Policy, Practice, and Compassion in Mental Health, with Dr. Keita Franklin

How can policymakers and frontline providers collaborate to transform mental health care for service members and veterans? 

Dr. Keita Franklin is here to share 25 years of insights - from data-driven policy to personal resilience practices.

National policy leader Dr. Keita Franklin joins host Jessica Beckendorf and special go-host Kalin Goble Mathis to discuss the evolving landscape of mental health for service members and veterans. 

This important conversation explores the intersection of research, community partnerships, and self-care for service providers. Dr. Franklin reveals how listening to lived experiences, leveraging data, and fostering collaboration can drive meaningful change - plus, her personal practices for sustaining resilience in demanding work.

Practical links from this episode:

• Dr. Franklin at Leitos
• Dr. Franklin on LinkedIn
  
  

Transcript

JESSICA BECKENDORF: [00:00:00] Hello, and welcome to the Practicing Connection Podcast. I'm Jessica Beckendorf, and I'm so excited today to be welcoming our special guest and a special guest, co-host, and awesome person all around my coworker and friend, Kaylin Gobel Mathis, whose voice you hear on every one of our episodes in the intro and outro.

Welcome to Practicing Connection, Kalin. Would you mind introducing yourself a bit?

KALIN GOBLE MATHIS: Thanks so much, Jessica. I'm very excited to be here today. Yes, I'm Kaylin Gobel Mathis. I am a program development specialist with OneOp and a College of Agriculture and Life Sciences extension faculty at Virginia Tech. I am joining you all today from Monticello, Florida, which is about 40 minutes outside of Tallahassee, Florida.

JESSICA BECKENDORF: I bet a lot warmer than where I am in Wisconsin.

KALIN GOBLE MATHIS: Yes!

JESSICA BECKENDORF: Our guest today is Dr. Keita Franklin, a national [00:01:00] federal policy leader with over 25 years of experience leading public health and mental health programming for veterans, military service members and their families. Her background includes leading large change management efforts, driving lasting and meaningful outcomes for veteran and military communities.

DR. KEITA FRANKLIN: Good morning. Happy to be on with all of you today.

KALIN GOBLE MATHIS: Thanks so much Dr. Franklin. And in addition to providing subject matter expertise on suicide prevention, Keita is a social scientist who consults organizations and institutions on research implementation science and data-driven leadership. So yes, hello Keita, and thank you so much for joining us on Practicing Connection.

So to begin the conversation, to kick us off, can you share a bit about what started your journey into public health and mental health programming? We'd love to hear what inspired you to pursue this path, especially to support our military service and veteran populations.

DR. KEITA FRANKLIN: Yes, I'm [00:02:00] happy to. Thank you so much for the good question starting us off. You know, I tell everybody, you know, my father was in the Navy. He was an enlisted sailor and so we did, we lived on military bases my entire life, all the way up through going into undergrad. Our last base was Westover Air Force Base in western Massachusetts, but my sister also had cerebral palsy with a seizure disorder, my only sibling.

So I probably learned early on, probably before there was really an official exceptional family member program or whatever. I learned quite a bit about caregiving and about military families. Just my own lived experience and then, you know, couple that probably with a little bit of some luck, I bet. I entered the field initially as a child welfare worker and stumbled upon somebody in my path.

At this point, my husband was also on active duty and, and I stumbled upon another provider who said, you know, if you're gonna be moving around with the military, you might look at social work and public health because they're good portable careers where you can really make a difference. And so I was off to the races at that point.

JESSICA BECKENDORF: Yeah. [00:03:00] Thank you so much for sharing that. And this will probably date me, but I just wanna say Go Navy! I know that's not the current slogan, that tells you that I'm older. Yes. My father, same thing. Enlisted career. Navy.

DR. KEITA FRANKLIN: Ah okay. That's beautiful. I love that.

JESSICA BECKENDORF: Yeah. Yeah. We probably, we maybe lived in a few similar places.

