Mental Horizons Podcast

This episode is with Benedict Carey, science and medical writer for the New York Times. Ben has been a science writer since his first job out of journalism school in 1987, writing for the San Francisco-based medical science magazine Hippocrates.

For the New York Times Ben has published numerous articles about mental illness and is the author of the 2015 book, How We Learn: The Surprising Truth About When, Where, and Why It Happens.

Scientific American reviewed his book, saying, “How We Learn is more than a new approach to learning; it is a guide to making the most out of life. Who wouldn’t be interested in that?”

Among many awards, Ben was a recipient of the 2016 Erik Erikson Institute Prize for Excellence in Mental Health Media. He is a long-time friend of those who care about individuals with mental illness and has joined with them is seeking to find and report on emerging solutions.

We first hear from Ben as a journalistic leader in the mental health field and then address three main talking points:

1) Seeing a diagnosis as a "setback" and something to inform a lifelong process of learning about oneself. A diagnosis does not define and should not limit a person.

2) Actual mental health recovery seems to come from adaptation and experimentation: if 'adaptation and experimentation' is the better approach how can the professional, family, and person who is in distress engage most effectively with this dynamic process?

3) The real experts of mental health recovery are "psychiatric veterans" and we need to listen more to those who have been “set back” by mental health challenges and learn how they have learned to manage their recovery.

This episode is with Sandra Conway Warren. Sandra is a Board-Certified Patient Advocate and a Disability Representative and an experienced professional with advanced skills and knowledge for helping her clients navigate the complex system of mental health care.

Sandra helps clients navigate the process of acquiring disability benefits from the Social Security Administration, provides assistance for clients applying for ABLE accounts or setting up special needs trust funds, and assists clients in applying for health insurance or appealing denied claims.

Sandra is knowledgable about local, state, and federal social service agencies and is adept at helping clients negotiate with schools and universities, collection agencies, employers, and pharmaceutical companies. If all of that sounds overwhelming to you, you have struck on the exact reason why Sandra is passionate about her work and why we had her on the show!

For seventeen years, Sandra has worked in the field of advocacy and became a Disability Representative seven years ago. As the mother of a child born with an orphan disease, Sandra is passionate about working with the disabled population and their families. She has a special affinity for those with mental health issues, cognitive deficits, and those on the autism spectrum.

Ms. Warren’s focus is to acquire, optimize, and protect federal and state benefits within the context of promoting independent living.

She is in private practice in Western North Carolina. Ms. Warren can be contacted at [email protected] or 828-440-1188 and offers 1-hour consultations for anyone in need of her support.

Georgia Ede, MD is a Harvard-trained, board-certified psychiatrist specializing in nutrition science, brain metabolism, and mental health. She speaks internationally on dietary approaches to psychiatric disorders, the nutritional differences between plant and animal foods, Alzheimer’s prevention, public nutrition policy, and many other topics.

She has nearly two decades of clinical experience including many years as a college psychiatrist and nutrition consultant at Harvard University Health Services and Smith College.

Dr. Ede writes about food and the brain for Psychology Today, Diet Doctor, and her own website Diagnosis: Diet. She has also spoken at numerous conferences and TEDx Talks.

Check out her popular talk, 'Our Descent into Madness: Modern Diets and the Global Mental Health Crisis'.

Dr. Ede maintains a private practice in Massachusetts working with patients to address the root causes of mental health disorders and reduce the need for psychiatric medications by using personalized nutrition-based interventions.

During this conversation, Stephanie and Dr. Ede touch upon three main topics:

Brain health and serious mental illness: Dr. Ede helps us understand some basic concepts around nutrition and metabolism and she will outline the connections between metabolism and brain health.

10 changes all of us can make to clean up our own diet in order to improve our mental and physical health.

What we know about nutritional psychiatry and how interventions, such as the medical ketogenic diet, can have a therapeutic impact on serious mental illness.

This episode is with Dr. Charles Brady, Clinical Director of Outpatient Services and Staff Psychologist at the Lindner Center of HOPE in Ohio. He is also an OCD/CBT Psychotherapist and Associate Professor at the University of Cincinnati’s Department of Psychiatry, where he has been for more than 25 years.

