, my mates down at the pub, and certainly nobody I worked with knew about my constant battles with panic attacks and anxiety. But back in May 2016, my life changed forever when I outed myself for the very first time about my mental health, and it's proved to be one of the best things I've ever done in my life.
When I first shared my story, it resonated with more people and at a deeper level than anything I've ever done before. However, Rachel, a number of people came up to me and said, "Can I be honest with you too?" And I said, "Yes." And they said things to me like they would never ever share with their employer their true mental health because they felt it would impact on their career. And the more and more people I spoke to about my mental health, the more people basically said to me they didn't trust their employers. So, I made a big decision back at the beginning of 2017 that where I wanted to focus my energy was on helping employers to become kinder. I wanted to help employers to create cultures in their workplaces where every single employee would feel really safe to be honest about their mental health.
And that decision back in 2017 has led me on a hell of a journey since then. And I feel very lucky and privileged to do the sort of work that I do. Within the UK, I work with the Royal Military, I'm helping the Navy to get rid of their macho culture, to make it easier for our sailors to be honest about their mental health. And I'm lucky enough to work with some huge brands like Google, like McDonald's, like Samsung, like Sainsbury's, and it's great to be with yourself here today at Aon. And thank you very much today for inviting me to come along to this podcast. Thank you.
Oh, okay. So you start to say, "I wonder what David is going to do with this combination." How does it translate into something of a unique perspective? And I know you talk about, when we were chatting ahead of today's call, about having this unique perspective and there being three parts of that. So, can we start there? And then, I'll definitely want to come back to the personal story as well.
David Beeney:
Thank you, Rachel. Where I believe I'm very lucky, it's like I've worked all of my life to do what I do now because I certainly never set out to do this. And I wear three different hats, and I think my work's quite impactful because I bring those three hats together. And what I mean by that, firstly, because I'm someone who's suffered for nearly four decades in silence with my mental health, I think it makes me very authentic when I'm talking about challenges with a stigma in the workplace because I know what it feels like to suffer in silence.
Secondly, I am a qualified mental health counselor. I qualified about 10 years ago now, and I still practice therapy every week. So, I guess that gives me the credibility to talk about mental health itself. And thirdly, when I look back at my media career, I wasn't a traditional sales director. I've always been somebody who's been passionate about creating cultures where people flourished. And as I say, I think I'm now bringing those three things together to try and help businesses to create cultures in their workplaces which are kind.
Rachel Fellowes:
So, you've mentioned kind and that's not the first time, and I'm going to just park it for a couple of questions because it's actually quite an interesting concept. Language is so important, but it's an interesting word that isn't necessarily used in the workplace. So, we'll come onto that. But just to build on then some of the elements you've been touching on around mental health and your unique perspective. And then, even some of the theory about how does that help us flourish? And in my language, I might say, be more resilient. And I think as you've hinted, that dialogue is quite mature. Some of the research there is quite mature. But again, the insight is only from the people that have been as bold as you. There's still this undertone of stigma that prevents people coming forward that we can really dive into.