I speak with Leora Joseph, mother of three, wife and career prosecutor who oversees the Colorado Office of Civil and Forensic Mental Health. Leora has been the Chief of Staff in the Colorado Attorney General's office, managing attorney and law enforcement teams, special victim's, and human trafficking units and she has worked with over 1,000 victims of sexual abuse, and sex trafficking. Her experiences helped her identify gaps within the legal and criminal justice systems where limited access to mental healthcare and stigma often trap those needing care within a loop of prosecution and incarceration. Leora is subsequently running for office as Denver's District Attorney with a vision of balancing treatment for chronic mental illness with victim's advocacy, restorative justice and public awareness to help improve a complex legal system. We discuss the challenges facing healthcare and law enforcement amidst the current mental health crisis and the imperative of maintaining compassion, perspective and gratitude to continue the work of service.
Please Leora's journey and support her Denver District Attorney by sending donations to her candidacy at https://www.leorafordistrictattorney.com/
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Check out these resources from previous podcast guests for assistance with tracking your mental health, and reaching out for therapeutic assistance:
1. Jonathan Wilson and INVI MindHealth have developed an App using smart watch technology to track your daily mental health wellness:
2. From Raul Rivas and his Trauma Behind the Badge podcast episode he shared the inline resource therapy resource:
https://www.lighthousehw.org/
Available on the App Store or on Google Play.
Lighthouse Health & Wellness is an in-hand, on-demand, 100% confidential health and wellness platform available at no cost to our nation's public safety agencies.
Lighthouse was designed to provide your employees and their families anonymous access to your agency's existing health and wellness programs, along with a growing library of the latest educational health and wellness information and tools that have been tailored to the unique needs of those working in public safety.