Dr. Brady earned his Doctorate in Clinical-Community Psychology from the University of South Carolina and completed his post-doctoral fellowship in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine.

He also has completed advanced training in the treatment of OCD and OCD-spectrum disorders through the Behavior Therapy Institute. Dr. Brady is Board Certified in Clinical Psychology by the American Board of Professional Psychology.

Dr. Brady is a regional expert in the treatment of obsessive-compulsive disorder and has made numerous presentations regarding the treatment of OCD and anxiety disorders and we are so lucky to have him on the show today.

Three main topics with Dr. Brady:

In the treatment of OCD, oftentimes a patient will have to experience discomfort as they are exposed to the thing or things that cause them anxiety. Using this as a metaphor, we first discuss Dr. Brady’s experience as a leader and how being a leader often means doing what’s uncomfortable.

Secondly, we discuss how treating OCD can be challenging for therapists and caregivers because you have to be willing to invite someone to suffer in your presence. Dr. Brady discusses with us the ways he creates safe partnerships with patients to help them build courage and embrace change.

And lastly, Dr. Brady gives us an overview of the best treatments currently available for OCD and what research we should all be aware of coming up in the field.

This episode is with Dr. James Greenblatt. Dr. Greenblatt has been a pioneer in the field of integrative medicine for over 30 years, treating patients with complex behavioral and mood disorders since 1990.

Early in his career, Dr. Greenblatt noticed the current treatment model in psychiatry relied solely upon symptom-based recommendations for medication with little consideration for the biochemical individuality or the underlying biological mechanisms.

Dr. Greenblatt’s expertise in integrative medicine attracts patients from all across the world seeking consultations for complex mood, behavioral, and eating disorders.

Dr. Greenblatt has published multiple books, sharing his clinical experience treating complex mood and eating disorders utilizing an integrative approach. We will link to his books and other resources in the blog post that will accompany this podcast episode.

Dr. Greenblatt currently serves as the Chief Medical Officer at Walden Behavioral Care in Waltham, MA and serves as an Assistant Clinical Professor of Psychiatry at Tufts University School of Medicine and Dartmouth College Geisel School of Medicine.

During this conversation between Virgil and Dr. Greenblatt, three main topics come up:

First, Dr. Greenblatt orients us to the world of integrative medicine and, more specifically, integrative psychiatry.

Secondly, Dr. Greenblatt shares his expertise around integrative treatments for eating disorders. He speaks to us about why the risk of suicide is so much greater among individuals struggling for eating disorders.

And lastly, Dr. Greenblat shares with us a model for suicide prevention that he has developed.

The fourth episode of the second season of our podcast is with Pete Earley. Pete is a storyteller and has written a total of 17 books including 4 New York Times bestsellers.

His books include the 2007 Pulitzer Prize finalist Crazy: A Father’s Search Through America’s Mental Health Madness.

After a 14-year career in journalism, including six years at The Washington Post, Pete became a full-time author.

When Pete’s life was turned upside down by the events recounted in his book Crazy, he joined the National Alliance on Mental Illness to advocate for strong mental health reform on the public stage and now rallies against the troubled mental health systems and for the mentally ill.

His blog at peteearley.com attracts thousands of readers every week and is a vast resource for parents supporting a child with a mental illness.

This episode is with Eliza Lanzillo. Eliza is passionate about psychology and is an outspoken advocate for prioritizing mental health on college campuses. Today she is going to be speaking with us about her own experience with an eating disorder. How it all started for her, what her recovery journey has been like, and more about her current work and how she stays well.

Eliza is currently pursuing a PhD in Clinical Psychology at Catholic University, she worked as a research fellow at the National Institute of Mental Health, and for her undergrad degree in psychology, she studied at Brown University in Rhode Island.

During her time at Brown, Eliza served as President of their chapter of Active Minds and served as a student advisor to Zencare.co, a listing of peer-recommended therapists modernizing the therapist search process.

