Elizabeth Joy is a Registered Nurse with a Bachelor of Science in Nursing degree based in Canada, with clinical experience across pediatric, adult, and geriatric psychiatry, including crisis management and addictions. She works in multiple hospital psych positions, alongside her community work as a nurse therapist for high-risk youth and as a Certified Legal Nurse Consultant. Her clinical practice has since expanded into the USA, where she worked as a travel nurse in pediatric/adolescent psychiatry in Massachusetts.
For the past three years, Elizabeth has built a platform as a content creator through Inked Minds Media, using her voice and visibility to challenge assumptions about who nurses are and what mental health conversations can look like. Her content blends clinical insight with an unapologetically alt, tattooed aesthetic - creating space for authenticity in an industry that often demands conformity. She creates across multiple platforms, translating mental health concepts into accessible, honest conversations for a broad audience, while also using her reach to speak openly about harm reduction, stigma, and the realities of working on the front lines of psychiatric care. That same ethos extends to Inked Minds Design, her apparel brand for tattooed healthcare workers.
We are excited to add Elizabeth to our Board of advisors, we had an opportunity to sit down with her and learn more about her and her motivation.
What’s one key lesson you’ve learned throughout your career that you’d like to share?
“That stigma is often the biggest barrier to care, not the illness itself. Working in psych has taught me that people don’t avoid help because they don’t want it, they avoid it because they’ve been judged for needing it before. The most effective thing I can do as a clinician is remove judgment from the room entirely, so someone actually stays long enough to get help”.
What are a few accomplishments you’re most proud of from your career to date?
“Using my platform to normalize what a nurse actually looks like and proving that visible tattoos and clinical competence aren’t mutually exclusive, which opens the door for more honest conversations with patients who don’t trust “typical” healthcare providers”.
What inspired you to join End Overdose’s Advisory Board?
“My psych background puts me directly in contact with substance use, trauma, and the reality that judgment doesn’t save lives, access does. End Overdose’s approach matched what I already believed clinically; meet people where they are, keep them alive, and worry about the rest after. Joining felt like a natural extension of the work I was already doing, just with a bigger reach”.
