Mental Horizons Podcast

Season 3, Episode 4 of the Mental Horizons Podcast with Delia Cimpean Hendrick, M.D., WestBridge, Manchester, NH. "Achieving Excellence in the Treatment of Co-Occurring Mental Health and Substance Use Disorder" World renowned Delia Cimpean Hendrick, M.D. joins Virgil Stucker on a Mental Horizons podcast to discuss how to achieve excellence in the treatment of co-occurring mental illnesses and substance use disorders. Triple Boarded in psychiatry, addictions and internal medicine, Dr. Delia helps us to envision solutions, in which she has experience as the medical director of WestBridge.org. Learn also how she leads the field in integrating physical health care into their model of comprehensive treatment. Our podcast is now in its third season with over 10,000 vews. Our objective is to bring you conversations with solution-oriented mental health leaders. Please email us if you are, or know, such leaders who would like to be interviewed to Virgil@VirgilStuckerandAssociates.com. Please remember as well to review our solution-oriented book, found on Amazon: A Family Guide to Mental Health Recovery: What You Need to Know from Day One.

Guest: ROCCO MAROTTA, M.D., Ph.D., Silver Hill Hospital, New Canaan CT. Dr. Marotta - “Rocky” - is one of the most compassionate, committed, and creative psychiatrists we have known. He is a leader at Silver Hill Hospital in CT. Our Mental Horizons podcast explores his innovative work and gives insight into what has driven him for decades to help some of the most vulnerable in society. In particular we discuss how use of oxytocin, the ‘love’ hormone, can help people with psychosis.

We are joined by attorney Lisa Cukier, Esq., partner at Burns & Levinson, LLC, who is guiding families to innovative and compassionate short and long-term legal solutions for mental health treatment and recovery during these waves of coronavirus.

This is the first episode of season 3 of Mental Horizons Podcast. In this episode, we learn how residential therapeutic communities may be some of the safest, most effective places for mental health recovery during this fearful time of the COVID-19 crisis and civil unrest. Our guests are Lisanne Finston, leader of Gould Farm in MA, America’s Oldest therapeutic community for individuals recovering from mental illness, Rochelle Rothwell, leader of Rose Hill Center in MI and Eric Levine, leader of the CooperRiis Healing Community in NC. Their nonprofit therapeutic communities are essential resources in mental health recovery, helping hundreds of individuals and families each year to achieve and sustain their highest levels of functioning and fulfillment in life.

Almost over night, most of us have joined both pop-up and professional online communities during this COVID-19 global pandemic. We thrive in community, because humans are meant to live and work in close relationship with others. But what happens when these virtual meetings miss their mark? In this episode of the Mental Horizons Podcast, Virgil describes the Healing Community Matrix tool he designed during his career in nonprofit leadership. It is a tool he has used many times in therapeutic communities to assess the health and wellbeing of its members and their experience of connection (or not) as part of that community.

This special episode is part of our Mental Horizons podcast series responding to the COVID-19 pandemic and how it is impacting the world and, more specifically, the mental health field. Stephanie spoke with Katie Mansfield about trauma resilience in the face of immense stress during the COVID-19 pandemic. They discussed how to recognize trauma and the strategies one can cultivate to cope with adversity. Katie is lead trainer for the Strategies for Trauma Awareness and Resilience (STAR) program within Eastern Mennonite University’s Center for Justice and Peacebuilding.

Brad Richards, psychiatric interventionist, returns to the podcast to share tips around how therapists and medical professionals can best deliver support through online and remote means. In this time of crisis, tele-health is scaling up rapidly, breaking down barriers to delivering care. How does one build connection and rapport across a video screen? Listen as Brad shared specific techniques and tools he uses in his own work to stay connected with clients.

Virgil is joined on the podcast by Brian Hansen, executive director of Spring Lake Ranch. Brian is uniquely qualified to comment on what it takes for organizations and individuals to recover from a crisis or disaster. In this episode, he shared that while organizations are really good at scaling back during a crisis, it's what happens after the initial shock - the slow and careful return to normal life - that is critical to ongoing stability.

