Marcy Verduin, associate dean of students and professor of psychiatry, helped create Always Ready for the Road Ahead, a two-part mental health guidance program that she is providing to all 3,000 sworn and civilian employees of the sheriff’s office.

“The employees of the Orange County Sheriff’s Office work in challenging environments, even risking their lives, in order to make our community safe,” Verduin says. “This is a way of giving back to them as a thank you for the incredible work they do and helping them be more prepared to face the challenges inherent in their day-to-day work.”

The initiative comes after the sheriff’s office reached out to Verduin about the recent suicide of a popular lieutenant who had shown no outward signs of deteriorating mental health, followed by a second apparent suicide that led to the murder arrest of the deputy’s estranged husband.

Participation in the program is mandatory and was even attended by Sheriff John Mina.

“We want to be proactive,” says Major Reginald Hosey, who leads human resources for the sheriff’s office and established the partnership. “We want to be at our best at home, in the field, as a friend, as a spouse, as a parent.”

How the Program Works

The Helping the Helpers program began when Verduin’s pastor, Rev. Keith Tower of HighPoint Church in Orlando, realized that during the COVID-19 pandemic, religious leaders were increasingly counseling members about depression, anxiety, stress and loneliness. In response, Tower helped organize the Every Nation Church Conference in 2021, which focused on addressing the emotional impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on clergy and their congregants.

Verduin spoke for two hours in front of 500 attendees. Following the conference’s success, groups worldwide invited Verduin and Tower to discuss mental health and reducing the stigma often associated with it. The sheriff’s office learned of the program and asked them to create a program tailored to law enforcement, which has now been ongoing for about six months.

Tower opens the first session with a dramatic story of his own reaction to stress, despite years of elite training. Before becoming a pastor and certified mental health counselor, the 7-foot Tower was a professional basketball player and backup to the famed Orlando Magic center Shaquille O’Neal. During Tower’s playing days in Orlando, the Magic had a promotion that every fan in the arena would receive a free Big Mac if the team scored 110 points.

Tower dramatically sets up the scenario as sheriff’s deputies, evidence technicians and 911 operators listen intently.

The Magic are blowing out the opposing team, so Tower goes in for Shaq. The Magic have 108 points with just seconds left in the game. An opponent fouls Tower. All he has to do is make two free throws, and the entire stadium wins Big Macs. He makes the first shot. The crowd goes wild. Fans are chanting, “Tower, Tower.” A woman screams, “Marry me, Tower!” He steps to the free-throw line, focusing on the tens of thousands of free throws he’s practiced and shot during his high school, college and professional career. He misses the shot — no free Big Macs. The crowd goes silent. The game is over.

“I have made so many free throws in my life, I could make them in my sleep,” Tower says. “But the environment changed, the scene changed, the consequences changed. And that changed everything.”

While the physical threats associated with law enforcement are evident, the psychological threats may be even greater. The two counselors call it “death by 1,000 cuts.”

Law enforcement officers respond to multiple calls each shift, with no idea what they’ll face. They see people at their worst times in life. They work with so many traumatized individuals that they deteriorate. The trauma experienced by others can impact those trying to help. And the personality traits that bring many people to law enforcement — an exaggerated sense of responsibility, perfectionism, the need for control, a high need for achievement — increase their risk for conditions such as depression, anxiety and PTSD.

Verduin emphasizes that mental health ailments are not “just in your head,” a sign of weakness, laziness or a loss of religious faith.

The brain is an organ just like the heart, kidneys and stomach, she says. All can become diseased. She shows the audience CAT scans of healthy brains compared to the brains of patients with depression. The differences are noticeable, even to those without medical training.

She explains that just like diabetes, mental health conditions are caused by a combination of genetics and environment.

“You can’t ask your pancreas to make more insulin if you are a diabetic, as much as you can’t say ‘don’t be depressed,’” she says.

The two present strategies for strengthening coping skills include establishing personal boundaries, practicing intentional gratitude and sharing experiences with others.

Start “ridiculously small,” with improving your mental and physical resilience, Verduin says. Say you’ll walk to the end of the block or the mailbox each day. Soon you’ll be walking more.

During the sessions, sheriff’s employees engage in active learning. For example, they pair up with the person sitting next to them to choose three new strengthening strategies to “try out” over the next 30 days, and make a specific plan to check in with each other on their progress the following month.

The goal of the program, Verduin and Tower say, is to help law enforcement personnel understand that mental and emotional health challenges can arise when coping skills are overwhelmed, and to prepare them with strategies for dealing with the realities of their job.

Sheriff Mina applauds their work.

“There is nothing more important to me than the physical and emotional well-being of our Orange County Sheriff’s Office family,” he says. “Through our partnership with the UCF School of Medicine, the Always Ready for the Road Ahead program has provided invaluable training and tools to our personnel so that they can be resilient and prepared, both personally and professionally.”

