Mental Health Trailblazers: Psychiatric Nurses Speak Up

It’s good to be back! Check out the season 2 premiere of “Mental Health Trailblazers, Psychiatric Nurses Speak Up,” where our host, Indrias Kassaye, digs in to the complex issues in psychiatric mental health and healthcare today with Marcus Henderson, elected board member of the American Nurses Association and member of the National Commission to Address Racism in Nursing. Marcus Henderson is a current MFP Fellow pursuing a PhD at John Hopkins University School of Nursing with the goal to improve care, eliminate disparities, and optimize outcomes for children and adolescents from marginalized backgrounds.

Henderson’s own adolescent experiences, like providing medical care for his grandmother and great aunt, drove him to pursue a healthcare profession later in life. Much of Henderson’s experiences as a biracial teen growing up in a predominantly white neighborhood of Philadelphia led to his research interest in child and adolescent mental health, mental health disparities, social determinants of health, and mental health services research. Empowered by his research and his identity as a person of color in healthcare, Henderson opens up about the effect racism and colonialism have had on his field.

Deeper in this episode, Indrias and Marcus dissect the social, economic, and political drivers that are putting a disproportionate number of individuals of color into inpatient psychiatric units. Focusing on Marcus’ area of research, they discuss the present state of child and adolescent mental healthcare and what needs to be done to fix the broken system. Together, Marcus and Indrias highlight the importance of creating a brave space where healthcare workers can learn together and share accountability in frustrating or uncomfortable situations.

To learn more about Marcus’ inspiring story and the Minority Fellowship Program that supports psychiatric and mental health nurses from underrepresented racial and ethnic groups pursing master’s and doctoral degrees, visit https://emfp.org.

Premieres Monday, April 11th, 2022. Host Indrias Kassaye welcomes you to partake in Season Two of the "Mental Health Trailblazers: Psychiatric Nurses Speak Up!" podcast. The Minority Fellowship Program at the American Nurses Association’s podcast highlights the innovative explorations of black, indigenous and other peoples of color, nurse practitioners and researchers in their pursuit to meet the urgent and often unrecognized psychiatric and mental health needs of minority communities in America and worldwide.

Enjoy the season one finale of “Mental Health Trailblazers, Psychiatric Nurses Speak Up,” where our host Indrias Kassaye will be interviewing Dr. Mijung Park, a tenured Associate Professor at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) School of Nursing. Through years of analysis and education, Dr. Park’s research has investigated the meaningful roles that both casual caregivers and close family play in fruitful chronic disease self-management between culturally and economically diverse communities.

After a fateful encounter on a subway in Korea, Dr. Parks was inspired to work in a psychiatric mental health inpatient unit as her first job post-graduation. Growing throughout her career as a nurse scholar, Dr. Park views her role within the field as translating complex concepts of care and health into more understandable cross-cultural language to aid not just patients but loved ones in understanding the world of psychiatric medicine.

Over the course of this episode, Dr. Park and Indrias connect on subjects such as vertical cultural differences via generational modifications and acculturation relevant across minority communities, ways Dr. Park drew attention to her study findings on stress in living environments to collectively help policy makers think about city design in a context of health, and the personal impacts of anti-Asian sentiments not just historically but also in the age of the COVID-19 crisis.

If you want to understand Dr. Park’s concerns regarding the current practice of looking at entire populations as a unifying cultural group vs. unique subcultures, aspire to discover more about the model minority myth in its portrayal of Asian immigrant groups along with its stressful consequences for those who don’t fit the mold, or just hope to pick up recommendations for psychiatric and mental health nurses providing care for patients from ethnic minorities, then catch this episode now. To learn more about Dr. Mijung Park, visit https://profiles.ucsf.edu/mijung.park.

Sample the penultimate season one episode of “Mental Health Trailblazers, Psychiatric Nurses Speak Up,” where our host Indrias Kassaye will be interviewing Dr. Jillian Inouye: a licensed psychologist, a qualified mental health professional, a board certified clinical specialist in psychiatric nursing, and an advanced practice registered nurse. Among her many areas of research, she’s presented new insights on topics such as Asian-Pacific Islanders' Health Disparities and psychiatric care, including schizophrenia, depression, substance use and abuse and more.

