Health is Everything™

How One Valley Changed the Equation: A Roadmap for Transforming Behavioral Healthcare in the United StatesIt’s no secret that the United States is in the midst of a mental health crisis. There are a number of reasons why this is occurring, but none is more important than the fact that good mental health care is often somewhere between difficult and impossible to find. And when one can get in to see a provider the services offered are often inadequate: visits are short, help is usually unavailable to address all the problems of life that make us depressed or drive us to drugs or alcohol, and the answer to our psychiatric issues is usually a pill. If ever there were places that might be immune to these problems one might guess that beautiful Rocky Mountain resort towns like Vail, Colorado, would be outstanding candidates. The landscape is beautiful, and the active and outdoor lifestyle the mountains offer is the envy of all those living in less blessed locations. No surprise that people flock to places like Vail in hopes of tapping into the paradise that these places seem to be.But there is a paradox in paradise. The ski resort towns of the American West have suicide rates so high that the area has been dubbed a suicide belt. Vail and surrounding areas of Eagle County, Colorado, were no exception. In 2017 the area had one of the highest suicide rates in the United States with almost nothing in the way of services for many people struggling with mental health issues. No providers took private insurance and no treatment facilities were available for people who were acutely suicidal. These people were either shipped to cities several hours away or were booked and then housed in the local jail. Things were bad, with no clear path forward.Then a remarkable series of events occurred that have utterly transformed mental health care in Eagle County. Today Eagle Valley Behavioral Health, a new non-profit mental health entity overseen by Vail Health, has 150 clinicians at its disposal, all committed to providing a continuum of care, early intervention, and programs aimed at preventing the development of mental illness. A new state-of-the-art inpatient facility that will have 14 beds for adults and 14 beds for adolescents is nearing completion. All residents of Eagle County are eligible to receive six free psychotherapy sessions a year. And multiple wellness and preventive health programs are on offer.Join us in this podcast for a fascinating conversation with Chris Lindley, Executive Director of Eagle Valley Behavioral Health and the primary architect of the remarkable changes in mental health care that have occurred under his leadership. Mr. Lindley’s recounting of how he and his team revolutionized behavioral health care will provide a wealth of ideas that will be of interest to healthcare administrators, clinicians, patients, and anyone who cares for someone struggling with mental illness. Although Eagle County had an even steeper uphill climb than About Emory University's Center for the Study of Human Health:The Emory Center for the Study of Human Health was developed to expand health knowledge and translate this knowledge to all aspects of life – for the individual and populations as a whole. The Center assembles the extraordinary faculty, researchers and thought leaders from across disciplines, departments, schools and institutions to bring this knowledge to Emory University students and inspire them to become leaders for the next generation in meeting challenges facing human health.Follow Us:Blog: Exploring HealthFacebook: @EmoryCSHHInstagram: @EmoryCSHHTwitter: @EmoryCSHH

Transcendent Experience and the Psychedelic Renaissance: A Conversation with the Co-Founders of the Emory Center for Psychedelics and Spirituality, Part 2Anyone interested in mental health knows about the so-called psychedelic renaissance that has been gathering steam for the last half-decade. Compounds such as LSD and psilocybin lauded for their mind-expanding potential in the 60s, and then demonized for a generation, have returned to the scene with a vengeance, fueled by an increasing number of studies showing the remarkable therapeutic potential of these previously stigmatized substances.While this psychedelic renaissance has been garnering all the headlines, a complimentary and far quieter revolution has also been occurring in medicine, which is the recognition of the importance of spirituality for health and disease. Along with a network of collaborators, the Department of Spiritual Health at Emory Healthcare has played a leadership role in this quieter revolution, training chaplains to implement evidence-based compassion-based practices for both patients and the clinicians who care for them.In the first part of this podcast, Boadie Dunlop, MD, and George Grant, MDiv, PhD, joined host Dr. Charles Raison to provide an overview of the mission and vision of the newly-formed Emory Center for Psychedelics and Spirituality. In this second part of the podcast, Drs. Dunlop and Grant—co-founders of the new center—dive deeper into the role of spirituality in human health in general and in psychedelic-assisted therapy, or PAT, more specifically. A lively discussion ensues around a range of related topics, including spirituality as an evolved human capacity, strategies for enhancing the benefits and minimizing the risks of bringing spirituality more directly into healthcare and the need to explore the role of spirituality in PAT with novel scientific approaches. The podcast concludes with a provocative discussion of whether neurobiological understandings are really required to understand how to optimize the role of spirituality in PAT, or whether spirituality can be taken at face value as a phenomenon worthy of scientific study on its own terms.This episode is Part 2 in a two-part series. Featuring:Dr. Boadie Dunlop, Co-founder of  the Emory Center for Psychedelics and SpiritualityDr. George Grant, Co-founder of  the Emory Center for Psychedelics and SpiritualityHost:Charles Raison, Psychiatrist, Professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and Emory UniversityAbout Emory University's Center for the Study of Human Health:The Emory Center for the Study of Human Health was developed to expand health knowledge and translate this knowledge to all aspects of life – for the individual and populations as a whole. The Center assembles the extraordinary faculty, researchers and thought leaders from across disciplines, departments, schools and institutions to bring this knowledge to Emory University students and inspire them to become leaders for the next generation in meeting challenges facing human health.Follow Us:Blog: Exploring HealthFacebook: @EmoryCSHHInstagram: @EmoryCSHHTwitter: @EmoryCSHH

