We recently connected with Nancy Eigel-Miller and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Nancy thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Can you share an anecdote or story from your schooling/training that you feel illustrates what the overall experience was like?

We are doing mental health prevention training in schools. We train three different audiences: students, staff, and parents. With mental health becoming a larger problem with the general population it is extremely important to teach people coping skills to build their resiliency.

“Thank you for an incredible and rewarding presentation this morning. I received great feedback from the small group in attendance. Your energy as well as putting us outside our comfort zones made the morning even more enjoyable. To watch our Montgomery Fire Chief snatch up a solo cup was priceless!!”–Support Services Director

3/16/2022 – QPR
“Wanted to say it when signing off but got all choked up. You and Christine did a wonderful job. Amazing how you give to others. Thank you! I thought you and Christine did a nice job together and trying to keep it light.
Well your reach spread well beyond the attendees you had last night. I captured some great notes and shared them with my team of peers and leaders in my organization. Almost all 50 people came back with a story of how they have also been impacted by suicide or how the language would be helpful. The support people in this world need today is so real. And you mentioned how hard it is to find good resources. I have a friend who has been looking for a therapist for her daughter for a while. I will give her those resources too. I also told the school how helpful this was. I follow you all on Instagram and have seen how many schools you have supported and I am glad Highlands has gotten involved. I think these should be classes our kids are taught. Ashley -parent

Nancy, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

I lost my husband to suicide in 2008 and spent about two years educating myself about what had missed. It became very clear that mental illness surfaces very young–by the age of 14 50% of mental illness has surfaced and by the age of 24 75% of mental illness has surfaced. Today it takes 8-10 years to get service. I looked at the education in schools and there was very little of that. I created the 1N5 organization to work with schools to put that education in place. Today we work with over 110 schools and 6 universities. We are doing education in self-care, and mindfulness, plus educating about signs and symptoms, resources, and how to have a conversation with someone. We have changed the conversation around mental health in many situations and encouraged people to get the help they need. I am most proud when I go home every night that people are thanking us for what we are doing and we have made them feel more educated and ready to handle the situation they are in.
There is still a lot of work to be done but we have made great progress.

How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?

Covid forced us to totally rethink how we were providing education to schools. We had to convert to digital formats, and continue to hone the message so there wasn’t any fluff. We created short engaging videos that could be used to educate on social media platforms in short packets. People’s attention span shortened dramatically and we had to figure out how to still get their attention.

How do you keep your team’s morale high?

In order to keep morale high, we do a weekly check-ins with the staff at a team meeting. We ask the question how can we help you? It is extremely important to listen to where the pain points are and then take action to solve the pain points. We also try to keep it fun. We work in a very intense space so making sure that we still laugh is very important.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.1N5.org
• Instagram: 1N5.org.stopthestigma
• Facebook: 1N5.org
• Linkedin: 1N5
• Twitter: 1N5.org.stopthestigma
• Youtube: 1N5

Image Credits
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