In a second conversation in this special series, Virgil spoke with Ross Ellenhorn, PhD, founder of Ellenhorn, a program based in Boston, NYC, and North Carolina. Their conversation opens with much-needed humor and they go on to discuss the responsibility residential programs have to keep their residents safe right now. In addition, Virgil and Dr. Ellenhorn discuss the following topics: Whether Ellenhorn is continuing with admissions - Focusing the therapeutic work on maintaining psychological health and stability - How crisis gets us to think more about the welfare of others - How having a  common enemy (the virus) unites people - How social distancing is calling us to organize ourselves and actually behave in very socially connected ways - The way this pandemic is forcing the mental health field to innovate by offering increased tele-health care - How Dr. Ellenhorn's staff are pulling together using virtual meetups to support one another and their clients - And lastly, Dr. Ellenhorn describes how emergence - a term that describes how species act in a pattern to protect themselves and their most vulnerable - is occurring all around the world right now and we're "flying together in flock" more today than before this crisis

Virgil speaks with Eric Levine, EdD, Executive Director of CooperRiis Healing Community in North Carolina, about how residential treatment programs can best respond to the COVID-19 pandemic. In this short, special episode Eric talks about the importance of leaders exhibiting patience, courage, and kindness during difficult times in order to create and maintain a safe and healthy therapeutic community.

This episode is with Benedict Carey, science and medical writer for the New York Times. Ben has been a science writer since his first job out of journalism school in 1987, writing for the San Francisco-based medical science magazine Hippocrates. For the New York Times Ben has published numerous articles about mental illness and is the author of the 2015 book, How We Learn: The Surprising Truth About When, Where, and Why It Happens. Scientific American reviewed his book, saying, “How We Learn is more than a new approach to learning; it is a guide to making the most out of life. Who wouldn’t be interested in that?” Among many awards, Ben was a recipient of the 2016 Erik Erikson Institute Prize for Excellence in Mental Health Media. He is a long-time friend of those who care about individuals with mental illness and has joined with them is seeking to find and report on emerging solutions. We first hear from Ben as a journalistic leader in the mental health field and then address three main talking points: 1) Seeing a diagnosis as a "setback" and something to inform a lifelong process of learning about oneself. A diagnosis does not define and should not limit a person. 2) Actual mental health recovery seems to come from adaptation and experimentation: if 'adaptation and experimentation' is the better approach how can the professional, family, and person who is in distress engage most effectively with this dynamic process? 3) The real experts of mental health recovery are "psychiatric veterans" and we need to listen more to those who have been “set back” by mental health challenges and learn how they have learned to manage their recovery.

This episode is with Sandra Conway Warren. Sandra is a Board-Certified Patient Advocate and a Disability Representative and an experienced professional with advanced skills and knowledge for helping her clients navigate the complex system of mental health care. Sandra helps clients navigate the process of acquiring disability benefits from the Social Security Administration, provides assistance for clients applying for ABLE accounts or setting up special needs trust funds, and assists clients in applying for health insurance or appealing denied claims. Sandra is knowledgable about local, state, and federal social service agencies and is adept at helping clients negotiate with schools and universities, collection agencies, employers, and pharmaceutical companies. If all of that sounds overwhelming to you, you have struck on the exact reason why Sandra is passionate about her work and why we had her on the show! For seventeen years, Sandra has worked in the field of advocacy and became a Disability Representative seven years ago. As the mother of a child born with an orphan disease, Sandra is passionate about working with the disabled population and their families. She has a special affinity for those with mental health issues, cognitive deficits, and those on the autism spectrum. Ms. Warren’s focus is to acquire, optimize, and protect federal and state benefits within the context of promoting independent living. She is in private practice in Western North Carolina. Ms. Warren can be contacted at Sandra@scwarren.net or 828-440-1188 and offers 1-hour consultations for anyone in need of her support.

