Activate with Donate Life Hollywood

Welcome to the Get to Life Podcast where we have conversations about organ tissue and I know Nation. You can always find us at the get to life dot org. I'm Roy Steele. I'm Sarah Lee-Marth.

And I'm Kirsten Heintz filling in for Joey Buudrow while he takes care of leading our organization through these COVID-19 times. Yes, thanks to him, thanks to our team and thanks to you Kirsten for stepping up. And just to let all of you know that are listening to the Get to Life Podcast, number one, thank you. Number two, we are recording this episode during the coronavirus pandemic and being socially responsible by recording remotely.

Yeah. So if our sound is a little off, we apologize. We're so grateful that we do have technology that can allow us to continue to record our episodes and get the importance of organ tissue donation out to everyone. Absolutely.

Speaking of that, on today's episode, what's up? So today we're going to be talking about, have you ever seen something on TV that you thought, oh no, that's not true, but didn't know what to do about it? Well, now there's an app for that. Oh, and we're also going to be talking about how we can build up our resilience, all that and more right here, the get to life dot org.

Let's get to it. Here on the Get to Life Podcast, she's back. Tonight, I was with Donate Life Hollywood. Hey, tonight.

Now you do, and so good to be here. We are so glad to have you. Well, it's always fun to talk about Hollywood, right? Little Sparkle, Little Pizazz.

Absolutely. And I'm so excited because not only do we have some Sparkle Pizazz, but we have some fun technology. I heard that you guys have just launched the Donate Life Hollywood app. We're not just this year.

Yes, it's very recent. And we did that in February. It's called the DLH activate app. And it's really the way that every single person in the donation and transplant community and beyond can help to influence the entertainment industry and really turn them into our partners in saving lives.

I think the coolest thing for me was that we can actually can now look at these shows. And when we see myths or we see something that being said correctly, we have a way now to communicate that to the producers and to let them know, hey, this isn't right. You're giving out misinformation. Have you guys had any storylines come through that you've already been able to kind of put it to the test?

Yes. And what's great is that I don't always see the donation and transplant storylines when they're on television. I don't always watch the medical shows. And so through the report on this feature, which is right on the homepage, you just click the button report on it.

So if you see something on television that is about donation and transplantation, you're like, this is not quite right. You just put a little bit of information about the show, the air date, if you know the episode, the name of the episode, great. If not, that's no problem. And then put what you think is wrong with it.

And what that does is allows us to utilize that information and your perception of the storyline in an activation for the rest of the nation. So there was a woman who posted some information and they were really concerned about how a show was presenting living donation. I believe it was, I think it was the resident and they were trying to talk out, talk with one young man out of being a living donor and they were talking about how it would be very painful in a recovery and all of these kinds of negative things. And she was a living donor and said, this is just not how my experience with living donation was.

And I'm really concerned that it could keep people from wanting to be living donor. So that's exactly the kind of information that we provided that in a rapid response. So we sent out a notification and said, hey, there's a response awaiting that to send out through your own social media, letting the show know that we're concerned about how they're presenting living donation. So that was a great way where I was like, oh, it's working, right?

Where a user let me know about the story line. And then we were able to put a preloaded social media response into the response section. And then all users got a notification. They go into the response.

They just hit share and immediately all of that information goes on their own social media pages with the right hashtag, you know, the right at the right show, the writers, all of that kind of stuff so that the shows and the writers are seeing that the donation and transplant community and many of us are worried and concerned about how they're presenting organ donation on television. So now I just like this because we are powerful communities that we get to leverage that community power around our unified goals, which is just to make life happen. So I know you guys mentioned about responding immediately to negativity. We can also support the positivity when we see it.

We can learn about casting opportunities, which got my attention with that sister. And then we can upload our own real life story. So it's very interactive. We talked about recording this during the COVID-19 pandemic.

This is something that we have time to learn to figure out how it's used to download it and then to put it into action. So you see it working? Yes. And I, you mentioned the positive and I really have learned something.

I mean, I grew up in Hollywood. My mom is a studio teacher. My dad is local 33. He's a stage fan.

My husband is a post production video editor for A&E Network. Like everyone around me is in Hollywood. So I understand kind of how Hollywood works and they really do like to be praised. So when we can find those opportunities to thank the entertainment industry for what they're doing, we want to put those into.

So we have a notification going out and response going out this week that is thanking the medical shows for donating their PPE equipment that they're using as on the show to the local hospital. So thanking the entertainment industry for helping to save lives during this time of crisis. Another really great note that we put out was to Tyler Cameron, who was on the bachelorette. And he had a huge following.

