May is Mental Health Awareness Month — and organizations have the power to be on the front line of public health approaches given the number of individuals that they touch
To spotlight Mental Health Awareness Month, Dr. Neill Epperson, Professor and Chair of the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Colorado-Anschutz Medical Campus, and Dr. Matt Mishkind, Deputy Director at the Johnson Depression Center, join me to discuss the benefits and challenges of cultivating a workplace that normalizes mental health conversations. Mental and behavioral health experts, Epperson and Mishkind share ways leaders can implement processes that provide their employees with resources and support to seek help when it is needed. It’s important for leaders to break down their their walls and be open in their organization in talking about mental health. Although most leaders feel like they must be strong for their teams, it is important to remember that you are allowed to feel what you feel, too.
About the Guests
Neill Epperson, MD, is the Robert Freedman Endowed Professor and Chair of the Department of Psychiatry in the School of Medicine at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus. Dr. Epperson is internationally known for her unique lifespan approach to women’s reproductive and behavioral health in both the clinical and research realms.
Her body of work has led to a greater appreciation of the impact of childhood adversity on physiologic responses during times of hormonal fluctuation as well as gonadal steroid effects on brain and behavior. Dr. Epperson’s research has been funded consistently by the National Institutes of Health for more than two decades. She is a mentor and independent investigator with more than 200 peer-reviewed publications and presentations.
Before being recruited to CU Anschutz, Dr. Epperson served as the founder and director of both the Penn Center for Women’s Behavioral Wellness and Penn PROMOTES, Research on Sex and Gender in Health at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, where she was a tenured Professor of Psychiatry, with a secondary appointment in Obstetrics and Gynecology. Dr. Epperson received her medical degree at The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and completed her postdoctoral and research training in psychiatry at Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, Connecticut, where she rose to the level of associate professor before her recruitment to the University of Pennsylvania.
Matt Mishkind has served as one of the original staff members tasked with developing the National Center for Telehealth and Technology (T2) located on Joint Base Lewis-McChord, Washington State. While at T2, Dr. Mishkind helped lead the development of several technology-based initiatives to improve behavioral health access across the Department of Defense. His particular focus was on developing telehealth programs for remote and otherwise isolated populations. Both DHCC and T2 are part of the Defense Centers of Excellence for Psychological Health and Traumatic Brain Injury (DCoE).
Matt Mishkind has 20 publications primarily focused on improving access to behavioral health care for military populations. He is also certified as a Senior Professional in Human Resources. Dr. Mishkind has also held positions focused on organizational development. Most recently, he served as team lead for training and human capital initiatives at the Bureau of Reclamation within the United States Department of Interior.
