Image courtesy Anthony Faraino
Body and Mind
Mindflow focuses on the mental health and well-being of student-athletes
When Anthony Faraino launched Mindflow in 2022 to support the mental health of student-athletes, his own experiences were a motivating factor.
As a former University of Richmond lacrosse player who dealt with pressure and anxiety, Faraino says he only started seeking support as a junior.
Anthony Faraino
In 2019, Faraino graduated and relocated to Nashville, Tennessee, with wife and fellow Richmond alum, Lexi Prillaman, but his experiences and those of fellow student-athletes stuck with him.
Faraino initially conceived of a resource centered around meditation, but multiple student suicides shifted his attention in 2021 to creating Mindflow.
The service prioritizes student access to mental health resources but also plans to offer training programs for coaches, trainers and other athletic faculty on how best to support students, Faraino says.
Mindflow operates in some National Collegiate Athletic Association Division 1 universities with plans to expand. It partners with college athletic departments, covering the costs for athletes so they don’t pay out of pocket, Faraino says. Mindflow offers virtual one-on-one sessions lasting 30 or 50 minutes. Sessions focus on general mental health, mental performance coaching, guided exercises and journal prompts.
The differentiating factor of Mindflow, Faraino says, lies in the expertise of its licensed providers, including sports psychologists, licensed counselors, licensed clinical psychologists and mental performance coaches. Their previous work with athletics programs helps them establish bonds with student-athletes. —Kayla Bosman
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Officials cut the ribbon signifying the opening of the Women Veterans Health Center April 21 at Richmond VA Medical Center. (Photo by Jason H. Miller)
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Natural sunlight adds comfort in the Women Veterans Health Center waiting area. (Photo by Jason H. Miller)
Comprehensive Care
A new center improves health services for women veterans
Female veterans in the Richmond region and beyond now have access to a wider yet specialized array of health care services with the opening of the Women Veterans Health Center this spring.
Once housed in a small suite in the Richmond VA Medical Center, the more than 12,000-square-foot new center, located across the road from the main hospital, is a huge surge forward in resources for female veterans, says Marlise Skinner, women veterans program manager for the Central Virginia VA Health Care System. “We are trying to offer true comprehensive women’s care,” she says.
Previously, the offices for women offered mainly limited gynecological care, Skinner says. The new center offers a pharmacy, laboratory services, mammography, radiology, surgical gynecology, outpatient procedures, breast biopsies, ultrasounds, social work and mental health services.
All Women Veterans Health Center physicians are designated women’s health providers, including the primary care doctors, who have had training in comprehensive women’s health, Skinner says. In fiscal year 2022, the VA had 10,599 unique women veteran patients. The new center has eight primary care teams that can offer care to about 4,000 veterans. It currently has about 3,000 patients registered, she says.
Having a standalone center for women veterans is a project 10 years in the making as it moved through the layers of government planning and approval, Skinner says. The result is “an amazing facility” that she hopes veterans will find warm and welcoming in addition to being more comprehensive.
The center is at 1201 Broad Rock Blvd., Building 520, and serves female veterans throughout Central Virginia. Call 804-675-6998 for more information. —Laura McFarland
B. Frank Gupton, Ph.D., founder and CEO of Medicines for All (Photo courtesy VCU College of Engineering)
Global Responsibility
A grant aims to reduce the costs of lifesaving medicines
The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has awarded an $18.7 million grant to the Medicines for All Institute at Virginia Commonwealth University to support 14 new global health projects aimed at reducing the costs of medicines for tuberculosis, malaria, HIV and neglected tropical diseases. The institute says it will strengthen its partnerships with researchers, manufacturers and distribution partners to help maximize the impact of novel development processes for lifesaving medicines. “This new grant represents a recognition of the important work that we all still have ahead of us to continue to deliver low-cost medicines to those who need them,” says B. Frank Gupton, CEO of Medicines for All. —LM
(From left) Tara and Cassie Gray
A Mother’s Crusade
A parent shares Type 1 diabetes facts to help families
Tara Gray was driven by her family’s experience to raise awareness of Type 1 diabetes with a booth at the Hanover Tomato Festival. The Grays missed the warning symptoms, only learning that their daughter, Cassie, had the disease when she was hospitalized in 2019.
“I learned that not every person that gets diagnosed in the way that she was comes home. It just horrified me, and I thought, ‘I have to do something,’” Gray says.
Visitors to the booth during the July 14-15 festival learned facts about diabetes and got to spin a prize wheel. —LM
