Articles, Leading Stories

April 1st, 2022

Vermont aims to ‘stop the bleeding’

By Phyllis Hanlon

Vermont is experiencing a serious staffing shortage, according to January data, which showed a 58.8 percent staffing vacancy rate, an increase from pre-pandemic...

July 10th, 2021

VT legislature calls for action to address ED boarding

By Catherine Robertson Souter

In 2020, the state of Vermont was ranked first in the nation for access to mental health care in Mental Health America’s annual state-by-state rankings. Yet, this spring,...

October 7th, 2020

Woodside’s fate remains up in the air

By New England Psychologist Staff

The fate of Woodside Juvenile Rehabilitation Center, Vermont’s only juvenile detention facility, is up in the air.

While state officials work to figure out what’s...

April 19th, 2020

Vermont mental health services for children doubles in last two decades

By Eileen Weber

In the past two decades, the number of young people 18 and under accessing mental health services has doubled. A recent report showed that one in three children in the state...

January 4th, 2020

VT legislators seek to close gap in criminal justice, mental health systems

By Phyllis Hanlon

August 28th, 2019

Dismissal of three legal insanity cases causes stir in VT

By Eileen Weber

Three cases—two murder and one attempted murder—were dismissed in Vermont’s Chittenden County by State’s Attorney Sarah George as a result of legal insanity...

August 26th, 2019

Mt. Ascutney Hospital adopts program to benefit families

By Margarita Tartakovsky, MS

Like the rest of the U.S., Vermont has been hit hard by the opioid crisis. Windsor County has seen a...

May 28th, 2019

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...

March 9th, 2019

Vermont’s new mental health commissioner Sarah Squirrell ready to face challenges

By Margarita Tartakovsky, MS

Like many states, Vermont is in dire need of mental health reform. Sarah Squirrell, Vermont’s newest mental health commissioner, said there are no easy answers to the complex...