‘Do I need to lead this lifestyle to succeed?’ The mental health crises that forced faculty members to change tack

Hilal Lashuel and Dave Reay join Michelle Kimple to talk about faculty mental health and why it is often overlooked.

A heart attack in 2016 forced Lashuel, a neurogenerative diseases researcher at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne, to question success in science and how it is defined.

The pressure to be an excellent researcher, manager, accountant and mentor can exact a heavy mental toll, he says.

Since his heart attack Lashuel has taken steps to reduce his workload and spend more time with his family, but also to lobby for systemic change in academia to better support faculty colleagues who are struggling.

Climate scientist Dave Reay describes the mental health problems he experienced as a PhD student and the suicidal thoughts it triggered.

Now, as a faculty member at the University of Edinburgh, UK, he is protective of family time, talks openly about the struggles he faced, and champions kindness at work and in his pastoral role as a supervisor.

Finally, Michelle Kimple, an endocrinology researcher at the University of Wisconsin Madison, describes how junior colleagues react to her openness about her bipolar disorder and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).

This episode is the third in an eight-part series about mental health and wellbeing in academia.

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