Working hand-in-hand with politicians during an early summer internship, Dr. Inouye found her love of psychology, psychiatry, nursing and cross-cultural problems by helping to craft a bill focused on combating child abuse due to family or support system isolation within military institutions. In working to overcome both internal limitations (being reserved) and external challenges (racially based microaggressions), Dr. Inouye has been able to expand her career to regularly contribute to the scientific community.

Within this conversation, Dr. Inouye and Indrias work though concepts such as how nursing can look at not just mental and social effects, but at physical and biological interactions, her expansive work within the Diabetes Prevention Project as well as her own RO1 that looked at managing diabetes and depression in ethnic groups (mainly Asian Pacific Islanders), and the importance for rising generations to mobilize in order to take action in support of future minority healthcare.

If you want to gain further awareness on how legislation plays an important role in the dissemination of research, wish to receive insight on the value of mentoring (especially for Minority Fellowship Program fellows) so as to best know what key elements may arise from recent historical moments, or just have an interest in the political landscapes that can accompany various grant submission processes, then start this episode. To learn more about Dr. Jillian Inouye, visit https://emfp.org/mfp-fellows/doctoral/jillian-inouye.

Press play on another episode of “Mental Health Trailblazers, Psychiatric Nurses Speak Up,” where our host Indrias Kassaye will be interviewing Dr. Cheryl Woods-Giscombe, a psychiatric mental health nurse practitioner, social and health psychologist, and a Professor at UNC Chapel Hill School of Nursing. Via her program of research, Dr. Giscombe uses a sociohistorical lens to investigate how stress and coping strategies contribute to the psychological and physical health status of African American women.

During her first semester as a PhD student, Dr. Giscombe detected a desire to learn more about nursing while working hands-on collecting data in a hospital clinic. This led her to a 12-month accelerated BSN program, the pursuance of a psychiatric mental health NP, and then enrolling in a psychiatric NP program all with guidance from SAMHSA programs. Today, She uses this knowledge base in-tandem with continued research to develop culturally-relevant strategies to prevent stress-related mental health outcomes.

Within this episode, Dr. Giscombe and Indrias discuss meaningful topics such the social historical factors that are particularly unique to African-American women that impact their psychological and physical health, the conceptual “Superwoman Schema” framework developed by Dr. Giscombe plus the importance of acknowledging the Schema’s five chief characteristics, as well as the secret to her early levels of high professional accomplishment while still prioritizing personal goals

If you wish to receive practical mindfulness tips with a tailored focus on Black individuals in America, want a firsthand account of key strides that need to be taken on the representation of diverse individuals in social media, or just aim to hear how early support from and engagement with the Minority Fellowship Program can steer the course of a career, then start this episode now. To learn more about Dr. Cheryl Woods-Giscombe, visit https://nursing.unc.edu/people/cheryl-giscombe.

Settle into another episode of “Mental Health Trailblazers, Psychiatric Nurses Speak Up,” where our host Indrias Kassaye will be interviewing Dr. Marie Smith-East, a clinical assistant professor and the Director of the Psychiatric Mental Health Nurse Practitioner Program at Duquesne University. Her research focuses on geographic access to health care utilizing Geographic Information Systems (GIS), particularly for individuals with schizophrenia spectrum disorders.

Dr. Smith-East always knew she wanted to be an educator, but it was through an early encounter with a patient experiencing ICU psychosis that made her realize how to unite her elementary education passion, health education and behavior studies, and nursing experience into a career as a psychiatric mental health nurse practitioner with two doctoral degrees.

Through her conversation with Indrias, Dr. Smith-East touches on important subject matter such as the impact as well as recognition of her work from the Schizophrenia Related Disorders Alliance of America, the ways her pre-COVID telemedicine practice has impacted her post-COVID approach, and how having a community of like-minded fellows through the Minority Fellowship Program continues to inspire her year-over-year not just professionally but personally as well.

If you aim to understand more about geographic information systems as not just a tool to be harnessed but a science to be studied, how the “digital divide” can impact both patients and practitioners alike, or just want to follow along to learn a new approach to curriculum development, then be sure to click play on this episode. To learn more about Dr. Marie Smith-East, visit https://www.duq.edu/academics/faculty/marie-smith-east.

Join us for another episode of “Mental Health Trailblazers, Psychiatric Nurses Speak Up,” where our host Indrias Kassaye will be interviewing Dr. Cheedy Jaja, an Associate Professor of Nursing and the Assistant Dean of Global Engagement at the University of South Florida. His research interests focus primarily on sickle cell disease pain, analgesic, and psychopharmacogenetics.

