Behavioral Health Today

Bringing Sleep Back to the Autism Community with Emily Varon, BCBA – Episode 167

Up to a third of developing children will experience some sleep disturbance with most children experiencing difficulties going to sleep or maintaining sleep during the night. However, when we think of children with Autism Spectrum Disorder, we don’t often realize that as many as 80% of these children experience debilitating sleep disturbances with trouble falling asleep and a tendency to wake up throughout the night. In this episode, Dr. Graham Taylor speaks with Emily Varon, BCBA. Emily is a Board-Certified Behavior Analyst with a dedicated focus on sleep-related behaviors. She has over 22 years of experience and devoted her practice to improving the sleep habits of children diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder since 2010. Emily’s company Ready.Set.Sleep, provides education, CEUs, sleep program development, and individual consultation to families seeking support with their child’s sleep. Together they discuss the challenges to sleeping and its effects on the body, we discuss the signs and symptoms of sleep disturbances, and finally some sustainable strategies to ready the body for sleep. Sleep is at the top of the pyramid when it comes to health and wellness, and the sustainability of these strategies do work.

 

For more information about Ready.Set.Sleep, please visit: https://readysetsleep.com

For more information about the services provided by Ready.Set.Sleep, please visit: https://readysetsleep.com/services/

For more information about Ready.Set.Sleep on Instagram, please follow at:  https://www.instagram.com/readysetsleep_/

Part 2: How AI is Unlocking Well-being with Rima Seiilova-Olson and Prentice Tom, MD– Episode 166

This episode resumes the conversation with Dr. Graham Taylor and his guests Rima Seiilova-Olson and Prentice Tom, MD. In our last episode, we discussed the ideas behind the creation of Kintsugi and the mental health needs Kintsugi is looking to address. We discussed the meaning of the name Kintsugi and its metaphoric significance. Rima and Prentice walked us through how Kintsugi’s AI voice program works and its various applications. We’ll resume our talk today by discussing how biomarkers, such as data recorded from Kintsugi’s AI program, is shifting the paradigm of mental health to mental wellness.

 

For more information about Kintsugi, please visit: https://kintsugihello.com

For more information about the Kintsugi App, please visit: https://kintsugihello.com/kintsugi-app

Connect with Kintsugi on Linkedin, please visit: https://www.linkedin.com/company/kintsugihello

Part 1: How AI is Unlocking Well-being with Rima Seiilova-Olson and Prentice Tom, MD– Episode 165

People are suffering from mental health problems with roughly one in six adults, managing some symptoms associated with mental health at any given time. Depression is one such mental health challenge. But it isn't always easy to identify or to diagnose. However, there's one company that's developed an unusual way to tell if someone is depressed by listening to their voice, then using voice biomarkers to measure and predict wellbeing. In this episode, Dr. Graham Taylor speaks with Rima Seiilova-Olson and Prentice Tom, MD. They’re both joining us on behalf of Kintsugi, a natural voice biomarker AI program that detects signs of depression and anxiety from short clips of speech. Rima is the founder and chief scientist at Kintsugi. Rima is a former competitive programmer who has extensive experience in developing and productizing ML models. Prentice is the chief medical officer at Kintsugi and a pioneer in health care. Dr. Tom graduated from Harvard Medical School, completed residency at Johns Hopkins Hospital and was a Kaiser Fellow at MIT. Together we discuss the ideas behind the creation of Kintsugi and the needs Kintsugi is looking to address, we discuss the meaning of the name and its metaphoric significance, and Rima and Prentice walks us through Kintsugi’s AI voice programs and its various applications.

 

For more information about Kintsugi, please visit: https://kintsugihello.com

For more information about the Kintsugi App, please visit: https://kintsugihello.com/kintsugi-app

Connect with Kintsugi on Linkedin, please visit: https://www.linkedin.com/company/kintsugihello

Providing Wellness Solutions for a New World with Percy Howard, CEO of CIBHS – Episode 164

CIBHS is working alongside community organizations and governmental entities to help improve the clinical services, focused on the needs of certain racial and ethnic populations, to the degree that the mental health of the individuals in that community is improved. In this episode, Dr. Graham Taylor speaks with Percy Howard, CEO at the California Institute for Behavioral Health Solutions, a behavioral health consultancy for systems, organizations, and providers who desire to improve outcomes for people with mental health and substance use challenges. Percy is responsible for quality improvement, project construction, executive leadership, and all performance-related aspects of the CIBHS body of business and portfolio of projects. Together Graham and Percy discuss the strategy, skills, and tools to be able to help communities, the eye for the culture of mental health needs, social determinants and those challenges, and the involvement of CIBHS at a grassroots level. CIBHS is bringing restoration into social services and assisting people in the transformative work to help others grow and bloom.