In her final year of college, Verduin was planning to be a chemist. But after working countless hours in labs, she realized she wanted to work with people as a physician. By the time she realized what she wanted to do, the deadline for medical school applications had passed. Looking to fill the next year before she could apply, she began her career as a teacher.

“I knew I wanted to go to medical school, but I also really enjoyed being a teacher’s assistant and a peer tutor in college, so I looked for teaching jobs to fill my year” she says. “When I applied to be a teacher, they asked, ‘How soon can you start?’ and I said, ‘As soon as you need me.’ They walked me into the classroom to start teaching that same day.”

As a teacher, Verduin saw the way students’ home lives and other life challenges affected them behaviorally and academically. One day, during one of Verduin’s most challenging classes, she asked each student to write her a note about themselves.

“As I read these notes, I learned so much about these kids, things like, ‘My dad’s in jail,’ or ‘My mom has HIV’ and they were so calm after they wrote it because they were able to share the things on their mind,” she says. “At the time, I had no idea that I was going to become a psychiatrist, but when I look back at my life, the pieces were there.”

When a year had passed, she applied and was accepted to medical school at the șŁœÇֱȄ of Florida, planning to eventually work in private practice. During that training, she saw a close family member die from alcoholism and another attempt suicide. Those experiences caused her initially to rule out psychiatry as a specialty.

“Because of these things I had lived and witnessed, I thought I would never practice psychiatry because it was too close to home,” she says.

But during her mandatory third-year psychiatry rotation in med school, she found that she loved coming home and reading about her patients and couldn’t wait to come back to see how they had done in the hospital overnight.

“That rotation is when it clicked to me that that was what I wanted to do.”

Verduin joined the UCF College of Medicine as an associate professor of psychiatry in 2007, before the new school welcomed its first class in 2009. She was named associate dean for students in 2010. She says the biggest lesson she has learned along her career journey is embracing what she called “intentional serendipity.”

“I didn’t set out to be an associate dean for students, in fact, I didn’t think I would do a lot of the things I did, but when the opportunity came up, I thought, ‘I think I would love that,’” she says. “There’s this role of serendipity in your path, and when you see it happening, you should embrace it.”

“This was my dream program since I started researching residencies,” said fourth-year medical student Molly Orban, who matched into the ophthalmology program at the Medical șŁœÇֱȄ of South Carolina.  “I had so many dreams about this day that when I got the call I actually thought to myself, wait- if I am dreaming, I am going to be so mad!”

“I don’t think it has kicked in yet,” said Jae Kim, who matched into his first choice for ophthalmology — the Kresge Eye Institute at Wayne State șŁœÇֱȄ in Michigan.

“Restoring vision is absolutely amazing and I am very grateful for this match,” said Kim, who last year won a statewide award for his invention of a computerized imaging process to help diagnose eye diseases earlier and more accurately.

Medical school graduates must complete a residency program in their chosen specialty before they are able to practice medicine. Depending on the specialty, residencies last three to seven years. In their final year of medical school, students apply for and interview with residency programs and then rank their choices. Residency programs do the same. A computerized service then matches top choices from both.

National Match Day is March 17 this year, when the majority of the nation’s medical students learn their residency match. But some specialties, including  urology, ophthalmology and military-based residencies announce matches early.

Urology and ophthalmology are considered two of the most competitive residencies. Nationwide, there were 620 applicants for ophthalmology residencies this year, and 446 medical students matched. Urology had 422 applicants with 317 matches.

“I am incredibly excited to train at a place that is top notch in both urologic patient care and resident surgical training,” said Arvind Krishnan who matched at the șŁœÇֱȄ of South Florida.

Dr. Marcy Verduin, associate dean of students, said she was thrilled about the students’ success in early matches.

“They continue to embrace the UCF motto by reaching for the stars in all they do,” Dr. Verduin said.  “I have no doubt that they will be excellent ambassadors across the nation for the UCF College of Medicine.”

The seniors will graduate with the rest of the Class of 2017 on May 19.

College of Medicine seniors who matched are:
Urology
Alexander Anderson – șŁœÇֱȄ of Missouri School of Medicine, Columbia, MO

Tavya Benjamin – Hofstra Northwell School of Medicine, New Hyde Park, NY

Eileen Grigson – șŁœÇֱȄ of California, San Diego, San Diego, CA

Arvind Krishnan – șŁœÇֱȄ of South Florida, Tampa, FL

Ophthalmology

Jae Kim – Kresge Eye Institute, Wayne State șŁœÇֱȄ, Detroit, MI

Molly Orban – Storm Eye Institute, Medical șŁœÇֱȄ of South Carolina, Charleston, SC

Austin Rohl – șŁœÇֱȄ of Colorado School of Medicine, Denver, CO

Bao Truong – William Beaumont Hospital, Royal Oak, MI

The Chen family established the $4,500 scholarship to be awarded to a promising young medical student who excels in academics, overall scholarship and community service. While at UCF, Christina has been active in the College of Medicine Student Council, the student Geriatric Interest Group (GIG), the VA Stand Down Against Homelessness and the send-off ceremony honoring the college’s Anatomy Lab donors.

