Personally Speaking: How my ORPA internship helped me on the path to a career in mental health policy research
By Nina Robertson
Like many people, I want to help others. But initially I did not know exactly how.
Much of my childhood was devoted to volunteering, a trait I picked up from my parents who are two of the most selfless individuals I know. Whether it was serving food at the local homeless shelter in the winter, playing bingo with nursing home residents or shadowing health care workers in the hospital, I valued connecting with people and hearing their stories.
Moving away from home for my freshman year at the University of Virginia in 2018, I quickly discovered the world was much bigger than I had previously imagined. That first year, I stumbled upon the volunteer organization, HELP Line (434-295-TALK), a student-run, 24/7 free and confidential telephone hotline.
After three months of training and over 100 hours spent on the phone, I realized that mental health and mental illness advocacy were where my passions aligned. I was able to connect with other students and community members on breaking down the stigma of mental health and hone the practice empathetic listening.
UVA’s interdisciplinary global studies: global public health major granted me the knowledgebase to take my ‘helping people’ mindset to the next level. Learning about topics such as public health policy and comparative health systems facilitated the intersection of my interests: public health, women and mental health. I grew as a researcher and communicator with the ability to connect to individuals of all backgrounds. I understood that in order to tie my passions together I needed strong work experience that also built upon my previous education.
That is what led me to the Treatment Advocacy Center as a research intern for the organization’s Office of Research and Public Affairs (ORPA). During the past ten months, my internship with ORPA has taught me useful information about the current state of mental illness in the United States and how multiple structural systems are failing those with serious mental illness. With the help of the Treatment Advocacy Center, I write and research on topics of serious mental illness, treatment access, criminalization, stigma and so much more. Through the Treatment Advocacy Center’s series of Research Weeklys, summaries of recently published research on serious mental illness, I communicate new research findings to make them accessible for the general public. This motivated me to design an open-access research project that involved individuals with serious mental illness.
The highlight of my internship has been a project of my own design, qualitative research experiment on women’s experiences with serious mental illness. I have been able to spearhead a project on women’s shared experiences with serious mental illness. I recruited women from various backgrounds and diagnoses of mental illness and conducted semi-structured focus groups to learn about their shared experiences. I asked about a range of topics, including stigma, acceptance of their illness, treatment access, thoughts and experiences of parenthood, and positives of being a woman with SMI. ORPA collaborated with a graphic recorder who documented the sessions with an illustrative map of key insights. We produced a report on findings and solutions to overcome the challenges they face as a result of their illness.
This project has deepened my long-standing desire to hear and help communicate people’s stories and experiences. Listening and documenting firsthand experiences and accounts is the best way to advocate for what a group may need in the policy and legislative sphere. Findings from the study indicated that although women had vastly different perspectives, all expressed a dire need for more social support and treatment access.
Working at Treatment Advocacy Center has expanded my vision of how I can help others. I now have the confidence to take my public health background to the next level. I graduated from the University of Virginia in May 2022 and am currently pursuing a graduate degree in health policy from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. I am extremely grateful for this opportunity to continue uniting all of my passions. Working alongside diverse and talented professionals at the Treatment Advocacy Center has helped me to discover my future path: I want to work full-time in mental health and mental illness policy after attending graduate school.
In the future, I hope to facilitate conversations and action surrounding health policy on topics of mental illness and equitable treatment access. Hearing first-hand the insights of people who experience serious mental illness motivates me to act as an advocate on behalf of those whose voices are often not heard.
No matter where my career takes me, at the core of my work, I know I will always remain a ‘helper.’
Nina Robertson was a research intern with Treatment Advocacy Center’s Office of Research and Public Affairs and is currently a graduate student at Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health.