 

For more information about the California Institute for Behavioral Health Solutions (CIBHS), please visit: https://www.cibhs.org/

To contact CIBHS, please visit: https://www.cibhs.org/contact/

Part 2: NBPA & Changing the Culture of Wellness in Athletics with Dr. William Parham, Derek Anderson, and Tracy Murray – Episode 163

This episode resumes the conversation with Dr. Graham Taylor and his guests, Dr. William Parham, the director of the National Basketball Players Association’s Mental Health and Wellness Program and two Wellness Program Advocates and former NBA superstars Derek Anderson and Tracy Murray. In our last episode, we discussed the NBPA’s Mental Health and Wellness program and its goals, the importance of managing one’s mental health, survivor mentality physical adversity, and the hidden genius found inside each of us. We’ll resume our talk today by discussing the importance of the spiritual side of who we are when addressing mental health. The antidote for shame and trauma is vulnerability. The more we talk about it, we can change that culture and narrative. It takes strength and trust to work through trauma and with vulnerability there is going to be greater health and wellbeing.

 

For more information about NBPA’s Mental Health and Wellness Program, please visit: https://nbpa.com/mentalwellness

For more information about the social media report Decoding Online Abuse of Players, please visit: https://imgix.cosmicjs.com/8b71df90-e064-11ec-bb19-d9085ce408df-FIFPRO-NBPA-WNBPA-DecodingOnlineAbuse.pdf

For more information about mental health and athletics, please visit: https://mindhealth.nba.com

For more information about Stamina Foundation, created by Derek Anderson that empowers youth and young adults with life skills, please visit: https://staminafd.com

We want to remind our listeners about the upcoming National Lifeline set to launch this July. If you need someone to talk to and/or in need of mental health resources, please dial 988.

Part 1: NBPA & Changing the Culture of Wellness in Athletics with Dr. William Parham, Derek Anderson, and Tracy Murray – Episode 162

An athlete’s mental health is their mental wealth. And the National Basketball Player’s Association is looking to lead the conversation in terms of redefining what mental health and mental illness is. In this episode, Dr. Graham Taylor speaks with Dr. William Parham, the director of the National Basketball Players Association’s Mental Health and Wellness Program, and two Wellness Program Advocates and former NBA superstars Derek Anderson and Tracy Murray. Together they discuss the NBPA program and its goals, the importance of managing one’s mental health, survivor mentality, physical adversity, and the hidden genius inside each of us. There is a light inside us and the people around us that illuminates, so when we do the work to see how bright we shine, you’ll see the star system around us. The goal of the NBPA Mental Health and Wellness program is to help shepherd athletes with an outlet and education to find illuminate their hidden genius.

 

For more information about NBPA’s Mental Health and Wellness Program, please visit: https://nbpa.com/mentalwellness

For more information about mental health and athletics, please visit: https://mindhealth.nba.com

For more information about Stamina Foundation, created by Derek Anderson that empowers youth and young adults with life skills, please visit: https://staminafd.com

We want to remind our listeners about the upcoming National Lifeline set to launch this July. If you need someone to talk to and/or in need of mental health resources, please dial 988.

Open Path Psychotherapy Collective and Serving the Underserved with Paul Fugelsang & Caitlin Erwin – Episode 161

People are interested, motivated, and earnest in wanting to get help and begin therapy that is going to benefit their lives, but sometimes access to therapy or financial barriers can make that very, very hard. In this episode, Dr. Graham Taylor speaks with Paul Fugelsang and Caitlin Erwin. Both Paul and Caitlin join us from Open Path Psychotherapy Collective, a national nonprofit providing affordable psychotherapy to uninsured or underinsured individuals, couples, families, and children. Paul is the Founder and Executive Director of Open Path. Paul is a Licensed Professional Counselor with 26 years of experience working in the mental health field. Caitlin is the Program Manager at Open Path. She has a MA in Clinical Mental Health Counseling from Lenoir Rhyne University. In her 6 years of experience with Open Path, Caitlin has helped break down barriers to access to mental health support. Together they discuss the Open Path platform, the ways clients can access therapists in a variety of specialties, the qualifying process as a therapist to become part of the collective, the free incentives available to therapists who work with Open Path, and finally, they discuss a new program focused on the healing arts called the Open Path Healing Arts Collective. Open Path Psychotherapy Collective is providing people with important mental health services, but with sensitivity to the financial and economic piece of access to care.

