Thrive Dispatches Season 2 Episode 7: Navigating Federal Policy in Extraordinary Times (with Dr. Sunny Patel)

In this episode, Dr. Matt Biel speaks with Dr. Sunny Patel, a child psychiatrist who recently served as Senior Advisor at SAMHSA (Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration) and as a White House Fellow, about the current state of children’s behavioral health policy. In a political environment where standing behind data and science is becoming a risk, Sunny has bravely spoken out against misinformation and documented the impact of federal cuts on children’s behavioral health systems.

Sunny describes how children’s mental health shifted from “maybe the one real bipartisan issue” just a few years ago to a current environment he characterizes as “chaos and uncertainty.” He identifies three interconnected threats: rhetoric from the highest levels of government planting seeds of doubt about well-established treatments, whipsaw funding that makes it impossible for organizations to plan, and massive Medicaid cuts that will affect the majority of children who depend on these programs for behavioral health services.

The conversation also explores what Sunny calls the “political determinants of health,” the collective decisions a society makes that shape children’s wellbeing. These show up at clinicians’ front doors: a five-year-old wetting her bed after seeing armed patrols outside her childcare center, a transgender child afraid to go to school. These are not problems that can be fully treated with medication.

Despite these challenges, Sunny finds hope in young people who are “sophisticated and thoughtful and loud and present,” asking for the kinds of care they need. As he puts it: “So much of this is showing up and being in solidarity. These are hard times and we’re gonna do it together.”

For questions, comments, or ideas for future episodes, please email us at: thrivecenter@georgetown.edu.

Download Full Transcript

In this excerpt, Sunny explains where he finds hope:

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Matt: Where do you find sources of hope?

Sunny: The place that I find hope is with young people and in talking to them because we are sort of temporary custodians of the world that they will inherit. And they are sophisticated and thoughtful and loud and present. In the mental health space, they’re there and they’re asking us for the kinds of care that they need. So I sort of look there for inspiration, for hope.

Matt: So much of this is showing up and being in solidarity.

Sunny: These are hard times and we’re gonna do it together.

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