So what are some of the most significant changes you've seen in public health and mental health services for veterans over the past 25 years?

DR. KEITA FRANKLIN: One of the things I've seen that's gotten better has been focused on stigma. You know, early on in the military and even as a veteran, we see service members that were afraid to come forward and ask for help if they're struggling with a mental health issue.

And there was just lots of old school myth legends that said, you know, if you come forward. It's a sign of weakness or it will impact your career. And it has taken a long time to move the needle, I think, in the field on stigma. But we've gotten there. It's probably not all the way where it needs [00:04:00] to be.

There's still some of this old school thinking, but at least it's gotten better. So stigma I think is a big one, like out of the gate. And then also I've appreciated in the field the shift from very much reactive programming. That sort of people waited too long, I think, to come into care. They waited until their symptoms were super chronic or they were in crisis, and then they often showed up like in hospital settings.

I think part of the wartime effort pushed the military to really start thinking about prevention focused programming in a scientific way, whereby you started to see a focus on like getting help early. And we know from the literature that like. Getting help early does in fact work. Your symptoms are less chronic.

You're able to get back quicker. You, you know, it's, it's all manner of effective way to get care. But in years past it didn't happen. And then there's been a decade long shift where prevention is honored and respected and people realize, like, go in before you have a full diagnosis. That [00:05:00] works. Getting help early.

I think there's other things that, that, that coincide with that, whereby you see a focus on mental health being just as important as physical health. Versus in the past it was like physical health was the main effort, and if you had a broken elbow or even a common cold, you were quick to talk about it and quick to go in for care and less quick if it were feeling, um, some symptoms of depression or struggling a little bit with anxiety.

But now we're seeing those, I think, you know, we're, it's not perfect, but we're getting better in that regard too.

JESSICA BECKENDORF: Do we have a sense for why that is? And I'm not asking you to have all the answers, but does the field have a sense for why that is?

DR. KEITA FRANKLIN: Well, I think part of it is generationally speaking, right?

You see where young people are just more accepting to talk about it. To say, just as they would say, like, I'm struggling with my allergies today. They might be willing to say, you know, I'm feeling out of sorts today and I don't feel okay. And so they, I think it's the younger generation that's propelling us to become more [00:06:00] accepting of these things and to talk about it more.

Social media's talking about it, it's online. People are able to do a lot of their own self-help research. And then I think really the role of technology has changed it, right? We're, we're starting to have technology tools where your wearable will say, you know, maybe if you're not sleeping well, and so there's a focus on like people knowing that sleep drives emotion regulation and coping skills. If you don't sleep well, you probably aren't gonna cope well that day. And so there's just been a variety of reasons, I think, but I appreciate that it's come full circle and, and has this focus on prevention.

KALIN GOBLE MATHIS: And I think that's an important piece of it, is that more holistic approach that we're hoping to move towards in terms of that mental and physical, how both impact each other, right. It's very circular.

JESSICA BECKENDORF: Yeah.

KALIN GOBLE MATHIS: So to those points, Keita, what do you feel are some key elements to successfully driving lasting and meaningful outcomes for public health initiatives? And I think maybe digging a little deeper into that de-stigmatization, like how can providers really. [00:07:00] Work to get that message across to hopefully the community that they are serving as well in those key elements.

DR. KEITA FRANKLIN: Yeah, I totally appreciate this question because people don't always know like, what is a public health approach? Like we talk a lot about it in the field and we say this is a public health issue, or Covid is a public health issue. Or, you know, suicide prevention, which is near and dear to my work, is a public health issue.

But, what does that really mean when we're trying to prevent it? And it really is like a bundled set of practices that you have to do all at once. And if only it were so simple that we could just do one thing, even one scientific thing. Like let's just drive out training and let's educate everybody.

It's an important part of the public health model, but like training alone will not prevent something. It will not prevent, you know, suicide or covid for example. So I appreciate your question 'cause it's focused on public health, but also on policy and the important need for policy being a key and essential element to that bundled set of practices.

