WMH Season 2 Ep 12: Mental Health Among Diverse Populations in Las Vegas
This is a transcript of Watching Mental Health Season 2, Episode 12 which you can watch and listen to here:
Katie: Hi everyone. Welcome to another episode of Watching Mental Health, and I'm very excited for today's episode because we're going to have somebody on who I have been following for a long time and I've really watched her businesses flourish and flow here in Las Vegas. And so I'll tell you a little bit about, her name is Dinisha Mingo. She is a Las Vegas native like myself, and she grew up from humble beginnings. She has over 10 years of experience working hands-on in behavioral health with diverse populations. And in 2016, she started Mingo Health Solutions. And after that she founded Solutions of Change, a nonprofit that provides free therapy and support services. In 2017, Dinisha enjoys building her team and serving the community. And that is really evident by the way that she's been recognized. In 2021, she received the Women of Distinction Award by Nabo. She was also recognized as a top 40, under 40 by Vegas Inc. In 2022. Dinisha is a servant leader and she believes in being the change that you want to see in the world, which is exactly what I am all about as well as being the change that you want to see. And so today we're going to talk a lot more about therapy here in Las Vegas therapy amongst diverse populations, which is one of her specialties and how she is making a difference in the Las Vegas mental health space. And so with that, let's go ahead and bring on Dinisha Mingo, welcome to the show!
Dinisha: Hi, Katie. Thank you so much for having me. Thank you. The wonderful introduction.
Katie: Thank you. I'm so excited that you're here and like I said, I've been a fan of you for a long time. I've followed solutions of change for a long time and I've really seen the amazing work that you're doing. So before we jump into any of that, first just tell me in your own words a little bit more about who you are.
Dinisha: Oh man. I'm a person. I really just think of myself as just myself and even being in my roles. I have to remember at times Ray, how people might respond differently due to my titles or things that I've done. But I'm a person, I'm a human. I'm a believer, I'm a servant first, but I know that one of my gifts is leading. I'm a lover. I'm fun. I'm pretty well rounded. I have a lot of interests that people don't know, and I'm a healer and a helper.
Katie: Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. And you're a Las Vegas native too, which I love because you've really seen, I think the city grow what our problems are, but you also know the community that is here that does exist. So why did you decide to start Mingo Health Solutions back in 2016? Almost 10. That's eight years ago now, so long time.
Dinisha: Yeah, we actually celebrate our ninth anniversary in March of next year. So yeah, thank you. I'm like, we almost at that 10 year mark. Excuse me. It's so funny. I never really envisioned myself having a business like this with a team, but when I got into behavioral health services, I just fell in love. I actually was planning to go to law school, had always had a love of psychology and law, but found myself in this field and loved it. I loved the impact I was making on an individual level with families, children and adults working in clinics. And just throughout that I continued to grow in my skills and saw that I had a natural knack. I think within my first year of doing this work, I had three people say, you should have a business. And I was like, what a business. I'm just learning.
But I think they saw a natural knack for leadership and the understanding of our services. And the more I found myself in leadership roles with other organizations, I fell in love with being able to now help others help others. But I also saw some disparities. I saw some things that I didn't think were representing a standard of excellence in terms of treatment, lack of training, and it didn't seem like some of the people that I was surrounded by were as caring about those pieces as I was. So I found myself at a crossroads, and I don't want to say I have a business in this field, although I love the work. So I tried to get out of it. And for the first time in my life I went on a job interview and I didn't get the job, and I was like, okay, God, so what are we doing? And he said, okay, start MHS. And I said, well, what if I do? And then it was more like, well set a standard of excellence in behavioral health, especially for minorities and among minority providers. And we did.
Katie: Yeah, absolutely. And you touched on a really important point there. I don't know if the stat is still this, but I think it's probably close to it. Last year I read that it's less than 5% of mental health professionals are African-American or people of color. And so there's just so little, I think access for people to get treatment by someone who maybe has that same cultural background, who understands where they're coming from. Have you seen that? And it seems like you're really trying to break that mold.
