Dr. Jonathan Goldfinger- Nationally Recognized Pediatrician on the Need For and Right To Mental Health Care
04/26/22 • 55 min
Dr. Jonathan Goldfinger is a nationally recognized pediatrician and an advocate for mental health services for children and families, including in minority and low-income communities. His inclusive approach to health equity and policy has transformed countless lives.
He joined Didi Hirsch Mental Health Services, an 80-year organization, as the CEO just months after the pandemic began in June 2020. Didi Hirsch is a national leader offering free mental health, substance use disorder, and suicide prevention services. They’re pioneers in specialized therapy and support groups for children, adults, and families while also offering crisis residential facilities. Dr. Goldfinger’s personal connection to Didi Hirsch’s mission stems from his own intergenerational trauma, including behavioral health challenges in family and friends, experienced from a young age. With the support of nurturing grandparents, parents, and other adults, he developed strength and resilience that gave him hope and a desire to help others by combating structural stigma, poverty, and racism.
With a BA in Philosophy from Columbia University, Dr. Goldfinger completed his MD and MPH (Masters in Public Health) at Mount Sinai School of Medicine and did his residency and fellowships at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles. He brings his expertise in intergenerational trauma, integrated care, and health technologies into a more humane, team-based, digital age. As Chief Medical Officer and Vice President of Innovation at the Center for Youth Wellness, he oversaw national and statewide collaborations and research addressing childhood trauma, including parent mental illness and substance use, child abuse, domestic violence, and discrimination. Before that, as Chief Medical Officer of ZERO TO THREE, he led a National Office to scale HealthySteps integrating behavioral health and primary care for parents and young children through transformative partnerships with health systems, communities, government, and philanthropy.
Dr. Goldfinger currently serves on the California Office of the Surgeon General and Department of Health Care Services’ Trauma-Informed Primary Care Advisory Committee, has published with the CDC among other publications, and has won numerous awards and honors for his advocacy and public health research. Dr. Goldfinger lives with his accomplished, beloved wife and two adorable boys.
SHOW NOTE LINKS:
Suicide Hotline- 800-273-8255 or 988 (starting July 16, 2022)
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PLEASE JOIN:
*Dear Family Members, the Private Facebook Group
WAYS TO HELP THE PODCAST:
*PLEASE Leave a 5-Star Review and Subscribe!
Thank you! Your support means the world to me. Wishing you love, happiness, and good mental health always.
Dr. Jonathan Goldfinger is a nationally recognized pediatrician and an advocate for mental health services for children and families, including in minority and low-income communities. His inclusive approach to health equity and policy has transformed countless lives.
He joined Didi Hirsch Mental Health Services, an 80-year organization, as the CEO just months after the pandemic began in June 2020. Didi Hirsch is a national leader offering free mental health, substance use disorder, and suicide prevention services. They’re pioneers in specialized therapy and support groups for children, adults, and families while also offering crisis residential facilities. Dr. Goldfinger’s personal connection to Didi Hirsch’s mission stems from his own intergenerational trauma, including behavioral health challenges in family and friends, experienced from a young age. With the support of nurturing grandparents, parents, and other adults, he developed strength and resilience that gave him hope and a desire to help others by combating structural stigma, poverty, and racism.
With a BA in Philosophy from Columbia University, Dr. Goldfinger completed his MD and MPH (Masters in Public Health) at Mount Sinai School of Medicine and did his residency and fellowships at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles. He brings his expertise in intergenerational trauma, integrated care, and health technologies into a more humane, team-based, digital age. As Chief Medical Officer and Vice President of Innovation at the Center for Youth Wellness, he oversaw national and statewide collaborations and research addressing childhood trauma, including parent mental illness and substance use, child abuse, domestic violence, and discrimination. Before that, as Chief Medical Officer of ZERO TO THREE, he led a National Office to scale HealthySteps integrating behavioral health and primary care for parents and young children through transformative partnerships with health systems, communities, government, and philanthropy.
Dr. Goldfinger currently serves on the California Office of the Surgeon General and Department of Health Care Services’ Trauma-Informed Primary Care Advisory Committee, has published with the CDC among other publications, and has won numerous awards and honors for his advocacy and public health research. Dr. Goldfinger lives with his accomplished, beloved wife and two adorable boys.
SHOW NOTE LINKS:
Suicide Hotline- 800-273-8255 or 988 (starting July 16, 2022)
CONNECT WITH US!
PLEASE JOIN:
*Dear Family Members, the Private Facebook Group
WAYS TO HELP THE PODCAST:
*PLEASE Leave a 5-Star Review and Subscribe!