Georgia Ede, MD is a Harvard-trained, board-certified psychiatrist specializing in nutrition science, brain metabolism, and mental health. She speaks internationally on dietary approaches to psychiatric disorders, the nutritional differences between plant and animal foods, Alzheimer’s prevention, public nutrition policy, and many other topics. She has nearly two decades of clinical experience including many years as a college psychiatrist and nutrition consultant at Harvard University Health Services and Smith College. Dr. Ede writes about food and the brain for Psychology Today, Diet Doctor, and her own website Diagnosis: Diet. She has also spoken at numerous conferences and TEDx Talks. Check out her popular talk, 'Our Descent into Madness: Modern Diets and the Global Mental Health Crisis'. Dr. Ede maintains a private practice in Massachusetts working with patients to address the root causes of mental health disorders and reduce the need for psychiatric medications by using personalized nutrition-based interventions. During this conversation, Stephanie and Dr. Ede touch upon three main topics: Brain health and serious mental illness: Dr. Ede helps us understand some basic concepts around nutrition and metabolism and she will outline the connections between metabolism and brain health. 10 changes all of us can make to clean up our own diet in order to improve our mental and physical health. What we know about nutritional psychiatry and how interventions, such as the medical ketogenic diet, can have a therapeutic impact on serious mental illness.

This episode is with Dr. Charles Brady, Clinical Director of Outpatient Services and Staff Psychologist at the Lindner Center of HOPE in Ohio. He is also an OCD/CBT Psychotherapist and Associate Professor at the University of Cincinnati’s Department of Psychiatry, where he has been for more than 25 years. Dr. Brady earned his Doctorate in Clinical-Community Psychology from the University of South Carolina and completed his post-doctoral fellowship in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine. He also has completed advanced training in the treatment of OCD and OCD-spectrum disorders through the Behavior Therapy Institute. Dr. Brady is Board Certified in Clinical Psychology by the American Board of Professional Psychology. Dr. Brady is a regional expert in the treatment of obsessive-compulsive disorder and has made numerous presentations regarding the treatment of OCD and anxiety disorders and we are so lucky to have him on the show today. Three main topics with Dr. Brady: In the treatment of OCD, oftentimes a patient will have to experience discomfort as they are exposed to the thing or things that cause them anxiety. Using this as a metaphor, we first discuss Dr. Brady’s experience as a leader and how being a leader often means doing what’s uncomfortable. Secondly, we discuss how treating OCD can be challenging for therapists and caregivers because you have to be willing to invite someone to suffer in your presence. Dr. Brady discusses with us the ways he creates safe partnerships with patients to help them build courage and embrace change. And lastly, Dr. Brady gives us an overview of the best treatments currently available for OCD and what research we should all be aware of coming up in the field.

This episode is with Dr. James Greenblatt. Dr. Greenblatt has been a pioneer in the field of integrative medicine for over 30 years, treating patients with complex behavioral and mood disorders since 1990. Early in his career, Dr. Greenblatt noticed the current treatment model in psychiatry relied solely upon symptom-based recommendations for medication with little consideration for the biochemical individuality or the underlying biological mechanisms. Dr. Greenblatt’s expertise in integrative medicine attracts patients from all across the world seeking consultations for complex mood, behavioral, and eating disorders. Dr. Greenblatt has published multiple books, sharing his clinical experience treating complex mood and eating disorders utilizing an integrative approach. We will link to his books and other resources in the blog post that will accompany this podcast episode. Dr. Greenblatt currently serves as the Chief Medical Officer at Walden Behavioral Care in Waltham, MA and serves as an Assistant Clinical Professor of Psychiatry at Tufts University School of Medicine and Dartmouth College Geisel School of Medicine. During this conversation between Virgil and Dr. Greenblatt, three main topics come up: First, Dr. Greenblatt orients us to the world of integrative medicine and, more specifically, integrative psychiatry. Secondly, Dr. Greenblatt shares his expertise around integrative treatments for eating disorders. He speaks to us about why the risk of suicide is so much greater among individuals struggling for eating disorders. And lastly, Dr. Greenblat shares with us a model for suicide prevention that he has developed.

The fourth episode of the second season of our podcast is with Pete Earley. Pete is a storyteller and has written a total of 17 books including 4 New York Times bestsellers. His books include the 2007 Pulitzer Prize finalist Crazy: A Father’s Search Through America’s Mental Health Madness. After a 14-year career in journalism, including six years at The Washington Post, Pete became a full-time author. When Pete’s life was turned upside down by the events recounted in his book Crazy, he joined the National Alliance on Mental Illness to advocate for strong mental health reform on the public stage and now rallies against the troubled mental health systems and for the mentally ill. His blog at peteearley.com attracts thousands of readers every week and is a vast resource for parents supporting a child with a mental illness.