I have a colleague at SAMHSA over the years, Richard McEwen, and he always says that it is [00:08:00] a bundled approach over time that will create the differences that we need. And we wanna see fast results in our field. Like we wanna see reductions in the data that show X, Y, Z, but sometimes you have to implement like.

All of the factors, like you have to build a coalition, you have to study your data, you have to use your data to write good policy, you have to have a research agenda. You have to train people. Believe it or not, you even have to work with the media, and we saw that play out during Covid where. The media would report on the data, like there's higher rates of covid in this state, or it's getting better in that state.

Like you have to have a data and surveillance cell that's like studying the issues and reporting out on it and DESI, and using it to design the interventions. And you even have to push other treatment modalities or care modalities like peer support or case manager or care coordinators alongside, no kidding, clinicians in hospital and community settings.

So a long way to say though, that there's a lot of [00:09:00] elements. And we need the policy that wraps all those elements together. Because what the policy does is it sustains the work over time because it's codified. Super important for government, right, to document our processes and have policies. Certainly open to be changed like it needs to be iterative and redone and you know, probably every year and a half or so you're like updating the policy. And in government it takes about a year and a half at a fast pace to push out a policy. But we know that the policy sustained the people. So like if you or I leave these positions. And we were to implement a policy that said, you know, all of the veterans will get screened for suicide risk in the ER.

That would sustain our time until new evidence, new data, new research came that maybe said we didn't need to do that. But the policies are really, I think, so important to the public health approach. So that's why I'm like loving that question because I want people to not be scared of policy, to know that it's part of their practice, and that it's a way to impact a process for a large [00:10:00] population of people.

And I've seen it firsthand in my own career, and I, it's incredible when you see it in action.

KALIN GOBLE MATHIS: I was just going to reflect on that just a little bit, Keita, in terms of just also, you know, in our work, we work very closely with the Family advocacy program and the Child and Youth advocacy program, which are a lot of those professionals helping shape those policies that the Department of Defense practitioners are utilizing in their work.

And really, you know, I know driving their work is standardizing that as well, especially for Yeah, these families that are moving so often that maybe there's a lot more inconsistencies than, you know, the normal civilian family. So really working to standardize that care, but also with the caveat of knowing each community has unique needs.

Each community has unique experiences that maybe they like if they're a younger population, they may be seeing some trends in there if they're older populations, stuff like that. But also I appreciate that in terms of trying to deliver that standardized care so that when families show up, they're getting some kind of [00:11:00] consistency there.

So I just wanted to reflect that a bit. I appreciated that.

DR. KEITA FRANKLIN: We do owe it to them. The standardization piece is so important, and I would get that question a lot from our own practitioners in the field. Like how do we standardize a policy, for example, at a large military base like Camp Pendleton that also works at like Henderson Hall, which is like a super small base and there are ways to do it.

And so I just say that it's hard work and it is our lifelong work, but putting that standard, standardized process in place is, it's a good, good solid point. That also goes hand in hand with policy development.

JESSICA BECKENDORF: So I feel like my next question kind of gets into the nuts and bolts of what you were just talking about.

So you talked about all these different elements and that policy kind of wraps around it and, and kind of supports those other elements. So thinking then about policy and practice development, how do you approach those two to ensure that the policy effectively addresses the needs of [00:12:00] military family service members and their families?

And to ensure that the practices effectively address the needs. All of the elements.

DR. KEITA FRANKLIN: I see, I see. I know part of the approach to like starting the work on making sure that policy and practice maps involves just like a whole lot of listening to the people that you're serving. And on the one hand, that's such an easy concept, but believe it or not, it's not always done.

And so like when people hold listening sessions when they. Listen to what's going well and what's not going well. And you know, I saw this firsthand in my work in suicide. I would get calls from survivors of suicide loss from moms and dads that lost, you know, God forbid that tragically lost one of their own family members, their sons or daughters to suicide.