Transcendent Experience and the Psychedelic Renaissance: A Conversation with the Co-Founders of the Emory Center for Psychedelics and Spirituality, Part 1Anyone interested in mental health knows about the so-called psychedelic renaissance that has been gathering steam for the last half-decade. Compounds such as LSD and psilocybin lauded for their mind-expanding potential in the 60s, and then demonized for a generation, have returned to the scene with a vengeance, fueled by an increasing number of studies showing the remarkable therapeutic potential of these previously stigmatized substances.While this psychedelic renaissance has been garnering all the headlines, a complimentary and far quieter revolution has also been occurring in medicine, which is the recognition of the importance of spirituality for health and disease. Along with a network of collaborators, the Department of Spiritual Health at Emory Healthcare has played a leadership role in this quieter revolution, training chaplains to implement evidence-based compassion-based practices for both patients and the clinicians who care for them.This podcast explores a marriage between these two revolutions in the form of the newly created Emory Center for Psychedelics and Spirituality or the ECPS for short. Join host Dr. Charles Raison for a lively discussion with Boadie Dunlop, MD and George Grant, MDiv, PhD, co-founders of the ECPS. We hear how the center reflects a fully collaborative effort between perspectives often seen as separate or even conflictual: biomedical psychiatry and spiritual health. Drs. Dunlop and Grant take a deep dive into the many implications of taking the spiritual effects of psychedelics seriously. Among the many topics covered in this podcast, they discuss the role of spiritual experience in the long-term therapeutic benefits of psilocybin, how spiritual experience differentiates psychedelics from standard antidepressants, and how the risk of harm from psychedelic treatment may be increased if the spirituality-related effects of these drugs are not taken seriously.This episode is Part 1 in a two-part series. Featuring:Dr. Boadie Dunlop, Co-founder of  the Emory Center for Psychedelics and SpiritualityDr. George Grant, Co-founder of  the Emory Center for Psychedelics and SpiritualityHost:Charles Raison, Psychiatrist, Professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and Emory UniversityAbout Emory University's Center for the Study of Human Health:The Emory Center for the Study of Human Health was developed to expand health knowledge and translate this knowledge to all aspects of life – for the individual and populations as a whole. The Center assembles the extraordinary faculty, researchers and thought leaders from across disciplines, departments, schools and institutions to bring this knowledge to Emory University students and inspire them to become leaders for the next generation in meeting challenges facing human health.Follow Us:Blog: Exploring HealthFacebook: @EmoryCSHHInstagram: @EmoryCSHHTwitter: @EmoryCSHH

Demystifying Purpose with Emory’s New Purpose Professor: What Matters Most to You and How to Make it HappenPurpose is one of those big ideas that we muse about in late-night conversations … and promptly put aside in the light of day. It’s a concept that can feel a little daunting, but research points to the fact that boosting our sense of purpose is good for our health and well-being. Living purposefully leads to more fulfilling relationships, better sleep, better sex, and even more rewarding and profitable careers. Host Charles Raison is joined by Dr. Christine B. Whelan, Emory University’s new purpose professor for a podcast that will demystify and define the concept of purpose. They will take you through the steps to create your own personal purpose statement and frame the questions so that you can anticipate the practical and emotional obstacles on your path to purpose.  Featuring:Dr. Christine Whelan, Author, Professor, SpeakerHost:Charles Raison, Psychiatrist, Professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and Emory UniversityAbout Emory University's Center for the Study of Human Health:The Emory Center for the Study of Human Health was developed to expand health knowledge and translate this knowledge to all aspects of life – for the individual and populations as a whole. The Center assembles the extraordinary faculty, researchers and thought leaders from across disciplines, departments, schools and institutions to bring this knowledge to Emory University students and inspire them to become leaders for the next generation in meeting challenges facing human health.Follow Us:Blog: Exploring HealthFacebook: @EmoryCSHHInstagram: @EmoryCSHHTwitter: @EmoryCSHH

