The end of one journey is just the beginning of the next.
-Joseph S. Marshall, III
Three years ago, with the COVID-19 pandemic raging and the social unrest after the murders of Breonna Taylor and George Floyd, I created an outlet where I could speak with other experts about how these issues impact the mental health of our children and families. Our podcast, “In My Backyard,” gave us not only the opportunity to discuss these issues but offered comfort and hope to those struggling.
Over the course of three seasons, our podcast discussed a wide range of topics, including children’s mental health and loss of learning during the pandemic, the impact of race and mental health, incarceration of the mentally ill, the realities of domestic violence, exploring links between mental illness and mass shootings, just to name a few. Our podcast guests provided a wealth of knowledge, expertise and awareness that helped shed light on issues that can happen to any one of us.
That was the goal of the podcast – by focusing on issues in our own backyard, we hopefully made it easier for struggling children and families to get help. And, hopefully, we are kinder and more supportive of one another.
And with much gratitude to everyone who listened to our podcast or joined us as a guest, we have decided that it is time to end our podcast run. We are happy to have been able to provide a resource during a time of great upheaval and isolation. We hope you enjoyed this series. We enjoyed creating it for you. Thank you for listening.