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All of us at CRG wish you a happy and healthy holiday season!
This time of year gives us many opportunities to count our blessings; to be mindful of people who enrich our lives and have wanted the best for us. These caring individuals go by many names: parents, spouse, coach, friend, teacher, mentor. This issue focuses on the last example by exploring the role of mentoring in behavioral healthcare. CRG providers - like all effective healthcare professionals - spend a lot of time thinking about good patient care in between our actual time with a given child, adolescent, or adult. How we come to understand a person's situation or needs, and our ability to creatively and professionally respond, is often enriched by the wise counsel of our colleagues. This issue allows us to give thanks to our mentors and to shed some light on how these important relationships strengthen our work.
Dr. Chelsey Brophy opens with an overview of mentoring. Much has been learned from research and practice about the benefits to each person in this type of relationship. Next, Dr. Julie Steck summarizes Erikson's model of human development in describing how mentoring shapes people's virtues. She also shares, on a personal note, the zestful energy she experiences as a mentor. Dr. Ray Kinder then describes two forms of mentoring embedded into our practice here at CRG. The first is a formal mentoring relationship each provider has with one of the four partners. The second is a more informal "gathering of the minds" when a provider seeks perspective while staffing a patient's needs. Dr. Joshua Lowinsky then discusses how his mentors helped him become the psychiatrist he is today and how those early examples influence the work his Primary Care Psychiatry Foundation is doing to shape the next generation of healthcare providers. After that, Dr. Brophy partners with Anna Merrill, an I.U. doctoral student in school psychology, to describe their mentoring experience at CRG this summer. Finally, Dr. Lowinsky is interviewed along with Max Schaefer, a 3rd year medical student. Max completed a month-long clerkship under Dr. Lowinsky's guidance this fall. Like Anna, Max describes what it was like to work at CRG alongside a range of our providers as his professional development unfolded.
We hope these stories provide our patients and families with added insight into how we collaborate to stay current, skilled, and enthusiastic about our work. We also hope this issue will be of interest to our professional colleagues who no doubt benefit from their own mentoring relationships, too. Happy reading!
David R. Parker, Ph.D.
CRG Newsletter Editor
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Understanding Mentoring
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| A Mentoring Relationship Is a Win-Win Dynamic |
"The delicate balance of mentoring someone is not creating them in your own image, but giving them the opportunity to create themselves."
-Steven Spielberg
Mentoring is viewed as an important part of professional practice in various disciplines and settings. Its importance and value have always been emphasized at Children's Resource Group (CRG). Mentoring serves various purposes and has numerous benefits. Professional mentoring arrangements can vary in terms of duration, relationship type, roles of mentors, and varying levels of mentorship. This issue of CRG's newsletter will explore professional mentoring. What is it, what types of mentoring do CRG providers engage in, and how does this practice benefit patients and those who work to address their behavioral healthcare needs?
Click here to read the rest of this story.
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Mentoring and Erikson's Stages of Development
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In undergraduate and graduate school, I was introduced to
Erik Erikson's
stages of psychosocial development. Erikson, a German-born American psychologist, developed his theory of psychosocial development in the 1950's and 60's. His theory purports that there are crises that arise at each stage of development across a person's lifespan. The crises cause a conflict between the needs of the individual (psycho) and the needs of society (social). Successful resolution of these conflicts contributes to healthy personality development and improved ability to confront future conflicts. Erikson used the term "virtue" to refer to the positive growth we experience when each stage's conflict is resolved successfully.
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here to read the rest of this story.
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Mentoring at CRG
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A number of months ago, at a CRG leadership retreat, there was discussion about how to improve the cooperation, collaboration and growth of the professional staff. One of the key elements that emerged from that discussion was a proposal to institute a system of mentoring for all providers of professional services at CRG. This took the form of each provider being assigned a mentor with whom they would meet at least twice yearly and more often should an individual provider request it or at the suggestion of the mentor. There was forethought to the assignment of each mentor with an attempt to assign a mentor in the same professional field or a related field and with the same amount or greater experience.
Click here to read the rest of this story.
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Mentoring and Psychiatry
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Note:
David Parker had the pleasure of talking with CRG adolescent and adult psychiatrist, Dr. Joshua Lowinsky, about the Foundation Dr. Lowinsky co-founded. The Primary Care Psychiatry Foundation (PCPF) is dedicated to educating healthcare professionals to enhance the medical community's ability to address behavioral healthcare options within the context of brief doctor's visits where mental health issues are not typically the primary focus of a patient's visit. The Foundation gives Dr. Lowinsky an important opportunity outside of CRG to collaboratively influence the next generation of health care providers, thus fulfilling his love of teaching as well as continuing his own learning.
DP: Briefly describe the PCPF.
JLMD:
The Primary Care Psychiatry Foundation educates and trains primary care physicians, other professionals, and individuals within systems of care, in the early identification, accurate diagnosis, effective treatment and appropriate referral of patients with psychiatric disorders.
Click
here to read the rest of this story.
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Making the Most of Your Mentor
by Anna Merrill, doctoral candidate, and
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Note: CRG had the pleasure of hosting Anna Merrill, I.U. doctoral student in
school psychology,
for a practicum experience during this past summer. She worked closely with CRG psychologist, Dr. Chelsey Brophy. This collaborative article reflects the close bond they formed here on a professional and personal level. Read on to learn more about this dynamic partnership.
Anna's Perspective:
As a graduate student you quickly learn there are some things you just can't learn in the classroom. I have found mentors every step along the way who have taught me through real-world experience and supported my growth as a future psychologist. In psychology and several other fields, your advisors and professors may be far removed from actual practice. Finding mentors who are working in your field is essential for deepening your understanding and learning of applied skills.
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here to read the rest of this story.
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Psychiatry Clerkship: A Mentoring Relationship
interviews with Max Schaefer (3rd Year Medical Student) and Joshua Lowinsky
, M.D.
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David Parker had the pleasure of (separately) interviewing CRG psychiatrist, Dr. Joshua Lowinsky, and Max Schaefer, a 3rd year medical student at Marian University. Max completed a month-long clerkship at CRG in early Fall 2015 under the guidance of Dr. Lowinsky. This was the first of what we anticipate will be a series of clerkships here that provide future physicians with direct access to behavioral healthcare practices. Read on to learn more from both men about their experiences with this dynamic partnership. We'll begin with Dr. Lowinsky.
DP:
Where did the clerkship idea at CRG come from?
JLMD:
I worked with Gallahue Mental Health Center before joining CRG. While there, I took Indiana University 3rd year medical students weekly for half-day semi-rural community mental health experience over a one-month period.
Click
here to read the rest of this story.
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