President’s Paragraph
By Cheryl Hurd, MD, TCMS President
This article was originally published in the January/February 2026 issue of Tarrant County Physician.
Hello everyone, my name is Cheryl Hurd, and it is my honor and privilege to serve as the 2026 TCMS president. I am a psychiatrist who has been in active practice for nearly twenty-five years, but I have also been a medical educator for the majority of that time. (I am also an English Lit major, so the “President’s Paragraph” is likely to become much longer than a paragraph. . . .) I want to thank the many presidents before me who have written articles and stories that have amused, enlightened, and inspired me. I admire the passion (and compassion) as well as the courage of my predecessors. I can only hope to aspire to the same level of dedication to my theme as they did to theirs.
My mission has always been to provide the highest quality and evidenced-based care to patients while training the next generation of physicians in best practices. Easy buzzwords to write, but they’re sincere nonetheless. As a psychiatrist, mental health is at the forefront of my mind. Mental health has long been marginalized, treated as secondary to physical illness, and burdened by stigma. Yet the evidence is clear: Mental health is inseparable from overall health, and its neglect undermines our patients, our communities, and ourselves.
I have chosen to make mental health advocacy the defining theme of my tenure. This is not just a matter of professional responsibility; it is a moral imperative. TCMS should be among those leading the way in ensuring that mental health is recognized as a cornerstone of care in this county and throughout the great state of Texas.
Millions of people struggle with depression, anxiety, trauma, and substance misuse; this includes us as physicians. Suicide remains a leading cause of death among young people, and burnout continues to erode the well-being of healthcare professionals. We still lose as many as 400 attending physicians to suicide a year.1 Residents and medical students are facing the same challenges. These realities are not just statistics—they are the lived experiences of our patients, colleagues, families, and ourselves.
The pandemic further exposed the fragility of our mental health infrastructure. The sequelae of the pandemic included an explosion in mental health disorders across our country. Demand for services surged, yet access remained uneven despite the adoption of telepsychiatry. Rural communities, marginalized populations, and children bore disproportionate burdens. I was president of the medical staff at JPS from the beginning through the height of the pandemic, and I saw firsthand the devastation that was wrought on the physical and mental well-being of the healthcare workforce. My most important service as medical staff president during that time was to bolster our physicians and other providers, provide resources, give updates, and instill hope when despair seemed to overwhelm us. The infrastructure could not meet the demands, and it often still doesn’t.
So, I would like to focus on expanding equitable access to care for all; integrating mental health into primary care, schools, and workplaces; and leading a conversational shift that normalizes open discussions about mental health across our practices and communities. Through advocacy we can advance reforms that treat mental health with the same seriousness as physical illness, expand the workforce with training and support for all physicians (not just mandate PHQ-9 and GAD-7 questionnaires at every visit), strengthen school partnerships to provide early intervention, invest in community clinics, expand telehealth to close gaps in underserved areas, and promote research and innovation that drive evidence‑based solutions.
As physicians, we still carry unique credibility in shaping public discourse. When we speak openly about mental health—whether in clinical settings, community forums, policy debates, or even podcasts—we dismantle stigma and inspire change.
We must also look inward. Physician burnout and moral distress remain pressing concerns that negatively impact physician well-being. By prioritizing mental health within our own profession, we model resilience and compassion for the broader healthcare system. TMA, our state medical association, has developed many resources in service of our members for these very issues. Many county societies have done the same, as have we at TCMS. I encourage everyone to visit the Physician Wellness website and learn more about our efforts: https://www.tcam.org/physician-wellness.
I know that I am asking a lot of all of you, and it won’t be easy. There are many financial constraints and competing interests that limit the expansion of services. We have a workforce shortage that hinders access, and the stigma of mental illness persists (particularly when it is related to substance use disorders). Differences in healthcare policies and funding priorities can complicate efforts to expand mental health services, but collaboration can help bridge these divides. These challenges are not insurmountable. With advocacy, innovation, and determination, we can overcome them.
Mental health is about people. It is about the child struggling with anxiety, the veteran coping with trauma, the parent balancing stress, and the physician facing burnout. By focusing on mental health, we confirm that every individual’s well-being matters.
As president of our medical society, I call upon each of you—physicians, educators, researchers, and advocates—to join me in this work. Together, we can elevate mental health, ensuring that it is recognized as a fundamental component of healthiness and a shared responsibility of the medical community.
“What mental health needs is more sunlight, more candor, and more unashamed conversation.” —Glenn Close
References:
- John Matheson, “Physician Suicide,” American College of Emergency Physicians https://www.acep.org/life-as-a-physician/wellness/wellness/wellness-week-articles/physician-suicide#:~:text=Each%20year%20in%20the%20U.S.,and%20alcohol%20and%20substance%20abuse;.
Tarrant County Physician Online 