Voices for Voices®

What it Truly Means to Be an Advocate for Mental Health | Ep 292

• Founder of Voices for Voices®, Justin Alan Hayes • Season 4 • Episode 292

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What it Truly Means to Be an Advocate for Mental Health | Ep 292

We explore what it means to be an advocate and why Voices for VoicesⓇ exists to help people in all walks of life struggling with mental health challenges. Advocacy isn't about complex definitions but simply helping others - one person or many - through sharing stories and working toward accessible mental healthcare for everyone.

• The journey from selfish ambition to meaningful service as a transformative life experience
• Reaching 250+ episodes is a rare milestone that shows our commitment to mental health advocacy
• Cancer survivors and others facing serious challenges find support and meaning in our content
• The vision for a St. Jude's-style facility where all mental health care is completely free
• Personal experience with a $20,000 mental health hospital bill despite having insurance
• Breaking down the barriers of pride and ego to seek help during mental health crises
• Continuous therapy since 2017 as a source of strength, not weakness
• The importance of sharing your story, no matter your background or occupation

If you'd like to be a guest on our show, please reach out - whether you prefer audio, Zoom, or in-studio, we want to share your story and help others know they're not alone.

Chapter Markers

0:00 Welcome and Introduction

5:42 What it Means to Be an Advocate

13:35 The Journey to 250 Episodes

17:15 From Material Success to Meaningful Impact

19:10 Vision: Free Mental Healthcare Facility

24:25 Personal Mental Health Journey

28:20 Call for Guests and Closing Message

#MentalHealthAdvocate #EndTheStigma #MentalHealthMatters #AdvocacyInAction #SupportMentalHealth #BreakTheSilence #TalkAboutIt #MentalWellnessJourney #EmpowerYourMind #SelfCareMatters #MentalHealthAwarenessMonth #NormalizeTherapy #CopingStrategies #VoiceForChange #HealingTogether #justiceforsurvivors #justice4survivors #VoicesforVoices #VoicesforVoicesPodcast #JustinAlanHayes #JustinHayes #help3billion #TikTok #Instagram #truth #factoverfictionmatters #transparency

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Voices for VoicesⓇ, Voices for Voices:

Hey everyone, welcome to another episode of the Voices for Voices TV show and podcast. I'm your host, founder and executive director of Voices for Voices, Justin Alan Hayes. If you can do us a big favor, give us a big thumbs up like subscribe, share, follow all those things. All those things are free. We would greatly appreciate it. Thank you for joining us. If this is your first episode or you've been with us from the beginning.

Voices for VoicesⓇ, Voices for Voices:

We're reaching corners of the world that I never really well, I did dream about, but that are actually coming to fruition, which is just really incredible and that just shows that there's an interest. We know there's high-level interest. We're not going to get into that every single episode, but just to know that individuals know Voices for Voices and know that we're a 501c3 nonprofit, that when they look at our social media, we don't have millions of followers. When they look at our social media, we don't have millions of followers. We don't even have a couple hundred on just about all of our platforms. But if you do look at the content we post, it's high quality, it's episodes, it's information of guests and sharing their journeys. I'm sharing my journey, so each episode that I host, solo or with guests, it's a little bit therapeutic for me to be able to just talk through things that are happening and going on in my life from that mental health and trauma perspective, as well as the organization and things that we're doing. Some things, many things, actually are going to be taking place. We're gonna be able to share a little bit more in the second half of 2025 than the first half and you'll you'll be made aware of, yeah, through public statements that I'll, um, I'll be most likely giving on on those topics and in those areas, but it's, it's an exciting time.

Voices for VoicesⓇ, Voices for Voices:

Uh, we, as you know, are, uh, we are, we're a charity and a big thing that we do. One of the primary things we do is we advocate. We advocate for ourselves, so individuals associated voices or voices and individuals not associated with Voices for Voices. So we advocate. And you might think, well, what's an advocate? And well, I'm not going to give some Oxford textbook definition and I'll tell you what advocate means to me and us as an organization means to me and us as an organization, and hopefully it'll shed a little bit more light on what you see and what you hear and how when you do come in contact with Voices for Voices in person or through our shows, there'll be a little bit more information in your mind about us and about an advocate.

