Psychologist helps spread mental health awareness

Mental Health Awareness Month

SAN MARCOS – By the time you finish reading this article, three people will have committed suicide. In the United States, there are 130 suicides per day. In 2020, 45,979 individuals committed suicide, according to the CDC.

These numbers are what concerns psychologists like Dr. Hildy Dinkins, who is at the center of Gary Job Corps Center — a facility located on a former military base in San Marcos.

The mission of the Gary Job Corps Center is to help young people ages 16-24 throughout the state of Texas improve their quality of life through vocational and academic training aimed at gainful employment and career pathways.

“It's basically 16 through 24. There is a certain criteria that the federal government, because it's a federal government program, sets out,” Dinkins said. “It’s supposed to be low income, there's different things. And then they work on a high school diploma or GED if they don't have one. And then they learn a skill. So, there are three clusters.”

The residents are required to learn a skill to have access to these services; some of these include skills such as construction, medical and human services. In addition to those skills, the Job Corps also has advanced trades.

So, if students complete a regular trade and they want to do some advanced training, they can.

Dr. Dinkins works at the onsite Wellness Center at Gary Job Corps, helping provide mental health services to the residents and staff. A considerable part of Dinkins’ job takes place during the month of May every year.

May is Mental Health Awareness Month, and during this time, Dinkins finds ways to help Gary Job Corps residents break the stigma surrounding mental illness.

Dinkins started out as a music therapist, but wanted a career that she found more mentally stimulating.

“I was hanging out with the doctors, the psychiatrist and the psychologist and I just felt some kind of kinship with them,” Dinkins said. “I went on a marketing trip for the place I was working in to visit the psychologist and she was like, ‘You should become a psychologist.’ And there's this new school that just opened and she turned me on to it.”

Dinkins goes on to state that she needs to write this psychologist a letter for changing her life that day.

“And so, I did it; I was 30 and became a psychologist. And it's been great,” Dinkins said.

That one interaction with a psychologist helped change Dinkins’ career path and eventually led her to the Gary Job Corps Center, where she can educate residents and provide them with tools to get help with their mental health.

“We need an action plan; awareness is the first step and then what are we going to do after awareness? Something must happen and change, so that people have access to these services,” Dinkins said. “There's a lot of people with mental health conditions or mental health issues, but they cannot access services for different reasons.”

Awareness is the first step in addressing the stigma around mental illness, and that is what the month of May is dedicated to.

“A lot of this month’s observation is to help destigmatize. It's kind of cool to have a therapist,” Dinkins said. “There's a lot of people who are working all over in every industry and taking antidepressants. It's just that we don't know. For example, I could be working with you. And if you hadn't told me, I might have never known that you had a mental health condition.”

The color for Mental Health Awareness Month is lime green, which Dinkins has displayed proudly on her education tools and activities that she is using this month. For those Gary Job Corps Center residents, she helps provide services for those who are struggling with their mental health.

The Gary Job Corps has a wide range of mental health services onsite, including psychiatrists that come in a few times a week, full-time social workers and psychologists who can provide short-term care so residents can continue or start their medications.

“Most people are already coming to us diagnosed with something. Occasionally, we have someone that we're seeing for the first time, but mostly, they have alerted us and told us before they come and given us their special paperwork,” Dinkins said.

During the month of May, Dinkins and staff host activities that help get the residents aware and educated about mental health, such as workshops, bingo, remembrance rock painting and an art show where the residents will have the opportunity to submit their own artwork.

Gary Job Corps also partners with entities such as the Hays-Caldwell Women’s Center and Bluebonnet Trails for Mental Health Awareness Month.

“They [Hays-Caldwell Women’s Center] are doing three groups here with our students right now: Healing Trauma Through Art, Loving Relationships about healthy relationships, then there’s one more, which has different topics every week, like, 'What is consent?'” Dinkins said.

“The biggest thing is that people get help when they need it,” Dinkins said. “And there are so many people.”

If you or anyone you know is thinking about suicide, contact the National Suicide Hotline at 988.