Psychedelics as the Start, and Not the Ending, of the Journey of HealingAfter decades of stigmatization, psychedelic medicines have re-emerged onto the world stage as the most promising new mental health treatments in a half-century. Our guest for this podcast, Dr. Rosalind Watts, has played an outsized role in these remarkable developments. Dr. Watts is internationally recognized as a leader in the study and implementation of psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy. She developed and led the psychedelic-assisted therapy program used in two of the first modern studies of psilocybin for the treatment of depression. More recently, she is the founder of Acer Integration (https://acerintegration.com/), an international, year-long integration community developed for connecting to the self, others, and the natural world. In this podcast we trace Dr. Watts’ journey in the psychedelic world, listening to her describe her initial hope that psychedelics might routinely cure mental illness give way to a growing concern that increasingly unrealistic hopes for these medicines were distorting both their risks and benefits. The podcast concludes with Dr. Watts laying out a vision for integrating psychedelics into more holistic ways of promoting mental health and building healing communities.Featuring:Dr. Rosalind Watts, Clinical Psychologist, Founder of Ace IntegrationHost:Charles Raison, Psychiatrist, Professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and Emory UniversityAbout Emory University's Center for the Study of Human Health:The Emory Center for the Study of Human Health was developed to expand health knowledge and translate this knowledge to all aspects of life – for the individual and populations as a whole. The Center assembles the extraordinary faculty, researchers and thought leaders from across disciplines, departments, schools and institutions to bring this knowledge to Emory University students and inspire them to become leaders for the next generation in meeting challenges facing human health.Follow Us:Blog: Exploring HealthFacebook: @EmoryCSHHInstagram: @EmoryCSHHTwitter: @EmoryCSHH

Want to Change Your Life? Take a Breath, Part 1Breathing is the most natural thing in the world; we do it all the time and pay no attention to it. And yet, this simple act holds huge potential for enhancing our physical and mental wellness. In this podcast, host Charles L. Raison discusses the health benefits of breath work with Donald J. Noble, PhD, an instructor in the Center for the Study of Human Health at Emory University, continuing a conversation started in a prior “Health is Everything” podcast. In this installment Raison and Noble open up a wide-ranging discussion on topics ranging from how breathing changes brain function on a moment-by-moment basis to the potential of both slow-deep and rapid breathing to improve well-being, along the way providing a quick guide to the bodily mechanisms involved in various therapeutic breathing strategies.This episode is Part 1 in a two-part series.Featuring:Dr. Don Noble, Instructor at Emory University's Center for the Study of Human HealthHost:Charles Raison, Psychiatrist, Professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and Emory UniversityAbout Emory University's Center for the Study of Human Health:The Emory Center for the Study of Human Health was developed to expand health knowledge and translate this knowledge to all aspects of life – for the individual and populations as a whole. The Center assembles the extraordinary faculty, researchers and thought leaders from across disciplines, departments, schools and institutions to bring this knowledge to Emory University students and inspire them to become leaders for the next generation in meeting challenges facing human health.Follow Us:Blog: Exploring HealthFacebook: @EmoryCSHHInstagram: @EmoryCSHHTwitter: @EmoryCSHH

If You Are Lonely, You Are Not Alone: Explorations Into the Lonely SocietyThis podcast brings us face to face with one of the most distressing issues of the modern world. Despite unprecedented wealth, security and opportunity, rates of suicide have risen more or less continuously over the last generation. Young people, who have their entire lives before them, have been especially hard hit. Although we usually think of suicide as an individual problem, in this podcast Chikako Ozawa de Silva, Associate Professor of Anthropology at Emory University, shows how intimately suicide is connected with aspects of modern life that generate loneliness. We discuss her recent book, The Anatomy of Loneliness: Suicide, Social Connection and the Search for Relational Meaning in Contemporary Japan (University of California Press, 2021) which chronicles how a growing sense of alienation within Japanese society has resulted in problems ranging from hikikomori, the practice of young people shutting themselves away from the world, to internet group suicide, in which people voluntarily choose to commit suicide as a group so they can die in the company of others to avoid enduring a natural death so completely alone. We talk about how Japan may be a worrying bellwether for other developed nations in which loneliness increasingly means being unseen, unrecognized, unsafe and unloved. And although there are no magic bullets, Dr. Ozawa de Silva’s unique perspective offers hope for ways we can work together as a society to reduce many of the sources of alienation that drive so many people to end their lives.Featuring:Dr. Chikako Ozawa de Silva, Associate Professor of Anthropology at Emory UniversityHost:Charles Raison, Psychiatrist, Professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and Emory UniversityAbout Emory University's Center for the Study of Human Health:The Emory Center for the Study of Human Health was developed to expand health knowledge and translate this knowledge to all aspects of life – for the individual and populations as a whole. The Center assembles the extraordinary faculty, researchers and thought leaders from across disciplines, departments, schools and institutions to bring this knowledge to Emory University students and inspire them to become leaders for the next generation in meeting challenges facing human health.Follow Us:Blog: Exploring HealthFacebook: @EmoryCSHHInstagram: @EmoryCSHHTwitter: @EmoryCSHH