He's very popular. Somebody actually used the report of MIT's function to let me know that he had posted on Instagram that his mom became a donor and they did an honor walk in Florida at one of the Florida hospitals. And he posted this honor walk on his Instagram page. So another notification we have and response we have going out this week is to Tyler Cameron, really thanking him for sharing that story and then providing a link to that Instagram video for people to see.

So Hollywood loves to be praised. So we're not kind of using both that carrot and the stick, right? No, no, don't do it this way. And great work.

Thank you for doing this. So yeah, I think that what you said too in terms of harnessing the power of the entire donation and transplant community, because I think what the problem really is is that Hollywood doesn't see us as a group, right? They know the cancer community. They're not going to mess with a cancer storyline, but they don't see us as organized like that.

And so this Accudate app will help us create that organization and influence Hollywood and everyone can be involved. Yeah, I think that's amazing, especially because, you know, I don't think that Hollywood is intending to give myths. They're intending to entertain their audiences. And so for us to lead with positively reinforcing, you know, that organ donation is a good thing and we thank you all so much for telling the stories.

We want to give you the tools you need to tell the story accurately. I think that's incredible. So there's so many, you know, shows and celebrities that we see that are connected to donation. So just to lead with saying thank you and you're doing a good job, I think it's great.

Yeah. You know, the first time around when we were doing going to Hollywood, we gave Inspire a award to television storylines that were doing a good job. And I was talking to a woman, a donor mom, and she had come to one of the Inspire awards and she was like, why aren't you doing that again? You should be giving these Inspire awards again.

And so I actually started thinking about planning an event for this year, which I don't know if that's going to be a good idea, but potentially we do a virtual Inspire award that all of the app users could be a part of as well, you know, through the app we could even do things like voting for your best storylines or other kinds of things. So there's really a ton of opportunities through the app to generate user content and to really create a community as well as to harden them and activate them in different ways. So yes, around storyline, but there's other opportunities as well that we can use the app for. So Nia, you visited with us back on episode 100.

If you missed it, please go back and go to the get to life.org episode 100, but we interviewed the new Amsterdam writer, which was pretty neat. And when we were talking to you, you talked about donate life, Hollywood, why it was created and the giant steps forward. It has made since its creation. Can you give us a little bit of that for those who may have missed that of the mission and why it exists?

Yes, I love that we were the hundredth episode here. I always I think that's so special. So with Shireen, I will mention I had her come out to the donate life rose for a float and place a rose for her mother because her mother received a liver transplant. She's passed away, but she lived many, many years with her liver transplant.

And so Shireen came out and placed a rose on the donate life rose for a float, which is incredibly meaningful and again, a great way for us to continue to build those relationships, those proactive relationships with the entertainment industry. Donately Hollywood ran from 2008 to 2012. And then I experienced my own health challenges and had to leave. And we retired the campaign because really we had kind of done our job of eliminating a lot of the mischievous conceptions on television.

A partnership with Three Rivers back in the day and CDS led to a 6% increase in the public willingness to register as a donor in a single year. So that was the largest one year increase that we had ever seen in the public willingness to register as a donor. And so we know entertainment education really is important and it works and we can build our partnerships with the entertainment industry. So when we kind of came back with Donately Hollywood a couple of years ago, I feel like it was sort of a soft launch a couple of years ago, but last year we built a strategic plan and it really created the foundation for Donately Hollywood to be back and be a huge support to the entire donation and transplant community.

It's really designed to uplift the message of donation and build these relationships again with the entertainment industry so we can see those kinds of games in public willingness to register and a positive perception of organ donation. And so yeah, we've already been able to build a lot of those relationships in Amsterdam have been huge. And again, because we have a writer who has a personal connection to donation, but NBC has been very open to it. I'm working with I think four different non scripted producers on different ideas around donation and transplantation, a lot of living donation interests.

There's at least three scripted television or movies that I've done at transportation on and are in some level of pre production or production. And just every day there's new opportunities of how the entertainment industry wants to tell our stories and how Donately Hollywood here to guide them, to keep them away from certain misconceptions, but then also to connect them to different organizations and individuals and inspiring personal stories. And that's another thing the app can do. So in the fall, our intention is to launch the VLH Writers Portal and that will be a website designed specifically for the entertainment industry so that they can find powerful authentic stories, access to experts for free consultation, real conflict, not the misconstant sections that they build into the conflict, but through the VLH activate app, we will be able to call for videos so folks can do a short video on their phone and send it through the app.

