Into the Fold: the Mental Health Podcast

In schools across Texas, educators are being asked to support learning while also responding to rising levels of anxiety, trauma, and emotional distress among students. But what if schools weren’t just responding to these challenges, but designing new systems to meet them? In conversation with Beth Hines,  principal of Arp Elementary School in East Texas, we explore how educators can become archit...

This episode closes out the Policy arc of our season, an arc focused on how systems change happens, and how mental health policy is shaped not just by moments of urgency, but by sustained leadership. Today’s conversation looks at what it takes to avoid ‘reform whiplash’ — the cycle where systems lurch forward during crisis, only to stall or regress once public attention shifts. Austin City Council...

In a special bonus segment, Hogg Foundation policy fellow  Maddie Garza,  along with returning guest  Ayaan Moledina  of Students Engaged in Advancing Texas (SEAT), discuss the Lived Experience Storytelling Primer, a toolkit designed to encourage people with lived experience to engage in advocacy while using a trauma-informed lens to take care of themselves and their stories.  Related Links Lived...

This episode is the second of the Policy arc of our season, an arc focused on how systems change happens, and how mental health policy is shaped not just by moments of urgency, but by sustained leadership. Today’s conversation looks at how lived experience becomes a catalyst for advocacy. We’ll explore how young people — and really, anyone — can use their personal story to shape systems, influence...

When most people hear the word "policy", they think of lawmakers, bills, or political debates — not necessarily something that affects their day-to-day life. But policy is everywhere. It shapes the jobs we can get, the healthcare we can afford, and the communities we call home. And for young people, understanding and influencing policy isn’t just about civic engagement — it’s about shaping the fut...

In rural communities, distance shapes everything - e.g. distance to the nearest hospital; distance to a licensed counselor; or distance to broadband access. When it comes to mental health care, those distances can become barriers. But what if distance didn’t mean disconnection? What if partnerships could stretch across counties and communities — aligning resources so that rural Texans don’t have t...

When someone leaves a state hospital and returns to their community, recovery doesn’t pause — it becomes more complicated. Housing, connection, medication, transportation, stigma, isolation — the real work of healing often begins outside the hospital walls. In this episode, we explore the question: What if discharge isn’t an endpoint — but a handoff? What if care doesn’t end at the hospital door,...

For generations, churches have been more than places of worship. They’ve been gathering spaces, support systems, sources of strength in moments of uncertainty and crisis. In African American communities especially, faith institutions have long been trusted partners in health and healing, often filling gaps where systems fall short. Today's episode explores what becomes possible when that trust is...

On a summer morning in July 2025, floodwaters swept through Burnet and Llano counties in Central Texas, turning quiet roads into rivers. Homes were lost. Families displaced. Older adults had to be rescued from a HUD apartment complex. An RV park was destroyed. Over the chaotic weeks that followed, Community Resource Centers of Texas, working with the Texas Housing Foundation, mobilized to help peo...

All across Texas, people are showing that you don’t have to wait for change from the top down — you can build it from the ground up. And when local efforts succeed, they don’t just transform a workplace, a neighborhood, a classroom — they offer a template for reimagining the system itself. In this episode Larissa Minner, an expert on disability research and universal design, joins us for an explor...

Every system of care — whether it’s education, health, or justice — is built on trust. Trust that when we reach out for help, we’ll be treated with respect and fairness. But for too many Texans, that hasn’t always been the case. People with disabilities and those living in poverty have too often been left out or let down by systems that were meant to support them. Just as obviously, there are peop...

Today’s episode was recorded as part of the Robert Lee Sutherland Seminar , an event the Hogg Foundation hosts every two years to explore urgent issues in mental health and well-being. This year’s seminar included a screening of Humanly Possible, a new documentary produced with support from the Hogg Foundation. The film shares deeply personal stories of substance use recovery. In this episode, we...

