Meet the 2020 Scholars

"What do you believe is the greatest unaddressed patient need in the CF community, and if you could, how would you try to fix it? Who would you partner with (e.g. public figure, organization) to help fix the issue and why?"

As a CF patient, I have long been frustrated by the lack of discussion and support for patients who struggle with mental illness. CF patients suffer from mental illness for many different reasons: the emotional burden of knowing we have a short life expectancy, keeping up with our many treatments, and starting a family while having a terminal illness. While being involved in family advisory meetings and speaking with CF center directors, I have expressed my viewpoint that mental illness in CF patients needs to be more of a focus. Specifically, I have stated that we need to support our center’s social workers with proper training and education, fund research on exactly why it is that CF patients have a higher prevalence of mental illness, and most of all, cultivate a sense of support in our CF centers as to not allow the topic of mental illness to be taboo. In order to act and take action on mental illness more of a focus I would partner with the National Institute of Mental Health (NIH), as I understand they are the largest and most respected organization focused on mental health. I believe the NIH would be able to support the CF Foundation and our CF centers with the proper tools we need to combat mental illness among patients. It is crucial that we act to understand and battle against mental illness among CF patients because as we all know, mental and physical health are closely intertwined.