Dr. Virani focuses on the impact of Climate Change, and associated emergent anxieties, on our underlying mental health. Climate Change is affecting our livelihoods, our environments and our perceptions of the future; with implications on how we act and how we perceive our day-to-day lives. Virani (and guests) consider examples of patients presenting with climate-change specific conditions, discuss case-histories, and look for evidence that organizations are acting to address the causes and...

Dr. Virani focuses on exposure to war, violence, shootings, and the impact of migration.   These migrants are forced to flee from their homes due to threats of violence and death due to cultural or religious beliefs.    Just as traumatic for these individuals is the ability to adapt and be accepted in their new homes.  Discussed in the episode: Cultural Psychiatry Pre-migration stressors Post Migration stressors  Misdiagnosis of mental health issues in the migrant population Tips for...

In this episode, Dr. Virani and her guests, Dr. Qayyum and Dr. Conrad, focus on the impact of Adverse Child Experience (ACE) and Adverse Early Life Experiences (AELEs) on mental health and provide some insights through case discussions about the downstream impact of these experiences.

In Eleanor Rigby, the Beatles lament about loneliness and isolation and challenge us to “look at all the lonely people”. In this episode, Dr. Virani invites Dr. Dolores Malaspina and Dr. Luca Pauselli to explore social exclusion and insolation and its effects on mental health through case studies.  Join us on the first episode of a new season of Finding Our Voice covering the social determinants of mental health.  

This episode focuses on the Indigenous community, Dr. Virani discusses the systemic racism issues faced by this community with two psychiatrists who have Native American heritage, Dr. Mary Hasbah Roessel, a psychiatrist at the Santa Fe Service Unit in Santa Fe Indian Hospital. She is Navajo from the southwestern US.  Dr. Stefanie Gillson, who is Dakota Sioux and is finishing up her 4th-year psychiatry resident at Yale University and starting her Child & Adolescent Fellowship at Yale.

Before Stonewall, the gay community lived in the shadows, and even after this monumental protest and other significant milestones, the LGBTQ community still faces discrimination, abuse, and aggressive behaviors in their day-to-day lives. Dr. Virani discusses the issues at the core of the mental health challenges to the LGBTQ community referencing history where applicable, with Dr. Eli Aoun and Dr. Ali Haidar, two New York based psychiatrists.

There has been a dramatic upsurge in violence against Asian Americans over the last year since the outbreak of the virus in Wuhan China.  In this episode, Dr. Virani talks with Asian American and Pacific Islander Doctors about their experiences with racial trauma and cultural boundaries that have affected them and the lives of their patients.

Diversity among women in psychiatric training programs is seldom discussed and in this episode, Dr. Virani talks with two accomplished women program directors about the challenges for women in training programs. Drs. Cama and DeJong cover issues ranging from failures of well-intentioned supervisors to pregnancy to the “imposter syndrome".

Drs. Virani, Madaan, and Khan are International Medical Graduates (IMG) who come from different cultural backgrounds. Join these three as they recount personal stories of the highs and lows of being an IMG in the US.  They discuss the physician and patient discrimination they faced through micro and macro aggressions and the road ahead for them and for other IMGs. Also appearing in the episode is Sarah El-Halabi.

Finding Our Voice continues to explore the issue of systemic racism.  In this special episode released during Black History Month, we examine the effects of social determinants on the African American community in America.    Dr. Virani discusses with her guests access to mental health care and the quality of care black patients encounter.  Dr. Talley and Dr. Metzger cover the profound impact of the lack of homeownership upon communities of color.

In this episode, Dr. Sanya Virani and her guests discuss the impact of social determinants on the Hispanic community. Listen as Dr. Esperanza Diaz and Dr. Andrea Mendiola both from Yale School of Medicine discuss challenges their patients have faced with outcomes both positive and negative.