Dinisha: Yeah, I mean, when I started doing the work and even being out and advocating through MHS, lemme use my words correctly, I knew I had a business, and so I knew that I had to still have a broad audience for my business to flourish. But what happened was, and I wanted to make sure I created programming that always still honored those needs for access. But I never saw my business as being predominantly only for minorities or with only minority providers, but the way people flocked. And when they would see me on and say, oh my God, you're a black person. You're a black woman, you're talking about this. Can I come? Can I come? People calling to see me? I was like, oh, I knew it was so much greater than just that stigma that I was trying to break and raising that standard of excellence. So I think the business side of me thought I needed to have a two angle approach, let me get some cash pay high paying clients. How could I have a multiple? But that just wasn't it. I think the heart of why I did it flourished. And interestingly enough, because there was a shortage, I didn't intend to only have minority staff, and I don't have minority staff. We have a diverse staff, but I saw so many students wanting to do their practicums with us and so many providers and clinicians who started coming because they were like, we saw that this was a black owned business and they wanted to be a part of that. And it wasn't just black people, it was other people of color, Latinos and Asian people, even sometimes women, and you don't realize how that representation influences people. I come from a background where I didn't necessarily have a ton of representation in the environments that I was in, so I was really making my own way.
So to see the importance of that representation and how people were drawn to MHS on the various levels, it became something that was extremely meaningful and impactful. And people call, I need a black therapist, I need, so we have to make sure we have that as well as Spanish speakers. So SC, the nonprofit on both sides, we make sure we have providers that feel the need of the people who are coming and calling because since we are out there, we're giving them permission to say, it's okay to get help now you want to make that help accessible so that they can get the best treatment outcomes.
Katie: Yeah, exactly. And we are sitting here saying, oh, it's okay to get help. It's okay to get help. But people who come from families or culturals or just from an environment where they don't know how to get help or where there's a big gap there between saying, Hey, you can do it, it's okay. And them actually feeling and being able to go ahead and do it. And I think that that's a really big gap that you're trying to bridge that a lot of people miss out on, they don't recognize.
Dinisha: And that's where the cultural competency piece comes in handy because we're helping them from the first moment they see us, whether that's out in the community, whether that's that phone call and the way you engage, being able to communicate, use language that they understand, recognize that they might have needs that they might not say due to their background and making that, okay, you might be coming in for therapy or knowing that we're a mental health org, but what other barriers are impacting your mental health and how can we serve you? And making that, okay, sometimes I'm listening to a person and they're not saying that they don't want to say they're in need. And so that's how I train my team. And that's really why it's important because our approach is comprehensive. It's seeing that whole person, all the barriers, especially for minorities who tend to have disadvantages in terms of social determinants of health, recognizing that you likely have some other things that are impacting your health, your mental health than just needing therapy and then making even those resources available.
Katie: Wow, that's really amazing. And that comprehensive approach is so important because if somebody, they're struggling to eat, if they're living in a house with mold, then these are other issues that need to be addressed. All the therapy in the world isn't going to solve those issues that are still going to cause a lot of mental distress. And so tell us more about solutions of change. It seems like that's the nonprofit that you developed to try to further fill in some of these gaps that maybe the business can't do because it has to run as a business.
Dinisha: Yeah, so it's so funny. Solutions of Change was directly bursted out of MHS, mingle Health Solutions. And I had to, after a couple of years, go back and say, okay, how do I make sure they are separate because my heart is to serve, I give it all away for free. I mean, they had different names and they were accessing services differently or providing them in terms of how people access, but their missions, their vision were the same. And then I had to learn, MHS is a business can't function like a nonprofit. So we put some of our programming under Solutions of Change, but really I started, because again, you have insurances and people making decisions about folks who are getting help and needing help, and they don't know what their need is, and they're telling you what you can and cannot do. And I saw firsthand that some of these things, they can be non-traditional or they can be not directly evidence-based from a clinical perspective, but I'm seeing the impact on our youth and our families.
