A week until Election Day and stress levels are high. On Tuesday’s First Coast Connect, we spoke with Jacksonville University assistant professors of Mental Health Counseling Whitney George and Jason Orrock. Tuesday also kicks off National Epilepsy Awareness Month, ande we spoke with David Grissett with the Epilepsy Foundation of Florida and neurologist Dr. Syed Asad. Then, Florida Times-Union columnist Mark Woods joined us to talk about his recently completed trip to walk across Duval County. And finally, Springfield’s Porchfestis Saturday and we spoke with founder Christina Parrish. We were also treated to an in-studio performance by local band Canary in the Coalmine.
Election Stress
An American Psychological Association survey shows more than half the respondents are reporting “Election Stress Disorder” over the 2016 election. It’s broken up friendships and strained family ties. George and Orrock spoke about what may be causing so many people to feel stressed and ways it may be overcome. George and Orrock recently wrote an articlefor the J.U. publication The Wave about election stress.
National Epilepsy Month
November is National Epilepsy Awareness Month. It’s estimated 400,000 Floridians suffer from the condition.The Epilepsy Foundation of Florida leads the fight to overcome the challenges of living with epilepsy and to accelerate therapies to stop seizures, find cures, and save lives. Asad and Grissett talked about the work of the foundation and the dangers and available treatments for epilepsy.
Mark Woods Walk
Jacksonville is the largest city by area in the lower 48 states. It is also one of the least walkable cities in the country with a large number of pedestrian fatalities. Those are the reasons Woods decided to spend about six months walking across Jacksonville from the Nassau to the Clay County lines. Woods said he was able to meet many interesting people from those he just happened across while walking to others who joined him to talk about some historic and interesting places in the city.
Porchfest — Canary in the Coalmine
Poarchest is an annual festival in Springfield where residents show off their historic and renovated homes while having local bands from around Jacksonville perform on their front porch. Last year’s first Porchfest was a big success bringing large crowds to Springfield streets. Local band Canary in the Coalmine will be performing its final concert Saturday night at Klutho Park as part of the event.
Producer Kevin Meerschaert can be reached at kmeerschaert@wjct.org, 904-358-6334 or on Twitter at @KMeerschaertJax.
