“In our [2017 Policy Studies Journal] paper, we mostly looked at overall gun control policies and access to mental health rather than specific policies,” Smith said, explaining that most states which implement gun control laws do so more with more than one, making it difficult to assess which laws have caused what specific effect. Despite this challenge, Smith and his team still found a definite pattern in terms of how gun control laws impacted suicide rates.

“What we do find in our research is that states with more gun control laws have fewer gun deaths (including those who die by suicide from guns) and for non-suicides (homicides and accidental discharge together), a combination of more access to mental health services and an overall stricter climate for gun control laws correlates with a particularly lower rate of gun deaths,” Smith said. Specifically, the team found that more access to mental health care did not correlate with lower rates of suicide by gun; stricter gun control laws, however, had that desired impact.

“This relationship is perhaps due to the fact that many mental health treatments take time to have an effect, while the effect of removing a gun (or preventing one from having it in the first place) is immediate,” Smith said, adding that more access to mental health care is still good for other reasons. “It is also very difficult under existing law to remove a gun due to mental illness, but having stricter gun control laws generally can either prevent (assault weapons ban) or delay (through background checks) when one has access to a gun.”

The reasons why are not a mystery. People suffering from mental illness are more likely than others to have severe medical conditions that are undertreated or untreated altogether.

Thanks to a grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, Matthews is embarking on a major study to determine how best to address the role of mental illness in physical health care.

The Health for Data Action Award will fund the study “Delivering Integrated Care for Individuals with Serious Mental Illness and Chronic Disease: Examining the Potential of FQHCs,” for which Matthews is the principal investigator. It will allow her and colleagues from Long Island University, the University of Pennsylvania, and New York University to analyze data collected from 1,462 federally qualified health centers (FQHCs). The data features anonymous information about the treatment of 6.3 million individuals between 2016 and 2021. Matthews and her colleagues will examine the data to determine which health centers served their clients best.

Like many of her colleagues in the Graduate School of Social Service, Matthews has focused her research on the ways that technology can be used to advance the field. This study also fits into her larger research agenda of promoting whole-person care for individuals with mental illness.

“There’s kind of an agreement that care is most effective when it’s integrated, which means care is systematically coordinated across disciplines and specialties,” she said.

“The problem is, there are lots of ways to deliver integrated care, and we don’t yet know which one is best for people who have co-occurring and chronic mental health needs.”

One of the most important way these health centers differ from each other is in the way they’re structured, she said. Centers that have coordinated care deliver mental health services and primary care in locations that are physically separate. Centers that have co-located care deliver all care in the same location.

Matthews said that the data, collected by the health care data warehouse firm OCHIN Advance, is extremely valuable because it pairs information about patients’ health outcomes with census data from the area.

“They merge patient-level data with information about the community and the clinic, so you can really understand not only what’s happening at the individual level, but the context in which they’re receiving their care,” she said.

“I think we’ll be able to understand in an innovative and comprehensive way what is working for this high-risk group, and why.”

“Delivering Integrated Care for Individuals with Serious Mental Illness and Chronic Disease: Examining the Potential of FQHCs”  began on Dec. 1 and will last a year. Matthews said she expects preliminary results in the summer and a final report in the late fall. Researchers will judge the success of the health centers using clinical quality indicators, such as whether a patient with diabetes is getting glucose readings on schedule. Health outcomes will play a factor as well. They’ll examine questions like, if a patient takes their medicine, does their condition actually improve?

The goal isn’t so much to decide which model of delivery is the best as it is to determine which one works best for a specific population. The general understanding in the field is that more integration is better and having a one-stop-shop where people can walk from their doctor’s office down to the hall to their psychiatrist is better and most effective.

“In some ways, I expect that to be true. However, I also appreciate that there’s a great amount of variation within this population that we’re calling individuals with serious mental illness,” Matthews said.

“There are many different diagnoses and clinical profiles within that group, so I do expect to see some variation that’s going to be really important for us to understand. We can’t just assume that a one-size-fits-all model is going to work for everybody with every type of mental illness.”

Ultimately, Matthews is hopeful that the study will shine a brighter light on the role that these federally qualified health centers play as centers for primary health care, not just places where people with severe mental illness get mental health treatment.

“It’s been the assumption that a group that has chronic mental needs must be treated in a mental health setting. I’m not convinced that that is true. There is little work that has looked at FHQCs in that way,” she said.

One area that the OCHIN data set does not address is how patients feel about their care. Matthews said the question of whether patients are happy and feel cared for is just as important as the two other factors and is an area she’d like to explore going forward.

“It’s hard to get data where get you everything all at one time because that requires more time-intensive work to get in touch with individuals and talk to them. It’s a different type of measurement that’s not always available in such a large aggregate form,” she said.

“The tradeoff is, we’re getting really generalizable results, which is something that is really valuable. It does give us somewhere to go next on this research.”