They have a story to tell. And like we have to listen to their stories, like listening to the voices of live survivors. And you can listen for trends and you can listen for things that are not going well. If, if a mom calls the department and, and shares that you know, her son was on all [00:13:00] sorts of different types of psychotropic meds.

That's a data point that you need to hear and you need to dig into the policy around that. And was it, was it enacted properly? And so definitely there's an element to listening. And then I think there's also an element to like staying on top of the science, knowing what the data, like data always drives policy.

So what does the data tell us? What are the new trends coming from the research? And that's like whether it's listservs and you know, what journals do you stay on top of? Like how do you like consume your information to make sure that you're using data and science to like. Keep your policies cutting edge and up to date.

And then I also, I share this, this doesn't always have to be super complicated. I have this example whereby in the midst of the war effort, I was working for the Marine Corps and we were seeing struggles with the Marines after deployment. And I was thinking through my work as a behavioral health leader and like what new policies and trends are, are we facing?

And I was in a conversation with a very senior leader at the time in the Marine Corps. General Dunford, and he [00:14:00] shared, you know, that if we were seeing these struggles with Marines after deployment, one of the things that was going on was that the Marines were automatically PCSing to their next duty station.

They were coming back from deployment and the system was set up for them to immediately move. And so they were not near their peer group that they deployed with, who would see that they were not Well. Those who knew them best, they're at a different duty station and those who knew them best may not see that they're not well.

And so he implemented a policy change at the time that had the Marines staying in place for 90 days after a deployment. It was just a short period of time, but like changed a massive manpower model. It wasn't a policy from my own area, like manpower Modeling was not my area. Behavioral health was my area, but this policy change in manpower that kept them in place for 90 days and had them supporting each other for 90 days after deployment where they could recognize if one of their own weren't.

Well, I had spillover effects for the behavioral health area. And so you start to see how like a data point [00:15:00] on DUIs and child abuse and domestic violence and, and um, you know, post-traumatic stress. These data points after deployment drive a manpower policy change that keeps Marines in place so they can support one another.

And then you start to track the outcomes over time to see that that small change in the system can create such positive outcomes. It requires a policy that's like outside our immediate area, if that makes sense.

JESSICA BECKENDORF: It always amazes me at how, whenever I hear about these really small tweaks, what a big impact, like small things like during intake, asking whether somebody's a veteran or asking whether someone yes, you know, is a military service member, which a lot of folks don't do because, you know, maybe this is not the main part of their job.

They don't work with a lot of military families, but just asking that takes seconds. It can actually really make the biggest difference for that family. So anyway, yes, I, I love hearing stories like that with these tiny little tweaks.

DR. KEITA FRANKLIN: Yep. And this idea of [00:16:00] asking, “Are you a veteran, or have you served?” has such broader impacts because it basically tells the person asking it, do you have an increased likelihood to have been through trauma?

That's the question behind the question for me. And granted, there's lifetime prevalence, rates of trauma and people that haven't served have certainly been through trauma. They've had car accidents, they've had, you know, their parents have divorced, they've had all manner of traumatic things happen to them, and I would not downplay that, but our military and veteran population.

We know if we ask that question, have you worn the uniform? There is probably a good likelihood that you've deployed, that you've been exposed to combat, and that you've had extended periods of family separation. So that then allows me, if I ask it to respond to you in a certain way, like a trauma-informed way.

And so I, I love your example. That's a beautiful one.

KALIN GOBLE MATHIS: Thank you for sharing that Keita. That really leads well into kind of what we were hoping to talk about next is, you know, sharing that in terms of the past and where we are at the present. But [00:17:00] as you look to the future and, you know, you have been in this work for so long.

I know you've seen quite an evolution in terms of care, but where do you see the future of public health and mental health programming for military families specifically? And are there any like, emerging trends or practices or innovations that particularly excite you or that you're looking forward to continuing on and growing?

