March 23rd, 2020
By Alan Bodnar Ph.D.
The man is smiling now, released from the grip of the terrible depression that brought him to the hospital so many years ago. He smiles often as he anticipates his next trip to a restaurant in the city with his social worker. Movement from the locked hospital setting to the community is slow. Evaluations for safety must be completed, tribunals of experts convinced, judges brought on board, permissions given, obstacles anticipated, solutions planned, and steps taken, one at a time, into the wider world. He has run the course of illness and recovery, guilt and forgiveness, and has begun the [More]
Tags: emotion, mental illness, depression, treatment, patient, Dr. Bodnar, time, kindness, self understanding
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January 4th, 2020
By Alan Bodnar Ph.D.
One day last fall, my colleague Martin asked if I had seen what had become of the hospital where we used to work. Martin is the hospital’s memory, and his passion for history and the natural world makes him someone I take very seriously. So, when he told me that they had turned the place into luxury condos, I had to go and see for myself. Later that same afternoon, I turned off the main street onto the hospital road and into a landscape that bore little resemblance to the grounds I had walked with my patients for nearly two [More]
Tags: mental illness, hospital, treatment, memories, Dr. Alan Bodnar, remembering, time passage
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November 4th, 2019
By Catherine Robertson Souter
E-cigarettes were originally introduced as a tool to help cigarette smokers quit. It was probably a sign of things to come, though, when retailers set up booths in shopping malls to reach clients. Flash forward 13 years from when the products were introduced to the United States, to where the market for e-cigarettes has seen unparalleled growth, a new nickname, “vaping,” and devices that no longer resemble the cigarette of yore. With greater awareness around teens using the products in schools and a recent spate of as-yet-unexplained lung-related illness and deaths, vaping has been more in the news in the [More]
Tags: interview, treatment, teens, vaping, health issues, e-cigarette addiction, lung-related illness, Dr. Suchitra Krishnan-Sarin
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October 10th, 2019
By Catherine Robertson Souter
According to the Centers for Disease Control, one in 59 children will be diagnosed with autism, many by age four. This number has grown over the past few decades, perhaps because of greater recognition or to changes made in the diagnostic criteria. And, right along with the increase in prevalence, the amount of research being done on the disorder has expanded. But, as is typical with research in many fields, the path from the laboratory to the clinician’s office is not always a straight line. Getting that information out to organizations, schools, and practitioners is key, said Cynthia M. Anderson, [More]
Tags: treatment, stigma, Q&A, best practices, autism spectrum disorder, expert interview, autism research, SAAGE, lack of funding, schools
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July 5th, 2019
By Susan Gonsalves
Inpatients with a range of mental health disorders reported improvements in mood and self-image following participation in an exercise and nutrition program at the University of Vermont Medical Center. Lead author David Tomasi, Ph.D., Ed.D-Ph.D, said that implementation of the research program was a natural progression of the “integrative modalities,” UVMC has used before in its clinical psychology practice. Tai chi, free body movement, and psycho education topics like self-esteem were incorporated into patient care. “We are pretty unique in that the University of Vermont has always been one of the first pioneers of natural-based, integrative approaches,” Tomasi said. In [More]
Tags: treatment, exercise program, patient care, David Tomasi Ph.D, natural-based approach, integrative approach, bipolar, schizophrenia, borderline personality, psychosis, mental health benefit
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July 5th, 2019
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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May 12th, 2019
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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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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October 2nd, 2018
By Phyllis Hanlon
In 2009, the Rhode Island Department of Children, Youth and Families (DCYF) opened the Roosevelt Benton Center and the Thomas C. Slater Training School (also called the Youth Development Center) as an “intake and assessment center for non-adjudicated youth,” according to Kerri White, MA, Rhode Island’s DCYF communications director. Last year, Eleanor Slater Hospital acquired and renovated the facility to serve a different population. White explained that, in conjunction with the Youth Development Center, the $62 million Benton Center was intended to house youth for juvenile detention; some of whom may have diagnosed mental health needs. Initially, the Benton Center [More]
Tags: youth, treatment, psychiatric patients, DCYF, mental health assessment, clinical social worker, pyschiatrist, correctional detention, Roosevelt Benton Center
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August 30th, 2018
By Catherine Robertson Souter
It would surprise no one that children who have been mistreated or have been subjected to another form of trauma would experience repercussions. It makes sense that trauma can result in symptoms that look like behavioral disorders, oppositional defiant disorders, anxiety, depression, or ADHD. Yet, for many children the symptoms are treated as not being related to their traumatic experiences. As part of an on-going research project, Julian D. Ford, Ph.D, A.B.P.P., professor of psychiatry and law at the University of Connecticut and director of the Center for Trauma Recovery and Juvenile Justice, and colleagues Joseph Spinazzola, Ph.D. and Bessel [More]
Tags: children, PTSD, kids, interview, treatment, research, family separation, Developmental trauma disorder, symptoms, study, National Child Traumatic Stress Network
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