Psych Health and Safety Podcast USA

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.

In this episode, host Dr. I. David Daniels will speak with Dawnnesha Lasuncet, the Equity and Inclusion Coordinator for an agency that supports school districts. It’s hard to argue that much is more important than education to the development and, ultimately, the well-being of a community. However, according to a June 2022 Gallup poll, K-12 teachers have the highest burnout rate of all U.S. professions. Hired only weeks before her agency shut down at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, Ms. Lasuncet has been at the forefront of efforts to ensure that the work culture of her agency and the districts it supports is psychologically health and safe for not only staff but faculty, students and their parents as they face the challenges associated with K through 12 public education. Ms. Lasuncet will discuss the progress that has been made, especially over the past year, as a result of a focused effort to break down some of the traditional siloed thinking and getting leadership, safety, mental health, and the focus on equity into coordinated strategies focused on the betterment of the agency and those they serve.

This week, host Dr. I. David Daniels will speak with City Councilmember Jaceey Sebastian about the mental and emotional aspects of being an elected official in a local government. Politics is often described as a “contact sport,” even for those serving in elective office at the local level. The role and expectations can present several challenges, some of which can affect the elected official's physical, mental, and emotional health. Councilmember Sebastian will discuss the challenges and triumphs of a community servant who decided to seek elective office and the importance of creating a psychologically healthy and safe environment for public sector workers.

In this episode, we wrap up the series that we presented during National Fire Prevention Month, focusing on not just an individual with multiple experiences in emergency services but, this time, a focus on multiple services under a single umbrella. Host Dr. I. David Daniels will speak with Chris Connealy, Senior Director of Emergency Services for Williamson County, Texas Department of Emergency Services. Director Connealy has been in public safety for 45 years. He started with the Houston Fire Department (HFD) in 1978 and was promoted through the ranks to fire chief over a 26-year career before retiring. He was appointed fire chief of the Cedar Park Fire Department in 2004 and served eight years. In 2012, Chris was appointed as the State Fire Marshal of Texas 2012 and served six years. In July 2018, he was appointed Senior Director of Emergency Services in Williamson County. Sources of stress for emergency responders may include witnessing human suffering, risk of personal harm, intense workloads, life-and-death decisions, and separation from family. Stress prevention and management is critical for responders to stay well and to continue to help in the situation. Respondents must be feeling well and thinking clearly to take care of others. There are essential steps responders should take before, during, and after an event, and we have a great guest to talk about that and other aspects of an emergency service organization. Based on his many decades in emergency services, Director Connealy has worked with the leadership of Willaimson County to initiate and fortify several innovative measures to help workers deal with the stress associated with their essential functions.