Leading Stories, Articles
Bridgewater State Hospital to enhance treatment services
By Pamela Berard
Bridgewater State Hospital, Massachusetts’ only secure psychiatric hospital for adult males, which houses and treats mentally ill men either charged with or convicted of a crime, would see major changes under a plan unveiled by Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker’s administration. The state is soliciting proposals from private vendors to provide “enhanced medical and mental health treatment for patients” at the medium-security prison, which has faced controversy in recent years surrounding the treatment and deaths of patients. According to the Request for Response (RFR), the vendor must have extensive knowledge of treating individuals with serious behavioral health needs. Under the plan, [More]
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Chief medical officer resigns from New Hampshire Hospital
By Catherine Robertson Souter
After a tumultuous seven months that has seen a number of resignations of hospital staff, the New Hampshire Department of Health and Human Services recently announced the imminent departure of New Hampshire Hospital’s chief medical officer, David Folks, M.D. The hospital and two other mental health facilities in the state had, until June 30 of this year, been staffed under a contract with Dartmouth College and its Geisel School of Medicine. After Dartmouth College decided to end its contract, the state put out a bid for a new manager of the facilities. The only bidder was Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center, a [More]
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Grant aims to build trauma sensitivity in schools
By Rivkela Brodsky
Providence Children &Youth Cabinet – a coalition of organizations, systems, residents and youth organized around community-generated priorities in Providence, R.I. – received a $1.8 million grant to build trauma sensitivity in schools. “This is a really exciting opportunity for us,” said Rebecca Boxx, director of the Cabinet. “It builds on work we have been doing in Providence for several years now. We have had a focus that was really elevated by our community to address the symptoms of posttraumatic stress disorder and trauma in our neighborhoods and schools. This will allow us to use evidence-based programs in the school setting [More]
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New England Center for Children opens research institute
By Phyllis Hanlon
In 1975, the New England Center for Children (NECC) in Southborough was founded to “transform the lives of children with autism worldwide through education, research and technology.” In the ensuing years, NECC has been successful in achieving its mission. So much so that the agency has just completed an $11 million capital campaign that funded the construction of a new research institute, which was completed in August 2016. NECC held a grand opening celebration on October 17, 2016. The capital campaign for the Autism Institute and Student Center, located on the Southborough campus, launched in 2015 and was co-chaired by [More]
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Survey: Presidential campaign takes toll on workers
By Rivkela Brodsky
The U.S. presidential campaign is taking a toll on workers, according to a recent survey by the American Psychological Association, which found one in four workers were negatively affected by political discussions at work in at least one way. “We do surveys regularly that take the pulse of the U.S. workforce. We look at topics related to people’s experience on the job,” said David Ballard, Psy.D., director of the APA’s Center for Organizational Excellence. “This year, given how heated the election has been and how much this has been consuming conversation everywhere, we thought we’d take a look at how [More]
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Research focuses on physical impacts, genetic roots of PTSD
By Susan Gonsalves
There’s a perception that posttraumatic stress disorder is something suffered by men who go to war. While that is sometimes the case, the disorder is more often experienced by civilians, often women, who have been on the receiving end of sexual and physical violence. Karestan Chase Koenen, Ph.D. has studied that population for years. A professor of psychiatric epidemiology at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, her research focuses on identifying the link between trauma and physical conditions including diabetes, cardiovascular disease (heart disease and stroke), obesity and rheumatoid arthritis. Back in 2008, Koenen and colleagues began working [More]
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New MPA president outlines goals, priorities
By Catherine Robertson Souter
With experience in a number of different areas, Dawn Cisewksi, Psy.D, must have seemed like a perfect fit as the newest president for the Massachusetts Psychological Association. She has worked in academia, at a school of medicine and at a VA hospital. She has done time working in the state prison system and in private practice and currently consults for nursing homes. As an assistant teaching professor at Northeastern University, Cisewski, who took over leadership of the MPA in July after serving a year as president-elect, will continue in the position for two years. She will then act as past-president [More]
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Schools focus on underlying trauma
By Phyllis Hanlon
Residential schools serve as a viable alternative for children with behavioral and emotional issues not adequately addressed in a traditional academic setting. Students present with a variety of issues that range from depression and anxiety to attention deficit disorder and substance abuse and many others in between. In recent years, research and clinical care has shifted away from treating just the diagnosis and now address the underlying trauma that might be at the heart of the child’s problems. Joseph Spinazzola, Ph.D., vice president, Behavioral Health and Trauma Services at the Justice Resource Institute, professor of practice in the department of [More]
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Graduate programs fail to address torture issue
By Janine Weisman
Has the backlash against the participation of military psychologists in harsh interrogations of detainees at Guantánamo Bay Detention Center during the Bush era prompted U.S. doctoral programs in clinical psychology to do more ethics training to prepare graduate students for their careers? Not according to a new study by researchers at Lesley University, Cambridge Health Alliance/Harvard Medical School and other institutions. They sharply criticize the American Psychological Association for encouraging military psychologists to assist with interrogations and subsequently failing to require or even encourage training programs to prepare psychologists to navigate situations where there are conflicting duties to follow orders [More]
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Programs demonstrate alternative approaches to care
By Catherine Robertson Souter
We live in a rapidly evolving world where state-of-the-art quickly becomes yesterday’s news. Beyond tech developments, progress has become the hallmark of everything from efficient appliances to educational tools. The same can be said for mental health care. As health care has turned to more holistic approaches, from “prescribing” stress reduction and exercise to combining physical and mental health services under one roof, alternative methods of psychological care are also taking center stage. In some cases, a backlash against what some consider the over-prescribing of medication has fueled a turn towards clinical treatment that incorporates more community/family approaches to care. [More]
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