Articles, Leading Stories

July 1st, 2012

Psychiatric patients face lengthy ED waits

By Pamela Berard

Psychiatric patients who visit an Emergency Department (ED) may face a lengthy wait.

A recent study of 1,092 patients seeking psychiatric help at five Boston-area...

July 1st, 2012

VA adding 1,900 mental health staff

By Janine Weisman

Increasing demand for mental health services has the Department of Veterans Affairs looking to add 1,900 new positions to its mental health workforce as part of an ongoing...

July 1st, 2012

Vermont decreasing use of restraints during transport

By Pamela Berard

The state of Vermont is renewing efforts to decrease the use of restraints on mentally ill residents who are involuntarily put in state care.

State law – passed in...

July 1st, 2012

Commission to re-visit needs of veterans

By Catherine Robertson Souter

The growing incidence of traumatic brain injury (TBI) and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in veterans has received a large amount of press in recent years. Still,...

July 1st, 2012

Policy changes affect isolation for prisoners with mental illness

By Phyllis Hanlon

On March 12, 2012, after a five-year legal battle, the Disability Law Center, Inc. (DLC) in Massachusetts earned a victory for inmates with mental illness who face long-term...

July 1st, 2012

R.I. grant will grow jobs for people with behavior, abuse disorders

By Jennifer E Chase

Rhode Island has received $103,000 from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) to help improve the Ocean State’s jobs forecast for people with...

July 1st, 2012

Connecticut’s suicide increase tied to bad economy

By Janine Weisman

Is the bad economy to blame for a significant rise in Connecticut’s suicides documented this past spring by the state’s chief medical examiner?

Experts suggest such...

July 1st, 2012

Special needs camps put fun back in summer

By Jennifer E Chase

Summertime is supposed to be fun; but for kids with medical, learning or mental health problems clouding their days, the same issues they fight during the school year – low...

July 1st, 2012

New divisions proposed for APA

By Phyllis Hanlon

The American Psychological Association (APA) currently has 54 divisions that cover a wide spectrum of psychological areas. That may change, however, if the Council of...

July 1st, 2012

Psychologist is diversity specialist, novelist

By Catherine Robertson Souter

They say that everyone has a novel in them and, for Deborah Plummer, Ph.D., getting that novel out onto paper started as escapism and turned into a well received novel about a...