Episode #54: “There’s no health without mental health!” with Dr. Michael Foti and Tushar Bhagat

Dr. Michael Foti is a Clinical Assistant Professor of Internal Medicine at Touro College, and the author of “Grief: A Doctor’s Battle with Anxiety and Depression.” Michael is passionate about raising awareness and eliminating mental health stigma in the medical community.Tushar Bhagat teaches Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction programs at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine & Cancer Research Institute to cancer patients, students, doctors, therapists, and staff, and conducts translational cancer research. Michael shares his story about being a first-year resident in internal medicine during the pandemic and witnessing the suffering and death daily of people in their 30s and 40s. Michael’s grief was compounded by the relatively sudden death of his mom during the same period. He describes the development of mental health symptoms, accompanied by shame, resulting in depression, and what that felt like. Eventually, Michael got the help he needed and healed, learning a lot about himself during that time. “I put in the work on me. I took time to take care of myself. I was taking care of others for so long.” Tushar describes teaching at the medical school and observing the intense medical education process's effects on his students. He followed them into residency and fellowship, witnessing increases in feelings of burden and burnout. Tushar had been practicing mindfulness for years. He now studied the science behind it, participating in a brain research study, and teaching the techniques to his students and staff. Tushar discusses bringing these programs to policymakers in organizations, sharing a successful example of when he was able to do that. We end with Michael telling us all about “Café Foti,” a safe space he has created for his students to decompress. Hopefully, similar ideas will be widely replicated; Tushar says Michael is creating a synergistic loop of feeling better! You can find Michael and Tushar on LinkedIn; they would be happy to hear from you!