This episode is with Eliza Lanzillo. Eliza is passionate about psychology and is an outspoken advocate for prioritizing mental health on college campuses. Today she is going to be speaking with us about her own experience with an eating disorder. How it all started for her, what her recovery journey has been like, and more about her current work and how she stays well. Eliza is currently pursuing a PhD in Clinical Psychology at Catholic University, she worked as a research fellow at the National Institute of Mental Health, and for her undergrad degree in psychology, she studied at Brown University in Rhode Island. During her time at Brown, Eliza served as President of their chapter of Active Minds and served as a student advisor to Zencare.co, a listing of peer-recommended therapists modernizing the therapist search process. Along with being a PhD student, today Eliza is the Program Director of Advocacy Initiatives for Hynes Recovery Services (HRS), an organization with a mission to support college students while they are in the process of securing treatment for their eating disorder. Eliza has spoken about university mental health on media outlets including The Wall Street Journal and Dr. Oz, as well as on university campuses nationwide.

This episode is with author and therapist, Robert Francis. Robert has been a therapist for over 12 years and recently published a book titled, “On Conquering Schizophrenia: From the Desk of a Therapist and Survivor”. In his book, Mr. Francis, which is a pen name, details how at the age of 22 he was diagnosed, after graduating from college, with paranoid schizophrenia. This book is a first-person account of Robert’s own recovery and his reflections on what it means to be an effective therapist as someone who has recovered from schizophrenia and is a now licensed clinical social worker.

Welcome to Season 2 of the Mental Horizons podcast! In this opening episode for our new season, Stephanie turns the tables and interviews Virgil. Listen to the episode to learn more about who Virgil, the show's main host, is and what professional and personal paths led him to his current work as president and founder of Virgil Stucker and Associates, LLC.

Episode 15 of the Mental Horizons Podcast was with Bebe Smith, MSW, LCSW and the topic is Psychiatric Advance Directives. Bebe is director of mental health and coordinator of the North Carolina Evidence Based Practices Center at Southern Regional Area Health Education Center, part of the North Carolina AHEC system. She is also project coordinator for the Crisis Navigation Project, a collaboration between SR-AHEC, Duke University Medical Center, and NAMI-NC to promote the use of psychiatric advance directives. Prior to joining SR-AHEC, she worked for 21 years at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in the Department of Psychiatry and the School of Social Work. She has taught mental health professionals from multiple disciplines in clinical and academic settings. Her clinical work has focused on providing humane and evidence-based treatment and services to persons who live with schizophrenia and other severe mental illnesses. In 2005, she helped develop OASIS, the first early psychosis program in North Carolina. She was a founder and co-director of the UNC Center for Excellence in Community Mental Health in 2008. She led a pilot of Critical Time Intervention (CTI), a team-based intensive case management model originally developed for people experiencing homelessness, from 2012-2015. CTI was adopted for statewide expansion in 2014. She trains nationally and internationally in the CTI model and other psychosocial treatment approaches. She was the NASW-NC Social Worker of the Year in 2012, and won the Bryan Public Service Award from the Carolina Center for Public Service in 2015. Three main talking points: 1. Bebe talks with Virgil about her leadership roles in mental health and the ways she has had to challenge the mental health system throughout her career. 2. Bebe teaches the listener about Psychiatric Advance Directives and how they can be powerful tools to help people maintain autonomy and a sense of control amidst crisis. 3. And lastly, Bebe and Virgil discuss psychiatric advance directives and Assisted Outpatient Treatment. How are these two things related, if at all? Can they both protect a person's autonomy or are they on two ends of a spectrum? If so, how do we reconcile this dichotomy and not get bogged down in ideology when the goal is serving the best interests of the individual?