“I exemplify a PCS student: mature, older with lived experience, someone who came to Fordham to add to their education toward starting a new career,” said Burke, a graduate from both the School of Professional and Continuing Studies and the Graduate School of Social Service, in her graduation speech. “Fordham was able to help each of us see our experience, even our adverse experiences, from a universal perspective, helping us turn all those experiences into viable skills and insights we can use to help others.” 

Burke was born into a large family on Long Island. Her father was a decorated World War II veteran and a salesman who worked his way up in the garment industry until he owned his own textile mill. At age 46, he suddenly passed away from a heart attack, leaving behind his wife and their 10 children, including 6-year-old Burke. Over the years, the family has dealt with significant trauma, including alcoholism and suicide. Burke herself is in recovery. 

Burke dropped out of high school and followed in her father’s footsteps in the garment industry. She started working as a receptionist for a dress company and became a sales manager who worked with companies like Victoria’s Secret. But after more than three decades, she realized that the American textile industry was falling apart. Many U.S. businesses had moved their operations overseas, where other countries produced goods more cheaply, and the American mills couldn’t compete. Burke said she was also discouraged after working in a male-dominated field without equal pay for so long. 

“I just got so disillusioned,” Burke said, reflecting on her life over a phone call. “I was like, why am I doing this? I’m putting lace on a panty, and how is that helping the world?” 

At age 50, she decided to go to college. Burke was on track to become the second of her siblings to earn a college degree. Many of her brothers and sisters had dropped out of high school and found meaningful careers that didn’t require higher education. Agatha became an accomplished chef who worked for David Bouley; Bill was a war photographer who died while documenting 9/11; Christopher is a retired boat builder whose work took him around the world. But their children took a different path. 

“Oddly enough, every one of our children went to college. I guess we all realized after the fact how important the college experience really is,” said Burke, now married with one son. 

Burke earned her GED at age 50. The following spring, she was delighted when she received her acceptance letter from Fordham. But a month after she received the good news, she learned that one of her sisters was diagnosed with stage four lung cancer.  

“She was living with me, and I was there every step of the way. I was holding her hand when she died. To be able to be present like that for someone is amazing,” Burke said. “It changed my whole life. Social work was what happened, and it was beautiful.”

In the fall of 2015, Burke became a student at Fordham. She hadn’t been in a classroom since 1978 and often felt scared and overwhelmed, especially when she received a zero on a test during her first semester. 

“People my age who are going back and trying again can get discouraged very easily,” said Burke, who was 52 when she returned to school. “But every step of the way, there was somebody there to help. It made a world of difference.”

In 2020, Burke earned a bachelor’s degree in social work from the School of Professional and Continuing Studies. The following year, she earned a master’s degree in social work from the Graduate School of Social Service. 

This fall, Burke was promoted to clinical social worker at the Mental Health Association of Westchester, where she had served as a recovery specialist for three years. She now works with clients who are struggling with their mental health. 

“I’m not fixing or changing anyone. I’m helping people figure out what they need to do for themselves to help them find their way,” said Burke, who, as a recovering alcoholic, is able to empathize with many of her clients.

When Burke was selected as the student speaker for her graduation ceremony this past September, she chose to look back on her time at Fordham. She said she was stunned by one of her first courses, an introduction to social work through a trauma lens—a remarkable reflection of her life. 

“I was so taken aback by it: the culmination of my life in print, right before my eyes,” said Burke in her speech. “I was able to process grief and eventually heal, as it validated many of my feelings. It was cathartic and empowering, all at the same time.”

Now, at 59, she says she’s ready to continue helping others find themselves. 

“My perspective in the past five years has changed dramatically,” Burke said. “And everything that I’ve learned at Fordham has come into play.” 

New research by a Fordham psychologist shows that more than one-third of college students report being emotionally distressed by the pandemic and that LGBTQ+ students, students of color, and women experience higher levels of stress and anxiety.

The findings were published in a paper titled “Constant Stress Has Become the New Normal: Stress and Anxiety Inequalities Among U.S. College Students in the Time of COVID-19,” published in the Journal of Adolescent Health in December and co-authored by Fordham assistant professor of psychology Lindsay Till Hoyt, Ph.D. The first part of the paper’s title is a direct quote from one of the study participants.

The study incorporates quantitative and qualitative data that was collected from more than 700 college students who were recruited on Instagram. It began back in April with a baseline survey of 707 students from 374 colleges across the U.S., including Fordham. More than 500 students returned for a follow-up survey in July.

The very first question on the survey was direct: “Tell us how the pandemic is affecting you personally, just in your own words.” Without specific prompting, 27 participants responded to that question by citing specific mental health disorders, such as anxiety.

