A live, two-hour broadcast of “I’m Listening,” will air tomorrow morning in Spanish from 7:00 a.m. – 10:00 a.m. on 107.5 La Grande FM. The program will kick off a busy weekend of radio conversation to inspire community awareness on depression while highlighting the start of National Suicide Prevention Week.

For the second straight year, the “I’m Listening” program will be sponsored locally by the Dallas-Fort Worth Hospital Council (DFWHC) in a continuation of its mental health and substance misuse efforts in the community.

“DFWHC and Entercom wants to remove the stigma of seeking help for behavioral health and substance misuse,” said W. Stephen Love, president/CEO of DFWHC. “We appreciate the work the team at 107.5 La Grande has put into this project. The station’s leading radio DJ El Chiquilin knows how serious the stigma of mental health treatment is among the Hispanic community. We are looking forward to the broadcast in the morning.”

Listeners will also have the opportunity to participate via live call-in and an interactive website.

Local hospital employees were recruited to tape personal and promotional messages in Spanish for the radio broadcast including:

• Jenny Esparza, lead social worker in the Psychiatric Emergency Department at Parkland Health & Hospital System;
• Julie Wright, community impact program manager at Texas Health Resources.

A live broadcast in English will air commercial-free on Sunday from 7:00 a.m. – 9:00 a.m. on local Entercom radio stations 100.3 Jack FM, 105.3 The Fan FM, 98.7 K-LUV FM, Alt 103.7 FM and 1080 KRLD AM.

According to the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), one in five or 46.6 million adults in America experience mental illness within a given year. Suicide is the 10th leading cause of death overall in the U.S., claiming the lives of over 47,000 people. More than 50 percent of people in the U.S. will be diagnosed with a mental illness or disorder at some point in their life. Mental health affects everyone regardless of culture, race, ethnicity, gender or sexual orientation.

For more information about the campaign, please visit ImListening.org. Follow the conversation on Twitter and Instagram using the hashtag #ImListening.