And that will build out content for the VLH Writers Portal so that each one of our inspiring stories within the donation and transplant community could spark an entire episode or storyline or give that authentic voice that we are asking Hollywood to present. That's incredible, Tania. And I'm so excited that you guys thought to do an app so that we can reach our entire donation community across the nation, not just in Hollywood. Can you explain, I went on and downloaded it this week and I know that there was a video and I said there was a video and that really helped.

Would you mind walking our audience through how to get the app and where they can find the video if they have any problems that explain the features? Absolutely. Thank you. I'm glad the video helped because there are just, it's intuitive, but it's worth watching the video because there are different parts of the app and it's not really like an app like you have on your phone for anything else and it really is multi-functional.

So you can go to the iTunes Store or Google Play and you just put in DLH activate app and if you start with DLH it pops right out. If you have to come for me too. Yeah, okay good. And the icon is a little like old school television and if you notice that swirl in the middle is the donate life swirl.

So we've got kind of that connection back to the donation to the donate life community. So DLH activate app, go ahead. It's free, download it. So the first thing you want to do is allow for notification and know that we get a lot of notifications on our phones but really the power of the DLH activate app is to send you a targeted notification when there's something to respond to.

So please allow for notification. Then there's a registration section and we've made that pretty intuitive. So we want to know just a little bit of contact information but really your connection to donation and if you're not seeing your connection to donation like if you have one that doesn't seem to be listed we would love to know about that as well. So you can use one of the other features that I'll talk about in a second to let us know if we want to finalize or to nest that a bit more.

But we want to know if you're a trans-automated donor family member, if you work in an OPO, if you're an industry professional and the reason for that is again you're talking about tapping. So for instance if extreme makeover home edition is looking for a donor mom in New Orleans, then we are going to be able to target a notification to donor moms in New Orleans parish and let them know that is tapping opportunity. So this will really allow us to do to be a service to the entertainment industry and go to real life stories on television. The other thing we've added as I mentioned is a county or parish so we are able to provide targeted notification geographically.

Then you go into the app the homepage has a welcome message that will change when there's new things and new features on the app. We have highlighted the number of people who are waiting. That's really reconnecting all of us to the work that we're doing and the lives that we're saving every day and the number of donors to date. So we are updating that information as you know fast that information is available.

So we can honor and celebrate those lives and really see the power of the donation and transplant community in action. The homepage also has a report on that feature. So if you see anything on television, I've gotten a report about a doctor's show, about medical drama, about the chyla camera and teeth, anything that you see out there in the world about donation and transplantation. It could be an old episode or rerun on T&T, whatever it is.

Use the report on that to give me as much information as you have about that show so that we can consider how we would create an activation around that. There's a news feature so that right now has a lot of good information about COVID-19 from the different reputable sources like the CDC, UNOS and others. It's also the advocate. If you go in there, we all get really great training from our different OTOs and organizations to be volunteers.

But this is like a little training kit at your fingertips. So it has mixed in misconceptions and all of those frequently asked questions right at your fingertips there. And again, we utilize that from resources that have already been created. So we're not creating things ourselves, we're repurposing them.

The advocate is where we'll have the video campaigns as well. So there's nothing active right now, but during donate life month, we are going to do our first video campaign and it'll be pretty intuitive on how to do that. One of the main features really is, or my favorite feature, there's so many things I love but my favorite feature is the response section. So that's all the way to the left hand side.

That is where we, as a donate life Hollywood team, pre-populate a social media message. We use all the right hashtags and we put it at all the right shows and writers and all that kind of stuff and we pre-populate it. There's a Facebook one which can be a bit longer and then a tweet which stays within that 280 characters. When you push share, it automatically pushes out that social media message onto your news feed.

And so the reason for this is because if a show is seeing all of these messages that are hashtag and from tons of different individual social media feeds, that really amplifies things and lets them know, oh look, the donation to Transment Community is really talking about this and talking to us about this. So that's a really fabulous feature of this response and I don't even know how it works and how it knows that you're connected to your social media, honestly, that's our CIO that is incredible who made all of that happen, but it seamlessly goes out through your social media channels. So those are the key features of the DLH Accudate app and the notifications that come straight into your phone when you tap or swipe that notification, it will take you into the area of the app where we want you to see the information. So if there's a news article and we let you know about that news article, it takes you straight into the news section.

If there's a response that we're asking you to make, then it'll take you back into that response feature. That's, this is all great. So I went ahead and downloaded the app today and it asked me for which parish and county I am in as well as how I'm connected to the organization community. So I'm wondering if you could explain more about why it asks where you are.