For the paper, researchers in Hoyt’s virtual lab, called the youth Development, Diversity, and Disparities (3D) Lab,  examined the stress symptoms reported as well as inequalities found across gender, sexual orientation, race/ethnicity, and income.  Young women, in particular, reported higher stress levels than young men, said Hoyt, a developmental psychologist whose work primarily focuses on how “macro-level stressors get under the skin and influence the health and well-being” of adolescents and young adults.

Difficult to Be Living Back Home 

Some of the survey responses illustrated the problem with specific examples.

“As a daughter of immigrants, moving home is treated as a vacation by my parents, so I am tasked with several home duties and taking care of my siblings,” said a respondent who identifies as a high-income cisgender Asian woman.

And while women were more likely to report symptoms of stress, Hoyt clarified that cisgender men could well be internalizing their pain in other ways, such as increased use of alcohol or other substances.

Gender-diverse students, she said, reported worse outcomes than their cisgender, heterosexual peers.

“Many of the gender diverse and transgender students talked about a lot of stress from not feeling accepted or comfortable at home.”

A respondent who identifies as a multiracial middle-income lesbian said that being back at home was difficult.  “As a member of the LGBT+ community, it was especially hard to leave all my support at school and come back to a homophobic household where I have to remain in the closet,” she wrote.

Hoyt noted that the pandemic had thrown many of these young people off track socially. Students often come into their own at college, she said, once they find a good support network and like-minded friends.

“With COVID all of a sudden that came crashing down and they were going back to their hometowns and their families,” she said. “I think most people would say the findings align with what you would expect, such as the gender difference, but what we also found, because we had longitudinal data at two time points, is that it does seem like that the inequalities in stress and anxiety are widening, with students from traditionally marginalized groups facing greater burdens.”

Researchers for the paper came from both coasts: Co-authors include Alison K. Cohen, Ph.D., an instructor of epidemiology and population health at Stanford University in California, as well as two Fordham psychology graduate students: master’s candidate Brandon Dull and Ph.D. candidate Neshat Yazdani. Doctoral candidate Elena Maker Castro contributed from the University of California Los Angeles.

Black and Multiracial Students Showed Increase in Anxiety from April to July

Hoyt said that after the death of George Floyd and the resulting national protests, the team integrated questions on the Black Lives Matter Movement for the follow-up questionnaire conducted in July. They asked how the movement affected their stress and their civic engagement. She noted that in the April survey that white students had the highest levels of perceived stress and anxiety. But early analysis of the July survey revealed that Black and multiracial students—from across sociodemographic groups—were the only students to show an increase in anxiety from April to July.

“I think the data is reaffirming things that we know about inequalities and this is just one of many studies that will underscore that, but I also think what we’re going to learn will be about their resilience, that’s definitely what we’re seeing in the qualitative responses,” said Hoyt.

Hoyt said she is also interested in how civic engagement can be a “protective factor.”

“When something really stressful is happening in your environment, civic engagement can be empowering,” she said.

Much of the follow-up data still needs to be analyzed, but Hoyt had to slow the pace of the work while she underwent treatment for a rare form of cancer. She generally disengaged from work and the news so as to concentrate on her care and her family, particularly her toddler. But she soon found outside forces too great to ignore.

“I went off social media when I first was undergoing all this, but then during the election, I couldn’t help myself and I had to go back on Twitter, and I’ve posted about the cancer there,” she said. “I’ve learned it’s good not to be ashamed of having any disease, including cancer. Lots of people are dealing with it during this pandemic, so I am completely comfortable sharing.”

Despite Hoyt being on leave during her illness, many of the master’s and doctoral candidates continued analyzing data for the study, which is ongoing. A third survey was conducted during the fall semester that also incorporated questions about the election.

Hoyt said she’s been moved by the students’ strength in the face of adversity. She’s been particularly impressed with the students who are research assistants on this project.

“I always tell them they’re the experts on this study and they give such great feedback because this is a study about them, their generation,” she said.

 

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Just a few years before, Pagani had started feeling strange intermittent symptoms—numbness in her legs, tingling in her arms and torso, vertigo, and loss of taste, sense of touch, and hearing. After being told by several doctors that what she was feeling was either emotional or imaginary, one finally guessed that what she was suffering from was multiple sclerosis. MRI scans were not widely available at the time, Pagani explains, so he couldn’t confirm the theory. “But he thought it was my first exacerbation. I was in my 20s and burning the candle at both ends, but he told me to take a month off and do nothing.”

So she did, and her symptoms went away—until that morning in July a few years later, when everything changed. “It took a year to start coming back from that attack,” Pagani says. But she also credits that time with leading her to Fordham’s Graduate School of Social Service.

Pagani had studied psychology at Boston University, graduating with a bachelor’s degree in 1970. She knew she eventually wanted to enroll in a graduate program, but she also felt she had limited options. “There were really only three career tracks you took as a woman at that time,” she says. “The sight of blood made me shake, so nursing was out. I knew I wouldn’t be able to travel like I wanted to if I became a teacher. So I became a secretary.”