Voices for VoicesⓇ, Voices for Voices:

So an advocate simply means you're helping somebody, you're trying to help somebody. It could be one person, it could be a group of people. It really just depends One day maybe helping one person, another day and maybe an organization or a group of people that you're helping and that we're helping. And so that's first and foremost what an advocate is, is we're helping, we're helping somebody somewhere at some time. That's what we are as an advocate, that's what we are as an organization, that's what we are as a charity, and that's what I wake up to every day and think of ways to better serve, better communicate to you whether you're watching or listening or you're reading a transcript of one of our shows that you're able to consume that a little bit easier and right. When you have more practice, you get a little bit better, and I'd like to think that, over the 270-plus episodes that we've filmed at this point on our way to 300, which again we're going to hit that with in-studio, out-of-studio episodes total by the end of 2025.

Voices for VoicesⓇ, Voices for Voices:

But by just being true to ourselves about what's happening in the world and this isn't even like a political statement, this is just a human statement that we feel that there's some things, some areas that as a society, as a public, that we could do a little bit better on as individuals. Right, we look at these, maybe like a performance review, and we come up with these goals and then six months or a year, or weekly or monthly, whatever the cadence may be then we're graded against that and say, oh well, you did great on this and we could do better here and there, and and so that's what we're trying to constantly do is to do better in all, all areas, and by doing better it might not come across as better. I'll give you an example, right, so we're. If you, if you, checked out the last two studio episodes we did, and actually probably maybe the last 10 or 15 total episodes we've done, it's on pretty heavy topics, hard to talk about, hard to share about. There's obvious safety concerns and things that come with being the advocate, the advocates that we are. However, we have to look at our lives and think what part of it is what I'm good at or what I like to do, and then the other part is what's going to keep me wanting to continue to do what I'm doing for longer than a couple of episodes. Let's give you an example.

Voices for VoicesⓇ, Voices for Voices:

We were notified after we hit the number 250 of our total episodes in studio, out of studio, from a third party. We didn't know them and there's research that is out that basically summarizes that it's rare. If we look at all the podcasts, all the shows that are out there, it's rare, for it just means a smaller amount than the whole. So let's just say, if there's 100, let's say I don't know, maybe 5 or 10 of those 100, make it to 250, and for one reason or another, others don't, and so that was huge to hear that from like a third party, right, because we read and we listen and we read and we listen and we read and we listen.

Voices for VoicesⓇ, Voices for Voices:

And to actually have somebody else share that it means a lot and frankly, it helped continue invigorating me to share and to talk and do many more out-of-studio episodes so that I can feel like I'm being useful. I know I'm useful but in my mind I'm like you know what, there's probably something today or tomorrow that I could probably have an episode and share and talk about and it could help somebody and and somebody and and so that's the other side of it is I wake up because I like what I do and I like helping people. And so for me, for all the episodes we do, all the events we have or don't have, all the conventions and all these things, at the end of the day, for me, if you asked me 20 years ago, I'd have a much different answer which I think we all might as far as what we wanted to get out of life and our final days and I've talked about that. Just to be frank, 20 years ago it was all about me. It was all about me. It was all about me. It was all about my title, it was all about the money that I had accumulated.

Voices for VoicesⓇ, Voices for Voices:

And as I stand here and if you're listening, I'm standing as I'm, we're doing this particular episode, my Aaron Studio episode, and I just think about okay, well, in my final days here on earth, I'm not going to be able to take a car with me. I'm not going to be able to take a car with me, I'm not going to be able to take a phone with me, I'm not going to. You know, my cousin has a good example and I may have shared it, but I think it's very pertinent is you know, if you go to Graceland, you see all of Elvis's things, elvis Presley, but what you don't see, you don't see Elvis there, so you don't see. So Elvis didn't take his car, didn't take those possessions, their golden rings or their watches, whatever those things may be, whatever those things may be. And so that's a huge part of what Voices for Voices was born out of was that wanting to do more, to not be so focused on material things, and so that's where an advocate kind of comes into play of if I'm helping, who am I helping, how am I helping, why am I helping? And so that's where the name Voices for Voices came from.

Voices for VoicesⓇ, Voices for Voices:

We had an event, and now it's turned into award shows that we're doing here as episodes, and I don't know how things are going to progress from here, but if this is the last episode that I ever do, I'll know that I gave it a thousand percent, I did the best I could, I shared as much as I could, I talked about the hard topics, made some people smile, laugh, cry, be upset, be angry. All the different emotions, and that's just us as human beings. We do, we all have emotions, whether we don't think we do or we don't or we don't think, oh, I can't cry or I can't show an emotion because of whatever reason. And I had to get past that point myself of not being so concerned about what others think in a general sense, that I have to be more concerned with what I think and where I'm at in my head space now is in that helping space, where that's helping others. So, while, yeah, it's nice to get recognized and nice to meet individuals who some are famous, some are well-known, some aren't, it doesn't matter, just the fact that I'm able to and we were able to have that impact. So we are not only a charity but we're an advocate, and we're an advocate for all voices, all shapes and sizes, and that's something I can get behind, that's something I have gotten behind. Others have gotten behind that we're getting.

