On May 12, The Chicago School held its first State of Mental Health Summit on the school’s Los Angeles Campus. The event was also streamed live to the Washington, D.C., Chicago, and Dallas Campuses. As Michele Nealon, Psy.D., president of The Chicago School, said in her opening remarks, “We’ve brought together experts in health care and education and workforce wellness to share best practices, as well as some solutions and some insights into what we can do to better understand the situation that we’re living in and to find ways that we can improve mental wellness for all.”
An important aspect of the quest for mental wellness is the inequities that exist within the system, in which those most in need of care—including people of color, the LGBTQIA+ community, women, and those living in poverty—are often least likely to receive it. Dr. Nealon believes these disparities represent one of the most serious social justice and moral imperatives that we must face and solve together. “We have to embrace the fact there can be no health without mental health,” Dr. Nealon says.
The absence of access to mental health care affects us all, and Dr. Nealon has outlined this at four levels.
- At the personal level, people with mental health issues are substantially more likely to develop chronic illness, such as cancer and diabetes.
- At the family level, those with a family member with a mental health issue are providing, on average, 32 hours per week of unpaid care.
- At the community level, 70% of youths in the juvenile justice system have at least one mental health issue.
- According to the World Health Organization, depression is now the leading cause of disability globally, accounting for more than one trillion dollars in lost productivity.
To maintain the necessary momentum toward mental health equity, The Chicago School has made diverse investments in annual research projects and forums such as the summit. What is apparent is that unequal access to mental health care represents the leading area of concern and a leading point of emphasis for the school.
While only 14% of members of the American Psychological Association are psychologists of color, The Chicago School has made significant efforts to advance diversity. With more than 6,000 students enrolled, 62% are students of color. Given that the school trains 1 in 10 counselors and psychologists in California and 1 in every 11 in Illinois, this statistic represents significant progress toward a more representative profession.
Reimagining Health Care
The first panel of the summit addressed inequities in access to health care and the need for an integrated approach and was moderated by Joseph Cameron, The Chicago School’s inaugural dean of Health Sciences for the Dallas Campus.
Panelists included Jorge Partida, MD, chief of psychology for the Los Angeles County Department of Mental Health, Sandra Pisano, Ph.D., director of behavioral health at AltaMed Health Services, and Edwin Posadas, MD, medical director of the Urologic Oncology Program of the Samuel Oschin Comprehensive Cancer Institute and the clinical co-chief of the Division of Hematology/Oncology of the Department of Medicine at Cedars-Sinai.
In his position, Dr. Partida oversees the work of the county’s 400 psychologists. He noted that COVID-19 has not affected everyone equally. Research shows that the Latino and African American communities have been disproportionally affected by COVID-19 cases and deaths, communities that already face disparities in access to education and health care. “We have to be outraged by that,” Dr. Partida says, “and we must acknowledge the invisible mental health pandemic, which oftentimes we don’t talk about.”
Instead, Dr. Partida urges community involvement. “Don’t say, ‘We need a change.’ Say, ‘I will be the change,’” he says.
Dr. Pisano spoke of “emotional hygiene,” encouraging people of all backgrounds to practice self-care through mindfulness and relaxation techniques. “It’s not just going out for a walk, it’s appreciating nature and taking in your environment,” he says. Also essential are peer support and maintaining connections with others.
Dr. Posadas described the drop in the rates of cancer screenings as the greatest concern his department faced during the pandemic. Patients were putting off office visits, afraid of increasing their risk of exposure. As a result, many arrived by way of the emergency room with life-threatening consequences. These outcomes were unbearable for many patients, as well as for the doctors and nurses.
Workplace Wellness
The panel on how employers support workplace wellness featured four graduates of The Chicago School’s Organizational Leadership and Business Psychology programs, including Kevin Dedace, Ph.D., director of human resources at the Roland Center; Tammi Gray, Ph.D., delivery lead Word Wide Technologies; Shanon Harmon, Ph.D., senior advisor for operational excellence at Southern California Edison; and Julia Locklear, founder of the Locklear Group.
Moderator Paul De Young, Ph.D., opened the discussion by citing the 40% increase in U.S. employees reporting depression or anxiety since the start of the pandemic with a cost to employers of $9,450 per employee per year in absenteeism and lost productivity.
“How do we keep ourselves well? How do we keep ourselves healthy?” he asks.