Episode 14 is with Bradley Richards. Brad is a skilled and sensitive psychiatric and behavior interventionist and care navigator. He enters crisis situations, quickly grasping and understanding the facts in a way that allows him to re-frame and help those involved to begin moving the crisis to a place of calm and clarity. What Brad does goes by many names: care navigator, care manager, behavioral analyst, psychiatric interventionist. But what Brad prefers to be called is a Psychiatric Interventionist! Brad creates alliances with individuals and family members dealing with the impact of mental disorders, autism, and substance abuse and helps to move the person needing care (literally providing transport services when needed) into appropriate services. Brad has a support team of 20 mental health professionals and coaches and works nationally with a broad professional network to help families achieve desired outcomes. As Founder and President at Brad Richards Inc., Brad works as an advocate, mentor, court-appointed care manager, and consultant in care plan development. He has also used his advanced degree in behavior analysis coordinating clinical care for 10 years for Eden II Programs in Long Island and Staten Island, NY, serving people with autism. Three main talking points: Brad talks to us about why he prefers to be called a “psychiatric preventionist” versus an interventionist. Virgil and Brad discuss in-depth the reasons why families reach out to Brad and how he weaves his support into the family system to help create a durable and long-term safety net for the person of concern, always with an eye to helping that person achieve and sustain their highest levels of independence. And lastly, Brad and Virgil discuss the mental health system at large and why his role is so needed and also what resources he wishes each of his clients knew about, but no one is telling them about.

Episode 13 is with Dr. Matthew Stanford, CEO of the Hope and Healing Center & Institute in Houston, TX and adjunct professor of psychiatry at Baylor College of Medicine and Houston Methodist Hospital Institute for Academic Medicine. Dr. Stanford’s research on the interplay between psychology and issues of faith has been featured in The New York Times, USA Today, Christianity Today, and U.S. News & World Report. Dr. Stanford earned his doctoral degree in behavioral neuroscience at Baylor University and completed a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston. Professionally he has worked with a variety of clients with mental illness, including those with aggression, personality disorders, post-traumatic stress disorder, substance dependence, bipolar disorder, and schizophrenia. As director of the Hope and Healing Center and Institute, he conducts training seminars and serves individuals living with mental illness and their families. He is the author of three books: 1) Grace for the Afflicted: A Clinical and Biblical Perspective on Mental Illness, Revised and Expanded 2) The Biology of Sin: Grace, Hope, and Healing for Those Who Feel Trapped 3) Grace for the Children: Finding Hope in the Midst of Child and Adolescent Mental Illness. Three main talking points: 1) Dr. Stanford talks to Virgil about how people often turn to their clergy for support around their mental health issues. In this light, congregations have the potential to act as a healing community for these individuals. But some clergy can “over spiritualize” mental illness and this is where training and awareness raising efforts for congregations can help to steer people towards the proper supports. 2) Dr. Stanford and Virgil then discuss a critical aspect of this issue: that clergy do not make a lot of referrals to mental health professionals. Dr. Stanford believes that with the proper training, clergy and leadership in congregations can help to spot, support, and refer parishoners at the right time to the right people, leveraging the trusting relationship they already have and helping get people the help they need. 3) And lastly, Dr. Stanford outlines some excellent resources for anyone who wants to learn more: a CBT-based curriculum and training he has developed that prepares people who are part of faith communities to act as mental health coaches, other training resources offered by the Hope and Healing Center and Institute, and an annual mental health conference they host.

