Dr. Eleanor McGlinchey is one of the two scholars who received a 2017 Christian Scholars Foundation Grant, given to ESN members who are junior faculty. In this interview, she talks about her research, how the CSF grant is supporting her work, and how her faith and her scholarly vocation fit together. Stay tuned for an interview with the other awardee soon. Click here to learn more about the 2018 CSF Grant and apply by March 15, 2018. [Read more…] about Interview with 2017 Christian Scholars Foundation Grant Awardee Eleanor McGlinchey
mental health
Let Us Joyfully Share in the Suffering of Christ
Anyone can face mental health challenges. For all the blessings of the academic life, there are also many struggles, including stresses to mental health. Several writers in the ESN community shared reflections on mental health with us in the last few weeks, so we are sharing their stories as a way to encourage others in this stressful time of the semester. The stigma against asking for help can be strong in both Christian circles and academic ones, and we want to encourage readers to seek help when they need it and to know they are not alone. Thank-you to ESN author David H. Leonard for offering this piece in response to Andy Walsh’s recent post on mental health. At the end of the post you will find a list of help lines Andy included in his piece. We also recommend this recent post by Kateri Collins, A Poem/Prayer for Survivors of Mental Health Challenges.
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Science in Review: On the Couch with Dr. Know
As a researcher for a public health software company, I have experimented a little with predictive models of health-related outcomes. Mainly I have focused on population-level predictions — e.g. how many flu cases to expect this winter in a given county — but on one occasion I tried to predict which individual patients would eventually experience a drug overdose necessitating a visit to an emergency department. Statistically, the results were encouraging, although on further inspection I realized that mainly my model was simply predicting patients with a prior history of drug overdoses or suicide attempts were most likely to have a future drug overdose. There may be a place for such a model, but most likely it wouldn’t tell physicians and public health officials anything they didn’t already know, in general or for specific patients.
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A Poem/Prayer for Survivors of Mental Health Challenges
Anyone can face mental health challenges. For all the blessings of the academic life, there are also many struggles, including stresses to mental health. Several writers in the ESN community shared reflections on mental health with us in the last few weeks, so we are sharing their stories as a way to encourage others in this stressful time of the semester. The stigma against asking for help can be strong in both Christian circles and academic ones, and we want to encourage readers to seek help when they need it and to know they are not alone. Today, ESN author Kateri Collins shares a deeply personal prayer in the form of a poem, with the goal of encouraging suicide survivors and others who struggle with mental health challenges. Like the Psalms, You Are Too Good to Me, Lord shares a heartfelt cry of thanks to God and a prayer for His help. We hope that the poem is an encouragement to all our readers. At the end of the post, we share a link to science columnist Andy Walsh’s recent post on mental health and to a list of help lines he included in the piece. [Read more…] about A Poem/Prayer for Survivors of Mental Health Challenges
Science Corner: My Mental Health Story
I’ve been kicking around the idea of writing something about mental health for almost a year now, but always found some excuse not to. “It’s not the right time.” “What I have to say is insignificant.” And so on. All of those reasons may still ring true. Nevertheless, I find myself at a point where this post feels necessary. Plus, November is when advocates for mental health and suicide prevention make a push for awareness. (I appreciate that designated awareness days/weeks/months can feel manufactured and thus insincere, but one person’s contrivance is another’s intentionality.)
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