Thank you! Your support means the world to me. Wishing you love, happiness, and good mental health always.
Previous Episode
Jeanette Yoffe- From Foster Care to Adoption to Trauma-Informed Therapist Jeanette-ically Speaking
Jeanette Yoffe believes family is so much more than our blood relations. Her strong desire to become a trauma-informed psychotherapist with a special focus on adopted and foster care issues began with her own experiences of moving through the foster care system and being adopted. Jeanette lived with her birth family for the first year of her life until she was put into foster care due to her mother’s schizophrenia. Her father was not willing to take care of his two young children and when he later had a new family, he never told them about his previous children, continuing the cycle of secrecy and shame surrounding adoption. After living with a few foster families, Jeanette was adopted at seven and a half years old. Although she feels lucky to have joined a loving family who adopted more children, she still suffered trauma that led to mental health challenges.
In 1999, Jeanette took her New York theater background and wrote a one-woman play about growing up in foster care and adoption called, “What’s Your Name, Who’s Your Daddy” which was later turned into a book and audiobook. With a desire to create what she wished she could have received as a child, she began to work tirelessly to help other families. Now with over 20 years of experience, she provides mental health education and support as a psychotherapist, foster care social worker, clinical director, and trainer for L.A. County Child & Family Services and the Department of Mental Health. She teaches parents, social workers, and therapists all about adoption and foster care challenges, trauma-informed parenting, the impact of pre-adoption trauma, grief and loss, and open adoption.
Jeanette provides support to adult adoptees searching for long-lost family members as well as assists in family reunification. She is a Court Appointed Reunification Expert for Los Angeles Superior Court in cases involving children at risk for separation. She is also the Executive Director and Founder of Celia Center (named after her birth mother), a non-profit support center that meets the critical needs of all those connected by Foster Care and Adoption and all those who serve the community of Foster Care and Adoption in Los Angeles and beyond. She’s just published her first children’s book, “What is Adoption? For Kids.” Her YouTube channel, Jeanette-ically Speaking (with a J) is a fabulous resource for adoptive parents, biological parents, adoptees, and anyone looking to learn more about the foster care and adoption challenges and joys.
SHOW NOTE LINKS:
Jeanette-ically Speaking YouTube Channel
Children’s Book- What is Adoption- For Kids
What’s Your Name, Who’s Your Daddy- A One Woman Play About Growing Up in Foster Care and Adoption
CONNECT WITH US!
PLEASE JOIN:
*Dear Family Members, the Private Facebook Group
WAYS TO HELP THE PODCAST:
*PLEASE Leave a 5-Star Review and Subscribe!
Thank you! Your support means the world to me. Wishing you love, happiness, and good mental health always.
Next Episode
Tembi Locke- Food, Family, and Cooking From Scratch after Loss and Grief
Tembi Locke is an actor, an author, a screenwriter, and a producer who really knows how to connect with her audience. Her New York Times bestselling book, From Scratch: A Memoir of Love, Sicily, and Finding Home was Reese Witherspoon’s 2019 Book Club pick. Reese loved it so much, she’s executive producing the adaptation for a Netflix series where Zoe Saldana will star as Tembi. Tembi’s memoir, From Scratch, is a sweeping, autobiographical romance that follows an American woman as she falls in love with a Sicilian man while studying abroad in Italy and then builds a life with him in the United States. When she unexpectedly loses her young Italian chef husband to illness, she’s challenged to pull herself through grief so she can raise their adopted daughter as they would have raised her together: with hope, joy, and infinite love. Cooking becomes a way for her to be close to Saro both in Los Angeles and in his mother, Nona’s kitchen, and why mourning food (morning with a “u”) offers comfort and sustenance. It’s why a bowl of pasta always makes us feel better. Tembi has over sixty film and television credits under her belt as an accomplished actor and is currently recurring on Never Have I Ever, a comedy created by Mindy Kaling. Offscreen, Tembi is a nationally recognized speaker for her keynotes on resilience, loss, and motherhood with her TEDx talk viewed by individuals and nonprofits worldwide. Tembi is here to remind us to embrace resilience, love, and the power of community. SHOW NOTE LINKS: Tembi Locke's Website
Jeanette Yoffe on the Dear Family, Podcast about Adoption and Foster Care
CONNECT WITH US!
PLEASE JOIN:
*Dear Family Members, the Private Facebook Group
WAYS TO HELP THE PODCAST:
*PLEASE Leave a 5-Star Review and Subscribe!
Thank you! Your support means the world to me. Wishing you love, happiness, and good mental health always.
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