There is not a lot of information about immigrant mental health. Many people from immigrant backgrounds face stigma and are discouraged from learning about mental health conditions. Additionally, health care systems may not be culturally competent to provide the type of inclusive care that many children of immigrants or immigrant populations relate to. Dr. Judith Joseph is a board-certified psychiatrist and world renowned mental health expert who has studied cultural competency in these populations. She is also an immigrant and uses her experiences both personally and professionally to make content around the immigrant experience. Her work led to her being recognized by US Congress and the house of representatives and she was recently awarded at The White House Caribbean American Heritage month celebration in June 2023 for her work in social media advocacy for immigrant populations. Her series on immigrant mental health aims at addressing stigma and common themes having to do with generational trauma and cultural competency in health care. The goal was to create content to inform immigrant populations about maladaptive coping mechanisms, mental health issues, and treatment. These populations don't typically utilize mental health resources yet these populations have disproportionately high rates of mental health conditions. By spreading awareness, these populations are able to identify issues and then address them. Dr. Judith's social media advocacy has led to her to work with the congressional black caucus and she will be participating in their annual meeting this year in DC in September, to work with members of congress to educate and inform immigrant populations about mental health issues.
As NYC’s top psychiatrist, Dr. Judith turns the methods and learnings from her practice and research lab to create relatable skits and trending videos. She coined this skit format to act out every day occurrences that she sees in her practice to make complex, and sometimes uncomfortable, mental health discussions easily digestible for her viewers. Her impressive credentials and 15 years of experience in the mental health field set her apart from other mental health creators on TikTok, Facebook (Meta) and Instagram. She has developed a community that is not only large but also exceptionally devoted. Her daily videos are seen and shared over 15 million times per month. Dr. Judith is a medical media consultant and has worked with various media outlets with national television appearances on shows such as Good Morning America and The Sherri Show. She currently serves as a media consultant for an upcoming Apple TV drama and a true crime expert for Investigation Discovery. She has worked on a ShareCare 2020 Digital Emmy award winning online series with MedCircle and national podcasts with Crimeonline, Nancy Grace, Friends Like Us and Comedy Cellar. She has written for NewsWeek, Romper.com, Parents.com, DJBooth.com, PsychiatryOnline, PsychNews and Dr.Oz.com. Dr. Judith is featured on Oprah Winfrey’s and Oprah Daily’s new series “The Life We Want” as their go-to psychiatrist. She joins a roster of top doctors and celebrities to shine a light on women’s mental health issues. This social media project is streaming across all of Oprah’s social media platforms. She teaches medical media courses to physicians and medical students at Columbia University, New York University and Harlem Hospital. Her extensive work teaching doctors how to talk to the press, being a media expert and a practicing psychiatrist and researcher have helped her to pour years of expertise into simple skits on social media. Additionally she has traveled to over 30 countries and has receied government SAMHSA grants to study cultural competency in medicine. All of these make her skits on the immigrant mental health experience rich and evidence based, which has led to recognition by the White House and US Congress. Dr. Judith was recently named one of Mens Health Magazines Top mental health influencers.
Dr. Judith has a research team at Manhattan Behavioral Medicine and has been doing research on mental health in immigrant populations for years. Immigrants experience mental health issues and systemic bias differently and some of them experience significantly higher rates of mental health conditions but largely underutilize mental health services due to stigma and a lack of access to care. Dr. Judith worked with Kyma Social to create entertaining skits to entertain and inform immigrant populations about mental health. Her skits have gone viral on Tik Tok, Instagram and Facebook and have generated a community of followers who go to her accounts for guidance about their unique immigrant mental health experiences. This has led to Dr. Judith partnering with US Congress and the House of Representatives to education immigrant populations about mental health and preventative health. Dr. Judith has been working with Congresswoman Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick to change health policy so that immigrant populations have more accessible access to mental health treatment. Dr. Judith will be working with the Congressional Black Caucus in September 2023 to work on mental health initiatives at their annual event in D.C. Dr. Judith used her unique background, rich culture and acting skills as well as experience treating immigrant backgrounds to write her scripts. Her skits are evidence and research based. If not for Dr. Judith's success social media and reach she would not have these opportunities to create change in mental health policies.