Pagani postponed graduate school for several years, until she became symptomatic. “I started peer counseling in between attacks and hospital stays, and I knew I wanted to study social work. So I said, ‘This is it. Once this damn disease stabilizes, I’m going to grad school.’

“I had to turn a negative into a positive,” Pagani says. “It sounds trite, but that’s how you survive.”

A friend who was pursuing a Master of Social Work at Fordham, Joyce Genovese Drummond, GSS ’89, encouraged her to consider the program. In her late 30s and with her MS under better control, Pagani began to pursue her dream.

For her, it was more than just the academic strength of the Fordham program that changed her. It was the way the faculty and staff supported her when she had recurring MS attacks or when she doubted herself. You would never know it hearing her now, but back then she felt the disease had sapped her of her characteristic energy.

“I thought my life was over; I didn’t have any confidence in myself,” Pagani says. “And at Fordham I had people cheering me on.”

After graduating in 1991, Pagani joined the staff of the Jewish Guild for the Blind as the only social worker at the nonprofit’s Yonkers location, where she worked until her retirement in 2014. “Helping people maximize what they’ve got even in the view of different abilities energizes me,” Pagani says of her chosen career path, which was informed by her own struggles. “Yes, you’ve lost a lot. But there are things you can do.”

The Westchester native has also stayed in touch with Fordham throughout the years. A lifelong theater buff, she has particularly enjoyed taking advantage of the numerous cultural and entertainment events sponsored by the Office of Alumni Relations, including a special tour of the American Museum of Natural History in January. She has also been recognized as a member of the 1841 Society for her generous decision to include Fordham in her will, and has attended the group’s annual luncheons.

Pagani says she hopes to keep giving back to Fordham and to her local community. “I want to ramp up my volunteerism,” she says.

“I want to be connected on a deeper level. These places have played so heavily in my life. And I’m not even close to being done yet.”

Fordham Five

What are you most passionate about?
Seeing the results of my mentoring. For at least 15 years, I had social work students as interns, and teaching them was a big aspect of my job and my life. I’m still in touch with many of them. Some were challenging. But when you have good experiences in life, you don’t hold them inside. You have to pay it forward.

What’s the best piece of advice you’ve ever received?
My mom, who used to call herself “a wise old owl,” was an extraordinary role model. If not for her and my dad, I could have succumbed to the MS, because I had some pretty dark years. But my mom always told me not to give up. “Don’t give up, because there’s always something you can do,” she said. And boy was she right. Years later, my neurologist told me that he didn’t think I would ever be able to walk again. But I did. And I attribute that to the love that surrounded me and to my mother.

What’s your favorite place in New York City? In the world?
Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts is definitely my happy place. That and the Theater District. The arts, the restaurants—oh my God, it’s the arts capital of the world. The energy is unrivaled. It really is. You just feel it.

I’ve traveled a lot, so it’s tough to pick a favorite place in the world of all the places I’ve been. I’ll give you my favorite place and the one that made the biggest impression. For my favorite, there is a place my cousin took me in France. I have cousins in Paris and in Provence, and they take me places that other people just don’t know about. The last time I went they took me to a place called Carrières de Lumières, the Quarries of Lights. It’s a huge, huge cave in the Provence area—which is one of my favorite places—and you enter the cave and there is an art show projected onto the walls, all set to music. And they do different themes. It’s a totally immersive experience that I’ve never had anywhere else. It’s amazing.

But there are also some trips that impress you and stay with you always in a different way. Like last May, we went on a cruise through six countries in Eastern Europe: Czech Republic, Croatia, Serbia, Romania, and Bulgaria. And when we were in Budapest, along the Danube—I’m emotional talking about it—there is a memorial. You see along the river a line of iron shoes that go on for what seemed at least half a mile. And it’s in honor of the thousands of people shot by the Nazis on the bank of the Danube, who were made to take off their shoes before they were killed. They made a lasting sculpture to these souls. That made the biggest impression on me.

Name a book that has had a lasting influence on you.
I have a few. The first is one I was assigned in my clinical psychology class at Fordham, Listening with the Third Ear by Theodor Reik. I never, ever forgot that book. I still have it on my bookshelf, and I continue to lean on it throughout my life in different situations. It’s about listening to what somebody’s not saying to you. It’s me with my work and my relationships, and I think it’s indispensable for anyone in a helping profession.

The other two are both historical novels: The Devil in the White City by Erik Larson and All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr. The first made me wish I lived in the 1890s so I could have seen the Chicago World’s Fair. That they were able to do this, this incredible creation against all odds—that sort of thing really impresses me. The second is about a blind French girl and a German soldier against the backdrop of World War II, and I loved it so much that when we went to France I took two or three trains from Paris to get to the little town it’s set in, Saint-Malo. 

