Many Will Soon Learn About the Beauty of Psychiatry

On July 24, Gariane Gunter, M.D., a third-year psychiatry resident at the University of South Carolina, was crowned Mrs. United States 2008 in Las Vegas.

“I felt overwhelmed and just so blessed to have this opportunity,” Gunter said later during an interview. “My husband, Tracy, was so excited, he ran back to the seat to get the flowers that he had forgotten to bring on stage, he was all over the place, he was very thrilled. And our little girl, Isabella, was there with us on the stage. It was a fairytale ending.”

And it was also a victory for psychiatry since Gunter plans to use her reign as Mrs. United States to talk about mental health issues. Right after she won, she said, “The phone started ringing off the hook. I've been contacted by the National Alliance on Mental Illness, Mental Health America, the South Carolina Medical Association, the American Psychiatric Association—everyone has been excited about my having a voice to speak about mental health issues during my reign. So I have a lot of things on the calendar already.”

That includes supporting some of the activities of the American Psychiatric Foundation. “The foundation is in discussions with her about appearing in media campaigns as well as at the foundation's regular meetings at the APA annual meeting and other times to showcase what individual psychiatrists can do to promote psychiatry,” Richard Harding, M.D., president of the foundation and a former APA president, said in an interview. Coincidentally, Harding is also chair of psychiatry at the University of South Carolina, where Gunter is a resident.

Decisions Led to Challenging Time

Who is Gariane Gunter? How did she come to choose medicine—specifically psychiatry—as a career?

“No, there are no doctors in my family besides me,” Gunter said. Nor is Tracy, her childhood sweetheart-turned-husband, a physician. He and his dad own and operate a logging business. But even as a little girl growing up in the deep South, she wanted to be a doctor, she said. She would wrap her stuffed animals in tissue paper, place them in dresser drawers, and pretend that they were patients in hospital beds.

Then, during medical school at the University of South Carolina, she thought she would become a pediatrician since she loves children. However, while doing her psychiatry rotation, she decided to become a child psychiatrist instead. The reason, she said, is because it entails helping youngsters “become strong and independent people.”

“And I love it!” she exclaimed. “That's where I am now. I am in my third year of general psychiatry training.... Next year I will enter a two-year child and adolescent fellowship to become a child and adolescent psychiatrist.”

As far as beauty pageants are concerned, Gunter had entered them as a child and teenager. So last February, when she happened to see information about the Mrs. South Carolina pageant, she decided to enter the competition after consulting with her husband.

Yes, it was stressful, she admitted, “but I had the opportunity to do it, and in my line of work, that's what I do—I challenge people to face their fears and do things they may not be completely comfortable doing and to go for it. And if I couldn't do it myself, I decided, I would feel like a fraud when I went back to work.”

Entering the pageant entailed filling out a three-page application with very insightful questions that forced applicants to look inside themselves, she said—“for instance, what's your definition of success, what are your ideas about marriage, who is the most influential person in your life—soul-searching kinds of questions.” It also entailed an interview with each pageant judge and then with a panel of all of the judges,“ sort of like a news conference.” Finally, on February 18, a swimsuit competition and an evening-gown competition were held. On that day, she was named Mrs. South Carolina. And then in July, Gunter, along with winners from all the other states, went to Las Vegas to compete in the national Mrs. United States competition. The competition lasted a week. On July 24, Gunter was crowned and, shortly after, started using her reign to promote mental health.

Message Should Reach More People

“We're very pleased and proud that she has been selected,” said Harding. “It is really remarkable that someone with recognition like this can reach more people than I as a chair of a department of psychiatry could ever hope to reach.... It is a stunning thing how many people, especially young people, are eager to listen to her message.”

“She is incredibly composed and articulate,” Paul Burke, executive director of the American Psychiatric Foundation, observed. Burke heard her talk after she was named Mrs. South Carolina but before she was named Mrs. United States at a “Community Connections: Let's Talk Depression” event. The foundation launched this program earlier this year. Its goals are to educate community leaders about depression and to help link individuals with depression to treatment resources (Psychiatric News, May 2).

“I am thrilled that Dr. Gunter was crowned Mrs. United States 2008,” Nioka Campbell, M.D., the psychiatry residency training director at the University of South Carolina, told Psychiatric News. “I believe that she will provide a new face for psychiatry in the public, which in itself will combat the stigma that exists.”

“Gariane is immediately like an old acquaintance with whom you feel comfortable even after a long absence, the type of person you would readily welcome as a next-door neighbor,” Leslie Frinks, M.D., an assistant professor of clinical psychiatry at the University of South Carolina, noted.“ As her supervisor, I have seen her progress over the past year. I have been nothing short of amazed at her ability to establish rapport with even the most difficult patients and then to aid them in the pursuit of psychological growth.... I am ecstatic about her reign as Mrs. United States and her platform. What an innovative way to capture an audience that we may not otherwise reach.”

Indeed, “Gariane has a genuine and warm personality,” Jennifer Heath, M.D., a child and adolescent psychiatrist at the University of South Carolina, said. “She is truly a beautiful person inside and out. She is the perfect person to advocate for our patients.” ▪