Dr. Marcy Verduin, associate dean for students, was delighted with Christina’s honor. “As a new medical school, our students are asked to go above and beyond what is required of medical students at existing schools – they are asked to develop new student organizations, establish community outreach programs, and establish the student culture at the College of Medicine,” she said. “Christina has taken full advantage of the opportunities to serve her classmates, community, and the College of Medicine, and she has become a role model for student involvement.”

Christina couldn’t make the awards banquet in California so she wrote a three-minute speech that she asked her mother to read when she accepted the award in her daughter’s place. “I was ecstatic to win,” Christina said. “I feel so grateful and proud to be chosen with students from Johns Hopkins and Stanford. It’s an honor, and I think it also really helps put the UCF College of Medicine on the map.”

“This is a course that first-year students traditionally hate,” said Associate Dean Marcy Verduin, one of the poster’s authors. “They see this as ‘soft’ science, touchy-feely topics. If they have the choice to study Anatomy or Behavioral Sciences, they often pick Anatomy.”

But the College of Medicine team created the course with a multidisciplinary faculty team and a process of Team Based Learning (TBL). Students took an individual quiz at the beginning of each class to motivate them to complete their assigned readings and come to class prepared. Then they broke into small groups and discussed and debated their answers. This allowed the team members to teach each other, and the groups competed to see which one scored the highest on a team quiz.

Rather than lecture on a topic such as “death and dying,” the instructor’s role was to guide the discussion so that students could learn “what to do with the knowledge they have,” Dr. Verduin said. “The information is relevant because no matter what specialty our students enter they are going to have to deal with the psychosocial problems their patients have.”

Some of those issues can be challenging. For example, in one class, students had to debate how to handle the situation if one of their colleagues is impaired by drug or alcohol use.  They also have to deal with difficult topics including how to deliver the news that a family member has died, how to respond when they suspect domestic violence or child abuse, and how to maintain the integrity of the doctor-patient relationship while experiencing very real emotions themselves.

Dr. Verduin said she was “thrilled” with the first-place honor and what it means to the College of Medicine’s reputation. “We have talked all along about our innovative curriculum,” she said. “This recognition shows that others are recognizing our efforts.”

Other members of the team that submitted the poster included Dr. Rebecca Moroose, Dr. Nasreen Malik, Andrea Berry, Virginia Bagley and Moshe Feldman.

Dr. Verduin’s team is busy working on Student Orientation and other preparations for the college’s second class of 60 medical students who will arrive in August and the first year of classes in the new medical education building at Lake Nona. For example, they are starting a “Big Sibling” program matching every first-year student with a “Big Brother” or “Big Sister” from the charter class. The students will be paired based on common interests. The inaugural class students are marketing the mentoring program with the slogan, “We may not be as good as eHarmony, but we’ll do our best.” “We’re very excited about adding this second class,” Dr. Verduin said. “Everything is going to be even more vibrant and exciting.”

Dr. Verduin joined the College of Medicine in 2007 as the Module Director for the Psychosocial Issues in Healthcare Module and Director of the Psychiatry Clerkship. She has been the assistant dean for students since 2008. A psychiatrist by specialty, Dr. Verduin is an attending psychiatrist at the Orlando VA Medical Center’s Substance Abuse Residential Rehabilitation Treatment Program. She serves in leadership positions with the American Psychiatric Association, and is the Association for Academic Psychiatry Liaison for The American College of Psychiatrists’ Psychiatry Resident-In-Training Examination (PRITE). In 2009, she was selected for the Alcohol Medical Scholars program and is a member of the Council on Medical Education and Lifelong Learning for the American Psychiatric Association. She is also principal investigator for a project developing a role-playing video game for recovering alcoholics, which is funded by a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Grant. The video allows participants to practice skills in staying sober in a realistic setting.

In April, Dr, Verduin was honored at a “Women Making History” event by the UCF Women’s Center. The center honored 15 UCF women faculty members for their research, creative activities and leadership. College of Medicine Dr. Ella Bossy-Wetzel and Dean Deborah German were also honored at the event.

A College of Medicine thank you and best wishes to Dr. Manning as he begins retirement. We hope he will send us a post card from his visits to Australia. Godspeed, Dr. Manning.