Medica's Dan Abdul shares mental health journey in award-winning video
In award-winning video, Medica executive Dan Abdul shares his struggles with mental illness and its impact on his family members. Dan Abdul, Medica's chief information and operations officer, has shared his personal and professional struggles with mental illness in a company-wide video for Mental Health Awareness Month. The video, produced by communications staff at the Minnetonka-based health insurance company, featured Abdul's personal struggles and impact on his family members. Missy Durant, CEO of Medica, said the video aims to break the stigma of mental illness and inspire others to share their own stories. Abdul, an Army veteran, said this was the first time he'd been so public about his mental health at work and that being open about his struggles provides healing for him and others.
公開済み : 10ヶ月前 沿って Andy Steiner の Health
In his professional life, Dan Abdul, Medica chief information and operations officer, is known by colleagues as a hard-working technology and operations expert. But recently, he blended his personal and professional lives when he participated in a company-wide Mental Health Awareness Month video highlighting his struggles with mental illness and its impact on his family members.
In the video, produced by communications staff at the Minnetonka-based health insurance company, Abdul talks about his mental health struggles, and his wife and two young daughters also share their perspectives. The video recently won two accolades at the 45th annual Telly Awards, an international competition judged by leaders in video platforms, television, streaming networks and production companies.
Missy Durant, Medica chief people officer, said that she and her team members thought Abdul’s story could help his colleagues feel more comfortable being their true selves at work. “We continuously strive to create an environment that is inclusive and safe, and where our employees are heard and supported,” she said. “Dan’s video not only aims to break the stigma of mental illness but invites others to have the courage to share a story that gives others hope.”
For Abdul, an Army veteran, the decision to participate in the video is part of a larger journey of recovery from mental illness that includes volunteering as a member of NAMI Minnesota’s In Our Own Voice program. But it was the first time he’d been so public about his mental health at work.
“I realize how healing and important this was for me and for other people,” he said. “People come up to me in tears after my talks. Being open about my struggles provides healing for me — and it also hopefully provides a path to healing for others.”
Recently, I spoke with Abdul about his personal journey of recovery, and what it feels like to talk about his mental health at work. This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
MinnPost: What inspired you to participate in this video project?
Dan Abdul: We have a number of employee resource groups here at Medica. I’m the executive sponsor of our veteran employee resource group. We were having a conversation at one of our meetings about mental health in the veteran community. This happened to line up with a month-long period where Medica had decided to shine a light on mental health. A number of people in our organization were sharing tidbits about their own experience and being vulnerable. I just decided to share my experience. One thing led to another and the next thing we know, we were making a video.
There is something both powerful and courageous about someone telling their mental health story. Because there were a lot of people in our organization already telling their story, it was just me in my role stepping forward.
MP: Can you tell me more about how your military service affected your mental health?
DA: I was in the army for 7½ years as a flight medic and a medical professional in a Blackhawk Medevac helicopter. During one of my active duty deployments I suffered some fairly serious injuries. That was the culmination of some of the traumas I’d seen. I was diagnosed after the injury with PTSD.
I was in a coma for a week. I knew something was going on shortly after I regained consciousness. Once I came back physically, I started realizing that, emotionally, I wasn’t back. I was asked if I wanted to see a mental health professional. I said no because at that time I felt that if I said yes I would end my military career.
For the first couple of years after the injuries, I went through the motions. Eventually, I talked to a psychologist, a psychiatrist. I took the medications. The one thing I did not do was talk openly about what I was going through with anyone else. That created additional stressors and challenges in my life. I couldn’t talk about any of it without being extremely angry. The only way I could talk about it was with a trained professional. That led to a suicide attempt. It was a random fluke that I survived.
MP: When did you finally decide to talk more openly about what you’d been through and how that impacts your mental health?
DA: One of the things I decided after going through an inpatient and an intensive outpatient program was I had to get myself to the point where I was open about my mental health. I didn’t want to wear that mask anymore. I started to talk about my challenges publicly and openly. It was part of the treatment goal that my psychologist and I came up with.
First of all, I knew I had to talk to my family openly. I didn’t have kids at that time. It was really just my wife and my sisters. Eventually, I became a NAMI speaker. Now I go to groups and organizations and tell my story.
MP: Why do you think it is important to be open at work about your mental health concerns?
DA: I’ve had a lot of thoughts about that. There were a number of conversations that happened before the Medica video. In fairness, there were already videos about me out there before the Medica story was filmed. There was one running on TPT for a while, but it was different for me to do something that would be shared in the workplace.
One thing that made me feel safe was watching other team members do that. Knowing the type of organization that Medica is, that’s something we really leaned into. It creates more of a sense of comfort.
MP: Does talking about your mental health at work help you to be a better worker?
DA: Yes. In a couple of ways. One, when I don’t disclose my mental health issues openly at work, it bubbles up. Say if I’m having a bad day from a mental health standpoint. If I just say, “I’m not feeling well, I’m going to go home and take a break,” then when someone asks, “Do you have a cold?”, if you’re not being open, you’ll probably end up making up a story and lying because you don’t want to shock that person with the truth.
Doing that over and over makes it feel like you are walking around with this mask on. Once you are more open about your mental health it starts to feel OK to say, “I am not feeling the best emotionally today.” The fact of the matter is that people are OK with it.
The second reason I thought it was important to be open about my mental health at work was that for the longest time I felt that my whole experience of being in the military was a waste of my life in many ways. Having a way that you can use that experience to contribute to your community and those around you, the positive impact it has on other people, makes me feel more empowered.
MP: How did you share the video at work?
DA: We rolled it out at an employee town hall. It ended up on social media. I underestimated the impact it would have on people. We had mental health professionals on standby for employees who wanted to talk afterward. You don’t want to just throw it out there and not leave resources. The number of people who took advantage of that, who walked into my office and started to openly share their stories with me, far exceeded anything I could have expected.
MP: In the video, your daughters, ages 12 and 9, share their feelings about your mental health struggles. How did you and your wife communicate this information with them?
DA: Everything has to be age appropriate. One of the things I wanted to make sure was that if they grow up and have any mental health challenges themselves they feel less stigma. I want my daughters to feel comfortable seeking help. We started at a young age having only the most age-appropriate conversations. Only my older daughter knows about the suicide attempt. My youngest daughter doesn’t know yet.
MP: When you were growing up, how did your family talk about mental health?
DA: I don’t think my family was negative toward mental health in any way, but it was not something we ever talked about, either. I think every set of communities has some layers of stigma about that. I faced several layers. First, there is something about being a man; you are expected to be tough. Add to that the fact that the African American community as a whole has another layer of stigma around mental illness. And the military has another layer of stigma. I had to break through all of those layers.
MP: What do you hope your colleagues, friends and family will learn from this video?DA: I want it to be a story of hope. That was the most important thing to me when I agreed to this project. In addition to that, I also want to create an environment where we just have less of a stigma about mental health, in general. I tell people, “If you thought I wasn’t smart before you heard my story, you will still think I’m not smart after you hear it.” The mental health part doesn’t add to or take away from who I am as a person. Just like when a person has diabetes, their diabetes doesn’t affect their ability to be a good person. We all have these unconscious biases that we need to break down. I want to do that with this video.
トピック: Social Issues