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Mental Health Panelists to Discuss Trauma, PTSD, and the Social Determinants of Health

Psychologist Juliette McClendon, Director of Medical Affairs at Big Health, talks about pandemic’s impact on young adult mental health, the future of mental health digital therapies, and reaching marginalized populations.

The collective trauma caused by the COVID-19 pandemic is a complex spiderweb of loss, fear, worry, and pain that has induced a mental healthcare crisis that was already boiling under the surface.

Juliette McClendon, Director of Medical Affairs at Big Health, expresses how people of color have disproportionately felt this trauma and pain: “It has been a double pandemic for communities of color: not just the loss of loved ones, gainful employment or housing, but also the media surrounding the unjust and horrible murders of people of color. I think that those two things come together and intersect in a way that I don’t think we’ve fully grasped or fully elucidated yet.”

McClendon (she/they), a clinical psychologist who worked at the Veterans Affairs Boston Healthcare System, is among the trauma experts from around the country virtually participating in the upcoming BUSPH symposium, Mental Health and Trauma: Context and Consequences.

Big Health creates digital therapeutics —Sleepio for insomnia and Daylight for anxiety and worry —which are fully automated cognitive behavioral therapy. The goal, McClendon says, is for people to learn the skills and techniques from cognitive behavioral therapy with the apps’ animated therapist, a model that increases access.

McClendon was drawn to this private sector work for the opportunity to apply her experience working with women and veterans of color to “provide this evidence-based, high-quality mental health care to the broadest number of people possible.”

She shared thoughts on the pandemic’s impact on young adult mental health, the future of mental health digital therapies and reaching marginalized populations.

Public Health Post: How do you think the collective trauma from the COVID-19 pandemic has affected young adults’ mental health that may be different from other populations?

McClendon: I think one thing that I noticed the most in my past experience working with young adults and adolescents is that there is way more openness around mental health struggles among younger adults and teenagers, and I think that that is wonderful. I think there are obviously some downsides to that in terms of the amount of information on social media about mental health and having to sift through that information and find out what’s really accurate and what’s not, but I think that the upside to that is the increased awareness, the willingness to talk and be open about it.

I also think younger generations are also super comfortable with technology and really a lot of times prefer to use technology for a number of different things, including healthcare. Because of that, I think digital mental health like digital therapeutics are going to rise in popularity.

How do digital therapeutics benefit those with more serious mental illnesses who may require medication in addition to talk or digital therapy measures?

Our therapeutics really can be provided alongside both therapy and medications. For example, if somebody is experiencing multiple comorbidities or multiple mental health conditions, they may also need help with something that a digital therapeutic targets, for example insomnia or anxiety, in addition to other therapies.

Do you see a future in digital therapeutics targeting populations that experience trauma from discrimination or apps tailored to marginalized communities?

This would be my dream: I would love to be able to create something that would address and directly talk about things like racism and racial stress. I hope so, but I think that even in the absence of something that focuses specifically on racism and discrimination, I think there are ways that current therapies and therapeutics can be improved to really take into account culture in a more intentional and inclusive way.

What opportunities do you see for providing digital therapeutics to underserved populations that don’t have as easy access to technology?

At Big Health we’re focusing on the other partnerships, avenues and markets that we need to engage with in order to be able to reach underserved populations. There are a number of individuals from underserved populations, for example, people of color, who work for the employers that buy our therapeutics to provide to their employees at no cost.

But of course, there are individuals who are unemployed and aren’t able to really access quality mental health care. We’re currently thinking about partnering with state and local governments, nonprofit organizations, and community organizations that really have presence in different underserved communities and could provide our therapeutics for no cost. Our goal is to have reached at least 100,000 individuals from underserved populations with our therapeutics by the end of the year.

Do you think some companies buy their employees access to therapies like those provided by Big Health just to check a box to say that they offer some sort of mental health services?

There is definitely an increased recognition within the corporate world around the impact of the pandemic on people’s mental health and just mental health in general, even outside of thinking about the pandemic. I think there’s also a growing understanding of the impact of collective racism, like these collective traumas for example, George Floyd’s murder, and how they impact mental health specifically for marginalized populations. And so, yes, I do see mental health as being more than just checking a box at this point. I think in the past that maybe was more the case, but I think since the pandemic, companies are really taking mental health more seriously.

Mental Health and Trauma: Context and Consequences will be held virtually on Monday, Feb. 14 beginning at 10:30 a.m. Register for the webinar here.

The morning panel, the Mental and Physical Health Effects of Trauma and PTSD will be moderated by Paula Schnurr, executive director of the National Center for PTSD and professor of psychiatry at the Geisel School of Medicine. McClendon will join Kathryn Magruder, a Medical University of South Carolina professor, Rachel Sayko Adams, a senior scientist at Brandeis University’s Institute for Behavioral Health at the Heller School for Social Policy & Management and Jennifer Summer, a University of California Los Angeles assistant professor.

BUSPH’s Jaimie Gradus, associate professor, will moderate the afternoon session, Placing Trauma in a Social Determinants of Health Framework. It features panelists Maryam Jernigan-Noesi, founder of Jernigan & Associates Psychology and Educational Consulting LLC, Renee Johnson, a Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health associate professor, John Pamplin, a New York University assistant professor and faculty fellow, and Emily Mendenhall, a Georgetown University professor.