Leading Stories, Articles
Rhode Island Foundation awards grants to non-profit organizations focused on behavioral health
By Margarita Tartakovsky, MS
In May, the Rhode Island Foundation awarded $2.6 million in grants to six non-profit organizations to fund behavioral health care services in the state. According to Jenny Pereira, vice president of the grant program at the R.I. Foundation, behavioral health is a high priority. In August 2018, the Office of the Health Insurance Commissioner created the Behavioral Health Fund with funding from Blue Cross & Blue Shield of Rhode Island. The latter has committed to providing $5 million in funding. Overall, their focus is on preventing behavioral health problems before they arise, and identifying conditions or concerns in their earliest [More]
Tags: mental health issues, mental illness, behavioral health, Rhode Island Foundation, grants, non-profit organizations, alcohol use, post-traumatic stress
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NH aims to reduce emergency boarding
By Catherine Robertson Souter
As part of a much broader plan to institute changes to a mental health care system that has seen serious degradation over the past three decades, the New Hampshire legislature recently passed a bill aimed at addressing the issue of emergency room boarding for men and women facing mental health crises. The bill was signed into law by Governor Chris Sununu in late May. New Hampshire’s mental health care system was once listed as the second best in the country according to the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill (NAMI) but had sunk to 32nd by 2011 (and risen slightly [More]
Tags: New Hampshire, treatment, legislation, hospitals, mental health crisis, emergency room boarding, mental health care system
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Specialists address the complexities of treating women’s emotional health
By Phyllis Hanlon
Statistics show that women are twice as likely as men to experience depression and several types of anxiety; females are also approximately nine times more likely to have eating disorders than males. But women may present with complexities that require therapy from psychologists who specialize in treating this population. Wendy F. Habelow, Ph.D, owner of Beacon Behavioral Services, LLC in West Hartford, Connecticut, certified mediator and collaborative divorce coach, said that only a woman can truly understand what other women are experiencing. Embracing a feminist perspective on life and in therapy, she believes there is “personal and professional value in [More]
Tags: therapy, depression, anxiety, support, eating disorders, emotional health, women's health, feminist perspective, empowering women, medication
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Massachusetts bans conversion therapy for minors
By Eileen Weber
Massachusetts became the 16th state to ban conversion therapy, a method attempting to change a person’s sexual orientation or gender identity by treating it as if it’s a mental illness. Sometimes referred to as “reparative therapy,” tactics range from shaming the person to using painful physical stimulation like electric shocks. In early April, Governor Charlie Baker signed into law a bill banning licensed health care professionals from providing this practice to anyone under 18. Fifteen other states and Washington D.C. have already banned conversion therapy, with California being the first in 2012. Massachusetts joins Vermont, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and [More]
Tags: Massachusetts, conversion therapy, ban, reparative therapy, shaming, electric shock, Casey Pick, GLBTQ Legal Advocates & Defenders, mistreatment, lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender
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Vermont’s medication assisted treatment program shows encouraging results
By Catherine Robertson Souter
For the first time since 1918 during WWI when a flu pandemic swept the nation, life expectancy in the U.S. has dropped for each of the last three years. Suicide and drug overdose are edging the country downward. According to the Centers for Disease Control, there were 72,000 drug overdoses in 2017, up from 63,000 in 2016. New England has seen its fair share of the crisis, with New Hampshire among the worst in the county with a rate of 34 deaths per 100,000 in 2017, more than double the national average of 14.6. Vermont saw a rate of 20 [More]
Tags: opioid addiction, Vermont, mental health services, drug overdoses, Hub and Spoke System of Care, medication-assisted treatment
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R.I. bill to mandate suicide prevention training for school staff faces quiet hurdles
By Janine Weisman
On the first day of spring, they came to the Rhode Island Statehouse. Many were students from Portsmouth High School who formed the suicide prevention group Every Student Initiative. They were there to support a bill before the House Committee of Health, Education and Welfare. The bill was called The Nathan Bruno and Jason Flatt Act. Bruno, 15, a Portsmouth High School sophomore, died on Feb. 7, 2018. Flatt died on July 16, 1997, at age 16 in Nashville, Tennessee. The proposed legislation that bears their names would establish mandatory youth suicide awareness and prevention training for all public school [More]
Tags: Rhode Island, suicide prevention training, Every Student Initiative, Nathan Bruno and Jason Flatt Act, Rep. Terri Cortvriend, Nathan Bruno, ostracized, bullied
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CT bill supporting prescriptive authority fails; to be re-submitted
By Margarita Tartakovsky, MS
David Greenfield’s office manager called 19 psychiatrists before she found one to return her call. This situation is not uncommon, according to Greenfield, Ph.D, an assistant clinical professor of psychiatry at the University of Connecticut School of Medicine, and founder and medical director for The Center for Internet and Technology Addiction in West Hartford. “We see this every day,” said Greenfield, whose practice receives daily calls from individuals looking for a prescriber. Connecticut, like many states, has a shortage of psychiatric medication prescribers. That shortfall means that people often have to wait weeks or even months for an appointment, Greenfield [More]
Tags: Connecticut, prescriptive authority, psychiatric meds, Sen. Mary Abrams, SB966, mental health practitioners
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Psychologists find inpatient autism treatment complex, challenging
By Phyllis Hanlon
Growing awareness, mandatory early screening and changes to the diagnostic criteria have collectively contributed to an increase in the number of autism diagnoses. For the most part, patients with a diagnosis on the autism spectrum are managed on an outpatient basis. But, in some cases, hospitalization is necessary. Barbara Tylenda, Ph.D, ABPP, chief psychologist to Bradley Hospital’s Center for Autism and Developmental Disabilities (CADD), said that individuals with autism who need hospitalization are “…just like their neurotypical counterparts…” but can no longer be home or in school because of aggressive, self-injurious, or some other maladjusted behavior. Tylenda is also a [More]
Tags: inpatient, autism treatment, challenges, Applied Behavior Analysis, psychiatric diagnoses, autism spectrum disorder, comorbid conditions
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Butler Hospital research seeks to identify people in pre-clinical stage of Alzheimer’s
By Margarita Tartakovsky, MS
Currently, 5.8 million Americans are living with Alzheimer’s disease. By 2050, that total is expected to increase to nearly 14 million. Between 2000 and 2017, deaths from heart disease decreased by nine percent; deaths from Alzheimer’s increased by 145 percent.Butler Hospital in Rhode Island is among the institutions working to shrink those statistics. Butler has been researching dementia for 25 years. In the last several years, research at Butler Hospital Memory & Aging Program (MAP) has shifted to identifying people in the pre-clinical stage of dementia, even individuals who are at risk but haven’t developed symptoms yet, said Athene Lee, [More]
Tags: research, dementia, alzheimer's, Butler Hospital, memory loss research, biomarkers
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Telepsychology: Is it the future of treatment?
By Catherine Robertson Souter
Technology has become an integral part of our daily world. We ask Alexa about the weather, tell Siri to place a phone call and use voice recognition software to write emails. How far a step is it, then, to reach out to a therapist via technology? Telepsychology, or telehealth, the practice of providing psychological services over telecommunication equipment, is not exactly a new facet of the profession. Since video conferencing equipment was first developed in the 1990s, there has been a slow, but steady, expansion of therapists who offer the option. Insurance coverage has been a bit slow to follow, [More]
Tags: therapy, treatment, technology, Relationship, Telepsychology, telehealth, computer
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