Starting life as an air traffic controller and professor of philosophy, Dr. Jaja found a love of science via the Human Genome Project and has since combined his interests into a compelling career addressing psychosocial and mental health issues within international patient populations.

Alongside Indrias, Dr. Jaja covers several key topics including how sickle cell disease, both here in the United States and worldwide, is a poster child for health inequity, takeaways from time spent in his native Sierra Leone during the peak of the Ebola crisis, and how local traditions outside of Western modern medicine continue to play powerful roles in global communities when it comes to psychiatric and mental health.

If you want to learn how the Minority Fellowship Program provided vital support and resources in Dr. Jaja’s career, need advice on a nurse’s duty to care vs. duty to yourself, or just want to visualize the global impacts of psychosocial mental health issues across cultures, this episode is for you. 

To learn more about Dr. Cheedy Jaja, visit https://emfp.org/mfp-fellows/masters/cheedy-jaja

Tune into the final portion of the first three-part conversation of “Mental Health Trailblazers, Psychiatric Nurses Speak Up,” where our host Indrias Kassaye will be connecting with three current MFP fellows to discuss the crucial role and representation of men in nursing.

Finally, within part three of this topic, Indrias is joined by Keith Carter, a third-year psychiatric mental health nurse practitioner as well as a doctor of nursing practice student at Rush University. His DNP scholarly clinical project is to implement a violence risk assessment tool on a community hospital psychiatric unit on Chicago’s South Side.

Join Keith and Indrias as they discuss strategies to increase the percentage of men in nursing, what's driving more young people from ethnic minority backgrounds into conditions of having mental health or behavioral health problems, and how to instill the importance of mental health and psychiatric services into at-risk communities.

Understand how factors such as the power and resiliency of patients, family, and therapy services come together to inspire nurses such as Keith to help continue on in their careers. Dive into how his engagement with the Minority Fellowship Program helped forge a road forward full of like-minded colleagues, unparalleled opportunities, and avenues to grow as a trained professional.

Don't miss tuning into this impactful conversation series featuring key perspectives and understandings on men in nursing and how to come together to grow this sector as a whole. To learn more about Keith Carter, visit https://emfp.org/mfp-fellows/doctoral/keith-carter

Continuing onward within the first three-part conversation of “Mental Health Trailblazers, Psychiatric Nurses Speak Up,” where our host Indrias Kassaye will be connecting with three current MFP fellows to discuss the crucial role and representation of men in nursing.

Featured within part two, is Caesar Rangel, who is currently working on his psychiatric mental health nurse practitioner degree. Mr. Rangel is committed to working with intergenerational and culturally diverse groups, and places a heavy significance with an emphasis on supporting individuals in underserved communities.

Caesar discusses pathways to correcting mis-representations, the benefits of being a male nurse, and specifically how being a male nurse in psychiatric mental health has impacted him on a deeper level.

Hear from Caesar as he communicates major challenges he experiences with his work as well as his efforts to overcome said challenges not just through personal local ties but with the help of Minority Fellowship Program mentors. As the conversation steers towards the arts and music in therapy, you’ll enjoy a peek into Caesar’s musical skills. and the importance of music in his personal as well as professional life.

Don't miss this impactful conversation series featuring key perspectives and understandings on men in nursing and how to come together to grow this sector as a whole. To learn more about Caesar Rangel, visit https://emfp.org/mfp-fellows/masters/caesar-rangel

Introducing the first three-part conversation of “Mental Health Trailblazers, Psychiatric Nurses Speak Up,” where our host Indrias Kassaye will be connecting with three current Minority Fellowship Program Fellows to discuss the crucial role and representation of men in nursing.

The first guest in this series is Shelby Husband, a third-year doctoral student at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center. Upon graduation, Mr. Husband will focus his practice on expanding mental health services to minority youth and improving mental health in the public school system for children and adolescents.

Learn how training within the military kindled Shelby’s passion to pursue nursing. Together, Indrias and Shelby touch on the importance of having diverse representation in order to improve health outcomes for patients as well as to continue to inspire future generations of psychiatric and mental health nurses from ethnic minority backgrounds.

Tune into this impactful conversation series featuring key perspectives and understandings on men in nursing and how to come together to grow this sector as a whole. To learn more about Shelby Husband, visit https://emfp.org/mfp-fellows/doctoral/shelby-husband.