Yeah. So your county or your parish? So it's really twofold. One was to assist with that kind of casting call.

I had down over the past year that several different organizations and groups came to me and they wanted to tell a real life story in a specific geographical space. And I just didn't have the capacity. There was one that was in an OPO service area and that OPO was having their big fundraising event exactly at the time that I was making this request. And so there's just no way that they were going to be able to cast for me and my little thing.

And so I realized it would be great for us to be able to send those targeted notifications by a geographical space. The other thing that that allows us to do so if LOBA has an event that you want to target your group and the folks in your service area and your DSA, then we can just take the parishes and Louisiana and send out a targeted notification just in your service area. So this really allows our Donate and Hollywood partners to make the most use out of the app as well. So again, we can use it for Hollywood.

We can use it for the Donate and Hollywood partners which are OPOs, transplant centers and others to target information in their service area. The other thing is that it allows us to provide COVID-19 information by county. What we were realizing is the government was looking at COVID-19 cases and outbreaks in hotspots by county. So the DLA's activate app was modeled off of a rapid response app used by the federal government in times of emergency.

So this allowed us to go back to those rapid response routes and target information by county if there's a COVID-19 hotspot or if there's county-based information that would be critical. Because we realized that a large part of our Donate-like community fits within that high risk community that folks keep talking about. So we wanted to be able to do some part in supporting our community during the COVID-19 crisis and providing county-based information if there's a hot spot in other county-based information we can push that right out for notifications. I'm going through the app now to now I love it but I don't see where if I know what actress would play me in a movie.

Where do I put that on the app? So there's two ways you can provide that information. You can go ahead and click report a myth and you can just put in there that you believe that Williams-O-Maz should play you in the movie. Totally, you know, just let me know why you can even put a little reasoning why and so that'll give me that information.

Or if you go to the upper right-hand corner, there's three little dots that pull down that is you can get your support. So if you're having any problem with the app or you want to just send us a message, you can use the support feature as well. So there's two ways to directly communicate with the Donate-like Hollywood team and our team at Crowd Advocacy which is the folks who actually designed and built the app and provide all the technical support to it. So yeah, that's great information.

It's a really good question. I would recommend the report in this feature. So let me know which celebrities should play you in the movie. I love it.

It gives me something to think about during the pandemic. So I like that. Tonight, this is all so much fun. Everybody is using their technology to communicate, to keep in contact with folks.

And so this is just one more tool in our toolbox. So it's amazing. And last time I said, hey, tonight, when something else is happening, can you come back and visit us here on the get-to-life? Here you are.

So I can't wait to see what's next for you, ma'am. It's really exciting. You know what? I was amazed you all the Donate-like Hollywood partners and OTOs.

They really had to very quickly switch gears into a virtual Donate-like, virtual activities, and all of those kind of things. So we are going to be using the app to harness and amplify all of the great amazing events that are happening to celebrate Organ-I-and-Tissue donations. So it's been, you know, with Hollywood production shut down, I was like, oh my gosh, we just designed an app to highlight what's happening in Hollywood. But the great thing about the app is it can also provide targeted information around COVID-19.

And it can harness our community to celebrate virtually the power of Organ-I-and-Tissue donation. Denyia, it is always a pleasure. Donate-life Hollywood. Does everybody say it like that?

Do they say it like Hollywood? You say it the best, I have to say. I think I'm going to have to say it that way. All right, Mamma, we look forward to visiting with you again here on the Get to Life.

Thank you for taking the time and thank you for what you do for our donation community. Thanks for having me. Here on the Get to Life, we take a moment for mental health and now is that time. What are we going to be talking about today, Ms.

Sarah? All right, guys. So today we're going to be talking about resilience and the skills you can use to build up your resilience. So what is resilience, first of all?

Well, resilience is just our ability to survive and to thrive. I think we all hear a lot that children have a really high ability to be resilient and to survive, but adults can too. So what are some skills that we can do in order to be more resilient? So first, I think it's important that we all just believe in our own abilities to survive.

We hear all the time, you know, mind over matter, and it's true. Once you tell yourself that you can do something, you're going to be more able to do it. And I think another thing is to also remember to stay connected to those resources of support. So we recently went through the COVID-19 pandemic and a lot of people used telehealth to connect to their health care providers and their mental health care providers.

