Rx for RJ

Tailored specifically for the unique dynamics and conflicts common in medical schools and other colleges/departments devoted to higher education for healthcare professionals, the Rx for RJ Project introduces restorative practices education in the health professions as a way to address learner mistreatment and provide a community-building response to improve the learning environment.

Co-Directors of the RJ for Rx Program

• Sonoo Thadaney Israni
   

  

  Sonoo Thadaney Israni, MBA currently serves as the Founding Executive Director, Stanford Presence Center, and the Department of Medicine's Program in Bedside Medicine.

   

  Her focus is on Equity, Access, Inclusion.

   

  As a Stanford Intrapreneur, she builds Academic and Applied Science Centers, Programs, Initiatives. She creates and delivers social justice impact via applied science, exemplary operations, academic and professional opportunities, engaged communities.

   

  After 9/11, she trained and engaged in mediation and restorative justice work. She creates and delivers curriculum for leadership development; decision + conflict coaching; and preventing, resolving + leveraging conflict for constructive change on and off-campus. Her Restorative Justice and Conflict Resolution work engages participants to prevent, resolve, and leverage conflict while furthering purposeful decision-making, leadership development, and organizational vitality. 

   

  RJ and Conflict Resolution work includes:

  • Co-Vice-Chair - San Mateo County Commission on Juvenile Justice, Delinquency, and Prevention (2015-Present)
  • San Mateo County Superior Court Alternative Dispute Resolution Advisory Committee (2010-present)
  • Anger Management Workshops at Redwood City Women's Jail.
  • Juvenile Hall, Volunteer Mediator & Case Developer, Restorative Justice, April 2011 - present. Case development and mediation for Restorative Justice for Juveniles.
  • Volunteer and Board Member (completed six years in 2014) for the Peninsula Conflict Resolution Center.
  • teaching curriculum on and off-campus.
  • Restorative Justice Pilot. Researched programs, surveyed needs, engaged stakeholders, defined pilot, obtained funding, created manual & assessment tools, recruited/trained staff, and students. Managed pilot. Created and delivered successful symposium offering Bay Area colleagues a framework to design and deliver their own programs.
  • Restorative Justice, Victim Offender Mediator, Juvenile Jail, San Mateo County (2011-present)
  • Workplace issues - team members, executive & boardroom challenges. Expectation setting, communication, conflict prevention and resolution.
  • Workshops on Conflict Prevention, Resolution, and Leverage for Constructive Change; Leadership Coaching for US and Indian companies.
• Jay Behel, PhD

  Jay M. Behel, PhD is Associate Dean of Medical Student Affairs at Rush Medical College in Chicago.

  As associate dean, Dr. Behel oversees the strategic planning and implementation of co-curricular programming in the medical college including important collaborations related to student well-being and the learning environment. These collaborations include work to integrate restorative practices into medical education and academic healthcare at a local and national level.  

  Additionally, he teaches in the Rush Leadership Academy and is the education director for Affirm: The Rush Center for Gender, Sexuality & Reproductive Health.

  Dr. Behel is a clinical psychologist and directs Rehabilitation Psychology at Rush University Medical Center.  

  Dr. Behel received a BA in English and Psychology from Vanderbilt University and a PhD in Clinical Psychology from Auburn University.

Publications

Acosta, David and David R. Karp. 2017."Restorative Justice as the Rx for Mistreatment in Academic Medicine: Applications to Consider for Learners, Faculty and Staff.” Academic Medicine 93: 354-356. doi: 10.1097/ACM.0000000000002037

Behel, Jay M.. 2019. “I Shall Be Released.” Restorative Justice Techniques Can Address Healthcare Burnout & Attrition." Reflective MedEd.

Behel, Jay M., and Adrienne S. Lawson. 2018. "Healing the Healers." AAMC News.

Free Webinars: AAMC Restorative Justice for Academic Medicine

Effectively Responding to Harm and Mistreatment in the Learning & Workplace Environments - September 17, 2019

Using Restorative Justice (RJ) to Build Community in Academic Medicine (Tier I) - October 15, 2019

Using RJ to Respond to Mistreatment and Bias (Tier II) - November 21, 2019

Using RJ for Community Reintegration (Tier III) - December 10, 2019

Restorative Justice in Healthcare

While restorative justice is widely applied in criminal justice and educational settings, it is new to healthcare. Here are two relevant resources: 

Carroll, J., & Reisel, D. (2018). Introducing restorative practice in healthcare settings. Chapter 15 in The Routledge Handbook of Restorative Justice, edited by Theo Gavrielides. Routledge.

Wailling, J., Marshall, C., & Wilkinson, J. (2019). Hearing and responding to the stories of survivors of surgical mesh: Ngā kōrero a ngā mōrehu – he urupare (A report for the Ministry of Health). Wellington, New Zealand: The Diana Unwin Chair in Restorative Justice, Victoria University of Wellington.

UC Davis Medical School Rx for RJ Training Group