Apologies for any cross-postings!
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Dear colleagues,
In early 2021, the largest known survey of mental health difficulties in clinical, counseling, and school psychology programs in the United States and Canada was conducted. Over 2,000 people responded, and the results were striking: 82% reported experiencing mental health difficulties in their lifetime, and 48% reported having been diagnosed with a mental illness. The preprint of the publication presenting these findings is available on OSF here: https://psyarxiv.com/xbfr6/. In spite of the obvious relevance of these experiences to the research and clinical efforts in our fields, mental illness among psychology graduate students and faculty has long been under-recognized and subject to implicit and explicit silencing within academic psychology.
Along with the empirical paper linked above, a group of academic psychology faculty have drafted an adjoining commentary, in which the authors (listed below) publicly identify themselves as having lived experience of mental illness, describe the barriers faculty with mental illness face within clinical, counseling, and school psychology programs, and provide a call to action to improve the climate of our fields in supporting trainees and faculty with mental illness. The commentary preprint is available on OSF here: https://psyarxiv.com/ksnfd/. We believe that this work is critical to create a more inclusive, diverse, just, and equitable field of applied psychological science.
To that end, the authors are seeking faculty in American and Canadian clinical, counseling, and school psychology doctoral programs and internships who have personal lived experience of mental illness to join the commentary as signatories. The goal is to highlight the tremendous breadth of individuals across career stages who have achieved a faculty position while living with mental illness, and to send a critical message that faculty who have experienced mental illness are valued members of our community.
If you are interested in learning more about this project, you can read more and provide your contact information here: https://tinyurl.com/LEsignatories. Please note that all individuals who complete the survey will be contacted prior to submission of the signatories list, to re-confirm interest and willingness to be listed, whether in an identifiable or anonymous way. For further questions about the project, please contact Dr. Sarah Victor, Assistant Professor at Texas Tech University, at[log in to unmask].
If you know of others who may be interested in becoming involved with this project, please feel free to forward this information to them as well.
Sincerely,
Dr. Sarah Victor, Assistant Professor, Texas Tech University
Dr. Jessica Schleider, Assistant Professor, Stony Brook University
Dr. Brooke Ammerman, Assistant Professor, University of Notre Dame
Dr. Daniel Bradford, Assistant Professor, Oregon State University (fall 2021)
Andrew Devendorf, Graduate Student, University of South Florida
Dr. Lisa Gunaydin, Assistant Professor, University of California San Francisco
Dr. Lauren Hallion, Assistant Professor, University of Pittsburgh
Dr. Erin Kaufman, Assistant Professor, University of Western Ontario
Dr. Stephen Lewis, Associate Professor, University of Guelph
Dese’Rae L. Stage, Graduate Student, Temple University
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Sarah E. Victor, PhD
Assistant Professor of Psychological Sciences
Texas Tech University
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