Wellness & Well-being Highlights February 19

Wellness & Well-being Highlights

for the

Week of February 19, 2024

This week’s edition of our Worker Wellness & Well-being blog consists of topics examining how the country of Portugal’s harm reduction approach has decreased overdose deaths to an overview of the results regarding a recent international survey concerning apprentices’ mental health to a report indicating that Michigan workplaces are no longer governed by Right to Work law. Today, I wish to shed some light on a topic I have covered in the past but, in spite of our nation’s attempts to get a handle on the rise of gun violence…the deadly saga continues! When I speak to various groups around this country about wellness and well-being, I address the need to find balance in our lives. The issue of gun violence is certainly one we MUST find some balance. Why? Sadly, we are less than 2 months into the new year and already our nation has experienced nearly 5000 deaths related to gun violence.[1] After nearly each one of these devastating events, almost like clockwork, a local official comes to the podium and offers their “thoughts and prayers” for these victims and their families…while Congress sits idly by! Back to the issue of balance: Are we a nation that so loves the right to bear arms that we would turn a blind eye towards the value of each and every human life? Thus, a number of questions run through my head:

Can one be Pro-Life and Pro-Gun?
Is it necessary to sell military-style weapons for “hunting game”?
Why don’t more people take CALM training?[2]
Of the ~5000 victims noted above, nearly 200 of these were teens and children…What is the “lost” value of these ~200 minds’ potential contributions to society?

Each time a tragic event like the one in KC this past week happens, I cannot help but think about how my brother and sister-in-law were visiting Las Vegas, in Oct 2017, and were caught in the crossfire while on the Strip near Mandalay Bay…the deadliest mass shooting in US history! To this end, trauma touches the lives of people well beyond those directly impacted by this ongoing plague. As I wrote to several of my friends earlier this week, “I rarely cry while reading a WSJ article…this time I did!”[3] For the greater good of our society, as a gun owner, I, for one, value human life over the right to own an AR-15.

What say you?

Sources: [1]https://abcnews.go.com/US/gun-violence-claimed-lives-5000-people-2024/story?id=107262776

[2] https://www.saferhomescollaborative.org/free-calm-training/

[3] https://www.wsj.com/sports/football/shooting-kansas-city-chiefs-parade-super-bowl-0dda78a5?mod=Searchresults_pos1&page=1

Gun violence & Lobbying Congress w/ AI (1)

Gun violence & Lobbying Congress w/ AI (2)

Gun violence @ KC’s Super Bowl Parade

Portugal’s drop in fatal ODs

Schools / Kids’ MH / Violence

Stop spreading MH misinfo

Global Workplace MH

US Employees & MH