<body><div><figure><img src="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?type=thumbnail_580x000&amp;url=2K75uZ_0vl3MTOU00" alt="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?url=2K75uZ_0vl3MTOU00" width="1200" height="800" ><figcaption>Jack Curtis, a clinical intern at Loyola University's Center for Counseling and Education, sends emails outside of Loyola's Greenville Hall in New Orleans on Sept. 25, 2024. Credit: Arielle Robinson/Verite News</figcaption></figure>A new program run by Loyola University’s Center for Counseling and Education (LCCE) is offering free mental health counseling to culture bearers in greater New Orleans. The program, which began earlier this month, is available to a wide array of people who help create, maintain and preserve the region’s unique culture.“We just want more people in the community who make up the fabric of the community through their art, through the culture, whatever it may be to see us as a place where they can come and they can access services,” said Denise Gilstrap, director of the LCCE, a sliding-scale clinic offered by the university.The program offers different types of counseling, such as individual, group and relationship counseling. And culture bearers looking for housing, food, a medication evaluation or a job can be paired with a case manager to assist them in finding such necessities.Culture bearers do not need to be enrolled or employed by Loyola or have insurance in order to participate in the program. Appointments are offered in-person and through telehealth. The new program grew out of a need Gilstrap identified when she saw culture bearers coming into the clinic for counseling.“We get a lot of gig workers, individuals in the community who cannot afford to go and get therapy,” Gilstrap said. “And a lot of times these individuals are artists or musicians.”Gilstrap said that the clinic started receiving calls from people interested in seeking therapy about a week into starting it.When defining who counts as a culture bearer, Gilstrap said that there is not one clear definition. The clinic has received calls from people working in various fields, such as people in social aid and pleasure clubs, service workers, musicians, artists and teachers.Gilstrap said that no one will be turned away.“We’re not going to argue [about] that, because they are taking care of the city and the community,” Gilstrap said.Culture bearers are fundamental to New Orleans — the city is known internationally for its vibrant entertainment scene and nightlife, powered by people who preserve its culture — yet many are underpaid or their finances ebb and flow throughout the year with the city’s festival calendar, Gilstrap said. Financial challenges can lead to mental health struggles.Financial problems often go hand in hand with mental health issues, Gilstrap said. “So if we look at that in terms of our city and who lives within that poverty line, a lot of these people make below a certain income and a good portion of those individuals are culture bearers, gig workers, hospitality workers.”Jack Curtis, a musician who works as an intern for the clinic, said the arts are undervalued and that many lesser-known musicians work for little, or sometimes zero pay.“What would this place be without culture workers? What would life be without music and art and food and what would New Orleans be without Mardi Gras Indians?” Curtis said. “They’re doing it for the love. They’re not doing it for the money, and that puts you in a position where you just don’t get paid a lot of the time,” Curtis said.Taylor Cohen, the public health director at the New Orleans Musicians’ Clinic and Assistance Foundation, said that there is a need for more programs in the city that tend to culture bearers’ mental health. Cohen’s organization participated in the New Orleans Music Census, which surveyed people working in the New Orleans music industry. She said that lack of finances is one of the main barriers for musicians getting access to health care.“If we prioritize musicians, paid them what they deserve, gave them benefits that they deserved, we wouldn’t really be having this conversation,” Cohen said.Republish our articles for free, online or in print, under a Creative Commons license.</div></body>

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Loyola University is offering free counseling program for New Orleans culture bearers

A new program run by Loyola University’s Center for Counseling and Education (LCCE) is offering free mental health counseling to culture bearers in greater New Orleans. The program, which began earlier this month, is available to a wide array of people who help create, maintain and preserve the region’s unique culture.