DR. KEITA FRANKLIN: I have loved over the years the push for support for caregivers. We know people go to their significant other first, right? They, I wish as a social worker that when people were struggling, they just like came to me first 'cause boy, like I could help them and, you know, have I have, I got some evidence-based practices for you and you know, let's get some going on policy and all things, but they go to their significant others and they go to their family members and they go to their caregivers.

So the more in the last, you know, five, six years, recognizing who is a caregiver, what are the roles of caregivers? How do we support caregivers so they can better support the service member or the veteran? And then how do we support them so they can also better support themselves? I. [00:18:00] Because when they're doing better, they're like a barometer of the family, the service member and the veteran does better.

And so this like holistic, the push for that over the last few years by key organizations in the nonprofit sector, I've greatly appreciated that. And I think if we were looking into the future, we would also be thinking more about special populations. Whether it's those living in rural areas or you know, those with three kids under the age of three, you know, or just unique subpopulations that we could focus on in the context of the whole family approach, particularly with today's military. And I think the latest data, like over 70% live off base. So how do we do that and honor it in an off base kind of way? Not in a way that says come to the base between 8 and 5, or 7:30 to 4:30, right? Like, how do we do that in a way that says it's okay if you wanna get your respite care at the local YMCA because we have an MOU with them and we realize that you might need some respite and we realize they're open [00:19:00] on Saturday mornings and you know, like how do we further extend some of that work? 

Also subsequent to that, despite the fact of the incredible turmoil, tragedies and struggles that happened during covid, one of the good things, and I know both of you know this, Kalin, is just the, the focus on tele, tele and virtual platforms that came out of Covid for our field at a rate and pace, like faster than it ever would've come.

I was a part of the care delivery system for years where people said, you know, we can't treat people struggling with suicide risk on a virtual environment because they're at home. What does that mean? If they're at home and they, um, they have a suicide risk and I'm treating them and it's sort of like, well, it means they're at home.

It means you might have to assess their environment for safety. It means you might have to see do they have a caregiver nearby? Like it means a lot of things, but we have to still do it. And so the ability to like use Telemental health platforms to use a word in field, meet people where they are, that's gonna be part of the future.

And then adding on like AI tools to that. [00:20:00] I'm definitely a big believer in how do we advance technology into our field because, you know, we don't have enough providers to meet the need. And if we just bank on, like pumping out new providers as fast as we can through every university in the nation and we bank on, like training them on evidence-based practices as fast as we can and quality checking their work as best as we like, we're still not gonna get there at one point.

I might have thought earlier in my career that that would happen. I would read, they're graduating 1500 therapists out of X, Y, Z program. I'm like, okay, that's gonna put a dent. It's not like we have to like bring in technology to make it so that people can do a certain amount of help maybe on their own or they can like advance use of self-help tools, advanced use of chat bots, advanced use of technology that is like an adjunct to care, not the main care, but like in between sessions you could access these platforms and do these things to help.

15 minutes alone we know is like by in a hot - if you've ever been in therapy, [00:21:00] like it goes by so fast. So like when you have these tools that you can use outside that are technology driven and science based, like, I think that's gonna be part of the future. And although the adoption of it will take time, you see it happening.

I personally wish it was happening faster than it is, but these things take time and they have to be well studied and they have to be pilot tested and all that. We know that goes with that. Right.

JESSICA BECKENDORF: Yeah. And I'm curious, I know we're talking mostly mental health, so I'm just curious about the connection to like county-based departments of health and human services and like where they also plug in off base in this off base manner.

I see so much potential and opportunity for maybe a little bit more, and that would be with maybe starting with those intakes of like, are you a veteran or a military service member or reserve guard. But I'm curious about whether if you see anything in, in that area, um, a connection between, I guess, more people accessing care and help [00:22:00] through those kinds of offices.

DR. KEITA FRANKLIN: You know, I know for a fact that the military has long had an approach towards doing that, particularly in the programs that you spoke about, Caitlyn Family Advocacy has always had a push towards collaborating with local Department of Health and Human Services through MOAs and MOUs. I always think that's good.

