Psych Health and Safety Podcast USA

Dive into Episode #121 of the Psych Health and Safety USA Podcast, featuring host Dr. I. David Daniels, PhD, CSD, VPS, and special guest Cipriano Belser, the Executive Director of the Southern California Council for Occupational Safety and Health (SoCalCOSH).

Mr. Belser shares his experience as a low-wage worker who transitioned into Occupational Health and Safety and his role with SoCalCOSH, which advocates for the health and safety of workers who are exposed to a variety of psychosocial and physical hazards.

Low-wage workers often face several safety issues that can significantly impact their health and well-being. One of the primary concerns is hazardous working conditions. Many low-wage jobs are in construction, agriculture, and food service industries, where workers are exposed to dangerous equipment, chemicals, and environments.

Another critical issue is the need for proper training. Employers are required to provide adequate training on safety protocols, but they sometimes fail to do so, increasing the risk of accidents and injuries. Inadequate safety equipment is also a common problem. Workers might lack access to protective gear, such as gloves, helmets, or masks, which can lead to injuries or long-term health issues.

These safety issues disproportionately impact vulnerable groups, including women, people of color, and immigrants. These groups are more likely to be in low-wage jobs and face these safety challenges at higher rates.

Dive into Episode #120 of the Psych Health and Safety USA Podcast, featuring host Dr. I. David Daniels, PhD, CSD, VPS, and special guest Rich Walsh, a Vice President with Amp Health, a business intelligence company that seeks to help the manufacturing sector with predictive approaches to minimize worker overexertion.

Overexertion happens when you push your mind and/or body beyond its limits, resulting in fatigue, pain, and sometimes injury. It can be caused by physical or mental exertion and can occur in the workplace or your daily life:

Physical overexertion can occur when lifting heavy objects, performing repetitive motions, or maintaining awkward postures. It can also be caused by working in extreme temperatures, such as hot environments that cause heat stress or cold environments that reduce blood flow.

Mental overexertion, also known as mental exhaustion or mental fatigue, is a state of extreme tiredness that can affect your mood, focus, and decision-making skills. It can occur when your brain is overstimulated or maintains a high activity level without rest.

Dive into Episode #119 of the Psych Health and Safety USA Podcast, featuring host Dr. I. David Daniels, PhD, CSD, VPS, and special guest Dr. Andre Schaffer, MD, a former firefighter and now board-certified orthopedic surgeon.

Many occupations are widely believed to be “dream jobs,” These dream jobs often inspire young people to seek to design their lives around the opportunity. Some occupations are so appealing that young people start doing the things necessary to get into a career or job early. Often, these early efforts pay off, and highly motivated young individuals end up in their dream jobs. However, not everything that glitters is gold. For any number of reasons, what may have been a dream changes. How do people respond when the dream is not as satisfying as expected? One option is to give up and descend into depression as a result of your dreams being dashed. Another option is to seek out an even greater challenge.

In this podcast episode, we have the pleasure of speaking with someone who has lived the latter. After spending years preparing for one career and entering extremely young, he discovered that there was something that the first career did not satisfy, so he set off to do something that some may have believed impossible. Dr. Schaffer shares his journey from a high schooler interested in becoming a firefighter who decided that he wanted to do more. This desire led him to apply to Cornell Medical School and get accepted on the first try. All this even though he was, while smart, a below-average high school student and was living with ADHD. Dr. Schaffer now helps his patients not only recover physically but also on the road to a healthy mindset.

Dive into Episode #118 of the Psych Health and Safety USA Podcast, featuring host Dr. I. David Daniels, PhD, CSD, VPS, and special guest Dr. Jacob Kendall, discussing his experience dealing with chronic pain and advocating for his health using an interdisciplinary approach.

Physical pain is your body’s way of letting you know something is wrong. It leads you to address ailments or seek treatment for injuries. However, there’s also a psychological aspect to pain. People who experience chronic pain are much more likely to develop mood and anxiety disorders. Persistent chronic pain can make you feel depressed and hopeless, leave you feeling anxious as you ruminate over your condition, or result in an addiction to pain medication. These feelings can then exacerbate the pain you’re experiencing.

In this conversation, Dr. Kendall shares his lived experience advocating for his health through the complexities of the healthcare system and helping others advocate for themselves through an interdisciplinary approach driven by four-dimensional thinking.

Dive into Episode #117 of the Psych Health and Safety USA Podcast, featuring host Dr. I. David Daniels, PhD, CSD, VPS, and special guest Juli Nixon, who shares her story of survival and recovery from a toxic work environment.

A toxic work culture is an organizational environment characterized by negativity, dysfunction, and a lack of trust. It can harm employees, preventing them from being productive and growing professionally. Some signs of a toxic work culture include:

• Management expects employees to work longer hours without additional pay, fail to listen to employees, or lack accountability.