 

For more information about Open Path Collective, please visit:

https://openpathcollective.org

For more information about the Open Path’s Therapist Referral Program, please visit: https://openpathcollective.org/blog/open-paths-therapist-referral-program/

For more information about Open Path Healing Arts Collective, please visit: https://healingarts.org

For more information about Open Path Online Wellness Courses, please visit: https://mentalhealth.openpathcollective.org

Psychological Perspective of Lee Child’s Jack Reacher with Lloyd Sederer – Episode 160

There is something about Jack Reacher, the protagonist in a series of crime thriller novels by a British author, Lee Child, that is special. Child has written 24 New York times best-selling Jack Reacher thrillers, 14, having reached the number one position suggesting that Reacher is touching something in us that might just be worth understanding psychologically. In this episode, Dr. Graham Taylor is joined by Dr. Lloyd Sederer, mental health commissioner, adjunct professor, and super-fan of Lee Child’s Jack Reach book series. Lloyd has written four articles about the Jack Reacher character. Together Graham and Lloyd discuss the qualities we gravitate towards Reacher and a deeper discussion around reclaiming masculinity in the healthiest, most loving, tender-hearted, strong, courageous, noble kind of way.

 

Read Lloyd’s review of Blue Moon: A Jack Reach Novel: https://www.nyjournalofbooks.com/book-review/blue-moon-jack-reacher-novel

Read Lloyd’s review of Lee Child’s Jack Reacher Books: A Confession and Holiday Reading List: https://www.nyjournalofbooks.com/book-review/blue-moon-jack-reacher-novel

Read Lloyd’s review of Lee Child’s Jack Reacher Books: A Confession and Holiday Reading List: https://www.nyjournalofbooks.com/book-review/blue-moon-jack-reacher-novel

For more information about Dr. Lloyd Sederer, please visit: https://www.askdrlloyd.com

For more information about Ink-Stained for Life by Lloyd Sederer, please visit: https://www.askdrlloyd.com/ink-stained-for-life

Public Policy and Systemic Change with Reyna Taylor – Episode 159

If we see the passion behind changing the system for mental health and substance use, both on the federal side and the state side, we have a real opportunity to make a difference in the change of that system. In today’s episode, Dr. Graham Taylor speaks with Reyna Taylor. Reyna is the Vice President of Public Policy and Advocacy. She leads public policy and government affairs activities, supervises legislative matters, and guides overall public policy strategy at the state and federal levels. Together Graham and Reyna discuss the work the National Council is doing on a federal and state levels, implementing systemic change, and the impact of national programs to assist both communities to address mental wellness as well as the health and wellness of providers to keep the workforce strong.

 

For more information about the National Council for Mental Wellbeing, please visit: https://www.thenationalcouncil.org

For more information about the National Council’s Policy Priorities, please visit: https://www.thenationalcouncil.org/get-involved/be-an-advocate/policy-priorities/

For more information about Certified Community Behavioral Health Clinics (CCBHCs), please visit: https://www.thenationalcouncil.org/our-work/ccbhc/

Commanding Collaborative Care with Virna Little – Episode 158

Concert Health is aiming to rearchitect the nation's behavioral health system with a mission to give every American access to higher quality behavioral health services in collaborative care with their trusted primary care provider. In today’s episode, Dr. Graham Taylor speaks with Virna Little. Virna is the Co-founder and Chief Clinical Officer for Concert Health, a national organization providing behavioral health services to primary care providers. Virna has a Doctoral degree in Psychology, a master’s in social work. She has over 22 years of experience as Senior Vice President for a larger FQHC network in New York overseeing over 300 behavioral health and community staff and worked in New York City Health and Hospitals as a city-wide family violence coordinator. Together they discuss the challenges of primary care in addressing mental health needs, the successes and improved patients from collaborative care, and the integration process and measurements used to identify patients, review patient progress, and build key relapse prevention. Concert Health is taking the mental health component off the hands of primary care physicians, making it easier for them, and supporting primary care physicians to truly practice whole person care.