Episode 12 is with Attorney Debra Rahmin Silberstein, Partner at Burns & Levinson LLP in Boston. Attorney Silberstein specializes in trusts and estates, tax-related matters and elder law planning. Debra has extensive experience working with families where mental health planning is a priority and uses creative techniques to assist clients in reaching their goals. Debra is a graduate of Syracuse University where she earned a B.A. in Economics and obtained her J.D. from Hofstra University School of Law in 1984. Debra then obtained a Ph.D. in Social Policy from the Heller School at Brandeis University in August 2009. Debra has over twenty-five years of legal experience and is an active member of the Massachusetts Bar Association and was the 2018 recipient of the Powley Elder Law Award. Today she is going to be talking with us about legal remedies for families coping with long term mental health issues. She is going to speak about alternatives to guardianship as well as other topics. This is part 2 of two podcasts focused on legal remedies in mental health. If you want to learn more about legal remedies that can be used during crises, please listen to Part 1 with Lisa Cukier. Debra will be telling us more about how to integrate into long term mental health planning the use of a durable power of attorney’s, health care proxies, psychiatric advanced directives and discretionary trusts with incentives. Three main talking points: 1. A brief overview of what guardianship is and who the people are who seek this legal intervention. We will also discuss some of the challenges and limitations of guardianship. 2. What alternatives to guardianship exist and in most instances are preferable? Alternatives such as DPOA’s (or durable powers of attorney), healthcare proxies and incentivized trusts. We will also discuss the importance of using a team approach when accessing any of these legal remedies. 3. PAD’s or psychiatric advanced directives. What they are, why everyone with a mental health issue needs one, and how they are written. Virgil and Debra also talk more about the DPAs and HCPs. These are critical tools, and aside from steps we one take to minimize “revocation” in a crisis, families should know who should serve in these roles, how to use of teams (or committees), family members and social workers etc.

Episode 11 is with Lisa Cukier, Partner at Burns & Levinson in Boston where Lisa is also a member of the firm’s Executive Committee. This show is part one of a 2-part podcast series. In part 1, Lisa will talk to us about legal remedies in mental health crises and in part two, Debra Rahmin Silberstein, also a partner at Burns & Levinson, will talk about legal remedies in long term mental health planning. Lisa Cukier splits her practice between high conflict divorces and high profile trusts and estate litigation and is on the show today because she is well-known for her ability to handle the toughest of cases and is particularly skilled at handling sensitive matters where mental health is concerned. Lisa’s practice also includes handling complex child custody, parentage issues, blended family issues, adoption, and guardianship and conservatorship. She received her J.D. from Suffolk University Law School and her B.A. from Northeastern University and was a 2018 Women Worth Watching award recipient. The Women Worth Watching organization identifies, promotes and supports women in leadership and Lisa was nominated by her peers as an executive who embodies exceptional purpose and drive and represents diversity within her sphere of influence. Before going to law school and becoming an attorney, Lisa worked as a social worker. Lisa is here today to talk to us about legal remedies that can help to mitigate mental health crises. We have three main talking points for our conversations today: Our topic today is focused on legal remedies that are available to mitigate mental health crises. Lisa will start us off with a few stories or scenarios that describe the kinds of situations and individuals we will be focusing on. Secondly, Lisa will dive into the legal remedies or tools available to clients who are in the midst of a mental health crisis. We will discuss in simple terms when these remedies can be brought into the conversation and how. And lastly, Lisa will talk with us about how these legal remedies look in action: who is on the team and how do these roll out in real-time, in real life?

In episode 10 of our Mental Horizons Podcast, Dr. Chris Palmer introduces us to the growing field of nutritional psychiatry. ​Dr. Palmer is a graduate of Washington University School of Medicine and completed his internship and psychiatry residency at McLean Hospital, Massachusetts General Hospital, and Harvard Medical School. He is currently the director of the Department of Postgraduate and Continuing Education at McLean and is an assistant professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School.  Dr. Palmer has a private practice near Boston where he focuses on, “the interface of mental health and metabolic disorders”. His website is a great resource for anyone interested in this topic. Dr. Palmer is also a researcher and is the author and co-author of numerous published studies. This summer, he published an article in the Journal of Clinical Psychiatry titled, “Diets and Disorders: Can Foods or Fasting Be Considered Psychopharmacological Therapies?” and his work with the ketogenic diet with people who have psychotic disorders was recently featured on NPR in a segment titled, “Prescription: More Broccoli, Fewer Carbs. How Some Doctors Are Looking To Food To Treat Illness”. Dr. Palmer is pioneering the use of the ketogenic diet as a medical intervention for mood and psychotic disorders. He delves into his work on this topic at the end of our conversation, after giving an overview of what nutritional psychiatry actually is. The show follows 3 main talking points: Dr. Palmer orients listeners to the field of nutritional psychiatry. How have psychiatry and nutrition already been overlapping? And what is nutritional psychiatry?  Dr. Palmer drills down specifically into the area of “serious mental illness” and how research and practices in nutritional psychiatry can be brought into treatment plan discussions for people with mental health issues such as bipolar disorder and schizophrenia. Dr. Palmer’s discusses two case studies and his won research and the most promising areas of nutritional psychiatry that he believes deserve more attention.