Who is the Fordham grad or professor you admire most?
Marc Miringoff, who was the dean of students for GSS when I was there, and his assistant, Amy Miller. One of my first classes was with Marc, Social Policy. It was a class nobody wanted to take, because it was dry, but he instilled such humor into it. He was a terrific professor. He gave me my first A, and that meant a lot; it helped me keep going. I didn’t know if I could do it at that point, I felt I had so many strikes against me. Marc also used to host a folk night on Fridays, and even though I hate folk music it led to incredible bonding for all of us at the time. He made everything fun. And I was always in Amy’s office, telling her when I wasn’t sure I had the energy to do this. She showed me I could. They helped me on my way and had a tremendous impact on me, the two of them.

More than 63 percent of college students reported experiencing overwhelming anxiety within the last year, according to the American College Health Association’s 2018 National College Health Assessment. And almost 42 percent of surveyed students said they felt so depressed that it was difficult to function.

“Anxiety and depression are the most common presenting problems in our office as well,” said Jeffrey Ng, Psy.D., director of counseling and psychological services (CPS) at Fordham. “Student utilization of on-campus mental health services has been trending upwards for the past 10 years nationally, including at Fordham.”

But there are many different ways to combat anxiety and depression, both on one’s own and with help from loved ones and professionals. Ng offered some suggestions for students struggling with their mental and emotional health and those who care about them:

Practice self-compassion. “Students often have perfectionistic and unrealistic demands and standards for themselves—standards that they likely wouldn’t apply to others,” Ng said. “We encourage our students to try to be as kind to themselves as they would to someone you love or care about.”

Exercise. “Engage in physical activity or exercise,” Ng said. “Physical activity and exercise are incredibly effective for reducing mild to moderate anxiety and depression.”

Practice digital and social media literacy. “Social media constantly exposes and bombards us with airbrushed or curated versions of people’s lives. When we compare ourselves to what we see on social media, we may get the sense that ‘we’re not good enough or doing enough.’ This can contribute to lower self-esteem, which can increase our vulnerability to mental health problems,” he said. “We encourage our students to try to be more intentional, thoughtful, and discerning about how they perceive and relate to social media.”

Don’t forget the essentials. “Attend to basic needs like sleeping, eating, and playing,” Ng said. “Having social relationships and social interactions—those are basic needs as well.”

Remember that there are multiple routes to healing. “It’s important for students to remember that there are many, many different pathways or routes for healing and feeling better. Acceptance from our parents (as in Govindan’s case) is just one of those paths,” Ng said. “Unconditional acceptance is obviously very important for our mental and emotional health, but for some students, they may unfortunately never experience that level of acceptance from their parents. So it’s especially important for them to recognize that there are multiple pathways and possibilities for healing.”

Normalize vulnerability. “One of the most important things we can do to support our students is to normalize vulnerability, imperfection, and struggle as part of the human experience,” Ng said.

Seeking help. One local resource is Fordham’s Counseling and Psychological Services Center, with offices on the Rose Hill, Lincoln Center, and Westchester campuses. To make an appointment, students can call or simply stop by. During non-business hours, students can reach out to public safety or residential life staff for emergencies.

Off-campus, 24/7 resources include the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline, 1-800-273-TALK (8255) and, for those who would rather type than talk, the Crisis Text Line.

“It’s important for our students to recognize that help-seeking is a sign of strength and maturity rather than weakness,” said Ng.

In her early years at Fordham, she struggled with an abusive relationship, a falling out with friends, and a breakup with a different boy she loved. She started school as a chemistry major on the pre-med track—but she wasn’t happy.

In the fall semester of her junior year, Govindan decided to take her life. On a cold day in October 2017, she sat at a Starbucks a few blocks away from Fordham’s Lincoln Center campus, drafting suicide letters to her family. Then she got a life-changing phone call from her mother.

Govindan’s parents—a pediatric anesthesiologist and a bank vice president who pulled themselves out of poverty in India—had refused to let her pursue stand-up comedy, something she had loved since middle school. But after hearing the pain in her daughter’s voice, her mother changed her mind.

“She [had]told me, ‘Indian girls don’t become comedians. They become doctors and scientists and biologists and engineers,’” Govindan, a Fordham College at Rose Hill senior, said at a Fordham event last fall. “But this time around, she said yes. And to me, that just meant so much because what she was telling me is, I don’t care what we think. I don’t care what other Indian families think. What matters to me right now the most is your happiness.”

Now, Govindan is a young comedian who has performed around the world, from Ireland to Houston, Texas. At the age of 21, she was invited to apply as a writer for a TV show. And after receiving therapy, she’s determined to destigmatize mental illnesses through candid discussions on social media.

“Happy #WorldSuicidePreventionDay,” she wrote on social media. “What ultimately ended up helping me was seeking out therapy and medication and investing in a hobby I found happiness in (comedy!!!).”

