Psychiatrist Jesse Gold knows firsthand how important mental health counseling is for students navigating the turbulent waters of higher education.
Dr. Gold, the UT System’s first chief wellness officer and associate professor of psychiatry at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center, has revealed that while attending the University of Pennsylvania, she struggled with her mental health and sought help. . campus.
“I went to see a therapist at the university health center and was basically told I wasn’t sick enough to need help on campus,” she recalls. “I was very confused because it took me so long to decide to seek help in the first place. I was using the criteria that most patients use, which meant that my school grades were still It was okay because it was good. But it was okay because I wasn’t doing anything else.” Eventually she received treatment and started medication, but that first experience always resonated with her and still does today. This is the trigger.
“Since that experience, and since my final decision to go to medical school and pursue psychiatry, I have always really wanted to find a way to specifically help college students,” she says. “If you have a good experience when you first get mental health support, you’re still young and you’ll go back and tell other people, and then other people will go and tell their friends. That group talks about everything. Sharing positive experiences can go a long way toward changing the culture of shame and fear around mental health and helping students feel like asking for help is a strength, not a weakness. ”
Dr. Gold is a nationally recognized expert on student mental health and wellness, as well as healthcare worker mental health, burnout, and advocacy. She will also work as a psychiatrist at University Health Services at her Memphis campus in the UT Health Science Center, initially seeing primarily students. This is a similar role to her previous position at Washington University St. Louis School of Medicine. There, she was an outpatient psychiatrist who saw faculty, students, staff, and hospital personnel.
Dr. Gold believes that her education and training, as well as her personal experience, will help her understand and relate to students and employees and bring about change throughout the UT system.
“We have a crisis in this country. We have a crisis on our college campuses. Our health care workers are in crisis and we need to do something about it,” she said. say. “We need to proactively and systematically tackle this issue across the full range of mental health needs. This role represents the highest level of commitment to actually doing that.”
“My job is not to come in as an outsider and change everything,” she says. “My job is to learn from experts who have been working on human services throughout the UT system, not only as students but also as faculty and staff, on campus. By traveling and talking to people, I learn what works and what works. I want to learn what doesn’t work, what to implement, what’s missing, and what the culture surrounding wellbeing is. I’m transparent about what I’m learning. , I will work on developing a plan and team based on my experience and ultimately implementing a solution.”
“There’s a crisis in this country. There’s a crisis on college campuses. There’s a health care worker crisis, and we need to do something about it.”
Dr. Jesse Gold
Dr. Gold is well known as a writer and advocate for mental health, including how mental health is experienced and reflected in popular culture. Her work has been featured in The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Atlantic, InStyle, and Self, and she has been interviewed on media platforms ranging from CBS, NPR, and TIME. She has over 50,000 followers on several social media platforms.
She has been writing the book for over three years. How Do You Feel?: One Doctor’s Search for Humanity in Medicine will be released on October 8th by her Simon Element, an imprint of Simon & Schuster.
“It follows me and four of my healthcare patients as they grapple with the challenges of caring for themselves when their job involves caring for others,” Dr. Gold says. “This book focuses on healthcare, and anyone who works in healthcare knows it, but it looks at the things that prevent us all from prioritizing our own well-being. It serves as a lens, focusing specifically on issues of burnout, perfectionism, and bias through stories, including my own.”
Dr. Gold received his Bachelor of Arts and Master of Science degrees in Anthropology from the University of Pennsylvania. She received her medical degree from Yale School of Medicine and completed her residency in adult psychiatry at Stanford University, where she served as her chief resident.
Born in New Jersey and raised in Jacksonville and Gainesville, Florida, Dr. Gold has lived in five states, Switzerland, and England. “I have friends from all stages of life, including elementary school,” she says. “Actually, my best friend’s father, who I’ve known since elementary school, played soccer at the University of Tokyo.”
In his spare time, Dr. Gold enjoys reading, traveling, and going to concerts and comedy shows. Last year, she met Taylor Swift twice, Brandi Carlyle and Adele in Las Vegas.
She moved to Memphis in the fall and began her new role on February 1st.
“I had a rare reception in Memphis,” she says. “It was cold and snowy in January, so the pipes in my new house burst and the garage ceiling fell on top of my car. It’s more work and I completely watered my ‘new leaf’. However, I don’t feel alone in it and I think the community for outsiders already appeals to me. From people at work to real estate agents to neighbors, people gave me someone to call, called me on their own, and invited me out to dinner. It’s hard to get angry if you feel so supported. I’m looking forward to being a part of that culture and looking forward to even more connections and support here. ”