Americans with serious mental illness — such as bipolar disorder or schizophrenia — have a life expectancy that is 10 to 25-years shorter than the general public, meaning that “senior age” for this group is just 55 years old.

Kate Melino, associate professor and a 2026 Macy Faculty Scholar, is an expert in the mental health care of older adults and adults with serious mental illness. On this episode of Illuminating Health, Melino talks about the clinical and educational interventions needed to ensure older adults receive high quality mental health care.

Americans living in rural areas are more likely to die early from cancer, heart disease, and stroke, than those living in urban areas. A key reason for this difference? Limited access to health care.

On this episode of Illuminating Health, associate professor Elizabeth Castillo shares how her childhood in California’s San Joaquin Valley shaped her understanding of health care access, inspiring her career path, and discusses why nurses are uniquely equipped to lead efforts to increase primary care access in rural communities. 

Associate Professor Cherry Leung and Professor Sandra Weiss are nurse scientists who lead research on the gut microbiome, investigating not only how it impacts human health, but how an understanding of the microbiome can help us treat or even prevent certain health conditions. 

On this episode of Illuminating Health, Leung and Weiss discuss their research and its implications for patient care. This engaging conversation covers a range of topics, including the relationship between the gut and adolescent depression, how infant gut bacteria impacts stress regulation, probiotics’ potential to influence emotional well-being, and more.

About one in 10 Americans have diabetes, a chronic condition that can lead to circulatory, renal and nervous system disorders. The Hispanic population in the United States is disproportionately impacted by diabetes, with Hispanic individuals being 1.5 times more likely to die from diabetes than non-Hispanic whites.

Leticia (Lety) Wilke and Kathleen (Katie) Judge, current students in UCSF’s Post Master’s Entry to the Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) pathway, are leading efforts to address this inequity by providing diabetes care and education in Spanish for Spanish-speaking patients at their endocrinology clinic.

In this episode, Wilke and Judge discuss their work highlighting how an interprofessional team-led shared appointment model of care is effective in advancing diabetes care and education for linguistically diverse patients.

The guest host for this episode is Allie Siegel, a student in the school’s BSN Entry to the DNP pathway, Family Nurse Practitioner specialty.

Artificial intelligence, remote health monitoring, virtual nursing – the potential for technology to enhance patient care and the delivery of services is limitless. 

Few people know this better than Kay Burke, UCSF Health’s chief nursing informatics officer and a current student in the School of Nursing’s Post-Master's Doctor of Nursing Practice pathway.

In this episode, Burke shares engaging, real-world examples of how she and her team of nurses are leveraging innovative digital tools to improve the lives of UCSF patients and providers, and offers her predictions for what’s next for technology and nursing practice. 

The guest host for this episode is Aean Peattie, a student in the school’s Adult-Gerontology Clinical Nurse Specialist specialty and president of UCSF’s Associated Students of the School of Nursing.

Despite medical advances, the United States continues to have the highest rate of maternal deaths of any high-income nation. Additionally, many of our nation’s pregnant individuals and their infants, especially those from low-income and underrepresented groups, do not have access to quality health care during the perinatal period.

With an interprofessional team, Andrea Kuster, associate clinical professor, and Tasha Toliver, manager of UCSF Health’s Office of Population Health Outreach Team, are working to change that.

In this episode, Kuster and Toliver share about their program that provides comprehensive and individualized health care services to publicly insured pregnant patients in the San Francisco Bay Area.

The guest host for this episode is Yari Suarez, a student in the school’s Family Nurse Practitioner specialty.

During the perinatal period, one in five women in the United States experience a mental health issue such as postpartum depression or anxiety. But accessing mental health support can be difficult, particularly as a new parent.

Kara Birch, a dual board-certified family nurse practitioner and psychiatric mental health nurse practitioner, designed and launched a telehealth-based integrated mental health service at a community-based obstetrics and gynecology clinic in San Francisco.

In this episode, Birch is joined by colleague Jane Abanes, a psychiatric mental health nurse practitioner who also provides care at the clinic, to discuss how this innovative program is enhancing access to psychiatric care and improving patient’s mental health and well-being.

The guest host for this episode is Kira Prokopakis, a student in the school’s Psychiatric Mental Health Nurse Practitioner specialty.

Please note that this episode contains material of sensitive nature. If you or someone you know is struggling or in crisis, help is available. Call or text 988 to get 24/7 support.

To access postpartum support, please contact (800) 944-4773 or visit postpartum.net.

Many of us know from personal experience that music positively impacts our well-being. But a growing body of research demonstrates music’s impact on our physical health, including brain health. How does music support healthy aging? Why does playing and listening to music reduce stress? 

Julene Johnson, a cognitive neuroscientist and co-director of the Sound Health Network, who studies how music impacts healthy aging and older adults living with dementia, and Sheri Robb, a board-certified music therapist who studies music interventions for children and adolescents living with cancer and their caregivers, discuss the healing power of music.

If you had one minute to address your future health care leaders, what advice would you give them?

In honor of commencement season, we invite you to listen to messages shared with UCSF School of Nursing graduates that serve as important reminders for all of us engaged in the essential work of improving health and health care for our communities.

In the early days of the AIDS epidemic in the 1980s, nurses played a crucial role in caring for patients and forever transformed health care. Cliff Morrison, the nurse who launched the country's first in-patient AIDS unit in 1983, and Carol Dawson-Rose, an early leader in international patient-centered AIDS prevention and care, share their experiences about providing care at the height of the AIDS crisis — and what nurses today should do to be strong advocates.