Medicine Beyond Medicine with Alicia Ashorn & Anthony Thigpen
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What is the purpose of this episode and who are the featured guests?
Listeners, if you enjoy The Nocturnist, then you'll also enjoy Unleashed, Redesigning Healthcare, a new podcast about clinician-led innovation on the front lines of care. The featured guests are the clinician innovators themselves, their stories, their voices, their ingenuity, their commitment to their patients and their humanity, and even the deeply felt gains in their own wellbeing. Unleashed is from our friends at the Dartmouth Institute, one of our sponsors for this episode. Learn more in today's show notes or search for Unleashed, redesigning healthcare anywhere you listen to podcasts. Support for The Nocturnist comes from the California Medical Association.
At The Nocturnist, we are careful to ensure that all stories comply with healthcare privacy laws. Details may have been changed to ensure patient confidentiality. All views expressed are those of the person speaking and not their employer.
This is The Nocturnists. I'm Emily Silverman. Today's episode is a little different from our usual format. We'll be featuring two stories instead of one. Alicia Ashhorn and Anthony Thigpen are both community health workers with the Transitions Clinic Network, an organization that employs people who were formerly incarcerated as community health workers who support others as they transition out of prison. Earlier this year, both Alicia and Anthony told personal stories on stage in Los Angeles at a Nocturnus Satellites event hosted by TCN with the generous support of the California Healthcare Foundation. That evening featured stories from six community health workers, all drawing on their personal histories and their work alongside patients who navigate addiction, reentry, illness, and survival.
Today, we stay with Alicia and Anthony a little bit longer. We talk about what their day-to-day work actually looks like, how they think about trust, responsibility, and care with their clients, and what it meant to stand on stage and share their stories with a community of peers. But before we dive in, take a listen to Alicia and Anthony's stories.
Hi, my name's Alicia. I'm an addict and an alcoholic. I never thought I could have the courage to say that out in public, let alone in front of work people, but it's something I'm proud of now. When I was a kid, I never thought I was going to grow up to be an addict. I wanted to own an ice cream truck or be an interior designer, but I was always kind of an awkward kid and I never really felt like I fit in anywhere until in 10th grade when I started drinking and I felt I started hanging around with people that did the same thing as I did. By the time I graduated, I was a full-blown alcoholic and meth addict. Shortly after high school, I hooked up with my drug dealer and got pregnant. I had my son at a young age, and when his father went to prison, I was left on my own to take care of him.
And at this point, I was unemployable. So I did things while on drugs that I never thought I'd be capable of doing. But I was making money, and everyone around me was doing the same thing, so it seemed normal. So then when my son was two, I was locked up for a year.
How does Alicia describe her journey from addiction to becoming a community health worker?
And then again when he was seven, I went away for two years. I finally started growing up and getting my life together when I was 30 years old. I got a job with a really good university as a research assistant I stayed there for 11 years and I really loved the job and they liked me but somewhere along the line. I started going out with them after work and having a drink and I thought I wasn't an alcoholic and I could drink like a lady this time. And that was not the case. They finally had to let me go because of my alcoholism. Then the pandemic happened. And when the pandemic was over and all that free pandemic money ran out, I found that I could not go to work without drinking. If I didn't have a drink, I would shake so bad.
Eventually, I started having seizures until it got to the point where the only thing left for me to do was to get sober. So when I got sober at 90 days, I started applying for jobs.
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Chapters
8 chapters
1
What is the purpose of this episode and who are the featured guests?
0:00–3:39
2
How does Alicia describe her journey from addiction to becoming a community health worker?
3:39–7:44
3
What key moments does Anthony share about his bond with a client who later relapsed?
7:44–9:15
4
What does a typical day look like for a Transitions Clinic community health worker?
9:15–10:37
5
How do Alicia and Anthony use storytelling to build trust and heal?
10:37–14:33
6
What challenges do they face when clients hide relapse or struggle with honesty?
14:33–16:09
7
How do resource limitations in Rhode Island affect their ability to help patients?
16:09–20:06
8
What wisdom do they share about knowing when to intervene versus when to step back?
20:06–52:45