Psych Health and Safety Podcast USA

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.

We’ll continue our National Fire Prevention Month focus on this episode with a twist. This week, host Dr. I. David Daniels will speak with Dr. Ed Sherman, who has more than four decades of experience in fire /rescue, EMS, and law enforcement, in addition to his education in psychology. Conversations about psychological health and safety in emergency services can have a different cadence, mainly when focusing on the fire/rescue, EMS, or law enforcement experience. Though EMS, fire/rescue, and law enforcement personnel respond to some of the same incidents, emergencies, and disasters, they often walk away with different perceptions based on their roles and the work they are expected to do. The difference in their experience also results in different lasting impacts of these experiences. It is rare to find not only people who see these incidents from multiple perspectives but can add the view of someone who understands how these experiences impact how people think and act before, during, and after significant incidents and events. Dr. Sherman uses his unique perspective across the fire/rescue, EMS, and law enforcement lines when he works with leaders of various organizations, large and small, dealing with various issues, many of which have significant health and safety implications.

This week, host Dr. I. David Daniels will speak with Dr. Sara Jahnke, Dr. Carlos Poston, and Dr. Ketih Haddock, the leaders of the Center for Fire, Rescue and EMS Health Research (CFREHR), one of the research efforts of the National Development and Research Institutes (NDRI) USA. In another episode focused on National Fire Prevention Month, CFREHR, the leadership of this research-based organization, shares their views on the state of psychological health and safety in the industry and their thoughts about the future. NDRI-USA’s research centers are focused on health outcomes research, epidemiology, and prevention science. Particular areas of inquiry include minority health and disparities, tobacco control, obesity, nutrition, physical activity, and occupational health, especially among the military and emergency responders. The mission of the (CFREHR) is to understand and improve the health of first responders through systematic research and evaluation. We have worked with and collected data from nearly 100 fire departments nationwide and have successfully solicited participation from more than 2,000 individual firefighters. Dr. Jahnke, Dr. Poston, and Dr. Haddock have been at the forefront of fire service-related research for 15 years and have a unique yet diverse set of views regarding the health and safety of those who serve.

The episode is the first in a series celebrating National Fire Prevention Month. This week our host Dr. I. David Daniels, speaks with retired Fire Chief Jerry Streich about his lived experience as a leader and his current focus as a coach and consultant helping others learn to deal with difficult people. The exact definition of a difficult person varies depending on who is doing the assessment. One Harvard Business Review editorial staff member, suggests that the examples include passive-aggressive, insecure bosses, pessimists, victim mentality, know-it-alls, tormentors, and biased or political operators. Another consultant adds interrupters, ignorers, bores, prima-donnas, work martyrs, whiners, negativity spreaders, rainmakers, and boundary crossers to the list. Chief Streich found his leadership interests blossoming after serving in the U. S. Army. While becoming a leader was extremely rewarding, he also experienced several challenges that have changed him as a human being. Undoubtedly the most significant challenge was one that made national news involving a person whose bullying behavior even caused the Chief to feel fear at work. He uses his experience as the foundation to help leaders identify and deal with difficult people and create a more psychologically safe culture for everyone.

In this week’s episode, host Dr. I. David Daniels and the founders of Safeopedia, Scott Cuthbert and Jamie Young. Safety standards, best practices, innovation, and legislation are constantly changing. There are thousands of formal and informal safety committees, dozens of safety certifications, and thousands of courses. In 2010, Scott and Jason formed Safeopedia, a platform for EHS professionals to learn, collaborate, access FREE content, and feel supported. In 2019 they started a virtual conference to further this goal. During this episode, they will discuss the history of Safeopedia and the initiation of the Safeopedia Community, an online community established to create a safe space for safety professionals and the “safety interested” in supporting one another.