I am seeing how when I help a mother, even though only the children were approved for services, how this entire family's trajectory changed, but if I work with this mother and she is not the person who's approved for the service, now I'm being unethical and committing fraud. But then how do I do that if I can't get paid? Right? And how do I document it? So I mean, that's just one example of these barriers. So I said, not knowing anything about a nonprofit, well, I'm just going to do it and MHS will fund it and we're going to help these people so we can do what we want. So these insurances aren't telling us what we can do because we know our community and had a big learning curve, learning that that was not what's going to happen. But essentially, solutions of change offers free and low cost therapy services for those who are uninsured.
So if you don't have insurance underinsured, meaning if you can't afford your copay or if you only get certain number of sessions, or if you get denied for additional treatment that you may need the SOC offers. And then undocumented people, I am big about creative access. That is just it. Who are these communities that otherwise would not be able to access these services? And so that's what we do. We do a ton of programming. We have family support specialists, again, talking about resources, and then we continue our community and outreach because we know that the way and is by us being out, if people don't know about it, they won't say they need help. And due to limited providers in general, let alone providers who might meet the need of the client due to the demographic background, at least if you come to a workshop or something, you're beginning to access and this information and knowledge is starting to be available to you, whether you make it inside a therapy room or not.
Katie: That's really cool just because you're really, again, trying to bridge some of these gaps. So Nevada, we're pretty poor with our mental health access. You've mentioned access a lot. I like that you are going out into the community. I hear this a lot, this trouble with access to care. But then on the other side of that, I hear people saying, oh, well I'm available, but no one's in. But it's like, well, doesn't anyone know that you exist? And that's the problem. That's a big part of one of our problems. So expand on that a little bit on maybe some of the problems that Nevada's a state has with our mental health, why we are so low when it comes to these rankings and maybe some of the things we can do to get better. Just maybe some highlights around
Dinisha: That. Well, definitely reciprocity for providers. A lot of people, and that's just across the healthcare industry, they might be licensed in another state and they encounter difficulties getting licensed here, although they have a license. The timing even of that, of how long it takes reimbursement rates from insurances, having difficulty with billing, a lot of providers don't want to accept insurance. They don't want to have to deal with it and allowable things, right? There's so much governance over someone who maybe the person over the entire department is a clinician, but the person who's looking at things is not. It is so much administrative work that is just so hard for providers to do the good work and focus on treatment without being stressed out about administrative. I think, again, letting people know that they're here and having enough providers who can feel the need. And so when we talk about the outreach, for example, that's not something that's paid.
And when you think of reimbursement rates for insurance or even the cost of a cash pay for therapy, that doesn't cover what it takes to have somebody constantly out in the community doing awareness vendoring, attending meetings, learning what's going on. Many of our clinicians are, and that's for a long time, while I didn't go back to school, I'm currently in a PhD program because so many of my clinician friends said, thank you, because we're stuck in the therapy room. We can't be out there. And so I had to do it. It is hard to make that money stretch when you're running a business to be able to be out there. And so that's another reason why solutions of change has been so helpful. So I would say some solutions are to have some reform in our system because it would help providers feel more comfortable with focusing on what they love, which is helping people providing more training. There are changes that are often made with insurances without
Katie: Notices.
Dinisha: And again, marketing and the business as a business owner, marketing is always going to be one of your greatest expenses. And you don't think about that when you're wanting do therapy, right? You're not out here trying to be Apple. So it's like, oh, that's important. So when we talk about people have to know about it. So being able to do that outreach, and then I think burnout, it gets overwhelming because there's so much need that it's like you want to do it all and you can't feel bad when you can't. And then just having that support from, I would say a legislative level, a policy level, so that providers can do what they love.
