S1.E20. Not Enough for "The Too Much"—A Conversation with a Psychiatric Nurse About Severe Mental Illness

Latchkey Urchins & Friends

Anne and Alison process a heavy week of the loss of the life of loved one Kevin Elder, who had struggled with severe mental illness and substance use disorder. Anne compares his life with the life of her brother, John Romine. They interview another Kevin, who has chosen to keep his last name anonymous due to the nature of his work with psychiatric patients. Kevin Anonymous is a psychiatric nurse who sees some of the most intense mental health cases at the hospitals he's worked at. We talk about how the care for the people who are just "too much" for society is simply not enough—we are not offering true care to those most in need. We process the grief of having tried to help and love and finding that it wasn't enough. We talk about the strong link between child trauma, mental illness, and substance misuse disorder (addiction).
00:00 Intro with Anne and Alison
44:43 Interview with Kevin the psychiatric nurse
Latchkey Urchins & Friends Website.
What is schizophrenia? NAMI explains.
Audio engineering by Josh Collins.
Theme music is "One Cloud is Lonely" by Proxima Parada.
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Latchkey Urchins & Friends website.
Audio mastering by Josh Collins.
Song "One Cloud is Lonely" by Próxima Parada.
Cover art by Claire Dierksen.