In 2018, Chanté Meadows stood on a TEDx stage and addressed a problem that’s central to her career: why isn’t mental health treated as being equally important as physical health? In this instance, she was speaking specifically about how this pattern affects the Black community that she’s part of. Meadows outlined stigmas she often heard associated with mental healthcare. Friends and neighbors would say, “I’m going to just go to Jesus and pray about it.”
This is the second in a five-part series on how alumni of Antioch’s Graduate School of Leadership and Change are advancing healthcare in service of the common good.
“For somebody with substance use disorder in the U.S., there is only one story,” says Kathy Eggert. “That we believe people are not capable of self-agency and decision-making in a healthy way.” Eggert doesn’t believe that story, though, and she’s spent her career working against this narrative to provide care to people who use opioids through methadone maintenance treatment in ways that respect their humanity.
I’m Amy Lesen. I’m a sociologist on the faculty at the Graduate School of Leadership and Change. I work with students a lot around their research and using research to inform their practice.