Mortality deaths in adolescents due to unintentional overdoses reached an all-time high in 2020. The majority of deaths (81%) were due to fentanyl and other synthetic opioids. About 41% of those who overdosed had a prior history of mental health.Yet, more often than not, we treat substance use and mental illness separately. Addressing mental illness and substance dependence requires ‘out of the box’ thinking. Our guest is one of those leading this charge as he explores alternative treatment interventions like psychedelic associated therapy.

Interview with Nathan Sackett, MD, co-director of the Center for Novel Therapeutics in Addiction Psychiatry at the University of Washington.

“Efforts are being made to reach underserved communities.” A cry so familiar, it sounds more like a platitude than a plan. Yet, we still accept it as the necessary and sufficient answer to much of our healthcare woes. What if it isn’t? What if all of our dollars and initiatives are directed at the wrong target? The answer, it turns out, may not be about healthcare at all. 

a public service psychiatrist and former medical director of the Center for Mental Health Services at the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration.

There was a collective sigh heard round the world when children went back to school after the Covid-19 pandemic. Yet, we were unprepared for what came next - an explosion of physical fights, skyrocketing anxiety, depression, and unprecedented refusal to even go back to school. This, on top of the fact that there is a severe school counselor shortage across America. If schools couldn’t tackle this with more staff, they would need innovation and skilled leadership. One district, our very own in fact, showed how it could be done.

Interview with Dr. Jared Taylor, the coordinator of behavior interventions and mental health services of the Bellevue School District, serving close to 20,000 students.

The opioid crisis is making headlines and demanding the attention of policy makers, Emergency Rooms, addiction specialists, and law enforcement. As it should. What about the insidious, even more pervasive addiction that is right in front of all of our eyes? The “modern-day hypodermic needle” that delivers hits of pleasure 24/7. Our brains were not built for this and the result is an epidemic of people in a state of dopamine withdrawal, more commonly known as depression and anxiety. Finding out how to achieve balance among overconsumption is the battle our guest is finding out how to win.

Interview with Dr. Anna Lembke, Chief of the Stanford Addiction Medicine Dual Diagnosis Clinic at Stanford University.

Autism is a tricky diagnosis to make sometimes. It can present in numerous ways that don’t fall into classic presentations. Take this problem and now multiply it. What you get is the challenge in diagnosing Autism in girls. As we begin to recognize what we’ve been missing, a new variant of Autism may be making diagnosis even more difficult. For some, though, it may finally be the answer they’ve been looking for.

Interview with Dr. Cynthia Martin, the Senior Clinical Director and a psychologist in the Autism Center at New York City’s Child Mind Institute.

From the moment babies enter the world, they are being taught. Taught to identify colors, shapes, numbers, letters. Later, they learn to read, to swim, to ride a bike. They arrive wired to learn. What if these same babies were even better teachers? In a time when we are experiencing an empathy deficit manifested in political tribalism, workplace hostility, school violence, it may be the tiniest among us that can bring us the greatest hope.

Interview with Mary Gordon, an award-winning social entrepreneur, educator, and best-selling author, who has created an international children’s charity: Roots of Empathy (ROE).

“What is the difference being a mother of a child with mental illness and the mother of a child who might have heart disease or cancer?” That was the question posed on a 60 Minutes episode by Scott Pelley. The answer was sympathy and… casseroles. While communities often rally around families with physically sick children, a combination of stigma, fear and ignorance often coalesce to leave families isolated and ashamed. This may finally be changing and the reason, recognizing the power and lessons of those who’ve lived it.

Interview with Dr. Ken Duckworth, MD, the chief medical officer for the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI). Ken is the author of NAMI’s first book, 'You Are Not Alone: The NAMI Guide to Navigating Mental Health'.

Few have experienced the kind of isolation that Covid-19 brought with it. Although mandated for our collective health, it wreaked havoc on our mental health. Since the 1980’s, Japan has seen social withdrawal to the extreme with a group of primarily young men known as hikikomori. They refuse face-to-face contact for years and sometimes decades. As we emerge from the pandemic, what lessons do these modern hermits have for us?

Dr. Alan Teo is a psychiatrist and health services researcher at the Oregon Health & Science University. He is an international expert in Hikikomori and a core investigator at the VA HSR&D Center to Improve Veteran Involvement in Care at the VA Portland Health Care System. His focus is on depression and suicide prevention and how social connections can influence mental health.