Last year, Govindan applied for a fall production internship at the Emmy Award-winning show Full Frontal with Samantha Bee—and got it. She transcribed news and TV clips, answered phone calls, and went out on coffee runs. In conversations with senior colleagues, Govindan said, she received “uncensored advice” that will help her develop as a stand-up comedian. And, thanks to one of those mentors, she was able to meet one of her biggest idols—Hasan Minhaj, an Indian-American comedian who co-created and hosts the Netflix series Patriot Act.

“Every day as I continue to pursue stand-up comedy,” Govindan said, “I thank the heaven and the stars that on that cold, crisp day in October of 2017, I chose my own happiness instead of choosing to end my life.”

Finding Humor in the Darkness

Govindan’s jokes begin with observations. If she makes a friend laugh, she said, she’ll record what she said in her phone. Those notes might make it to the official notebook that she brings and refers to on stage—the book that holds all her organized sets.

One of those stand-up sets is about her experience with being suicidal. When Govindan performs the set, she speaks about a much more private notebook—the place where she wrote why she should stay alive. One reason: never being able to taste another Cheez-it cracker again. Another: never knowing what would happen in the season finale of her favorite TV show Brooklyn Nine-Nine.

“Probably my favorite reason—and perhaps the most ridiculous reason—was Kylie Jenner,” she recalled. “I was like, I can’t die without knowing whether or not Kylie Jenner is pregnant.”

More seriously, comedy gave her a reason to live. 

“Every time I was emotionally distressed, every time I went to this dark place, I would open up my notebook and force myself to write a comedy set,” she said. “I think that’s really what carried me through the darkness of it all … Being able to find the humor in everything.”

College Comedy and Beyond

Govindan’s first stand-up comedy show was a five-minute slot on December 2017 at Carolines on Broadway—a place where legendary performers like Jerry Seinfeld got their start. Since then, she has performed nearly 40 times in New York City; her home state of Texas; and Ireland, where she studied abroad for a semester. She says her shows usually run from five to 10 minutes, and her audience size is around 40 people.

In each show, she segues into bits and pieces of her own life: her identity as an Indian-American, dating, her struggles with mental illness, her experiences with therapy.

“I’m there to make you laugh—not talk about my own life,” she said. “But I also put enough of myself and my own truths in there that I feel good at the end of the day about what I’ve done … that I feel like I’ve been authentic with myself.”

Govindan reflected on two of her past shows this January. In the first one, she bombed. No one laughed except for her two high school friends, she said. Later that night, she performed the same seven-minute set somewhere else. But this time was different. She recalled two young Indian girls who came up to her and said, “We’ve never seen an Indian woman perform stand-up comedy live. Seeing you there, seeing you talk about the Indian-American experience, and seeing everyone else laugh just felt … amazing.”

In a few months, Govindan will graduate from Fordham with a degree in psychology; industry knowledge from classes in sitcom writing, documentary television, and screenwriting; and several internships under her belt. She says she’ll pursue a full-time job in either comedy writing or entertainment marketing. And she dreams of someday hosting her own late-night talk show. She’s even picked out a name for it—The Low Down. But in the end, she says, what matters most is the impact she has on the people around her.

“I hope I can be that salvation for someone else,” Govindan said. “If I can be that reason—if I can be the light at the end of the tunnel for anyone else, in the same way that stand-up comedy was for me—then I will be doing my job.”

Guidance for Students Experiencing Anxiety or Depression

Govindan isn’t alone in her struggles with depression and mental health. More than 63 percent of college students reported experiencing overwhelming anxiety within the last year, according to the American College Health Association’s 2018 National College Health Assessment. And almost 42 percent of surveyed students said they felt so depressed that it was difficult to function.

“Anxiety and depression are the most common presenting problems in our office as well,” said Jeffrey Ng, Psy.D., director of counseling and psychological services (CPS) at Fordham. “Student utilization of on-campus mental health services has been trending upwards for the past 10 years nationally, including at Fordham.”

But there are many different ways to combat anxiety and depression, both on one’s own and with help from loved ones and professionals. Ng offered some suggestions for students struggling with their mental and emotional health and those who care about them:

Practice self-compassion. “Students often have perfectionistic and unrealistic demands and standards for themselves—standards that they likely wouldn’t apply to others,” Ng said. “We encourage our students to try to be as kind to themselves as they would to someone you love or care about.”

Exercise. “Engage in physical activity or exercise,” Ng said. “Physical activity and exercise are incredibly effective for reducing mild to moderate anxiety and depression.”

Practice digital and social media literacy. “Social media constantly exposes and bombards us with airbrushed or curated versions of people’s lives. When we compare ourselves to what we see on social media, we may get the sense that ‘we’re not good enough or doing enough.’ This can contribute to lower self-esteem, which can increase our vulnerability to mental health problems,” he said. “We encourage our students to try to be more intentional, thoughtful, and discerning about how they perceive and relate to social media.”

