Pata Suyemoto - Centering Racial Justice and Community in Mental Health Advocacy and Suicide Prevention

Mad in America: Rethinking Mental Health

Mad in America

Anxiety, Mental Health, Benzo, Science, Hearingvoices, Psychology, Antipsychotic, Mentalhealth, Depression, Panicattack, Psychosis, Medicine, Health, Health & Fitness, Psychiatry, Ssri, Antidepressant

4.8 • 201 Ratings

🗓️ 29 March 2023

⏱️ 41 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Pata Suyemoto is a feminist scholar, educator, curriculum developer, activist, and artist. Her work focuses on promoting racial equity in mental health and suicide prevention through teaching and advocacy. She advocates for equity and inclusion at all levels of mental health care, from grassroots organizations to state-level policy institutions. Dr. Suyemoto has spoken and written about being a suicide attempt survivor and about her struggles with chronic depression and PTSD.

Dr. Suyemoto earned her PhD in Education from the University of Pennsylvania, where she researched multicultural and anti-racist education. She currently serves as the Training Director for the National Asian American Pacific Islander Mental Health Association and leads the National Asian American Pacific Islander Empowerment Network.

She is also a leader in suicide prevention at the local and national levels, serving as the Equity Coordinator for the Massachusetts Coalition for Suicide Prevention and co-chair of the Greater Boston Regional Suicide Prevention Coalition. Dr. Suyemoto co-wrote an educational resource called “Widening the Lens: Exploring the Role of Social Justice in Suicide Prevention – A Racial Equity Toolkit.”

In this interview, Dr. Suyemoto discusses how her identities as a Japanese American woman and lifelong educator have influenced her work promoting racial equity in mental health and suicide prevention. She shares her efforts to build a national network of Asian Americans with lived experiences of mental health challenges and emphasizes the importance of equitable partnerships with those with lived experience in research, advocacy, and therapeutic contexts.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome to the Mad in America podcast, your source for science, psychiatry, and social justice.
0:13.5	Hello and welcome to the Mad in America podcast. My name is Julia Lejeune. I'm a doctoral student in clinical psychology at the University of Illinois at Chicago and a science newswriter at Mad in America. This week we will hear from Dr. Pada Suyamoto. Pada is a feminist scholar, educator, curriculum developer, activist, artist, and avid bicyclist. She earned her PhD in education
0:42.0	from the University of Pennsylvania, where she conducted research on multicultural and anti-racist
0:47.7	education. She has extensive teaching and advocacy experience working at the intersection of racial equity and
0:55.2	mental health. Currently, she is the training director for the National Asian American
1:00.2	Pacific Islander Mental Health Association and leads the National Asian American Pacific
1:05.7	Islander Empowerment Network. Pata has also emerged as a leader in the field of suicide prevention at the local
1:13.0	and national level. She's the equity coordinator for the Massachusetts Coalition for Suicide
1:18.3	Prevention, the co-chair of the Greater Boston Regional Suicide Prevention Coalition, and formerly
1:24.7	served as a consultant for the American Association of Suicidology.
1:29.5	She is the co-author of widening the lens, exploring the role of social justice and suicide
1:34.8	prevention, a racial equity toolkit. Padda has spoken and written about being a suicide attempt
1:41.1	survivor herself and about her struggles with chronic depression
1:45.0	and PTSD. She is also the co-founder of the Breaking Silences Project, which is an artistic
1:51.6	endeavor that educates about the high rates of depression and suicide amongst young Asian-American
1:57.2	women. Today on the podcast, Pada talks about how her identities as an Asian American
2:02.8	and as a lifelong educator shape her current activism. And she shares the progress she is making
2:09.2	towards building a network of Asian Americans with lived experience of mental health challenges.
2:15.2	In our conversation, Pada also shares her perspectives on the formation
2:19.6	of equitable and meaningful partnerships with those with lived experience in research, advocacy,
2:25.8	and therapeutic contexts. Thank you so much, Pada, for taking the time out of your very busy life
2:32.8	to speak with me.
	...

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