• The organization may have unfair practices like biased promotions or rewards or tacitly reward unethical or harmful behavior.

• There may be poor communication, limited communication, or a lack of healthy boundaries.

• Employees may experience bullying, harassment, discrimination, micromanagement, or favoritism. They may also gossip, create drama, or take credit for the work of others.

Juli’s story is recognizable to many and includes her path to recovery and her thoughts about how organizational cultures can be less toxic and individuals feel safer.

Dive into Episode #116 of the Psych Health and Safety USA Podcast, featuring host Dr. I. David Daniels, PhD, CSD, VPS, and special guest Mark Tuggle, an author and advocate for mental health in black men.

Black men in the United States can face many challenges when seeking mental health help due to several factors, including:

- The Black community has historically viewed mental illness as a sign of weakness or lack of faith. This stigma can make Black men feel ashamed or embarrassed to seek help and can lead to them not being open to discussing or acknowledging their mental health.

- One study found that 63% of Black people believe that a mental health condition is a sign of personal weakness. The stigma can also be rooted in slavery when it was commonly thought that enslaved people were not sophisticated enough to develop mental health disorders.

- Black men may also face barriers to mental health services due to poverty, racism, and implicit bias from medical providers. They are less likely than white people to receive guideline-consistent care or to be included in mental health research. As a result, Black men are more likely to use emergency rooms or primary care for mental health problems.

Mark began in therapy in the mid-90s after being diagnosed with an illness that he feared would take his life. After years in therapy, he began to realize that his experience was not unique, and he believed that he could not only recover himself but he could use his experience to advocate for other black men in discussions about mental health.

Dive into Episode # 115 of the Psych Health and Safety USA Podcast, featuring host Dr. I. David Daniels, PhD, CSD, VPS, and special guest Michelle Beauchamp, the author of “Re-Learning Leadership. " Beauchamp discusses the value of inclusive leadership and the psychological and emotional safety by-products of inclusive leadership styles.

Inclusive leadership is a management style that values and includes diverse perspectives and backgrounds in the workplace. It involves recognizing and appreciating differences in team members, such as those related to culture, gender, age, or sexual orientation.

Inclusive leaders aim to create a safe environment where people feel comfortable speaking up and contributing and can handle situations in their way. They also seek to foster diverse teams and empower everyone to do their best work. Mrs. Beauchamp will share her experiences from her long career in both corporate and entrepreneurial efforts over her life.

Near-miss reporting is a vital part of any safety program. It involves identifying and tracking unplanned events that could have resulted in injury or death but didn't. Near misses can happen in any industry but are often not reported, often due to a lack of psychological safety for those in the systems themselves. This episode will discuss the importance of near-miss reporting in health care.

Near-miss reporting in healthcare is vital for improving worker and patient safety. Near-miss events are errors that happen during medical care but don't injure the patient. Reporting near misses can help healthcare organizations identify areas for improvement, such as weaknesses in the delivery system, and prevent future adverse events.

Ms. Raines emphasizes the importance of using near-miss reporting as a tool to prevent harm.

Dive into Episode #112 of the Psych Health and Safety USA Podcast, featuring host Dr. I. David Daniels, PhD, CSD, VPS, and special guest Derek Hanley, a veteran former field medic in both the military and post-military life who has become a photographer and was involved in the Honorable But Broken documentary.

This episode is the second in a two-part series about the documentary, this time focusing on the experience of someone in the field during the time that the documentary was filmed. The goal of the documentary is to raise awareness of the systemic collapse of the nation’s Emergency Medical Service (EMS) system and advocate for change. Even more impactful than the story about the EMS system are the individual stories of the individual first responders, EMTs, and paramedics in the field. Mr. Hanley will share his unique perspective as a former provider in the field, documenting the day-to-day experiences of other EMS providers during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Dive into Episode #111 of the Psych Health and Safety USA Podcast, featuring host Dr. I. David Daniels, PhD, CSD, VPS, and special guest Bryony Gilbey, a former reporter who did stories for well-known programs such as 60 Minutes about a documentary that she has produced called "Honorable, But Broken," which takes a behind the scene look at the nation's emergency medical service system, including the challenges it creates for not only the communities that it serves but for the first responders, emergency medical technician and paramedics in the field.

Emergency Medical Service (EMS) systems face several challenges that impact their ability to provide effective care, including:

• Staffing: Recruitment and retention remain significant issues for most EMS agencies.

• Funding and Billing

• Response and Patient Care

• Apparatus and Equipment

Much of the documentary centers around EMS providers during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. It describes their challenges and highlights examples of what can and should be done to ensure that EMS pays attention to providers' concerns, which can result in better service to the public.