Don’t forget the essentials. “Attend to basic needs like sleeping, eating, and playing,” Ng said. “Having social relationships and social interactions—those are basic needs as well.”

Remember that there are multiple routes to healing. “It’s important for students to remember that there are many, many different pathways or routes for healing and feeling better. Acceptance from our parents (as in Govindan’s case) is just one of those paths,” Ng said. “Unconditional acceptance is obviously very important for our mental and emotional health, but for some students, they may unfortunately never experience that level of acceptance from their parents. So it’s especially important for them to recognize that there are multiple pathways and possibilities for healing.”

Normalize vulnerability. “One of the most important things we can do to support our students is to normalize vulnerability, imperfection, and struggle as part of the human experience,” Ng said.

Seeking help. One local resource is Fordham’s Counseling and Psychological Services Center, with offices on the Rose Hill, Lincoln Center, and Westchester campuses. To make an appointment, students can call or simply stop by. During non-business hours, students can reach out to public safety or residential life staff for emergencies.

Off-campus, 24/7 resources include the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline, 1-800-273-TALK (8255) and, for those who would rather type than talk, the Crisis Text Line.

“It’s important for our students to recognize that help-seeking is a sign of strength and maturity rather than weakness,” said Ng.

A cinematographer tells stories with a social conscience

In April, David Quateman filmed a documentary about a psychiatric hospital in Buenos Aires where patients are encouraged to express themselves to the outside world. They take part in a patient-run radio show and paint street art on the walls—“a radically different approach” compared with methods in the U.S., Quateman says.

Quateman loves to connect audiences with realities far different from their own by shooting documentaries. He first pursued this calling at Fordham, where he double-majored in visual arts and communications, and got a break last year when adjunct professor Anibal Pella-Woo invited him to contribute to an exhibit on asylum seekers in New York City.

Helping to make a video for the exhibit, Quateman interviewed several refugees, including a 19-year-old survivor of the Egyptian revolution and a Nigerian man who hadn’t seen his wife and young daughter in three years. “It was amazing having the privilege to watch these people and try and understand what they are going through,” Quateman says.

After graduating, he teamed up with Alexander Fish, a Princeton University student, for a project on mental health treatment methods in South America. They traveled to the hospital in Argentina and to Peru, where they filmed a healer in the Amazon who uses ayahuasca, a hallucinogenic mixture, to help patients transform their thinking. They spent days on a boat in 100-degree heat to get the story.

“I like seeing the worlds people live in that they don’t talk about forthrightly,” Quateman says, “and try to observe and be in those mental spaces and bring them back for other people.”

—Michael Blanding

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A foster care therapist works to make sure her kids “have better tomorrows”

A child’s drawing of two handprints sits atop Carolyn Catania’s bookshelf. Inside one is the child’s description of Catania: “She is kind, she helps kids feel better, and she likes coffee.”

One of the handprints is Catania’s. The other belongs to a girl Catania works with at Good Shepherd Services’ family foster care program in the Morris Heights section of the Bronx.

“This is my dream job,” says Catania, who provides individual supportive therapy to children ages 5 to 21 in New York City’s foster care system. “I feel lucky that I get to spend my days working to make sure my kids have better tomorrows by helping them heal from their past, learn to have hope, and recognize they are more than just a foster kid.”

A Long Island native, Catania majored in psychology at Fordham and went on to earn a master’s degree in social work at the Graduate School of Social Service—while also pursuing a master’s degree in public health at Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai and working full time at Good Shepherd Services.

She became a staunch advocate for change within the foster care system, striving to help those who work with foster children understand childhood trauma and mental health conditions. The goal, she says, is for children to stay stable in their foster placements, develop healthy relationships, and avoid retraumatization. She creates fact sheets and training sessions to make issues such as depression or post-traumatic stress disorder more approachable for staff members and families.

“I aspire to change the conversation tone from ‘What’s wrong with you?’ to ‘What’s happened to you?’” she says.

In 2016, after completing her MSW and licensure requirements, she was promoted to her current position as a therapist. She hopes to work in international child welfare, an area she glimpsed while participating in two “life-changing” projects, in Guatemala and South Africa, sponsored by Fordham’s Global Outreach program.

Kathy Sommerich, the senior program director of health and mental health services at Good Shepherd Services, praises Catania’s “passion for doing the right thing, even if it’s the most difficult,” and says the children she works with reap the benefits, including the little girl who made the handprint drawing.

Inside her own handprint, the girl wrote, “I am brave.”

—Stefanie Sorrentino

Read more “20 in Their 20s” profiles.

When Carlisdania Mendoza, M.D., left New York to begin medical school at Duke University, she brought many of Fordham’s Jesuit values with her.

When it comes to service, the 2012 Fordham College at Lincoln Center graduate explains, her undergraduate experience taught her that “you don’t do things reflexively, but you’re rigorous and methodical and reflect on what you’re bringing to the table. Being partners with the community is more enriching for everyone involved.”

