Addiction Medicine Podcast

This bonus content is from a presentation that Victor gave at the Governor's Institute's Addiction Medicine Essentials Conference in November 2020. 

In Episode 4, Victor discusses why behavioral health is distinctly vulnerable to implicit bias. As he puts it, "treatment models were built on bias." Victor offers a personal story (featured at length in a recent Ted Talk) that challenges listeners own preconceptions and offers providers a critical lesson on equity in the process.

Episode 3 features Victor's take on lessons learned as a result of the pandemic. As he puts it, "Just because you have a good idea doesn’t mean it is perceived that way." Victor discusses ways to foster community partnerships, build relationships and narrow the equity gap among service providers and elsewhere.

Episode 2 features Victor's take on equity, as it's learned, seen and socialized. He discusses his own childhood as the son of a North Carolina pastor and the challenges of growing up in a faith-based community in rural NC. Victor closes this take with how the pandemic and social media have changed the conversations around mental health.

In Season 1 of the Addiction Medicine Podcast, Victor Armstrong, Chief Health Equity Officer at the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services, discusses equity as it relates to substance use disorder and mental health.In Episode 1, Victor discusses what equity means to him, how he understands systemic racism and where his views may veer from popular consensus. Victor untangles suicide rates among young African-American men and offers thoughts on where our focus as healthcare professionals and society ought to be going forward.