Today I walk into work and there are a ton of people in my building and itâs kind of a mess and everyone is talking and I sort of just blurt out:
âMan, itâs a zoo in here!â
Everyone stopped and looked at me as though I had 2 heads.
Then I realized.
I work at a zoo.
Update: my boss was talking about how he was really excited for an entire week of vacation and was wondering what he should do, so I looked him dead in the eye and told him, with a straight face,
âYou should visit the local Zoo, I heard itâs really nice.â
Under pain of death I am no longer allowed to make any zoo related jokes.
Part three: I was cleaning the squirrel monkeys and one of them kept trying to climb up me so I sort of just yelled
âWILL YOU STOP MONKEYING AROUND??â
I forgot my boss was in the next room and he walked and just glared at me
Another update:
I was in the reptile house and one of the new interns looked like they needed some help grabbing a snake so I just blurted out:
âLet me slither on over there and helpâ
They actually appreciated the pun XD
So Iâm in the kangaroo yard and my boss says âthey need more water, hop to it.â And I kind of look at him not sure if he said that on purpose but he looks back with such horror and just whispers âI hope youâre happyâ and walks away.
Health insurance is a mental health issue. I canât help a client who canât afford to see me.Â
Housing is a mental health issue. I canât use therapy to help a client whose depression and anxiety come directly from sleeping in the streets.Â
Food insecurity is a mental health issue. I canât help a client who isnât taking their medication because their pills say âtake with foodâ and they have nothing to eat.
Healthcare is a mental health issue. I canât help a client whose âdepressionâ is actually a thyroid condition they canât afford to get treated.Â
Wages are a mental health issue. I canât help a client whose anxiety comes from the fact that they are one missed shift away from not being able to make rent.
Child care is a mental health issue. I canât help a client who works 80 hours per week to afford daycare, and doesnât have the time or energy left to come see me.Â
Drug policing is a mental health issue. I canât help a client who ended up in prison because they got caught self-medicating with illegal substances.Â
Police brutality is a mental health issue. I canât help a client whose âanxietyâ is a very real and justified fear of ending up as a hashtag.Â
If youâre going to make a stand for improving mental health, you have to understand that addressing mental health goes way beyond hiring more therapists and talking about mental health on social media. If weâre really serious about tackling this mental health problem as a country, it means rolling up our sleeves and taking down the barriers that prevent people from getting the help they need – even if those people are different than us, lead different lives, and make choices we donât agree with.Â
We arenât âfixingâ mental health unless weâre fixing it for everybody.Â