They should be codified with formal agreements. They should also regularly meet to build trust. Like agencies have to know each other. You shouldn't be like meeting them in the hot minute that you're trying to do a referral. Yeah. 'cause it'll be clumsy and bumpy. Like you need to like have the relationship in place.

Well before you have to make the referral. They should almost like test the process. Like do a drill of it. Like, all right, I have to make a referral. Like, let's see how this works. Do they really, does it, does the warm handoff work? Like evaluate effectiveness of the. Their participation in the system, so to speak.

But I think above and beyond child protective, like you're right, like I gave this example of the YMCA, but it's like how do we help bring the whole community, [00:23:00] you know? Together in a way to build the capacity for all of them to do their part.

JESSICA BECKENDORF: Yes.

DR. KEITA FRANKLIN: To serve military. So we have to like train them. We have to bring them on base and make sure they know our plight, they know our mission.

We have to do something for them too. Right. It can't just be a. Like a one way relationship too. Like how can we help you? Can we offer you something on, you know, trauma informed or can we include you in on something that we're doing, like the partnership work. I say there's a science to that too, and it does take time and energy and um, a lot of follow through and trust building.

JESSICA BECKENDORF: Yeah. Absolutely. And I think also a lot of education too.

DR. KEITA FRANKLIN: Yes.

JESSICA BECKENDORF: In some areas, right? Where maybe they're hundreds of miles from the nearest installation, and so don't think of themselves as serving military families when they very well could be or, and probably are. Yes. That's a question that I'm always kind of pondering, like how can we educate but also partner at the same time?

DR. KEITA FRANKLIN: I mean, if we say 200,000 or so, people [00:24:00] leave the military every year. I know that figure ebbs and flows, but like think about that figure and then where they go. There probably is every community in America, right? Like probably just some veteran population and or recently transitioned military member.

JESSICA BECKENDORF: Yeah.

DR. KEITA FRANKLIN: Yeah. And I think it speaks also to the importance of peer support because one of the things we know is that with military populations and veterans in particular, like they're very good at helping their own. And so like if we can have these community-based resources that embed peer support, we're like battle buddies.

Yes.

KALIN GOBLE MATHIS: Just to reflect on also what I'm hearing you all say. I think too, like looking to the future, there's a lot of opportunity for creativity to come into play, especially like with AI and the possibilities there and working together to kind of identify what those deeds may be and how we can maybe use the resources that we now have that we maybe didn't have before, especially post.

Covid, right? Where there's been a growth in virtual [00:25:00] resources and availability of services. So I just wanted to reflect on that a little bit and, that just gets me excited for the creative part of it and really working together to think, think of alternative routes that maybe as a practitioner you haven't thought of before, but the opportunities are there in a new way and growing as you know, that AI and integrating that into systems is evolving right now.

DR. KEITA FRANKLIN: I think you're right. And how exciting of a time that like, as a practitioner in the field, that you get to be creative, that you can innovate and you can get help for your service delivery.

Like you're not in it alone. You can have a tool that double checks, what do I do? I wanna deliver CBT and I'm stuck. What would be some tips? And like you can get that info fast versus like in the day having to like really rely on your own knowledge. That took a long time to build and a long time to cultivate.

Use tools like this is also, I think you bring up a good point that you remind me about related to just burnout for [00:26:00] the field. When you're able to use these tools, it likely helps you with burnout, prevention. We're not trying to lose people in the field. We want to keep them and we need to equip them and support them and, and AI can be part of the toolbox for that.

JESSICA BECKENDORF: I was just working on an episode on compassion resilience. For that reason, we want to avoid burnout. Right. We don't wanna lose

DR. KEITA FRANKLIN: our good

JESSICA BECKENDORF: people.

DR. KEITA FRANKLIN: You're right.

JESSICA BECKENDORF: Right. Well, and speaking of not losing our good people, like what words do you have for professionals hoping to make a difference in the field of public health and mental health for military members and their families?

