Congratulations to Hunter McKenzie, BH WELL Project Assistant, for graduating with a BA in Architecture! Hunter began work with BH WELL his sophomore year and has continued with the team through graduation. He says he was drawn to work for BH WELL because of the great people and the opportunity to make a difference. As a project assistant, Hunter assisted with graphic design, web development, survey development and data collection.
Dorothy “Dotty” K. Berryman is the artist for BH WELL’s The Dimensions comic book series. She creates each page by hand from rough sketch to inking and coloring! Berryman says her niche has been art as long as she can remember. Art is her form of self-care-- the process of turning a visual in her mind into something readers can see and touch is therapeutic!
The American Lung Association featured BH WELL’s When Nicotine Attacks: Fight the Crave comic in their April 14, 2021 Freedom From Smoking Facilitator Newsletter. BH WELL provides resources for individuals living with mental and behavioral health challenges who want to quit smoking. The ALA newsletter reaches facilitators nationwide working to support people who want to quit smoking. Since most people know smoking is bad for one’s health, the Freedom From Smoking program focuses on how rather than why to quit.
KVC Kentucky exists to enrich and enhance the lives of children and families by providing medical and behavioral healthcare, social services, and education. They provide in-home, in-office, and online social service solutions and child welfare solutions. Behavioral Health Wellness Environments for Living and Learning (BH WELL) and KVC Kentucky have partnered together for program evaluations, resource development and dissemination, and presentations.
Lella Still, Director of Social Work at Eastern State Hospital and social work doctoral student in Eastern State Hospital’s Work Learning Program was featured in The NewSocial Worker recently. Her article, titled “Step Away from the To-Do List and Bring Social Work Out of the Shadows,” notes the importance of advocating for the social work profession. Still discusses the outlook of the future of social work and the overlooked nature of the critical work and outcomes social work professionals accomplish daily.
The story focuses on the unveiling of BH WELL’s newest product, a comic book entitled WHEN NICOTINE ATTACKS: FIGHT THE CRAVE. It targets the behavioral health community as the focus is on anxiety and nicotine withdrawal. However, anyone wanting to quit tobacco products might find this useful.
BH WELL recently recorded a conversation between Luka Kinard, a 17-year-old from High Point, NC who is recovering from a vaping addiction, and his mom. When Luka was 14 years old, he started using Juul. Within a short time, he went from a straight-A, easy-going student to flunking out of school and developing a serious aggression problem. At his highest use, he was inhaling the nicotine equivalent of 80 cigarettes per day. Two months into his JUUL use, Luka experienced cold sweats, persistent chest pain, and a grand mal seizure. After no luck with counselors at curbing his addiction, Luka’s parents sent him to a rehabilitation facility in California. The program required Luka to quit vaping immediately upon arrival. After 38 days in the intensive rehabilitation hospital, Luka came home nicotine-free. Luka says it has been a long journey since leaving rehabilitation. However, he is grateful to feel like himself again.
Please join BH WELL in congratulating Zim Okoli PhD, MPH, MSN, RN, NCTTP for being appointed Executive Director of Mental and Behavioral Health for the UK College of Nursing. In this role, he will work to advance mental and behavioral health nursing education, practice and research. Dr. Okoli currently serves as Director of Tobacco Treatment Specialist and Evidence-Based Practice at Eastern State Hospital. In this new role, Dr.
Deans of nursing schools nationwide, both undergraduate and graduate, have teamed together to promote nursing student well-being, resilience, and suicide prevention. They are taking active steps to provide programs and resources encouraging sound mental health, physical health, lifestyle behaviors, and well-being.
BH WELL and Eastern State Hospital Team Up During COVID-19
University of Kentucky’s Behavioral Health Wellness Environments for Living and Learning (BH WELL) research team is composed of health professionals who stepped up with Eastern State Hospital (ESH) partners in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic. In addition to BH WELL’s current projects promoting evidence-based best practices in behavioral wellness, here is a spotlight on how the partnership pivoted to meet pandemic needs.
The Kentucky Inclusive Health Collaborative (KIHC) at the University of Kentucky’s Human Development Institute (HDI) exists to ignite positive change to address the significant health disparities for individuals with disabilities across the lifespan. Their team works to establish community partnerships and provide education on inclusive health strategies while providing resources and technical support. Efforts are focused on incorporating universal design to promote broad accessibility in physical spaces, programs, and services in a manner that operates for all people.
Zim Okoli PhD, MPH, MSN, RN, NCTTP, Behavioral Health Wellness Environments for Living and Learning (BH WELL) Director, was awarded Outstanding Nurse Researcher of the Year from the Kentucky Nurses Association (KNA).
BH WELL’s Lovoria Williams, PhD, FNP-BC, FAANP, appears as a guest on SHIFT, a podcast aimed at bettering the nursing profession, to discuss the deadly effects of health inequity. She specifically discusses medical bias, culturally relevant care, and nurses as change-agents.
In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, journalists have documented the alarming statistics of disparate mortality among black people. According to a recent editorial in the Chicago Sun-Times, “health outcomes in the United States have never been fair and equal, not in Chicago or anywhere else. And there has never been health care equity. Black folks have always suffered from higher rates of dangerous medical conditions such as hypertension and diabetes, that correlate with lower incomes and poorer health.”
Please join us in congratulating Lovoria Williams Ph.D., FNP-BC, FAANP for her success in receiving a five-year $2,966,335 National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases award entitled “Enhancing the Diabetes Prevention Program to promote weight loss among non-responders in a community-based lifestyle intervention”.
Please join us in congratulating Zim Okoli, PhD, MPH, MSN, RN, CTTS for his success in receiving a two year $383,440 State of Kentucky Department of Medicaid award entitled, "Assessing the Impact of Long-Acting Injectables (LAIs) on Psychiatric Treatment Outcomes Among Medicaid Recipients".
Please join us in congratulating Ellen Hahn, Ph.D., RN, FAAN, Zim Okoli, Ph.D., MPH, MSN, RN, CTTS, Amanda Fallin-Bennett, Ph.D., RN, and Melinda Ickes, Ph.D. on their recent, two-year, FY20-22 award totaling $1,474,305 from the Kentucky Department for Public Health for the Kentucky Center for Smoke-free Policy.
BH WELL researchers have been selected to present at the American Public Health Association’s 2020 Conference, which is expected to be held October 24-28, 2020 in San Francisco, CA. This location is pending based on necessary COVID-19 precautions.