Voices for VoicesⓇ, Voices for Voices:

To give an example I got feedback from a listener or viewer. I'm not sure how they consume our content, but they said they're a supporter of our show. It doesn't mean that they have to be donating money, it's just we support your show, what it's about the organization. And this individual has cancer, and so that touched me on so many levels. One is my father passed away last year due to cancer. So it hits home personally of I don't know from the person having the cancer what it's like, but I know what it's like to be a loving family member for a person that is going through cancer, regardless of what kind it is or what stage it's at and what, uh, what all the probabilities are. And so when I got that feedback it wasn't long, it wasn't like three paragraphs long, saying how great we are, it was just more like you know, keep doing what you're doing, I support what you're doing. I'm a cancer survivor going through treatment. I don't have it all memorized, and so when I get that type of feedback, that also helps me have a better understanding that what we're doing does have purpose.

Voices for VoicesⓇ, Voices for Voices:

It may have started selfishly, like here's what I want to do with Voices for Voices, but on that very night that we had the event during COVID and we were able to have almost 20 people share their stories. Some were in person and some were as far away as New South Wales, australia. Allison Rose Clark she's a survivor of abuse has been a good friend of mine, and the organization since we're at the beginning has been inspiring. To continue on that. There's going to be days where you're not going to want to feel like doing a whole lot, or it might feel like you're not making a difference because, well, yesterday I got this feedback but I didn't get it today. So what changed from yesterday to today? And so to bring all those voices together, to have been through some type of abuse, some type of addiction, some type of recovery, trauma, it was just incredible to bring people together like that.

Voices for VoicesⓇ, Voices for Voices:

And one of the big goals actually two of my big goals that you know about, the one, you definitely know about, the second one I don't mention a lot, but I did mention at that very first event. So the first big goal we have. So if you're wondering, like, oh well, you know, you're just a TV show and podcast and blah, blah, blah. Well, number one it takes money to do a lot of things and, as an advocate and I can speak from experience I'm all in with every ounce of being. But that doesn't mean that there's unlimited money to be able to do some of the things that we want to do, one of which is the big. One of the big ones is to either build or have a facility either in northeast Ohio or somewhere centrally located around the United States where all mental health care is covered, and we have a lot of addiction and recovery centers. We're doing a lot of fantastic work out there.

Voices for VoicesⓇ, Voices for Voices:

This isn't to take away anything from what they're doing. Excuse me. This isn't to take away anything from what they're doing. Excuse me, but I look at a benchmark like St Jude's and what they do for childhood cancer, where people travel from all over the United States and I think sometimes maybe all over the world. They're never charged for the care that they receive. They're never charged for travel expenses. They're never charged for travel expenses. They're never charged for food.

Voices for VoicesⓇ, Voices for Voices:

And that's the big goal that I have is to have a mental health-focused, one of those types of models where it doesn't matter who you are, where you're from, what you're going through. If you just had a panic attack today and you need help, you can go in and get help, you can be connected and in all those expenses, everything will be covered. And one of the big reasons why I want to do that is when I was at my lowest and I hit rock bottom mental health wise. You look at me or you hear my voice, so I represent what could be thought of as a demographic that doesn't have trouble paying for things and oh well, if you need, you need to be seen by a doctor. Well, you know you have insurance and you got the money to pay for this and that and the other.

Voices for VoicesⓇ, Voices for Voices:

Well, one of the big things I had to get over when I was sitting for the third time in two weeks in an emergency room at Akron General Hospital where I was deciding to voluntarily admit myself into a psych ward to get things under control or to not. I had to let go of my ego and the pride and everything and I had to say I need help. But part of that also that decision, was the money. Well, we're being told it might be five days and well, a five-day hospital stay is a lot of money. And you're darn right, it's a lot of money. And so, while I may look the demographic or sound like the demographic that doesn't have a problem and like, oh yeah, it's easy for you to say you know white Caucasian male. Easy for you to say, but not for me.

Voices for VoicesⓇ, Voices for Voices:

Well, when I left that that hospital after the five days with insurance, there was still over $20,000 of cost that needed paid, and I didn't have a job. At the time I'd just been married for coming up on six months. Coming up on six months and it was just a very scary time for that, and so part of my decision was like I need help, but I can't pay for this. I don't know what it's going to be. Luckily and I'm saying luckily, luckily, because it could have happened a different way it was communicated through different channels to take care of yourself, not worry about what the cost is. And so when I heard that, I was like, alright, justin, we need to get, we need to get help.

