The Healing Podcast - Brought to you by MarinHealth

More than 15 million people in the US have some degree of depression. Yet many either don’t recognize that they have depression or don’t realize how treatable it is. What’s more, their loved ones don’t necessarily know how to help or what to say.As a licensed clinical social worker at MarinHealth Medical Center, Kristin Wolcott Farese works with clinically depressed people every day. Here, she shares her knowledge regarding the causes, symptoms, and treatment of depression. She also touches upon some of the latest research into a condition that impacts quality of life for far too many Americans.

Medical error is the third leading cause of death in the United States. To reverse this trend, hospitals are borrowing high reliability principles from other industries such as naval aviation, commercial airlines, and nuclear power where persistent mindfulness, systems thinking, psychological safety, and continuous learning drive a culture of safety. A high reliability organization (HRO) is one that operates in complex, high-hazard domains for extended periods of time without serious accidents or catastrophic failures. Marin General Hospital has borrowed some of these practices to enhance patient and worker safety by ensuring that medical teams listen and communicate as effectively as possible.


In this podcast, Ryan Rodriguez, Manager of Safety at MarinHealth Medical Center, shares the reliability behaviors and error prevention tools now in use at the hospital. All employees and physicians have been trained on the use of these practices. As you listen, you may find that this approach to communication could help you in your own life and work.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), measles was considered to have been eradicated in the United States in 2000. But in 2014, the disease made a comeback: The CDC tracked 644 cases. More recently, there was a large outbreak of 380 cases in a religious community in Ohio, where vaccination was opposed. While some parents still question the benefits of vaccinating their children, research has shown that illnesses such as measles, whooping cough, and meningitis are preventable by vaccination.


One such proponent for vaccinations is Nelson Branco, MD, FAAP, a pediatrician at MarinHealth Medical Center. In this podcast, Dr. Branco discusses the benefits of vaccines and when to have them over the course of a lifetime. He also comments on the much-publicized Disneyland measles outbreak as a lesson of what can happen when children and the community at large are not adequately protected from highly contagious diseases.

Is it the “baby blues” or postpartum depression? Only time can tell.
After giving birth, 80% of women respond to the sudden hormone change with mood swings and anxiety. If, however, this moodiness lasts more than two or three weeks, the cause could be postpartum depression or anxiety.


Gina Borelli Moore, MFT, is the facilitator of Pathways, a postpartum support group offered at MarinHealth Medical Center. In this podcast, Gina discusses perinatal mood issues and how to tell when symptoms evolve into something worrisome for new moms and their families. Gina also discusses Pathways, the new mother support group she runs for MarinHealth Medical Center. The six-session series takes on a different topic each week and mothers are encouraged to bring their babies along. Click here for more information.

Aortic stenosis is a progressive narrowing of the aortic valve opening. This constriction forces the heart to pump harder in order to get blood through the valve and out to the body. Over time, aortic stenosis can damage the heart and lead to heart failure. Until recently, the only treatment option was open-heart surgery for patients.

In this podcast, Dr. Ramon Partida, an Interventional Cardiologist at MarinHealth Medical Center, describes a new and minimally invasive procedure called transcatheter aortic valve replacement or TAVR. This intervention actually replaces the defective valve by threading a catheter through a vein in the groin, up to the heart, pushing aside the faulty valve. Find out how TAVR is giving aortic stenosis patients a new lease on life.

While there are established guidelines for a diabetic diet, many people with diabetes are tempted to try other options – mainly Keto, Paleo, and the Mediterranean diet. But are these good options for managing diabetes long term?

Katy McDermott, RDN, CDE, Outpatient Dietitcian and Diabetes Educator at MarinHealth Medical Center's Braden Diabetes Center, weighs in on the pros and cons of these popular ways of eating for people with diabetes. Each of these three diets can have short-term benefits, but there are drawbacks to making any one of them your default way of eating. Listen and learn more about healthy eating for those with diabetes.

Blood thinners have traditionally been the default method for reducing stroke risk in patients with Atrial Fibrillation, or AFib.

Unfortunately, not everyone tolerates these medications well. The WATCHMAN implant allows people with AFib to get off blood thinners around 6 weeks after they have the minimally invasive WATCHMAN procedure.

MarinHealth interventional cardiologist Arun Raghupathy, MD, FACC, has performed numerous WATCHMAN procedures. In this podcast, he discusses who is a good candidate for the minimally invasive procedure and explains how the implant works.

Between work, home, kids, and elderly parents, many women are too busy caring for others to pay attention to their own health. They may think they are just fatigued when they are in fact sleep-deprived and nutritionally, physically, and emotionally depleted. In this podcast, endocrinologist Dr. Linda Gaudiani, Medical Director of the Braden Diabetes Center and Inpatient Diabetes Care Program at MarinHealth Medical Center, offers plenty of sound advice for women who do too much. She clues us in on warning signs to watch for and reminds us of the power of preventive care.

Suicide is the eleventh leading cause of death in California, with one person successfully taking his or her own life every two hours. In fact, more than twice as many people die by suicide in in our state annually than from homicide.Kristin Wolcott Farese, a Licensed Clinical Social Worker (LCSW) at MarinHealth Medical Center, has counseled suicidal individuals, survivors of suicide attempts, and heartbroken friends and families who’s loved ones committed suicide. In this podcast, she discusses how to tell whether a person might be at risk and what you could say to help prevent a tragedy.Source:statistics

The first five minutes of cardiac arrest is a crucial window that can make the difference between life and death. While most cardiac arrests occur outside of the hospital, patients do sometimes experience arrest while hospitalized. First Five Minutes is MarinHealth Medical Center's new program to ensure that all medical personnel can immediately respond to a cardiac arrest, no matter where in the hospital it occurs.

In this podcast, you can learn more about Bridget Peterson, Clinical RN at MarinHealth Medical Center, who developed the program and is organizing cardiac resuscitation exercises in every department of the hospital.