Episode Details

Jessica graduated from California State University Long Beach.

She has worked as a neuroscience bedside nurse with children and young adults in a psychiatric residential treatment center.

She is a clinical instructor to nursing students during their psychiatric rotations.

Jessica is also the director of clinical services with foresight mental health clinic.

She believes in finding a balance between lifestyle interventions and medication.

Foresight Mental Health Clinic just opened offices in Kansas City, MO.

The goal of Foresight is to leverage technology with mental health services to help make people healthier and happier.

During the second part of the show, Dr. Robin chats with Amy Milroy, Director of the B.E. Smith Family Center at AdventHealth in Shawee, Kansas, as well as Paloma Juarez, who has two children that attend the Britain Development Program at B.E. Smith Family Center.

As they continue the conversation on mental health and kids, Amy shines a light on why their programs are praised by the Kansas City community. The B.E. Family Center encompasses two unique programs – the first being the Early Learning Program which benefits AdventHealth employees' children. The second is the Britain Development Learning Program, which benefits children all over the Kansas City area with special needs such as autism and other developmental delays. Both programs help children ages 0-5 prepare for kindgarten and that next stage along their journey with successful learning opportunities that incorporate occupational therapy, speech therapists, music therapy, feeding therapty, aquatic therapy, and so on.

Paloma Juarez also shares why this center has become part of their family, and why this has been the best place for even her own well-being as she navigates parenthood.

• "So, our mental health landscape in the US is very much cash pay, and only 56% of psychiatrists take insurance all across the US. To me, that's so absurd. If you were to break your leg, you would not be hard-pressed to find somebody who takes your insurance to fix it."
• "I think that's really great advice to meet people where they're at. And so, anybody listening today, it's kind of like if you get in a car accident and your bone is hanging out of your skin, please go to the ER, don't come to the chiropractor."
• "This a tough road because you're responsible for these tiny humans. My biggest advice is giving yourself some grace. The fact that you're worried that you're struggling means that you care a ton and you're probably making a lot of awesome tough choices for your little one, and know that you aren't the only one."

Difficulties in access to mental health care and innovative ways that Foresight Mental Health Clinic is changing those difficulties.

• Jessica became a nurse because of the diversity of care they can offer.
• While working as a nurse, Jessica saw there was a stigma for those patients who came in with a mental health diagnosis. She decided to go into psychiatry to help put an end to that stigma.
• Jessica talks about the beginning of Foresight Mental Health Clinic and what makes it different from other mental health clinics.
• One of the goals at Foresight is to provide greater access to patients through the acceptance of as many insurance companies as possible. They also create custom cash pay plans for patients.
• Foresight also provides more data collection and analysis compared to other mental health clinics.
• According to statistics, Missouri is in th