January 1st, 2015
By Pamela Berard
As 2014 came to a close, interviewing for a new executive director of the Massachusetts Psychological Association was underway. Operations Manager Pamela Goodspeed, who is serving as interim executive director during the search, says the MPA would continue to accept resumes for the position through the end of January, if need be, until the position is filled. “When the right candidate is here, the timetable will move quickly,” Goodspeed says. Former Executive Director Elena Eisman, Ed.D., who also served as director of professional affairs, stepped down from her post a year ago, after more than 20 years in the role. [More]
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January 1st, 2015
By Phyllis Hanlon
On Oct. 1, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) conducted a follow-up visit to the Brattleboro Retreat after previous inspections in June and August revealed conditions that jeopardized patients’ safety. Staff interviews and record reviews at that time found the hospital not to be in compliance with “Conditions of Participation: Governing Body, Patient Rights and Quality Assurance/Performance Improvement,” according to the CMS survey report. Brattleboro Retreat developed a Plan of Correction that addressed three specific issues: a patient who had wrapped an elastic bandage around the neck; an unattended patient who attempted to drown in a bathtub; and [More]
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January 1st, 2015
By Rivkela Brodsky
As more states move toward legalizing the use of medical marijuana, the timing is right for researchers to start examining the impact of the substance on the brain. Thanks to a $500,000 grant from best-selling author and mental health advocate Patricia Cornwell, researchers at McLean Hospital and Harvard Medical School are launching a study on the effects of medical marijuana on the mind. “It’s a new thing to look at the impact of medical marijuana on cognition, brain structure and function,” says Staci Gruber, Ph.D., lead investigator, director of the Cognitive and Clinical Neuroimaging Core at McLean Hospital and associate [More]
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January 1st, 2015
By Catherine Robertson Souter
From Beethoven to Vincent Van Gogh to Sylvia Plath, the path to creative greatness is strewn with men and women who are said to have suffered from mental health disorders. At least in popular culture, the line between creativity and mental illness has long been a fine one. As far back as Aristotle, it was believed that madness was connected with genius and that the “Muse” was strongest in those who were unstable. Current researchers, including Shelley Carson, Ph.D., associate of the department of psychology and lecturer in extension at Harvard University, have a different take on the issue. While [More]
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January 1st, 2015
By Paul Efthim PhD
“The Ethics of Private Practice: A Practical Guide for Mental Health Clinicians” By Jeffrey E. Barnett, Jeffrey Zimmerman & Steven Walfish Oxford University Press New York, N.Y., 2014 Authors emphasize practical business matters in ethics book Reviewed by Paul Efthim, Ph.D. What would you rather do: (a) read a book about ethics or (b) take castor oil? Either way, we fear it’ll taste like bitter medicine administered by punitive authorities for the purpose of ensuring internal cleanliness. It doesn’t have to be this way. Connecticut psychologist Jeffrey Zimmerman, Ph.D., ABPP, together with colleagues Jeffrey Barnett, Psy.D., ABPP and Steven [More]
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January 1st, 2015
By James K Luiselli EdD ABPP BCBA-D
“Autism Spectrum Disorder: A Clinical Guide for General Practitioners” By V. Mark Durand American Psychological Association Washington, D.C., 2014 Readable volume suitable for wide audience Reviewed by James K. Luiselli, Ed.D., ABPP, BCBA-D V. Mark Durand, a highly regarded clinician and researcher in the area of autism spectrum disorder, wrote this book “to provide background on ASD and outline decision points that help clarify when a clinician has the requisite skills to help and when a referral to a specialist is needed.” At 132 pages, it is a slim book but one loaded with information to assist a broad [More]
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January 1st, 2015
By Alan Bodnar Ph.D.
It was time for her annual review and she had been transferred only recently to my unit. A year in the hospital and this was the first time we would be talking together. The nurse pointed me in the direction of a woman sitting in the TV room in her bathrobe and slippers. We were strangers to each other and I can only imagine how odd it must have seemed to her when I explained that I would like to speak with her about her past year in the hospital. To my delight, the woman smiled and followed my lead [More]
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December 1st, 2014
By Phyllis Hanlon
Government officials attired in hazmat suits; dead bodies under blankets; hospital personnel wearing facemasks, gowns and head coverings – images like these have flashed across the front pages of newspapers and television screens across the country since word of the devastating Ebola epidemic in West Africa broke. Once the illness arrived in the United States, news stories became personal for some individuals. But psychologists urge watchfulness, rather than panic, when it comes to the possibility of an extensive outbreak. An Oct. 14 poll conducted by the Kaiser Family Foundation reports that 73 percent of Americans believe that Ebola will be [More]
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December 1st, 2014
By Janine Weisman
A 55-year-old patient with high cholesterol, high blood pressure and chronic depression potentially may have three entities overseeing his health care – his employer-sponsored health plan, a behavioral health manager and a pharmacy benefits manager. If only the entities communicated with each other. An example of how this scenario might play out is if the patient’s depression worsens and he ignores a message from his pharmacy benefits manager to replenish his supply of ACE-inhibitors and beta blockers prescribed by his primary care physician. The patient then becomes suicidal and ends up in the emergency room where his Managed Behavioral Healthcare [More]
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December 1st, 2014
By Rivkela Brodsky
Just getting that first appointment with a private psychiatrist is a difficult process and having insurance doesn’t make it easier, according to a new study by Harvard Medical School researchers. “Having insurance does not mean having access to care,” says J. Wesley Boyd, M.D., Ph.D., senior author of the study, an attending psychiatrist at Cambridge Health Alliance and an assistant clinical professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School. The study, published online in October by Psychiatric Services, found that access to outpatient psychiatric services in Boston, Houston and Chicago was scarce even if the patient had private insurance or was [More]
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