“I would say wellness programs are great, but they don’t overcome toxic cultures,” Locklear says, “We have to understand how that whole experience at work impacts the person. Wellness doesn’t start at 5:01. It starts at 9:00.”
“I take the approach of not treating individuals as if they report up to me,” Dr. Gray adds, “There’s a hierarchical structure on paper, but they’re human beings just like me. I learned to meet my staff where they are.”
Dr. Gray says, “When the pandemic happened, I gave my team members the responsibility of taking care of themselves. I don’t want them in meetings all day if they don’t need to be there. They can be more productive doing their work.”
Dr. Dedace explains that the first conversation he had with his director was about how to define wellness. “It’s not as simple as putting initiatives in place for individuals to perform at their optimal level. Wellness has evolved over time.”
The concept of psychological safety was the focus of the panel discussion. Dr. Harmon says, “If I can create an environment where my employees can be at their best, they engage and collaborate with others, that demonstrating those supportive leadership behaviors really create that psychological safety.”
Dr. Dedace, who wrote his dissertation on psychological safety, agrees. “Research says psychological safety builds a lot of capacity in individuals. It allows them to thrive in an environment that may not be favorable for them because they have that trust idea.”
“You hear all this anxiety about the great resignation,” Loveless says, “I remind people that the folks who leave are the ones that know they deserve better and can be valued somewhere else. But on top of that, I think that there’s still this talk of a return to normal. And I kept saying to my company ‘Y’all, we’re not going to be back there.’”
Dr. Harmon agrees. “The new normal is completely different. We’re probably not going to go back to five days a week in the office.”
Supporting Mental Health in Schools
The panel of the day, moderated by Danielle Sperandeo, Ph.D., dean of Southern California Campuses of The Chicago School, focused on the responsibilities of K-12 educators to ensure early access to mental health resources.
The panelists were Megan Reilly, the former interim superintendent of the Los Angeles Unified School District, and Alicia Garoupa, chief of wellbeing and support services for the Los Angeles County Office of Education.
Of the half million children in the L.A. school system, Reilly estimates that 81% are eligible for free and reduced lunch. In addition, she notes that there are more than 92,000 English language learners, 9,000 homeless students, and 5,000 who are in the foster youth system.
Given these statistics, the panelists discussed at length the importance of keeping children fed and connected in the classroom to support mental health. Through great effort and teamwork, Reilly was able to provide uninterrupted access to educational health and meal services for students during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Reilly points out that these inequities existed before the pandemic. “We basically said, ‘Take the food. We’re not checking student identification. God bless you, be good, and come back tomorrow.’”
Additionally, with remote learning playing an increasingly critical role in school-based programs, Reilly, who was interim superintendent during the reopening of schools in the ’21-’22 school year, believes internet connectivity must be universal. Reilly says, “We were raiding Apple warehouses and stores to get enough devices for our kids in the days and weeks right when the pandemic was hitting.”
Garoupa, who oversees employee assistance, services for education, student support services, and community schools, believes strongly in the importance of the state of California community schools partnership program. She is critical of the idea that school gates close at 4:00 or 5:00 p.m. and don’t open again until morning and are closed in the summer except for summer school.
Just as schools played pivotal roles in feeding and keeping students connected to schoolwork, Garoupa believes schools can be centers that play a role in mental health, particularly in underserved communities.
“No longer do we call ourselves mandated reporters. We’re mandated supporters,” Reilly says. “The city is now funding our students to be peer-to-peer ambassadors and work with psychiatric social workers to help other students. Our teams that work in school have been asked to do so much in the last year and a half. They acted magnificently in so many different ways.”
Conclusion
Dr. Nealon closed the summit by saying, “I believe that you never waste a good crisis. We understand the social determinants of health. We get what’s happening inside the LGBTQIA+ community. We understand what poverty does, what lack of access to housing does, and what the lack of access to community safety does. We get education and employment. We’ve found each other somehow in all of this. And we waste the crisis that is in this opportunity if we don’t do something about it.”
Drawing on its network of alumni from across the spectrum of specialization and expertise, the Mental Health Summit reflects The Chicago School’s ongoing commitment to community and outreach, including the recently released No Health Without Mental Health report. A public awareness component is a necessary part of any coordinated response to the pressing mental health issues affecting broad segments of our society from teenagers to seniors. The conversation will continue.
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