17: Advancing Mental Health Equity

07/27/22 • 42 min

July is National Minority Mental Health Awareness Month, named after the great author, journalist, teacher, and mental health advocate, Bebe Moore Campbell. One of the goals of this month is to bring additional awareness to the inequities in our mental health systems. These systems have faced appropriate scrutiny from minoritized communities due to limited access to mental health care, a lack of cultural representation among mental health providers, and issues of inequitable treatment. Today, we're joined by Dr. Napoleon Higgins, Executive Director of the Black Psychiatrists of America, to discuss what's being done to address mental health equity and how we can get involved.

For a transcript of this episode, visit: https://apafdn.org/news-events/mentally-healthy-nation-podcast/advancing-mental-health-equity

For a transcript of this episode, visit: https://apafdn.org/news-events/mentally-healthy-nation-podcast/advancing-mental-health-equity

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16: Language Matters

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The words we use have power and can, even unintentionally, contribute to the stigma associated with mental illness. To address this, the Well Beings Campaign developed the Mental Health Language Guide to equip adults, regardless of their experience, with person-first language tools for discussing mental health concerns with youth.

On this episode, Alita McCalmon, project lead for the Mental Health Language Guide and Senior Manager of National Education for WETA Television, talks to us about the guide and shares how our language can help create safe spaces for youth, our LGBTQIA community members, folks with disabilities, people with mental health conditions, and more.

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For a transcript of this episode, visit: https://apafdn.org/news-events/mentally-healthy-nation-podcast/language-matters

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18: What You Should Know About the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline

988 (previously 1-800-273-TALK) is the new, easier-to-remember national suicide & crisis hotline that provides 24/7 confidential support via call, text, and chat to people experiencing a mental or behavioral health crisis. The hotline officially launched on July 16, 2022, but were states prepared for the rollout? Is 988 really the mental health version of 911? Today, two psychiatrists, Dr. John Palmieri and Dr. Eric Rafla-Yuan, join us to answer these questions and talk about the future of 988.

John Palmieri, MD, MHA, is a Senior Medical Advisor at SAMHSA and currently serving as the Acting Director for the 988 and Behavioral Health Crisis Coordinating Office. Prior to his arrival at SAMHSA, Dr. Palmieri was the Division Chief for Behavioral Healthcare at the Arlington County, Virginia, Department of Human Services. Dr. Palmieri is a licensed physician in the Commonwealth of Virginia and is Board Certified in Adult Psychiatry. He graduated from Brown University Medical School and completed his Adult Psychiatry Residency at Massachusetts General Hospital.

Eric Rafla-Yuan, MD is the 2021 American Psychiatric Association (APA) Jeanne Spurlock Congressional Fellow, and a voluntary assistant clinical professor in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of California San Diego, where he founded and led the psychiatry residency diversity committee. He graduated medical school and completed additional training in bioethics at the Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, and completed residency training at the UC San Diego Community Psychiatry Program. He currently serves on the APA Council of Advocacy and Government Relations, and previously served as the legislative director for the San Diego Psychiatric Society, and as a board trustee for the California State Association of Psychiatrists. His research focuses on policy and structural drivers of health outcomes and his work on clinical crisis services has been published in the New England Journal of Medicine and Health Affairs.

For a transcript of this episode, visit: https://apafdn.org/news-events/mentally-healthy-nation-podcast/what-you-should-know-about-the-988-suicide-crisis

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