Along with being a PhD student, today Eliza is the Program Director of Advocacy Initiatives for Hynes Recovery Services (HRS), an organization with a mission to support college students while they are in the process of securing treatment for their eating disorder.

Eliza has spoken about university mental health on media outlets including The Wall Street Journal and Dr. Oz, as well as on university campuses nationwide.

Welcome to Season 2 of the Mental Horizons podcast! In this opening episode for our new season, Stephanie turns the tables and interviews Virgil. Listen to the episode to learn more about who Virgil, the show's main host, is and what professional and personal paths led him to his current work as president and founder of Virgil Stucker and Associates, LLC.

Episode 15 of the Mental Horizons Podcast was with Bebe Smith, MSW, LCSW and the topic is Psychiatric Advance Directives.

Bebe is director of mental health and coordinator of the North Carolina Evidence Based Practices Center at Southern Regional Area Health Education Center, part of the North Carolina AHEC system. She is also project coordinator for the Crisis Navigation Project, a collaboration between SR-AHEC, Duke University Medical Center, and NAMI-NC to promote the use of psychiatric advance directives.

Prior to joining SR-AHEC, she worked for 21 years at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in the Department of Psychiatry and the School of Social Work. She has taught mental health professionals from multiple disciplines in clinical and academic settings. Her clinical work has focused on providing humane and evidence-based treatment and services to persons who live with schizophrenia and other severe mental illnesses.

In 2005, she helped develop OASIS, the first early psychosis program in North Carolina. She was a founder and co-director of the UNC Center for Excellence in Community Mental Health in 2008. She led a pilot of Critical Time Intervention (CTI), a team-based intensive case management model originally developed for people experiencing homelessness, from 2012-2015. CTI was adopted for statewide expansion in 2014. She trains nationally and internationally in the CTI model and other psychosocial treatment approaches. She was the NASW-NC Social Worker of the Year in 2012, and won the Bryan Public Service Award from the Carolina Center for Public Service in 2015.

Three main talking points:

1. Bebe talks with Virgil about her leadership roles in mental health and the ways she has had to challenge the mental health system throughout her career.

2. Bebe teaches the listener about Psychiatric Advance Directives and how they can be powerful tools to help people maintain autonomy and a sense of control amidst crisis.

3. And lastly, Bebe and Virgil discuss psychiatric advance directives and Assisted Outpatient Treatment. How are these two things related, if at all? Can they both protect a person's autonomy or are they on two ends of a spectrum? If so, how do we reconcile this dichotomy and not get bogged down in ideology when the goal is serving the best interests of the individual?

Episode 14 is with Bradley Richards. Brad is a skilled and sensitive psychiatric and behavior interventionist and care navigator. He enters crisis situations, quickly grasping and understanding the facts in a way that allows him to re-frame and help those involved to begin moving the crisis to a place of calm and clarity.

What Brad does goes by many names: care navigator, care manager, behavioral analyst, psychiatric interventionist. But what Brad prefers to be called is a Psychiatric Interventionist! Brad creates alliances with individuals and family members dealing with the impact of mental disorders, autism, and substance abuse and helps to move the person needing care (literally providing transport services when needed) into appropriate services. Brad has a support team of 20 mental health professionals and coaches and works nationally with a broad professional network to help families achieve desired outcomes.

As Founder and President at Brad Richards Inc., Brad works as an advocate, mentor, court-appointed care manager, and consultant in care plan development. He has also used his advanced degree in behavior analysis coordinating clinical care for 10 years for Eden II Programs in Long Island and Staten Island, NY, serving people with autism.

Three main talking points:

Brad talks to us about why he prefers to be called a “psychiatric preventionist” versus an interventionist.

Virgil and Brad discuss in-depth the reasons why families reach out to Brad and how he weaves his support into the family system to help create a durable and long-term safety net for the person of concern, always with an eye to helping that person achieve and sustain their highest levels of independence.

And lastly, Brad and Virgil discuss the mental health system at large and why his role is so needed and also what resources he wishes each of his clients knew about, but no one is telling them about.