DR. KEITA FRANKLIN: You know, one of the things I share with people is just I try to make sure they know. The work is complex. This is not easy work in any way. Like, some of the stuff we've talked about today, like staying on top of the literature, knowing how to analyze data, knowing how to use that for like, even the direct care work.

I say even like that's the most important part of the equation, right? It's complex work, but it's so worth it. [00:27:00] It is so, so worth it, like when you're doing it and you see a change in people when you see a small thing that you did get them on a trajectory that changes the rest of their life because of an intervention.

You know, there's been a push towards, and I've been researching quite a bit lately on single session therapy, single session interventions, right. We say short term solution focus, four to six sessions, whatever. But to the extent that there's this new and emerging evidence on single session work, it just speaks to the power of a small point in time, getting people on track for changing their life, which then has spillover effects for the next stage of their life and the next stage and the, the way they raise their children and how they participate in their family.

I just think that it's worth it. It's like hard, complex work. That's also super rewarding and definitely worth the work that you put into it.

KALIN GOBLE MATHIS: Thank you. And on that note, that works out seamlessly in terms of, we were really wanting to know, you know, [00:28:00] with your, all of your both personal and professional experience, and it may be, this may be a hard question, but can you like, identify the most rewarding part of your work and, and all that you've done, Dr. Franklin, where do you find that reward at really at the end of the day and to avoid burnout for you and you know, just what really anchors you in that? 

DR. KEITA FRANKLIN: I mean, I feel like for one thing, I've never felt like work is work. I have never felt like work is work like and, and I feel so fortunate and even now I have a 22 and a 26-year-old and I'm advising them, right?

“Pursue a career where work does not feel like work.” I've not woken up on a single day and felt like, oh my gosh, I've gotta go to work. Never had that feeling. And I do think it is, it drives me and is rewarding to see a system that is maybe not working so well reach its full potential on behalf of the clients it's serving.

Like, incredibly rewarding, like hard to put words around the level of reward. And so like whether that's like trying to [00:29:00] do the buildup of mental health programming in the middle of the war effort to try to pull down the dollars, to stand up the programs, to get it working in a cohesive way so that people aren't falling through the cracks is energy.

Like none other. Like I truly like, I believe that. And at the same time I do know, like it is, like I said, complex and hard work. I've tried over the years to like be very good about having a good support system. My own self, both professionally and personally, where I, I like sometimes almost feel like I have to pinch myself.

I'm just like, I've been so lucky, even as a military spouse and traveling around from base to base, being able to. At least have one or two of those relationships that stay with me and have been like, like just incredible supports for like days when the system is just get, trying to get the best of me and it does happen.

So the support system is one I've used. And then I think I've also just like a absolutely love being like around the water. And so that's been, you know, like outdoor [00:30:00] nature, water has been a big one. And I, I like to write and so like I took on a pet project. Probably the last year I wrote this children's book about belongingness and it's for little kids like four to seven, but I like it was self-published, so it was like totally not a big deal in the larger world of things.

But it was a fun pet project of mine about thinking through concepts like kindness and belongingness through the eyes of a child and how do we teach that to our youngest and start 'em early on, just being good to each other.

JESSICA BECKENDORF: That is an excellent topic. I did a little bit of study on bullying, on workplace bullying a while back, and like, I think the, the number at the time, I don't know what it is now, but it was something like 30% of kids who were bullies become a bullies as adult in the office.

DR. KEITA FRANKLIN: So just repeat those patterns and if we can like teach 'em early, just like the power of kindness, of, you know, smiling and being a good person. It's [00:31:00] a concept. Why am I saying something so simple but so important?

JESSICA BECKENDORF: So I feel like you may have already done this, but I want to give you a chance if you had something specific with you, you just shared a whole bunch of great practices and things that you do that help support you.

Do you have a very specific personal practice that helps with your own mental health and wellbeing, readiness and resilience? Now, you shared a bunch, but do you have like one that you brought with you to share besides writing a children's book, which is a great idea.