 

For more information about Concert Health, please visit: https://www.concerthealth.io

To contact Concert Health about Partnership, please visit: https://www.concerthealth.io/contact-us

For career opportunities and joining the Concert Team, please visit: https://www.concerthealth.io/careers

Social Justice Leadership with Tamanna Patel, MPH – Episode 157

The Social Justice Leadership Academy was created to help individuals really understand the impact of injustices and see the inequities and really how complex systemic racism really is. In today’s episode, Dr. Erin Elmore speaks with Tamanna Patel. Tamanna is the Director of Practice Improvement at the National Council for Mental Wellbeing. Tamanna has experience coaching communities in applying adaptive strategies with a focus on building relationships and trust, capacity-building opportunities, and long-term sustainability. Her particular interest includes addressing health equity and social determinants of health in rural communities. Together they discuss advancing social justice to advance mental wellbeing, effecting change on multiple levels: interpersonal, intrapersonal, organizational, communal, and systemic levels, and recommendations on how people can start their reflection on biases to be a leader in social justice reform. This begins with inner reflection and slowly getting to the awareness of what you can do within your sphere of control and create change. 

 

For more information about the National Council for Mental Wellbeing, please visit: https://www.thenationalcouncil.org

For more information about The Social Justice Leadership Academy, a free 12-month virtual series, please visit: https://www.thenationalcouncil.org/program/the-social-justice-leadership-academy/

For more information about upcoming Social Justice Leadership Academy Events, please visit: https://www.thenationalcouncil.org/program/the-social-justice-leadership-academy/events/

For more information about White Fragility by Robin DiAngelo, please visit: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/566247/white-fragility-by-dr-robin-diangelo/

Address the Workforce Crisis with Ayla Colella, LMHC – Episode 156

There is a workforce crisis happening in the behavioral health industry. There are staff shortages, there’s a lower rate of same-day access, there's a lower threshold for stress, and the need for this like extreme resiliency that we haven't experienced before. In today’s episode, Dr. Graham Taylor speaks with Ayla Colella, LMHC. Ayla is a Senior Director at the National Council for Mental Wellbeing and works in project leadership, training, technical assistance, supervision, and public speaking. Her experience as a clinical practitioner, her rapport with members, and her work with Talkspace have given her a pragmatic perspective on developing relevant training for behavioral and mental health professionals. Together Graham and Ayla discuss the challenges of workforce training and staffing, the thinking behind the creation of programs, the unique understanding and empathic attunement to the needs of both those receiving services as well as practitioners, and finally, they discuss ways of providing the best services to support clinicians on a continuum of their career. The National Council has a deep and a very wide bench of consultants that do a lot of work with local community behavioral health organizations to help them both overcome or mitigate some of the stressors that they're experiencing, but also help them better understand how to develop a plan and address what it is they're going through and how to better articulate their needs.

 

For more information about the National Council for Mental Wellbeing, please visit: https://www.thenationalcouncil.org

For more information about The Social Justice Leadership Academy, a free 12-month virtual series, please visit: https://www.thenationalcouncil.org/program/the-social-justice-leadership-academy/

For more information about Public Health, please visit: https://www.thenationalcouncil.org/our-work/focus-areas/public-health/

For more information about Workforce Development, please visit: https://www.thenationalcouncil.org/our-work/focus-areas/workforce-development/

For more information on Leadership Training and Consulting Services, please visit: https://www.thenationalcouncil.org/our-work/consulting-training/consulting-services/

For more information about the National Council’s Policy Priorities, please visit: https://www.thenationalcouncil.org/get-involved/be-an-advocate/policy-priorities/

Vicarious Trauma and Practicing Self-Care Strategies with Dr. Christina Mally – Episode 155

Vicarious Trauma is the permanent transformation of the inner experience of the practitioner. In today’s episode, Dr. Erin Elmore speaks with Dr. Christina Mally.  Christina is a wellness consultant who encourages and empowers people to identify and reach their future goals especially related to overall health and wellness. Christina’s specialties include sleep problems, stress management, intuitive eating, support through life transitions, nutritional needs, hormones, fertility concerns, pre-pregnancy prep, and pre/postpartum adjustments. She also has an extensive research background in the realm of vicarious trauma. Together Erin and Christina discuss the challenges around vicarious trauma, warning signs, the effects on a body over time, the influence of the pandemic on vicarious trauma, and practices and strategies for self-care for both practitioners and lay people. Self-care is not a muscle that comes naturally at least to most people, but the more we practice it, the more it becomes a rhythm to your life so when we’re in crisis we’re going to utilize those self-care strategies and be intentional about it.

