EP 101: Designing the Immune System of Mental Health | Susan Swick

Learn about how Dr. Susan Swick is challenging the paradigm of
mental health, redesigning the future of behavioral health
facilities and why every community needs a gym for building our
mental health resilience.  Susan Swick, MD, MPH is the
Executive Director of Ohana, designing and leading the development
of this Center for Child and Adolescent Behavioral Health at the
Community Hospital of the Monterey Peninsula in Monterey,
California. In addition to evaluation and treatment programs that
are evidence-based and family-focused. Ohana programs will also
emphasize the cultivation of mental health at the individual,
family and community level. This Center is being created with the
support of a landmark $100 million gift from a single donor in the
hospital’s community, reflecting a recognition on both the
hospital’s and the community’s part that the resources available to
families seeking care for their children’s mental health challenges
were sorely lacking. Dr. Swick has a long-standing interest in how
adversity affects children and families, and in how well-timed
interventions can make a critical difference. Prior to relocating
to California in 2018, Dr. Swick served as the Chief of Child and
Adolescent Psychiatry at Newton Wellesley Hospital for five years.
While at Newton-Wellesley Hospital, she created a new community
health initiative called “The Resilience Project,” partnering with
local High Schools to promote the mental health and well-being of
youth and their families. She also directed the Parenting At a
Challenging Time (PACT) program at Newton-Wellesley, a parent
guidance program available to cancer patients who were still
raising young children. She was an Instructor in Psychiatry at
Harvard Medical School and at Massachusetts General Hospital, where
she created and ran a course on Parent Guidance for the Child
Psychiatry fellows. She attended Medical School at Columbia
University, where she also received a Masters in Public Health.
She, her husband and their four children are all east-coasters
originally, but are happy to call California home. Episode Mentions
and Links AIA 2022 Healthcare Design Awards: Montage Health Ohana
Center NBBJ Architects: Ohana Center for Health NBBJ Architects:
Hope, Healing, and Healthcare  A New Tool in Treating Mental
Illness: Building Design via NYT  Donate to Ohana Episode
Website: https://www.designlabpod.com/episodes/101