Katie:
Wow. You touched on really big issues that I think a lot of people miss the trouble with getting your licensure here when you're licensed elsewhere. I have heard these horror stories, the problems with reimbursement rates. Nobody wants to talk about them, but it's the big problem. It's the big elephant in the room. It really is. And then, yeah, these costs that go into these things that aren't covered by insurance, let alone the things that should be covered by insurance. And insurance is like, oh, we have this parity laws, but they're not doing it. They're full of crap. So you see it and it's disheartening. You see the big mountain in front of you, but we got to keep chipping at it. Otherwise, who else is going to do that? And I think you mentioned reform is this is a great time to talk about reform. We have our next legislative session coming up. We have these opportunities to really get in front of our policy makers, but we need to be together in kind of what we're saying and knowing what we're saying to them. And so you just touched on such amazing issues. So I'll be coming back to you, I think for quote, I'm sorry, I took you a little bit more on
Versus I went on
Dinisha: A tangent, I went on a tangent that way. You know, that's where my mind is being now not the one providing the direct service through MHS. And I mentioned being in a PhD program. I'm pursuing my doctoral degree in clinical psych, but I'm seeing how other states are doing things through some research and what their outcomes are in mental health access. And the things that we think the insurances are concerned about are really not as much of an issue when this reform happens because providers are able to really provide services without the stress, and people are able to get help without saying, oh, I can't do this unless this gets approved. So it really makes a difference in people who are accessing, who are coming back and therefore their treatment outcomes. Essentially. When that happens, our communities are better. So I mean, I could go on and on, but thank you for letting me go that way. And I would like to just shout out Senator Spearman, she has been a big proponent at the legislative level in terms of mental health care access in Nevada. I worked with her and well, she wasn't on this one, but assemblywoman, Selena
On a bill for cultural competency. So I know that there are local legislators, they care. It's what you said, that follow through. People like to say things to check the box, and are your hearts really about this change? Why is it that we may make a proposal and we're going to do this work? And then all of a sudden the state's work, they have, I don't want to talk about the state, but money doesn't go where it needs to go when they say that it's going to go there. I'll just say that.
Katie: Oh yeah, we've all seen that. I mean, where's the weed money? We've all been asking for years. Where's the weed money? So it's tough, but you're right, there are policymakers who care, but it's on us to hold them accountable with follow through because they're not going to do it themselves. And we know that. I mean, we've seen that for decades. So I think that it's important that we do because laws are passed, but then there's nothing that's holding up, there's no regulatory thing put in place to make sure that that law is upheld. So there's a lot that still goes into it. But anyways, we could keep going, but I'm going to stop there on a legislative tangent, but so I want to ask you a little bit more, and so I've been, I get this question a lot and then I got it again recently, and the question was, for somebody who's out there struggling in the community to get therapy, what should they do? What do they do? They just, I know that maybe they know now, they know solutions have change and they'll know Mingo, and so that's great. Is that what you would recommend people do you need to talk about insurance with them? If somebody were to come up to you right now and say, I need therapy tomorrow, what do I do? I don't know what to do, how would you answer that?
Dinisha: I probably would encourage them to call either MHS or SOC specifically for the reason we have a community health worker team, shout out to Elisa Howard and so many people who made that possible for outreach so that I know how hard it's for someone to call and to navigate it. I know how hard it's for us to find people. So we have community support specialists at Solutions of Change, and we have our community health workers at Bingo Health Solutions, and they're specifically there to help anybody. We can't help because it's not about coming to us. It's about getting your help. If you need to find a provider in your location who accepts your insurance, our team are there for that. And we will call you back. People say, you actually call us back. So I'd recommend us like 2 1 1, because I have our team set up to do that. Right. If we can help you with a resource, I'll refer to friends or other people, we'll help you find it because I know that need. But I think also calling, oh, I don't want to miss what's the 8 1 1 9 1 1? I should know.