It’s time for some “real talk” about kids’ mental health. This week Eleanor and Dr. Raison discuss the evolution of depression and tools to help kids cope with depression.Featuring:Dr. Charles Raison, Psychiatrist & Depression Researcher at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Host of Health is Everything PodcastHost:Eleanor Barrett, 5th GraderAbout Emory University's Center for the Study of Human Health:The Emory Center for the Study of Human Health was developed to expand health knowledge and translate this knowledge to all aspects of life – for the individual and populations as a whole. The Center assembles the extraordinary faculty, researchers and thought leaders from across disciplines, departments, schools and institutions to bring this knowledge to Emory University students and inspire them to become leaders for the next generation in meeting challenges facing human health.Follow Us:Blog: Exploring HealthFacebook: @EmoryCSHHInstagram: @EmoryCSHHTwitter: @EmoryCSHH

Juan Carlos Avila, founder and creator of HappiLyfe, and Eleanor discuss how taking small steps to make positive changes can impact one’s quality of life.Featuring:Juan Carlos Avila, Founder and Creator of HappiLyfe, a purposeful living and wellness aggregator app for all ages (including teens!).Host:Eleanor Barrett, 6th GraderAbout Emory University's Center for the Study of Human Health:The Emory Center for the Study of Human Health was developed to expand health knowledge and translate this knowledge to all aspects of life – for the individual and populations as a whole. The Center assembles the extraordinary faculty, researchers and thought leaders from across disciplines, departments, schools and institutions to bring this knowledge to Emory University students and inspire them to become leaders for the next generation in meeting challenges facing human health.Follow Us:Blog: Exploring HealthFacebook: @EmoryCSHHInstagram: @EmoryCSHHTwitter: @EmoryCSHH

Spirituality, Health and Compassion: a Conversation with the Reverend Maureen Shelton, Part 2More than other healthcare professions, chaplaincy is undergoing profound change, and nowhere is this change more apparent than in the Emory Department of Spiritual Health, where chaplaincy is being transformed from an ancillary hospital offering to an integral component of the healthcare system. In this second part of a two-part series Maureen Shelton, M.Div, joins host Charles L. Raison, MD, to continue their conversation on the role that rigorous training in compassion has played for development of spiritual health as a scientific discipline. In particular, Reverend Shelton brings us into the world of Compassion-Centered Spiritual Health (CCSH™), a novel program designed at Emory with the goal of optimizing the ability of spiritual health clinicians to care for their patients while also building the resilience within themselves needed to thrive in the emotionally taxing environments in which chaplaincy so often occurs. Reverend Shelton shares the core concepts of CCSH, bringing these to life in a series of beautiful vignettes of patient-chaplain meetings, or in the parlance of spiritual health—at the place of vulnerability where care seeker and care provider can meet in ways that impact emotional and physical health. Maureen Shelton is the System Director of Education and Director of the Division of CCSH in the Department of Spiritual Health at the Woodruff Health Sciences Center.This episode is Part 2 in a two-part series.Featuring:Maureen Shelton, M.Div, System Director of Education and Director of the Division of Compassion-Centered Spiritual Health (CCSH) at Emory UniversityHost:Charles Raison, Psychiatrist, Professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and Emory UniversityAbout Emory University's Center for the Study of Human Health:The Emory Center for the Study of Human Health was developed to expand health knowledge and translate this knowledge to all aspects of life – for the individual and populations as a whole. The Center assembles the extraordinary faculty, researchers and thought leaders from across disciplines, departments, schools and institutions to bring this knowledge to Emory University students and inspire them to become leaders for the next generation in meeting challenges facing human health.Follow Us:Blog: Exploring HealthFacebook: @EmoryCSHHInstagram: @EmoryCSHHTwitter: @EmoryCSHH