Provided by NothingBetter Health, PLC
Our Values
We Value "NothingBetter"
You simply deserve nothing better than the best possible mental health. The 1st name we came up with is "Queer Ear Mental Health." Why? It's simple you're going to have other queer (LGBTQIA+) ears listening to you every step of the way. Queer ear is an official "dba" of NothingBetter Health PLC, because you deserve nothing better than the best.
Our Diversity Values:
Our staff and vendors all share the same values. We value the diversity of the community we live in and work hard to respect everyone equally. Everyone that works in our office has lived experience as a member of the LGBTQ+ community. Everyone we contract with also takes pride in serving the community, inclusive of the area’s diversity of color, culture, spirit, and values. It actually was harder than expected to find vendors like banks, accountants, and even phone vendors that do more than change a logo for pride month.
Our Value of Patients and Respect:
We have gone to great lengths to choose automation, and our staff/contractors to make sure they all respect the values of our practice. It’s disappointing that few systems acknowledge simple modern standards like pronouns, name instead of legal name, etc. Since we strive to respect all people from all walks of life, if you find something isn’t working for you, let us know to address it to the best of our ability.
Our Value of Price and Staff:
We are working to keep the overhead of his business low and pass that saving on to his patients. Many days it’s just Ed, your PMHNP in the office.
About Ed Stern (he/him/his)
Your Practitioner
Ed (he/him/his) is a cis male who lives a queer life as a divorced pansexual man. He's a sex-positive, open-minded healthcare worker that acknowledges his privilege and has lived his share of hardship. Heck, if you've been to some of the DC hotspots, you might have even seen him there or heard him talk to all sorts of LGBTQIA groups.
Ed provides care to anyone who identifies (or thinks they might) as part of the LGBTQIA+ community. (OMG, he even treats the straight folks.) He offers psychiatric medication management and mental health wellness through a whole-body approach to care. He considers all of you and your life, not just a disease process. Another way to look at it is he looks at the symptoms that impact your life, and then you both agree on how best to treat your needs.
Ask Ed about his life and he'll share the details. He's not shy because he knows others have experienced similar hardship and joy. In fact, if you want to listen to him tell some of his story, listen to the podcast Out with Jimmy. Ed has also taken a variety of training to help him widen his "old cis white guy" understanding of modern queer life, so he does his best not to be "just another cis gay guy."
Ed has a distinguished medical career that started in the 1980s (ok yeah way back then). He started his career in Fire/EMS. Over time, he moved to Nursing, where he’s worked in various specialties, including emergency medicine, trauma medicine, outpatient and hospital administration, and of course, psychiatry.
His psychiatry experience includes inpatient and outpatient care, PHP (partial hospitalization program), and IOP (intensive outpatient program), as well as crisis management. He now is seeing people like you via video-based outpatient telemedicine.
Ed has his Masters of Science in Nursing from Walden University and is Board Certified as a Psychiatric Mental Health Nurse Practitioner (PMHNP-BC) - Across the Age Span. While at Walden he was the co-president of their LGBTQ student organization and he pushed the school to make policy and curriculum changes to be queer expansive. He is licensed and is virtually seeing patients in the District of Columbia, Maryland, and Virginia (soon). (Note: Virginia patients could travel to DC or MD to be seen today. Since these are virtual appointments, the location change is easy for some people).
Ed has spoken at many conferences, is a recurring guest on several podcasts, and has been on TV and in print. He is also the co-host of a radio program on public radio in DC on LGBTQ+ equality, diversity, and adversity. Ed created and hosts “PsychNP Cast,” a podcast designed to educate his peers in mental health.
Below are some samples of this work.