Voices for VoicesⓇ, Voices for Voices:

So when I take that back and talk about wanting a facility where anybody can walk in and not have to pay for anything, that's why, because, whether you're the demographic, whether you look it, whether you sound it, whether you live in a certain area or you come from a certain name and pedigree and whatever that is, I don't want that to matter and it shouldn't matter, because we're all human beings and we all should be able to get the same help without having to worry about oh crap, well, if he had to pay $20,000, I may have to pay $40,000. I can't afford that, heck, no. So that's a big reason why that's one of our big goals and that costs money and that costs more than $5 or $20. And we accept donations of all sizes. Don't get me wrong. We value and we're able to do some things with the donations that we get and with the help that we receive, and that's A-OK with me. But for us to be able to get to that point of where I want to be at, that's the big goal.

Voices for VoicesⓇ, Voices for Voices:

And I don't talk about that a whole lot. Maybe I should, maybe I should. I don't know. This is the first time I've gone through something like this. I've never had a show, a podcast before, and so I don't know. Maybe I should talk about it more. I'm learning and so that's the really big goal that I have of you know, I talk about helping three, wanting to help three billion people over the course of my lifetime and beyond. I know that I can't do that alone, our organization can't do it alone, and I know that if we continue in that positive track, that we're going to be helping people long past when I'm here on earth and pass away. So that's where that legacy of wanting to pass that along and pass that torch and have individuals to be just as passionate as I am and we are at Voices for Voices to want to do something like that.

Voices for VoicesⓇ, Voices for Voices:

It's easy to be a bystander and walk by and pretend something's not happening or we didn't see it or I don't want to get involved. Well, I'm the exception to that rule because I do want to get involved and I am and we are as an organization. We talk about topics like oh, I can't believe they're talking about human trafficking. Oh, that's a dangerous that is. Well, there's a lot of dangerous things that can happen. We could get in our cars and be in an accident and have tragic injuries or pass away. That could happen. There's a lot of things that can happen. But I want to be mindful and to know in my mind that whenever my time's up here on earth, that I did everything I could for all types, all individuals that I was able to come across.

Voices for VoicesⓇ, Voices for Voices:

If there's a demographic or if there's individuals that you want to reach out, be a guest on our show, please reach out, let us know. We want to hear from you and you don't have to talk a whole lot. I can do the talking thing pretty good as far as filling up time, you know, and just to know that, by you coming on the show or somebody you know coming on the show, even if you're like you know what, I just want to do an audio. Well, we'll do an audio. We'll do a phone call. We've done that before. Well, I could do Zoom, okay. Well, we've done Zoom before. Well, I want to be in studio? Well, we've done that before.

Voices for VoicesⓇ, Voices for Voices:

So there's not really a method that we haven't done as far as bringing guests on the show. As far as that goes, obviously we communicate ahead of time, so we know that. So we have an idea of what the flow of the day, the filming day, is going to be. But other than that, you don't have to do anything.

Voices for VoicesⓇ, Voices for Voices:

Have note cards, have information that you want to share, talk about experiences, talk about events, talk about things that change your life for the better, or that, if somebody else is in the position you were, that you want to share with somebody, to help them get through, to know that life is worth living, that we all are valuable. We all have things to offer. Obviously, not all of our things that we offer are the same, so they can take all kinds of different forms. It could be a musician, it could be a landscaper, it could be somebody who works construction. We need all those, we need all of you, we need all of you with us, no matter what that is, and it doesn't have to be glitzy and glamorous to be like, oh, I can't be on because whatever, well, we want to have you on. We want to share your story, because by sharing your story is going to help at least one other person, and then there might be even a second person. It might be helping you too. I mean like wow, I've never been to therapy and just by talking, I feel a little bit better. And I'll just close this episode on.

Voices for VoicesⓇ, Voices for Voices:

For me, for therapy. I've had therapy since 2017. It's something that's continuous in my life. If you go to therapy, it doesn't make you weak, it makes you strong. Every time I come out of a therapy session, even if it's just a teeny bit, there's just a teeny bit less stress that I have when I leave, and so, for me, as long as there's a teeny bit less stress, I'm going to continue to do it, and you should too. Don't think you're alone, because you're not alone. I'm not alone. None of us are alone. None of the 7 billion of us plus in the world are alone. So thank you for joining us. Please be a voice for you or somebody in need, and God bless you. God bless America and God bless the world.

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Justin Alan Hayes

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