Psych Health and Safety Podcast USA

Dr. I. David Daniels interviews Janet Williams about her caregiving journey and the importance of mental health. They discuss the statistics of caregivers in the US and how workplaces can support them. Topics include balancing work and caregiving, challenges faced, and ways to promote well-being in organizations.

In our last episode, we discussed some of the protections and inadequacies of our current laws to protect the psychological health and safety of American Workers. In the episode, host Dr. I. David Daniels will talk with Deb Falzoi, founder of “Dignity Together” cofounder of “End Work Abuse, and one of the leaders of the effort to end abusive behavior in the workplace through various efforts, including the establishment of the Workplace Psychological Safety Act. Ms. Falzoi has been actively involved in this work since her own experience of workplace bullying in the marketing industry over 15 years ago. She has recently been leading efforts to pass. Bill H 1882 in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts would be one of the first state-level legislative efforts focused on psychological safety in the United States.

This week, host Dr. I. David Daniels will speak with Sheri Oluyemi, Esq, a practicing employment law attorney who began her practice in Canada but now practices out of offices in the State of Georgia. Throughout the history of the United States, labor-related laws have created protections from some of the exploitation commonplace at the founding of the country, and many of those protections remain in place today. However, there are still limits to what the law can do. This is especially true as it relates to protection from psychosocial harm. While microaggressions, overt insults, low-level incivility, hazing, and bullying may not be illegal, when these types of behaviors form a pattern that can be proven as discriminatory toward a protected class or a person engaged in protected class activity based on federal, state, or local laws, these very same behaviors may be deemed illegal in either a civil or criminal court. On the other hand, there are limits to what the law can do, based on the time it will take to process the claim and the energy it will take to work through the administrative and legal processes. Ms. Oluyemi will discuss various topics related to employment law from both the employer's and the employee's perspectives as she represents both. She also provides “breaking news” regarding a recent development that may change how federal agencies view psychosocial hazards such as bullying and harassment.

During this episode, host Dr. I. David Daniels will speak with Dr. Dennis Stolle of the American Psychological Association (APA) regarding the 2023 Work in America Survey to get a sense of the “state of psychological health and safety in the American workplace.” In October 2022, the U.S. Surgeon General released the office’s first-ever Surgeon General’s Framework for Workplace Mental Health and Well-Being. The APA’s Work in America Survey was recently revised to consider the framework and add to their decades-long pursuit of data relative to workplace mental health in the United States. The survey results confirmed that psychological well-being is a very high priority for workers themselves.

THIS IS A REPLAY OF EPISODE #24 This week's guest, Georgia Bryce-Hutchinson, was educated and trained as an environmental engineer when her lived experience in the workplace motivated her to understand better how the workplace was causing her to feel. This exploration led her to become certified as a Marriage and Family Therapist and Mental Health Consultant. She is also a speaker and author of "On Your Way to Meeting You: The Journey That Changes Everything" and owner of Building Families According to Pattern, LLC. Georgia combines her ability to think logically with her passion for robust mental health as a motivator to help individuals and families in her clinical practice, including those exposed to psychosocial hazards at work. She has also recently begun to focus on helping large organizations address mental health through training and consulting efforts. She believes that "you can not separate the person from the worker," and the work environment should be a place that facilitates growth rather than harm. In this episode, she'll share her thoughts with host Dr. I. David Daniels on why "Work Shouldn't Hurt Emotionally."

THIS IS A REPLAY OF EPISODE #4 Dr. Namie will discuss his journey as a workplace bullying researcher and advocate over the past 25 years and his efforts to change the nature of work through the adoption of the Healthy Workplace Bill. From his experience of vicarious exposure to his wife’s experience of bullying, through their formation of an organization to train and develop anti-bullying advocates across the United States, supporting bullying targets and consulting with organizations, unions, and leadership groups as well as serving as an expert witness. Dr. Namie, his wife Dr. Ruth Namie, and the Workplace Bullying Institute have been pursuing healthier workplaces for years. He will discuss a number of important concepts that are essential in establishing a psychologically healthy and safe environment.

The week host, Dr. I. David Daniels, will speak with Aurora Higgs, a self-described “queer Black trans visionary, who’s a speaker, performer, and media producer that uses her platform to promote equity and elevate queer BIPOC voices” about their lived experience overcoming and helping others, especially those in the LGBTQIA+ community overcome barriers to psychological safety and exposure to psychosocial hazards. According to McKinsey: · Transgender adults are twice as likely as cisgender adults to be unemployed. · Cisgender employees make 32 percent more money a year than transgender employees, even when the latter have similar or higher education levels. · More than half of transgender employees say they are not comfortable being out at work. Two-thirds remain in the closet in professional interactions outside their own companies. · People who identify as transgender feel far less supported in the workplace than their cisgender colleagues do. They report that it’s more challenging to understand workplace culture and benefits and harder to get promoted. They also feel less supported by their managers. In this episode, we’re going to have a conversation with someone who can speak to these and other questions relative to psychological health and safety for of folks that are sometimes left out of traditional conversations about safety of any kind.

This week, host Dr. I. David Daniels speaks with Dr. Virginia Heslinga, a wife, mother, grandmother, teacher, and now author, about her memoir, “Grace Interlaced.” While psychological health and safety is an active endeavor, parts of this effort require us to consider the past. In the workplace, an expectation that people be able to bring their whole selves is commendable and vital. However, each of us has parts of our whole self that are different, challenging, and sometimes even traumatic. In Dr. Heslinga’s case, a significant event in her childhood that she had locked away from an emotional perspective subconsciously influenced many of her life decisions, including her choice of a profession and how she interacted with others. Awaken by a series of events, including the pandemic, she began to write a memoir that she is now sharing with the world.

In this holiday episode, Dr. I. David Daniels will discuss psychological health and safety with members of his actual family. This “family chat” will involve his youngest sister (Kolesta Moore), his youngest son (Bryan Daniels), and his brother (the creator of the podcast theme music)’s youngest daughter (Iman Burks). As families in the U. S. gather for food and drink over the holiday season, they bring their mental and emotional health with them, which manifests in their conversations and actions. While the meal is being prepared, during the football game or shopping trip for the holiday sale, conversation about work often creeps into the discussions. The conversation will be familiar to families in every community. Family members are often the first people in a worker’s life to share their psychosocial hazard exposure experience. It is also where they seek and give advice about what to do. This candid, wide-ranging conversation will touch on the family's view of work, some of the challenges, and the view of what a great work environment should look and feel like.

In episode 71, host Dr. I. David Daniels speaks with therapist and coach Jane Song about her lived experience of and research into work-related burnout. Burnout is a state of emotional, physical, and mental exhaustion caused by excessive and prolonged stress. It can occur when you feel overwhelmed. Burnout can be caused by work-related stress, taking on more than one can handle at work, school, or interpersonally with family and friends, poor self-care, feeling unappreciated, unrecognized, or unfairly treated, feeling insecure in their position, being unsure of the requirements of their jobs, or poor leadership. Signs of burnout include feeling exhausted and sluggish, feeling overwhelmed to complete simple tasks, getting angry or frustrated quickly, headaches, stomach aches or intestinal issues, fatigue, frequent illness, and changes in appetite or sleep. Jane’s story describes the journey from the glitz, glamor, and excitement of the international fashion industry to debilitating burnout and renaissance following a period in seminary to now helping others experiencing burnout both recover and thrive.