Ross is trained as a sociologist, psychotherapist, and social worker and specializes in the integration of psychology and sociology. These two disciplines are typically rigidly separated in academia and as such, psychiatric problems are usually understood -- and treated -- only as psychological phenomena. In contrast, Ross views psychiatric disorders through a unique psychosocial lens. For over 20 years, he has been helping individuals suffering psychiatric symptoms to find the psychological and social means for remaining outside of institutional settings. He is the CEO and founder of Ellenhorn, the first fully-operating intensive hospital diversion and wrap-around program in Massachusetts. Ross also created and led one of the first Programs for Assertive Community Treatment (PACT) teams in the Commonwealth. Dr. Ellenhorn is a published author and his 2007 book, Parasuicidality and Paradox: Breaking Through the Medical Model, addresses psychiatric hospital recidivism and techniques for diverting hospital use. He is a graduate of the UCLA School of Social Welfare and is the first person to receive a joint Ph.D. from the Florence Heller School for Social Welfare Policy and Management and the Department of Sociology at Brandeis University. His new book, published by Harper Collins, and titled “How We Change (and the Ten Reasons Why We Don’t), will come out and May, and addresses many of the issues we’ll discuss today. Three main talking points: 1. Ross speaks about his personal experience of becoming aware of the power of psychological labels and stigma in his own life and how that stigma led to him feeling like he had less control over his own future. 2. Virgil speaks with Ross about how, as a young social worker in mental healthcare, he began to notice that clients, families and colleagues were having conversations about the importance of recovering hope. Ross will tell us about his observations that led him to believe that the recovery of hope is essential to the overall process of recovering from psychiatric symptoms. 3. Virgil and Ross discuss how fear of hope is a concept that exists within and outside of the mental health field and is something that is likely relevant to most of us at some point in our lives. We will ask Ross about his research and the consequent methods he has found to help clients and families overcome their fear of hope.

A conversation with Dr. Eric Plakun. Dr. Plakun, the medical director and CEO of Austen Riggs Center in Stockbridge, Massachusetts. Austen Riggs just celebrated its 100th year! Austen Riggs is a therapeutic community, open psychiatric hospital, and center for education and research, promoting resilience and self-direction in adults with complex psychiatric problems. Dr. Plakun graduated from Hofstra University and received an MD from the Columbia College of Physicians & Surgeons and completed his psychiatry residency at Dartmouth and a Fellowship in Psychoanalytic Studies at Austen Riggs. Dr. Plakun is a board-certified psychiatrist, psychoanalyst, researcher, and forensic psychiatrist. He is the editor and author of close to fifty articles and book chapters on the diagnosis, treatment, longitudinal course, and outcome of patients with borderline personality disorder and treatment-resistant disorders. He is a Distinguished Life Fellow of the American Psychiatric Association and on their Board of Directors as well. He is the founding leader of the APA’s Psychotherapy Caucus. In 2003, Eric was selected by the Massachusetts Psychiatric Society as their “Outstanding Psychiatrist in Clinical Psychiatry.” Most recently he has also offered compelling testimony in a major class-action suit that may finally begin forcing medical insurance companies to expand their coverage of mental health treatments. During this hour-long conversation, Virgil speaks with Eric about how he came to this work and will hear his thoughts on effective mental health treatment, the role of environmentally impacted genes on one’s mental health, and where he sees the field of mental health treatment headed. Three main talking points: Point one: Effective treatment must be more than just crisis management and stabilization. A quick fix is not enough to help people truly recover from mental illness. We will review changes in the science, law and social policy with a focus on striving to achieve parity for health care for those suffering from mental illness. Point two: Environmentally impacted genetics and integrative mental health care. We are moving more toward bio/psycho/social psychiatry which addresses the impact on our genes of environmental factors, especially adverse childhood experiences. Psychotherapy in particular addresses the sense of loss that someone may experience from trauma and other negative social determinants. Point three: Organizational leadership. Austen Riggs is 100 and moving more strongly than ever into a role of leadership, such as is found in an upcoming conference with an array of first-class mental health thought leaders. Austen Riggs is leading the way in calling for broad, not reductionist, mental health care as well as in calling for broader economic access by pushing to achieve parity.

