New England Psychologist
NH secures ARPA funds for psych services expansion
By Christina P. O'Neill
The federal American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) has approved $15 million for a $55-$60 million, at least 120-bed standalone hospital project in South Central New Hampshire. SolutionHealth is partnering with the state Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) under a 10-year agreement. Planned opening date is late 2024. Dartmouth-Hitchcock Hospital also won $1 million in ARPA funding, to add five additional psych beds for involuntary emergency admissions (IEA) under a six-year agreement. Completion is expected by August/September 2024. New… Read more »
Leading Stories
Bill for peer specialist Medicaid reimbursement fails
How can psychologists help kids in aftermath of school shootings?
Mass. seeks legislation to implement involuntary outpatient commitment
VT bill targets mental healthcare in interstate counseling compact
Social connection, work-life balance are keys to happiness
Practical Practice
Pay it forward
By Ellen Anderson, Ph.D
Why is it that no one ever calls me back? This is a statement that I hear nearly every day from people searching for mental health services. I’m in agreement. It is mystifying that phone calls from people searching for clinicians go unanswered. If psychologists could do one thing to improve public perception, it should be to assist people who ask us how to access a therapist. Full disclosure, there have been times when I have not returned phone calls… Read more »
Health Information Exchange: What does it mean for psychologists?
By Ellen Anderson, Ph.D
Are you aware that mental health treatment might be included as part of your state’s health information exchange (HIE)? All New England states have an HIE as part of the federal Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act of 2009. The goals of the HITECH Act are to improve quality, safety, and efficiency of health care; engage patients in their own care; increase coordination of care; improve population health; as well as ensure privacy and security. Each… Read more »
Do psychologists reject board certification?
By Ellen Anderson, Ph.D
Warren Buffet has been quoted as saying, “Everyone has a circle of competence. The important thing is not how big the circle is. The important thing is staying inside the circle.” All health care professionals are legally and ethically obligated to practice within the scope of their knowledge, skill and experience. Given this obligation, is there a need for board certification to establish a psychologist’s expertise in a specialty area(s)? If board certification is desirable, why are fewer than five… Read more »
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Interview of the Month
Psychological tools used to achieve equity in workplace
By Catherine Robertson Souter
In the wake of the 2020 murder in Minneapolis of George Floyd, the country saw a rise in protests and in resulting conversations around systemic racism. At this same time, the business world saw a correlating increase in focus on using psychological tools as more than a way to improve market share but to also achieve a more equitable workplace, and with that, a more equitable society. For as long as humans have worked, their bosses have used psychology to… Read more »
Older Interviews...
Publisher's Note by John M. Grohol, Psy.D.
AI, ChatGPT & Their Psychological Future
ll you hear on the news these days is talk about A.I. – artificial intelligence. What has got everyone excited is Open AI’s release of a chatbot – computer software that interacts with humans via texting – that utilizes artificial intelligence in a manner previously unseen. ChatGPT is a tool that utilizes something called generative pre-trained transformer (the GPT portion in its name) family of language models. This allows it to interact with people as though it too were a… Read more »
A focus on residential schools and post-pandemic challenges
In our annual residential schools special issue and directory, I’m pleased to see these important treatment resources are recovering from the challenging times of the pandemic. The pandemic created an increased demand for the services offered by these facilities, and they are still adapting to the new normal. This year, the special Residential Schools Directory is included within the middle of this issue. You can easily pull it out and keep it as a year-long resource for your clinical needs.… Read more »
Older Publisher's Notes...
In Person with Alan Bodnar, Ph.D.
The joy of reading
“Some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some few to be chewed and digested…” – Francis Bacon Tasted, swallowed, and digested – I’ve done them all. Though I can’t remember when or how I learned to read, I imagine it happened in the usual way with a first-grade primer and a story about a dog named Spot. Perhaps my mother sat down with me when I brought the book home from school and helped me sound… Read more »
Finding the light
In March, I wrote about the challenge of walking in the dark, finding our way in life through a series of decisions guided in each case by unreliable and insufficient information. We are not prescient and we cannot expect to fully understand the implications of our decisions before we act. “Life moves forwards,” as Kierkegaard said, “but can only be understood backwards.” The world moves fast, and we have to live on its timetable, not our own. And so we… Read more »