As part of both STEP and CSTEP at Fordham—two New York state programs designed to support minority students and prepare them for careers in science, health, and technology—Mendoza had mentored younger students, organized cancer walks, volunteered with those affected by cerebral palsy, and much more. It was through these programs that Mendoza first realized she wanted to study medicine.

Once in North Carolina, she joined Duke’s new primary care track on a half-tuition scholarship. She also maintained her focus on service and began working with a support group for transgender Latina women, including some who were undocumented.

But she wanted to do more. “I knew I could go deeper,” she says, “and also help [these women]live longer and trust the medical system. What’s more humanizing than acknowledging that someone has a need and then helping them get that?”

Mendoza was frustrated when she couldn’t get the support she needed to create a medical clinic for the women, but the experience made her rethink her trajectory. Midway through medical school, she gave back her scholarship and switched to Duke’s psychiatry track, a bold move that did not surprise Renaldo Alba, FCRH ’02, GSE ’10, associate director of Fordham’s STEP and CSTEP programs.

“Carli is strong-willed and stubborn in her principles. She doesn’t do things because they are financially convenient,” Alba says. “And that’s what we need. When we are most vulnerable, we need conscientious dissenters.

“Other folks are looking to win, win, win. Carli is looking to do good, good, good.”

Though Mendoza initially wanted to be a neurosurgeon, she had not considered the mental health field until she entered medical school. “I’m a one-and-a-half generation immigrant,” says Mendoza, who was born in the Dominican Republic and moved to the Bronx with her family when she was 10, “so my views on mental health were very limited. My community looks at mental health like it’s a white problem.”

But during her psychiatry clinic, Mendoza realized how rewarding she found working with mentally ill patients. “It felt very easy and natural for me,” she says. At the same time, the women in the support group were expressing a need for mental health services. “They’re under acute stress on a regular basis,” she says, “so it was a really important need that they identified.”

Now, having graduated from Duke in 2016 and completed the first year of her psychiatric residency at University of Texas Southwestern in Dallas, Mendoza knows she’s found her path. “I just feel so energized working with people and achieving goals with them,” she says.

But she’s looking forward to returning to New York after her residency, when she hopes to help develop intervention programs that could help LGBTQ, trans, gender-nonconforming, and sex worker communities struggling with mental health issues.

“I’ve realized how much I enjoyed my work at CSTEP, so I also hope I can collaborate with Fordham again in some way.”

Are you a graduate of Fordham CSTEP? Join us for our 30th Anniversary celebration on Saturday, June 3, during Jubilee.

“A mayor’s work is rarely partisan,” said Cornett, a Republican who is currently president of the U.S. Conference of Mayors. “The work that we do is about providing services and trying to create a better quality of life in our cities. So we look for opportunities to work across the aisle.”

De Blasio and Cornett spoke at Fordham’s Lincoln Center campus at the closing session of Cities Thrive, a two-day conference hosted by Fordham and sponsored by the City of New York. The conference was organized by First Lady Chirlane McCray, and featured workshops geared toward helping leaders address mental health challenges before they become serious. One in five Americans suffers from conditions such as anxiety, depression, or substance abuse, and there is a still a huge stigma attached to it that prevents forthright conversations, said conference participants.

Indeed, it took a violent, shocking death to bring the problem to the fore for Oklahoma residents, Cornett told attendees. In August 2015, Mark Costello, the state’s commissioner of labor, was stabbed to death by his oldest son, who suffered from schizophrenia.

Partly in response, on Nov. 8 Oklahoma voters passed two new statutes related to criminal justice reform: One to reclassify certain property offenses and simple drug possession as misdemeanor crimes, and another to redirect monies saved by sending persons into mental health services instead of into the prison system. This, Cornett said, illustrates how mental health is an issue that has no ideological stripes.

De Blasio, in a nod to the election of Donald Trump to the presidency, said he is thrilled to have Cornett as the voice for cities around the country. There is power and hope in bipartisanship, he said.

In fact, bipartisanship and mental health each suffer from stigmas, he said. Just as we should resist feeling shame when talking about mental health problems, we should resist the temptation to embrace stereotypes that pervade our public life.

“People have assumptions across states and regions, but God bless the people of Oklahoma; they took an important stand on behalf of addressing the issue of incarceration and the issue of mental health. This is something we have to foster everywhere in the country,” he said.

“When we show how universal it is . . . [and]when it takes on that meaningful and real aura of bipartisanship, the movement gains power. We have a chance to do that here.”

Joseph M. McShane, S.J., president of Fordham, called the attendees “unsung heroes” who are doing the work of God.

“Mental health services are often seen as an add-on, something to be considered when your constituents’ most basic needs are met, or when their more showy needs are met,” he said.

“But there’s nothing more central to person’s sense of well-being than mental health.”