“You know, parents are so busy, sometimes they don’t even know what they’re feeling,” parent leader Rosalia Salgado said on Sasha-Ann Simons’ WBEZ podcast, Reset, in a conversation about the public health crisis of parental stress. Also on the show was parent and director of Crisis and Support Operations at NAMI (National Alliance on Mental Illness) Chicago, Teri McKean. The three discuss the multitude of challenges and responsibilities that low-income parents face when raising children and making time for themselves and their own mental well- being. Rosalia affirms the healing power of peer-to-peer connection and calls on organizations and government agencies to bring more parents to the policymaking tables to make impactful changes around mental health.
“We get trained with certain mental health trainings and we go into certain communities, and we have conversations. We allow people to be vulnerable,” she said. “It can just really be a space where you can come and share how you’re feeling. And we have found out that it’s working with parents who you have more similarities with, right? So, you come into a low-income community and you’re talking to another low income parent and I feel like that’s been helping parents feel more open to sharing their truth and their stories.”
Listen to Rosalia on the Reset with Sasha-Ann Simmons podcast. (20 mins)
Spanish 
English