 

For more information about the Vicarious Trauma Institute, please visit: https://vicarioustrauma.com

For more information about Vicarious Trauma and a personal fact sheet from the American Counseling Association, please visit: https://www.counseling.org/docs/trauma-disaster/fact-sheet-9---vicarious-trauma.pdf

To connect with Dr. Christina Mally through Facebook, please visit: https://www.facebook.com/drchristinamally

To connect with Dr. Christina Mally through Instagram, please visit: https://www.instagram.com/drchristinamally

Integrating Systems of Care with Alicia Kirley – Episode 154

Behavioral health care has really evolved and is continuing to evolve. There's been just such rapid change in the world in the last two years, that there's an interest in innovating and leveraging technology to deliver more access to care. In today’s episode, Dr. Erin Elmore speaks with Alicia Kirley, MBA.  Alicia is the Senior Director of the Center of Excellence for Integrated Health Solutions at the National Council for Mental Wellbeing. She oversees the delivery of training and technical assistance to advance the implementation of high-quality care for individuals with mental health and substance use disorders. Together Erin and Alicia discuss creating a team-based network around the population of clients, planning around client care, challenges around integrated care, training and education, and measuring outcomes of success.  At its basic level, integrated care is creating opportunities to advance health equity and to look at these models and approaches to create a sustainable and comprehensive system. Due to the pandemic, we have this great opportunity right now to look at how integrated care can start to address a lot of the complexities of our health system.

 

For more information about the National Council for Mental Wellbeing, please visit: https://www.thenationalcouncil.org

For more information about the Center for Excellence in Integrated Health Solutions, please visit: https://www.thenationalcouncil.org/program/ccbhc-e-national-training-and-technical-assistance-center/

For more information about the National Council’s Policy Priorities, please visit: https://www.thenationalcouncil.org/get-involved/be-an-advocate/policy-priorities/

For more information on Improvement and Consulting, please visit: https://www.thenationalcouncil.org/our-work/consulting-training/

For more information about Certified Community Behavioral Health Clinics (CCBHCs), please visit: https://www.thenationalcouncil.org/our-work/ccbhc/

Part 2: FAQs to Starting Therapy with Dr. Erin Elmore – Episode 153

In this concluding episode, we resume our today with Producer Peter Fenger and Dr. Erin Elmore. Erin is our co-host and Licensed Clinical Psychologist. She specializes in working with children and adolescents and is one of our most experienced content experts here at Triad. In our last episode, we discussed the different types of therapy access and which medium either online or in person would be a good fit. We talked about places to find a therapist, highlighted some details to help you find the right therapist, and some red flags to look out for. We'll resume our conversation today by talking about the application process and the beginning steps to getting ready for your first session.

 

If you are in crisis and need to speak to a therapist, please contact the Crisis Text Line by texting HOME to 741741 and speak with a crisis counselor.

For a list of crisis hotlines, please visit https://blog.opencounseling.com/hotlines-us/

For more information about finding an In-Person therapist, we recommend psychologytoday.org, goodtherapy.com, or find-a-therapist.com.

For more information about finding a therapist online, we recommend betterhelp.com, zencare.co, goodtherapy.org, ginger.io, or if you’re seeking a child therapist, please visit presencelearning.com.

For more information on Own Your Past Change Your Future by Dr. John Delony, please visit https://www.ramseysolutions.com/store/books/own-your-past-change-your-future-by-dr-john-delony

For more information on Best Mental Health Apps for 2022, please visit: https://www.verywellmind.com/best-mental-health-apps-4692902

For more information about mental resources and about the APA, please visit: https://www.apa.org

For more information about Psychology Tools Self-Help resources, please visit: https://www.psychologytools.com

To view our own archive of past episodes and various topics around mental health, please visit: https://www.triadhq.com/bht