Event Description

Dipti Chrastka, LMFT, focused on promoting mental health and well-being in health professionals with disabilities. She spoke to the unique challenges and barriers disabled health professionals face, and discussed strategies on an individual and systemic level. She believes that Disability is not a barrier to excellence, but stigma and lack of support can be. She shared some wellness tips and included a guided grounding exercise that was tailored for a virtual experience.

 

Tara McCloskey, MS3, and Louise Andrew, MD, J.D., then introduced listeners to state Physician Health Programs (PHPs). They shared the origins, benefits, indications, as well as limitations of PHPs. Through illustrative case examples, they demonstrated potential advantages and consequences of referral to a PHP, especially for persons with disabilities who do not have a concomitant substance use disorder. This presentation emphasized the importance of utilizing the resources and skills discussed by Dipti Chrastka, but also accessing PHPs when required or appropriate, utilizing all due caution.

 

Event Agenda

• Introduction and Announcements:  15 minutes
• Didactic and Guided Exercise by Dipti Chrastka:  25 minutes
• Didactic by Louise Andrew and Tara McCloskey:  30 minutes
• Question and Answer Session for All Presenters:  20 minutes

Speakers

Dipti Chrastka

Dipti Chrastka, LMFT, has served as the Director of Wellness for UWSOM GME for 5.5 years. She is a a licensed marriage and family therapist with over 35 years of experience in behavioral health, youth and family therapy, suicide prevention, consultation, training, and overall wellness support. With specialization in Child Mental Health and Ethnic Minority Mental Health, she brings supervisory and leadership experience at the organizational level and a deep commitment and passion for social justice, equity and anti-racism work.

 

Louise Andrew

Louise B. Andrew, MD, J.D., is an emergency physician and attorney with over 30 years experience in physician wellbeing, especially int eh arenas of mental health, litigation and regulatory stress. She is founder and principal of two web based support sites for phsyicians, MDMentor.com and Black-Bile.com. She teaches, counsels, testifies, and mediates between physicians, hospitals, and attorneys on espects of physician and attorney wellness, behavior, litigation stress management, medical expert witness issues, and physician suicide prevention.

 

Tara McCloskey

Tara McCloskey, and MD- and MPH-candidate, serves as a peer advocate for medical trainees with disability who have had impeded or halted career progression due to ableism. As founder of the American Association of Medical Trainee Rights, a non-profit organization devoted to this work, she advocates on the individual level. She serves on the DM3P advocacy team, where she works to preserve the rights of disabled healthcare workers at the systemic level through legislative action.

 

 

Page Updated on October 7, 2025