March 1st, 2017
By Pamela Berard
Patients having mental health emergencies who require hospital admission wait nearly four times longer for an inpatient bed than their medical counterparts, according to a study published in Annals of Emergency Medicine. Additionally, mental health patients waited more than five times as long for transfer to another facility, according to the study, “Analysis of Emergency Department Length of Stay for Mental Health Patients at Ten Massachusetts Emergency Departments.” “Boarding, the practice of prolonged waiting in the emergency department for an inpatient hospital bed or transfer to another facility, is a pervasive public health problem that disproportionately affects mental health patients,” [More]
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November 1st, 2014
By Howard Newman
Because of an increasing demand for treatment of eating disorders in Boston’s North Shore area, Walden Behavioral Care, LLC has opened a new clinic in Peabody, Mass. Walden Behavioral Care, is a private psychiatric hospital based in Waltham, Mass., and includes satellite facilities in Braintree, Worcester and Northampton, Mass., as well as South Windsor, Conn. Serving patients in New England and New York, the regional facility provides inpatient, residential, partial hospitalization and intensive outpatient treatment for eating disorders. Full-time hospitalization and 24-hour care are available in the Waltham facility. Paula Vass, LICSW, senior vice president of clinical operations at Walden [More]
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July 1st, 2015
By Howard Newman
Seven years ago, Walden Behavioral Care LLC opened its first satellite facility in Northampton, Mass.. Walden Behavioral Care provides inpatient, residential, partial hospitalization and intensive outpatient treatment for eating disorders. Now there are five satellite facilities, two more planned openings this year and a move by the Northampton clinic to nearby Amherst. The relocation to 100 University Drive., Amherst, provides convenience, better parking, 70 percent more space and a warmer, friendlier atmosphere. This new clinic opened for business in mid-May, has nine staff and is currently serving around 20 clients. “We had really outgrown our previous space,” said Program Director [More]
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November 1st, 2017
By Eileen Weber
The statistics for eating disorders in the LGBTQ community are unsettling. According to the International Journal of Eating Disorders, 42 percent of men with this issue identify as gay or bisexual. The National Eating Disorder Association (NEDA) states that gay, lesbian, and bisexual people report binge-eating and purging as young as 12-years-old. Many seeking treatment for an eating disorder also have a co-occurring disorder – anything from anxiety and depression to obsessive compulsive disorder or posttraumatic stress disorder. Statistics from the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse also show that up to 35 percent of people who abuse alcohol [More]
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May 12th, 2019
By Catherine Robertson Souter
In the country’s convoluted health care system, forging a path towards recovery can be frustrating at best and a setup for failure at worst. A patchwork system, grown organically over the years as need arises or funding is available, US health care encompasses a wide variety of services, both public and private, for and not-for-profit. It can be overwhelming for individuals trying to navigate and find help for themselves or loved ones, especially for mental health services. With its whole person approach, Walden Behavioral Care, a Waltham, Massachusetts-based mental health care system that specializes in treating eating disorders, looks to [More]
Tags: interview, treatment, behavioral health, psychiatric hospital, Q&A, mental health care, Walden Behavioral Care, eating disorders
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July 15th, 2011
By Edward Stern J.D.
What is justice? This question has been the basis of a debate since the conclusion of the cases resulting from the harassment and suicide of Phoebe Prince in South Hadley, Mass. This case has been used to support the need for the new anti-bullying law in Massachusetts (see “In Wake of Suicides, Anti-Bullying Bill Passed,” New England Psychologist, June 2010). Bullying deals with persistent or unreasonable hurtful acts against another of unequal power. The six defendants faced different charges. The charges were begun under a district attorney who was no longer in office at the time of the trial. According [More]
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October 9th, 2019
By Margarita Tartakovsky, MS
In response to the devastating effects of the opioid crisis on kids’ mental health, the non-profit service agency Wayside Youth & Family Support Network recently launched the Children Impacted by Substances (CIS) program. The program is part of Wayside’s Trauma Intervention Services in Milford. The CIS program serves clients in Middlesex, Norfolk, and Worcester counties, which includes 26 surrounding towns. According to Massachusetts Department of Public Health data, between 2010 and 2018, Middlesex had the highest number of opioid-related deaths. Worcester had the third highest. The CIS program can serve youth between ages five and 18 who’ve been affected by [More]
Tags: kids mental health, opioid crisis, Wayside Youth & Family Support Network, Children Impacted by Substances, Middlesex County, Norfolk County, Worcester county
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August 21st, 2015
By Rivkela Brodsky
A new Web site for tracking parity state by state was announced during the opening session of the third annual Kennedy Forum National Conference held in Boston in June. ParityTrack.org, a project of the Kennedy Forum and the Thomas Scattergood Behavioral Health Foundation, tracks implementation of the Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act of 2008 through reports that analyze legislation, regulatory actions and litigation at federal and state levels, according to information provided by the forum. “It’s to find out where your state stands on the implementation of a federal law that guarantees all your state’s residents who have [More]
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May 28th, 2019
By Catherine Robertson Souter
Setting up a new practice, while potentially rewarding in many ways, can also be stressful and overwhelming. There are decisions to be made, from location and staffing to marketing, hours, and when to open your doors. One of the most important decisions to make for anyone starting out, changing locations, or moving into solo or a new group practice will be whether to accept insurance payments. While there are pros and cons to both sides, it’s a personal decision based on several factors including the practice type, location, and professional goals. No one answer can suit every practice and the [More]
Tags: mental health care, pros and cons, insurance coverage, reimbursement, setting up practice, insurance payments
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November 1st, 2017
By Phyllis Hanlon
Fashion magazines, television shows, movies and other media have promoted the idea that “thin is in” for decades. While there has been a slight shift in thinking recently, bias against larger individuals continues to be an issue that can have medical and psychological consequences. According to Joan C. Chrisler, Ph.D., professor of psychology at Connecticut College, many clinicians don’t understand that a person’s weight is based on several factors, including genetics and physiology, as well as race, gender, age, income and culture, which collectively is known as intersectional identification. Negative attitudes toward weight are also based somewhat on body mass [More]
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