And I think that's a great thing to really remind everybody about that, that you can reach out to your resources of support and stay connected with the people around you who help you. Yeah, it's been amazing how technology has jumped in. I was even reading an article about how a group that was in the hospitality industry quickly switched over to be support for those telemedicine groups to help patients learn how to use the technology so that they could connect. And I just thought that was incredible that they were able to, you know, continue to be employed and find, take their skills from the service industry and translate them over to the health care industry.

That's amazing. The more helpful you are to other people, the healthier you are for yourself as well. So I think that's, you know, the next skill that you can do is find ways to be creative to help others too. So reach out.

And I mean, that's an inspiring story, honestly, to hear how people have used their skills and just use it in a different field to help others. So that's another way that we can be resilient. Yeah, some of our friends who have been laid off are using their talents as seamstresses to make masks and gowns for these healthcare workers that are lacking that equipment. And I just thought, wow, that's so amazing.

Like it pumps me up. Yeah. I mean, how many times have you helped somebody else and it's made you feel just empowered? And to hear other stories.

So remind yourself when you're on social media too, to look for those stories of people empowering others because it empowers you. And just remember to activate your positive emotions too. I'm not going to sit here and say only focus on the positive because that's not really realistic for our world. Do we have a lot to deal with in our modern society?

But remember to activate those positive emotions. So what that means is reflect on it and do it. So when you're feeling positive, be positive, do something positive and activate those emotions for yourself. I like it.

Let's get resilient, Lori. Yes. I love it. I was thinking on our neighborhood apps, they had a mom that came up and said, I don't mean to a wine and I'm not doing that.

I don't have a car. I don't have food. I have a two year old at home and I'm just trying to figure out what to do. And then they had all these neighbors that dropped off, one dropped off a loaf of bread, one dropped off canned goods, one dropped off toys, one dropped off chalk.

And I just thought, man, this is so awesome. So it's a bad time. But I think some of the good is rising to the top and I just love that. So I love this topic and there are ways that we can see it every day via technology and I think that's a cool thing.

Yeah. And you know, that's another skill is talking about what you're going through. Don't be afraid to share what you're going through because everybody wants to feel heard and understood and everybody needs help sometimes. So your neighbor saying, Hey guys, I don't mean to be a bother, but I need help.

That's what happened. She got the help she needed. So she increased her resilience by asking for help and by telling people what she's going through. So I'd encourage everyone to do that.

You're not going to be a bother. You're not going to be, you're not going to inconvenience anybody when you talk about what you're going through. Yes, because we will survive together. Resilience.

I love it. And maybe have a topic you'd like Mr. to cover. You can send us your questions at info at thegiftedlife.org.

In every episode of The Gifted Life, we honor a hero. Today, we learn about Jared Bradley Brown from his family. Jared was 19 years old with a bright future. He became a donor in May, 2009 following an automobile accident.

He was a son, grandson, nephew, and cousin. Jared was full of life and drew people to him. He had so, so many friends that loved him. He was a born athlete.

He played baseball, football and Wren Track. He was able to help five people with his donation for life, which makes him a hero in his loving family's eyes forever. And now we pause and say thank you to Jared for the gift of life. In today's question and answer segment, we have a very good question.

My family member was an organ donor. How can I share my loved one story? That is a great question, Sarah. If you'd like to share it with us at The Gifted Life, please, we encourage you to email your loved one story into info at thegiftedlife.org.

But I would also encourage you to share it with your organ procurement organization. If you're not sure which one is there for your state, you can go to AOPO, the Association of Organ Procurement Organizations, their website, which is AOPO.org. And I'm sure if you go to your OPO's website, they will tell you how you can submit the story. Another option is Donate Life America.

They take stories from all over the nation, and their website is donatelife.net. Great information. Thanks for the question. You can also give us a call.

Did you know that? Here's our number 504648-3477. We may even play your message on the podcast. And that'll do it for episode 136 of The Gifted Life.

Thank you for listening. And remember, you can register as an organ tissue and eye donor anytime at registerme.org. Thank you to Tania Wallace for having the forethought to use technology and create this amazing app that we can use to connect with Hollywood and hopefully encourage them to share more positive factual stories about donation. Yeah, who knows?

What's next? Okay, guys, the best place to find us at thegiftedlife.org. Let's share this information so that we can make life happen together. And you can listen to us on our website or anywhere you listen to your podcast, whether it's Apple, Spotify, Google.

If you do listen on Apple, please leave us a five-star reading and subscribe so that others can find the podcast. And if you're on social media, please like our page on Facebook, The Gifted Life podcast, and follow us on both Twitter and Instagram. At Gifted Life Pod. One more ask, guys.

Go out and do something you would normally do to help us make life happen. Be creative. Talk soon.