Katie: Yeah, yeah, because you said it 9 8 8 9 8 8. You said two different versions of it. I was like, wait
Dinisha: A minute. Well think one is the general resource because I mean, you can always look on the back of your insurance card as well, but sometimes that can be too much. So I would definitely say call either of us, and it's not about us bringing you in, it's about us helping you locate a resource. But yeah, if they came up right now, I would just ask them what they need. I send referrals all the time to many of my colleagues and friends
Based on availability, based on what the client needs. So we would ask you, do you have insurance? Do you need insurance? What type of thing are you looking for? Do you have a provider of preference? It's okay to advocate for yourself and say, I want a male or a woman, or I want a Christian or a non-Christian. I need someone who is queer is your treatment. And sometimes you don't even need that. You think you do, but sometimes you do. So that's what I would do. I would say call us because we do have those programs set up.
Katie: So that's beautiful. And I love that you mentioned community health workers, that whole idea. This is a relatively newer idea coming around. I know that it's becoming more and more popular here in town because yeah, a lot of people are really struggling. They don't know where to turn. And this is, again, this is kind of one of those gaps. So that's really cool that you have that there, that's fulfilling that gap and that you're looking at collaboration instead of competition. I've noticed that many of the mental health organizations maybe are a little siloed here in Las Vegas, and I think as a community, we can be siloed On the nonprofit side, they've been really trying to, I think, bridge some of those gaps. And that's been beautiful to see. And so I'm hoping that we can continue to see that on the provider side because that's what's going to really help our community. So I think that's really cool that you guys do that.
Dinisha: Yeah, thank you. The thing is, unfortunately, fortunately, there will be another patient, right? As long as you have humans, you will have mental health challenges.
So there will always be a need for us. And I care about the service. I didn't get into this for money. Yes, my business owner, yes, I got better at business. Yes, I care about being able to keep my doors open so that I can keep helping people, but it's about a person getting what they need. I'm not everybody's best fit MHS or Solutions of Change. It's not everyone's best fit for their needs. You just can't be. That's why you specialize in things. And so knowing who else is there, we are better together. Yes, we do it that way. And when I think of some of the programming that we do, especially as solutions of Change, we have our Healing Holidays program coming up in. We engage people in a therapeutic holiday experience because we know that you may not always get the toys and the gifts, and we want to help heal mine.
So we engage families, we adopt a hundred participants made up of families. We give both the children and the parents, and I say parents, you don't got to be a single parent because we want to promote families and wellness, and we give the adults things and the youth things, but we give them lunch, we engage them in gingerbread making houses, gratitude journals, music, and just skills that help reduce the stress that the holidays can typically bring about. And if it weren't for partnerships, we wouldn't be able to do that. And I know you mentioned the nonprofit sector does that, but solutions of Change also does healing to health, bringing the dialogue of mental health to the faith-based community. For me, the Faith-based community is yet another minority. It doesn't have to be a race, but that was something that MHS started and being able to partner with local churches, this for-profit doing that, we were able to MHS partnered with Nevada Partners and Culinary before we moved that officially to Solutions of Change. So I'm big on it. And on a personal level, friends, colleagues, were calling each other all the time. If you want to go alone, if you want to go fast, go alone, you want to go far, go together.
Katie: Absolutely. Oh my gosh. Yes, yes. And yeah, I've seen solutions of change doing faith-based initiatives with nami, with the anonymous Southern Nevada chapter who I love. And so I've seen it firsthand, the work that you are doing. So it's so good. But you know what, you started off this show with saying that you're just a human and you are right. You have the same 24 hours in the day as the rest of us. So I know that you're doing so many amazing things, but let's bring it back down. What are you doing for self-care? Do you find yourself on the brink of burnout, as you mentioned, and how do you battle that? Because that can be so hard on providers and anybody really.