Lisanne Finston is the Executive Director of Gould Farm, the oldest therapeutic farm community in the U.S., founded in 1913. Prior to this, she spent 20 years serving as Executive Director of an innovative anti-hunger organization serving people with mental health and addiction challenges in New Jersey. Virgil speaks with Lisanne about how she came to this work and how her studies in divinity and social work have shaped her leadership. Virgil and Lisanne will also discuss what Gould Farm is and where Lisanne sees the mental health field headed.

Virgil speaks with Dr. Elyn Saks, J.D., Ph.D. Among many things, Dr. Saks is a scholar, a mental health lawyer, an author, a Macarthur Fellow, a professor, and a life-long advocate for improving mental health care. She is a graduate of Oxford University, where she studied philosophy, she is also a graduate of Yale University where she earned her Juris-doctorate degree and is currently completing a Ph. D. in psychoanalysis. In 2002, Dr. Saks published the book, Refusing Care: Forced Treatment and the Rights of the Mentally Ill, in which she wrote, “It has been said that how a society treats its least well-off members speaks volumes about its humanity. If so, our treatment of the mentally ill suggests that American society is inhumane: swinging between over-intervention and utter neglect, we sometimes force extreme treatments on those who do not want them, and at other times discharge mentally ill patients who do want treatment without providing adequate resources for their care in the community.” In 2007, Dr. Saks published her acclaimed memoir, The Center Cannot Hold: My Journey Through Madness, which chronicles her own personal experience of schizophrenia that began in her teen years. In 2012, Dr. Saks gave the TED talk, “A tale of mental illness - from the inside” which now has nearly 4-million views. Dr. Saks' contributions to the betterment of our mental health system are countless and it is a great honor to have her on our show today. It is going to be a fascinating talk!

In this episode, Virgil had the pleasure of speaking with Dr. Steve Sharfstein about the history of the moral treatment movement. Dr. Sharfstein is the former longtime CEO and President of the Sheppard Pratt Health Systems and former president of the American Psychiatric Association. Virgil asked Dr. Sharfstein questions such as, “What was the moral treatment movement, in what ways did it succeed, why did it fail, and how does it still impact the treatment field today?”

An hour-long conversation with Dominic A. Sisti, Ph.D., Director of The Scattergood Program for Applied Ethics of Behavioral Health Care and Assistant Professor in the Department of Medical Ethics & Health Policy at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. Virgil and Dr. Sisti discuss conceptual parity: the realization that there is no health without mental health, how the field of psychiatry has been alienated from the rest of the medical field to everyone's detriment, and how the integration of mental health with overall health will improve outcomes for adults with mental illness.

The Food for Thought Mental Health Webcast with Virgil Stucker. Episode #1 is with guest Chloe Pedalino, LICSW, discussing PACT: Multidisciplinary Support for People with Mental Illness

The question, "Why won't health insurance cover residential treatment?" is a question many families are asking, and getting no answer for. Scott Leshin, Founder and CEO of SJ Health Insurance Advocates, has experienced firsthand the exhausting process of fighting health insurance denials. It was out of his own personal experience that he started SJ Health Insurance Advocates, where every day he and his staff help dozens of families doggedly pursue reimbursement for life-saving treatment; care that health insurance companies do not deem medically necessary. And why is that? Virgil will delve into this question, and more, and try to unpack a seemingly simple question made very complex by a constantly shifting healthcare landscape.

In this podcast, Virgil Stucker speaks with guest, Tom Starling, Ed. D. Tom is the CEO of Mental Health America (MHA) Middle-Tennessee and is the board chair of Mental Health America. Virgil and Tom will be discussing how advocacy organizations, in general, play a role in supporting families and individuals dealing with mental illness. Virgil and Tom will also talk about what experiences led Tom to the roles he is in today.