New England Psychologist
Connecticut Medical Center opens new pediatric facility
By Eileen Weber
Connecticut Children’s Medical Center in Hartford, Conn. is one of two units in New England and the only one in Connecticut that provides both pediatric and psychiatric services. With its grand opening of the Medical Psychiatric Integrated Care Unit in January, this 12-bed facility focuses on patients who often need access to healthcare for multiple issues. The unit, for children ages six to 17, boasts private rooms with bathrooms; a community space; rehabilitative gym; and private treatment rooms. For each… Read more »
Leading Stories
Connecticut Medical Center opens new pediatric facility
Text line option offered by Rutland Mental Health Services Community Care Network
Rhode Island joins PSYPACT to increase providers, decrease wait times
CT makes recommendations to improve children’s behavioral health
Harvard recruits influencers to share mental health information
Gender-affirming LGBTQ+ high school to open in Berkshires Farming, the arts are specialty areas
Youth trauma, staffing shortages impacting residential schools
New center uses technology to identify, mitigate suicide risk
The League School’s neurodiversity project relies on community, business partnerships
NY ban on corporal punishment sparks awareness of practice
Cartwheel receives $20 million for school mental health
Poll: Less than half of Gen Z Americans are thriving
‘Stress in America’ survey shows adults have collective trauma
NH child advocate lobbies for lawmakers to rethink abuse, neglect placements
Practical Practice
Make me an offer: How third-party negotiators suppress out of network claims
By Ellen Anderson, Ph.D
As sensational as this title may sound, in August of 2023, AdventHealth brought an antitrust lawsuit against MultiPlan, Inc. a third-party business that negotiates out of network insurance claims between health care providers and insurance companies. The details of the lawsuit are available online. AdventHealth refers repeatedly to the “MultiPlan Cartel.” I became familiar with MultiPlan last year after I resigned from the panel of an insurance company but continued to submit electronic claims on behalf of existing clients who… Read more »
Marketing to the public versus peers
By Ellen Anderson, Ph.D
When I began my career, in the early 1990s, word of mouth, recommendations from health providers and insurance provider directories were the primary methods I used to find a therapist in independent practice. Psychologists promoted new psychotherapeutic approaches by speaking at conferences, writing manuscripts, and books. In the digital age, there is an inordinate amount of competing content, but it seems that most people still seek out a psychologist through personal referral, recommendation from a health provider, or via an… Read more »
The overscheduled practitioner
By Ellen Anderson, Ph.D
“People don’t change.” This was relayed to me within my first week on the job by a psychologist, 30 years older than myself. As a researcher, he had some basis for this statement and was referring to enduring behavior patterns, such as my tendency to take on too much and predictably, feel overwhelmed. Over the course of our 30-year friendship, this has remained a fundamental disagreement between us. Psychotherapy is based on the premise that people are capable of change!… Read more »
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Interview of the Month
Different types of trauma affecting children
By Catherine Robertson Souter
Food, housing insecurity among factors We know that major trauma can have a long-term effect on a child’s development, both physically and mentally. The loss of a parent, living through an environmental or man-made disaster, abuse, neglect, or abandonment can all impact a child or adolescent’s wellbeing and mental health. Over the past few decades, psychology has come to see that other types of trauma, sometimes referred to as “trauma with a small t,” can also change the trajectory of… Read more »
Older Interviews...
Publisher's Note by John M. Grohol, Psy.D.
Here’s to what 2024 holds
With another passing year, I look forward to what 2024 brings—especially because 2023 has been something else. We’ve seen the economy struggle and incomes shrink. We’ve watched the political scene denigrate, all the while clinicians struggle with the challenges of working with people who often seem disconnected from their own lives. Youth trauma seems to be rising, as we note in our primary article highlighting the challenges facing residential schools in the New England region. And staffing shortages don’t seem… Read more »
Changing times require adaptation
Changing times require flexibility and resilience in clinical practice. The old ways of doing things are not always going to be keeping with the times and the needs of clients. Take, for instance, the rising expectations of patients to be able to communicate with you in-between sessions, whether it is through texting, a messaging app, Facetime, or email. Psychologists are taught that such between-session communications are generally frowned upon. Yet increasingly, more and more patients expect them. Rather than an… Read more »
Older Publisher's Notes...
In Person with Alan Bodnar, Ph.D.
My life with telescopes
“You have a telescope! Use it much? What can you see? Can we take it outside and look at the moon?” Our visitor is asking about the telescope in the corner or our living room and his enthusiasm is infectious. It revives my own, which has been dampened by a combination of aging eyes and increasing light pollution. Don’t get me wrong. I still enjoy seeing some of the more popular and, by now, familiar sights in the universe. Close… Read more »
Unplugged
I am writing today by the dim light filtering into the room from a troubled sky. The rain has been constant since yesterday and the trees, stripped of their leaves, sway with menace in winds that howl like a freight train, alternately approaching and receding from my safe perch in the little room at the top of the stairs. Half an hour ago, my wife and I were having our morning coffee while catching up on the news from television,… Read more »