Dinisha: Yeah, I do. And I constantly have to reset and say, what do I need right now? So I think the first thing I do is check. In. The other day I was dealing with some business things that were very stressful, but I was handling them. I was optimistic about how they were getting done. And towards the end of my day, I'm like, oh, yeah, we killed it. But it's a very significant change that I'm working on. And then I said, I know you feel good in your mind and you're optimistic Dinisha, but how is your body feeling? And I felt the stress in my body, the tension, and it's not always bad stress. It's like, okay, we've been going, let's go take a walk and I call my friends. So we do burn out if you don't take breaks, if you're not self-aware, if you don't do check-ins what you need yesterday or last month or six months ago, each season might require for something different. Sometimes I'm like, don't go to this concert and hang out with your friends. You need to sit at home and work on this paper or get some extra sleep. And then sometimes I'm like, you know what? This is going to be there. Let me go have some fun with my friends. And recognizing the impact
Katie: And recognizing when you need to do either one, and I think that's so valuable. That's awesome.
Dinisha: I think just staying. I think some of my consistent things though are exercise. I normally, I've been exercising every day for the last two months, well, five days a week, but I typically do not go more than two, three days without exercising for my mental health. I need to release this. I'm a high energy person releasing the stress and boosting my endorphins, prayer, worship, spending time with friends and family, and I have my own therapist, and I don't see her year round. There are times that I'm like, Hey, I need to get back in. And there are times that I don't have her. So I think it's just checking in and gaining. I always encourage people to do mindfulness techniques, deep breathing, visual imagery, because when you can learn to calm down and quiet that mind even for 30 seconds to a minute, that's what allows you to check into your body and what you need. That's how your self-awareness can develop and knowing that we are all our parts matter, spiritual, mental, and physical. So looking at all of those. So I just encourage mindfulness to promote self-awareness so that you can't figure out what you need.
Katie: Yeah, absolutely. I love that. Thank you so much for sharing, checking in. So, so important, so important. Well, thank you for your time. This went by so fast. I want to bring you back. We're going to talk legislation. We're going to get into it, but we'll have to end it today on this. Just tell folks again, what's the best way to get in contact with Solutions of Change or with Mingo, and if they're looking for help, how should they reach out?
Dinisha: Yeah, thank you for that. You can go to either of our websites, www.mhsbs.com, and call us at (702) 848-1696 for solutions of change, solutions of change.org or call us at (702) 445-6937. And if you call either of those numbers, you'll be able to get the contact information for the other, because we also partner with each other. I want to just say, if anybody wants to donate for our healing holiday experience, we do this for families for free. We also have a campaign right now where we want to adopt a community family, someone that the community can nominate, because we usually have our partners nominate someone. So now we want to bring the community in. So if you have a family of maybe four to six that you think would benefit from our healing holiday therapeutic experience, then go to our website, our social media, give us a call and nominate a family and partner with us on that or donate toys, be a part of that change, and just visit our social medias.
And I will say, I know I kind of went into that. I don't like to leave places without a tip. And so for anybody out there, I know if I wanted to go into a mindfulness exercise, but I was like, let me be mindful. So wherever you are doing quick, deep breaths in through your nose, holding it for four, and then slowly exhaling through a straw, another big one in hold, slowly exhale. Let's do one more of that. Dropping your shoulders, clenching your jaw, slowly exhaling. And for anybody out there struggling with anxiety or depression or just stress, remember that getting into your body is a way to get out of your head. And so using your senses is a way to do that. You can do five things. You can see four things. You can hear three things you can feel, two things you can smell, one thing you can taste, and any variation of those numbers or senses. And that is just a quick tool that you can always use to kind of self calm.
Katie: Wow. Wow. Thank you so much. That was so amazing. What a fabulous way to end that episode. That was wonderful. Thank you for your time. I'm just so grateful that you came on. I see you doing amazing superhero things out in our community. Keep it up, and I will keep watching and keep a fan.
Dinisha: Thank you for having me and for all the work you do, Katie, it's been a pleasure.
Katie: Thank you. Bye bye, everyone. We'll see you every first and third Wednesday every year, every month. Have a good one!
