Title Page & Abstract
An Interview with Mehul Trivedi
Part of the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library
Tumultuous 2020 Oral History project
Interview # T20-A-L-2022-03
Mehul Trivedi, a neuropsychiatrist at Southern Illinois University, was interviewed on the date listed below as part of the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library’s Tumultuous 2020 Oral History project.
Interview dates & location:
Date: January 21, 2022
Location: SIU Psychiatry, Centrum Building, Springfield, Illinois
Interview Format: Digital audio
Interviewer: Amanda Riggenbach, project manager Tumultuous 2020
Total Time: 2:25 / 2.42 hrs.
Accessioned into the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library Archives on March 11, 2022.
The interview is archived at the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library in Springfield, Illinois.
© 2022 Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library
Abstract
Mehul Trivedi, Tumultuous 2020, T20-A-L-2022-03
Biographical Information/Overview of Interview: Mehul Trivedi was born in Springfield, Illinois, in 1977. He grew up in Springfield and graduated from Springfield High School in 1995. A high school psychology course piqued his interest in understanding humanity better and led him to pursue a bachelor’s degree in psychology. He began at Lincoln Land Community College before transferring to University of Illinois-Springfield (UIS) where he graduated from in 1999. Trivedi completed his Ph.D. in Experimental Psychology with an emphasis on behavioral neuroscience in 2004 from Northern Illinois University. He worked at a variety of university laboratories before coming back to Springfield in 2017. These included the University of Wisconsin at Madison until 2006, Rush University Medical Center until 2013, University of California San Diego until 2014, a clinical fellowship at University of Wisconsin Milwaukee for two years, and finally a private practice in the Chicago suburbs.
In pursuit of an academic medical center, Trivedi returned to Springfield to work as an assistant professor as SIU School of Medicine. In addition to seeing neuropsychiatric patients, he also worked as a professor for seminar courses, and took over the research lab he interned at as an undergraduate student. The start of the COVID-19 pandemic in March of 2020 closed Trivedi’s office and though SIU offered appointments online, many of his appointments were cancelled or postponed. This caused severe financial strain for Trivedi as his salary was determined by the number of patients he saw. Trivedi details the different issues with online appointments, such as security of the tests SIU administers as well as number of distractions. The SIU psychiatry offices reopened in July of 2020 and Trivedi describes the influx of patients, many of whom had been waiting since March of 2020 to be seen. Throughout the remainder of 2020 Trivedi was able to recover financially and instead of seeing the minimum of five patients a day, he was seeing eight. Trivedi details the rise of major depressive disorder, anxiety disorders, and substance abuse from the start of the pandemic to January of 2022, as omicron infections continue to remain prevalent.
Subject Headings/Key Words: Southern Illinois University School of Medicine; Springfield, Illinois; psychology; clinical psychology; mental health; COVID-19’s impact on mental health; COVID-19 pandemic;
Notes to the Reader: Readers of the oral history memoir should bear in mind that this is a transcript of the spoken word, and that the interviewer, interviewee, and editor sought to preserve the informal, conversational style that is inherent in such historical sources. The Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum is not responsible for the factual accuracy of the memoir, nor for the views expressed therein. We leave these for the reader to judge.
COPYRIGHT
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