Stop Asking What’s Wrong With People | Dr. Jean Wright, NYC DOHMH

In this episode of Self Disclosed, we sit down with Dr. H. Jean Wright II, founder and CEO of Mental Health Success Boost and former Executive Deputy Commissioner of Mental Hygiene at NYC DOHMH, on why the question you ask about a person decides the answer you get. We cover: ✅ Why “what happened to you” opens a conversation and “what’s wrong with you” shuts one down ✅ The interviews Jean refused to run until the guards took the leg irons and chains off ✅ How a Philadelphia division that started with two people, a peer specialist and an administrator, grew to 60 ✅ Why men serving life sentences pooled eight-dollar-a-week wages to pay for other families’ dinners ✅ What New York gets right about behavioral health, and the zip codes still getting left out Whether you run a system, fund one, or work inside one, this is a conversation about the difference between serving people and deciding for them. 🎧 Subscribe for more conversations like these #BehavioralHealth #MentalHealth #ServantLeadership #TraumaInformedCare #PublicHealth 00:00 Intro 02:11 The rent you pay for being on this earth 03:38 Twelve years old, and choosing the kids nobody picked 05:26 What his parents showed him about servant leadership 06:27 “Your career chooses you” 09:24 Crime shows, and the mentor who pushed him toward forensics 13:16 What happened to you, not what’s wrong with you 15:32 Fundamental attribution error 16:29 No formula, no fear: building rapport behind the walls 18:52 Why he refused to interview anyone in leg irons 20:42 The Montgomery decision and the men coming home 22:07 Fathers and Children Together 25:27 Philadelphia: from one person at a time to a whole city 29:59 Two people to sixty, and a division still running today 33:48 Peer specialists, years ahead of reimbursement 35:46 Influencing people who don’t answer to you 38:50 New York, times ten 44:13 What NYC gets right, and what he’d fix tomorrow 51:06 Changing mindsets and giving hope