DR. KEITA FRANKLIN: Yes. And again, this is such a basic thing that I, I do.

And anyone who knows me well knows I do it. For one, I definitely go to sleep early. I'm just an early to sleep person and I wake up early. I wake up before anybody else because I want a little quiet time with a cup of tea.

JESSICA BECKENDORF: Hmm.

DR. KEITA FRANKLIN: And that then I feel grounded. And it's not because of the caffeine 'cause I'll grab like a mint medley, decaf.

It's not that I'm. Searching for the caffeine, although I certainly have my share of, you know, black tea and Diet Coke and all manner of caffeine, [00:32:00] but I appreciate like having the quiet time with a cup of tea and gather my thoughts before I start the day and the days when I don't do that, I notice I have rocky days, like they're bumpy and clumsy and I'm playing ketchup and I feel off kilter.

JESSICA BECKENDORF: Well, thank you so much for that. That's a, I mean, go to bed early. I have to say, as I get older, I am realizing that I tend to go to bed earlier than I used to. So, I think and I feel great when I do, and so like I can confirm. That is a great practice. Thank you so much. It's simple though, right? 

DR. KEITA FRANKLIN: It's so simple that we probably like feel silly even talking about it on this podcast, right?

KALIN GOBLE MATHIS: And no, I, I appreciate you noting that too 'cause I just, I think I would be remiss not to also kind of tie that back into your suicide prevention work, Keita. 'cause I know that one of the emerging, you know, topics that we're talking about around suicide prevention is the importance of sleep, right?

In terms of setting those routines for folks. Yeah. And if their sleep is disruptive, that could possibly be a vulnerability factor that [00:33:00] indicates larger issues. So I think that's true. A really great example of like small things, but really that have those huge impacts and especially in prevention and, yes, just things to keep a watch out for in terms of destruction of patterns and really prioritizing sleep and rest in a way that is so important to the overall holistic approach that we've been talking about.

So I appreciate that.

DR. KEITA FRANKLIN: Yeah, and particularly for providers, they should not feel for practitioners that you all work with. Like, don't feel bad if you go to bed early, that's okay. If you're getting your sleep, like there's no guilt in like deciding that 7 or 8 is your time. That's okay.

KALIN GOBLE MATHIS: Thank you so much for joining us.

This has been a fabulous conversation and it's always lovely to connect with you, Keita. And the last question I'll ask you is, can you share where folks can connect with you or maybe follow you? I don't know if LinkedIn or maybe Leitos, anywhere like that. Could you just share where folks can maybe follow your work or connect with you?

DR. KEITA FRANKLIN: For sure, on LinkedIn is a great spot. I'm also [00:34:00] at keita.franklin@leidos.com and that is a good way to reach me. And you know, we're doing some incredibly mission-focused work with the Department of Defense and with military and veterans, trying to create good outcomes for behavioral health too. So I'm always open to collaborating and chatting with other people that have similar goals and similar ideas and wanna pursue some conversations like that.

Thanks for asking.

JESSICA BECKENDORF: Well, that's it for this episode. Thanks for joining us. If you enjoyed this episode, click the share button in your podcast app to share it with a friend or a colleague. We'd love to hear what you've been thinking about and what's inspiring you. You can share that with us by clicking the Send us a text message at the top of the description of this episode.

If you're listening on a computer, you can email us at practicingconnection@oneop.org. We can't wait to hear from you.

KALIN GOBLE MATHIS: We'd like to thank our co-producer, Coral Owen, Maggie Lucas, and Joyce Vaughn for their help with marketing and Nathan Grim who composed and performed all of the music you hear on the podcast.

We hope you'll listen again [00:35:00] soon. Thank you for joining us, and until then, keep practicing.

CREDITS: The Practicing Connection podcast is a production of OneOp and is supported by the National Institute of Food and Agriculture, U. S. Department of Agriculture, and the Office of Military Family Readiness Policy, U. S. Department of Defense, under award number 2023-48770-41333.