Since 1978, The Hogg Foundation’s biennial Robert Lee Sutherland Seminar (RLS) has been held to increase awareness about mental health concepts such as recovery, integrated health, and barriers to well-being. This year’s event offers a chance for Texans to promote innovation and collaboration among mental health care providers, advocates, consumers, and their families. Taking place September 8 &am...

When it comes to supporting rural communities, especially around mental health, success often starts not with answers, but with questions—and a deep commitment to listening. In our latest episode of Into the Fold, host Ike Evans speaks with Tammy Heinz , senior program officer and consumer and family liaison at the Hogg Foundation, Rick Ybarra , senior program officer at the Hogg Foundation, Brian...

In this timely and heartfelt episode of Into the Fold , co-hosts Vicky Coffee and Ike Evans sit down with Shawn Kent, therapist and director at the Amala Foundation, to explore the mental health challenges—and sources of resilience—facing youth in today’s rapidly shifting world. Together, they unpack the pressures of social media, family stress, school systems, and the profound need for belonging...

Today’s conversation is about the promises—and the pitfalls—of technology. Specifically, we’re exploring how artificial intelligence is reshaping mental health care and what it means for equity, access, and privacy. While AI has the potential to increase access to mental health tools and improve outcomes, it also raises urgent ethical questions: Who is being left out? Who has control over their da...

In this episode, we’re diving into a topic that’s both essential and often behind the scenes—funding. Who funds mental health work? How do organizations access support for the critical services they provide? And what does innovation in mental health funding look like? This conversation takes us into the heart of collaboration, innovation, and opportunity—through the lens of the Hogg Foundation’s r...

March is National Social Work Month, and here at the Hogg Foundation, we see firsthand the major role social workers play in the upkeep of mental health. For Episode 172, we are joined today by Catherine Wilsnack, a doctoral candidate at the University of Texas at Austin School of Social Work. Catherine earned her B.S. in Psychology from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and her M.S....

Love is a profound and multifaceted concept that has fascinated people for centuries. But do we really understand it? This question is at the center of our most recent episode of Into the Fold, which features an archived recording of the Hogg Foundation radio show, The Human Condition, with commentary by present day staff members, Mary Capps , Elizabeth Stauber , and Darrell Wiggins .   Produced a...

This is Part 2 of the conversation we began with last month's Episode 169, Navigating Systemic Shifts: Policy Changes That Impact Mental Health Care. We want to know, from those doing the work, what feels different about doing mental health policy in 2025. For this episode, we bring back our guests Mandi Zapata of Texas Civil Rights Project, Noah Jones of Texas Counseling Association, and Maia Vol...

We are coming to you from Austin, Texas, site of the Texas Legislature an epicenter of the changes that are impacting people, as well as concerted efforts to address those changes. We thought it would be fitting to kick off this new season of Into the Fold with a look into the bustling world of public policy – and how policy changes impact mental health. For this conversation we are joined by Mand...

The holidays can be a time of joy, but for many, they bring unique challenges, such as loneliness, financial stress, or grief. Today, we’re focusing on ways to provide meaningful support to individuals during the holiday season. We are joined today by Jen Cardenas, executive director of Austin Clubhouse, an organization dedicated to building a community that supports adults living with mental heal...

In today’s episode, we’re diving into the unique stresses and rewards of policy work, even or especially during an election year as divisive as this one has been. With the help of Alison Mohr Boleware, policy director for the Hogg Foundation, and Lyssette Galvan, policy director for National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) Texas, we'll discuss strategies for maintaining resilience and the deeper...

The Hogg Foundation often characterizes its mission as being one "to transform the places where people live, learn, work, play, and pray." That third word,  work,  is the focus of today's episode. In observance of World Mental Health Day and its theme, "It's Time to Prioritize Mental Health in the Workplace," we discuss how we can transform workplaces into spaces that support mental health. We als...

For the month of September, the Hogg Foundation is celebrating National Recovery Month. Throughout the month we’ll be highlighting the creativity, resilience, and leadership of people in recovery from mental and substance use conditions, and the many things our grantee partners are doing to transform mental health in their communities. For this episode, we talk to two friends from within the Hogg...