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The Bridges Built at Psych Congress
I recently had the pleasure of introducing Kevin Hines, as one of the featured speakers at Psych Congress in San Antonio. Sixteen years ago, Kevin, just 19 years old and tortured by hallucinations brought on by a manic episode, jumped from the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco. Unlike 99% of the more than 2000 people who have leapt into the cold, churning waters of the Pacific, Kevin survived. He has gone on to dedicate his life to reducing the stigma around mental illness and promoting suicide prevention.
As I was preparing to introduce him, I read his 2013 memoir, Cracked, not Broken: Surviving and Thriving After a Suicide Attempt, and realized that we were neighbors in San Francisco, living less than a mile apart, but had never met. But at Psych Congress, I had the pleasure of meeting him and hearing his spellbinding, inspiring story of recovery.
It struck me that Psych Congress is about building bridges. Like a bridge, we span gaps so that people can come together and learn from one another. Over the 7 years that I’ve been on the steering committee for this conference, I’ve watched as we’ve become more inclusive. In addition to our physician colleagues, we’ve brought nurse practitioners, psychologists, and physician assistants onto our stages, to share their collective wisdom and knowledge. We’ve made small thoughtful gestures, such as removing the titles from our badges so that when attendees have sidebar conversations, they aren’t sidetracked by preconceived notions of what someone might or might not know, based on their credentials. We went out on limbs on ideas that were once radical, but are now widely accepted. We’ve played and sang songs and been silly together. We’ve built bridges within the myriad of professions that make up our ranks.
Several years ago, we began building another bridge, the one between our patients and us. Starting in 2013, we had Eric Arauz, now a colleague on the steering committee, tell us of his message of hope and recovery from mental illness in a keynote address. Kay Redfield Jamison and Elyn Saks have followed him in subsequent years. Now with Kevin Hines added to the ranks of people who not only survived mental illness, but have gone on to create meaning and do important work, we attendees are reminded of the importance of the work we do and the reason we get out of bed each day to go back into our offices, clinics, hospitals, and jails. If, in a moment of doubt, you’ve questioned the value of the work you do, these speakers quickly bring focus back to the value of the compassion and knowledge we combine to help our patients.
Last year, we began to bridge another gap with a series of difficult, but critical conversations about the mental wellness of the members of our professions. As we’ve begun to talk about the sad reality of clinician suicide, how nurses and physicians have a suicide rate double that of the general population, and how to prevent it, it becomes evident that there is no “them and us” in our field. As Glen Gabbard1 once said, “Them is us,” and Ram Dass2 reminds us that, “We’re all just walking each other home.” By doing this, we begin to create a culture where not only is it prudent to check in with each other and to be supportive, but that this spirit of looking out for each other becomes a norm, so that like in the military, no one is left behind.
Despite all this bridgework, there are still bridges to build, and this effort remains a work in progress. We’re only just getting started. What gaps still need to be spanned, from your perspective? Tell me what you think in the comments.
References
1. "Physician Suicide: Toward Prevention." Presented at the American Psychiatric Association meeting; May 17, 2016; Atlanta, GA.
