-
The Sensory Comfort Cart: A Portable Resource to Assist in the Recovery of Patients with Co-Occurring Diagnoses
This article describes a brief history of sensory modalities in mental health and substance abuse treatment, the purpose and current use of a sensory comfort cart at NewYork-Presbyterian Westchester Division (NYPWD), early patient outcomes, and implications for discharge and recovery. Brief...
-
A Healthy Place to Rest Your Head
The Second Chance Program at NewYork-Presbyterian Westchester Division is an in-patient psychiatric rehabilitation program for men and women with difficult to treat psychotic disorder illnesses. Most of the individuals referred to the Second Chance Program (SCP) have struggled with being able to...
-
Brief Inpatient Psychiatric Treatment: Designing Social Work Education to Enhance Clinical Practice
Over the past several years, the primary focus of inpatient psychiatric treatment has moved to a model of brief treatment and shortened length of stay. There have been many factors driving this, including the advent of managed care. The main goal of inpatient treatment has become rapid assessment...
-
Upgrading Skills in a Changing Mental Health Care Environment
As healthcare has changed over time, so too has the knowledge and expertise required of the practitioners. Computer literacy for electronic medical records, knowledge and application of research and evidence-based best practices, and patient satisfaction are but a few of the most recent...
-
A Person-Centered Spiritual Recovery Tool for Hospitalization and Beyond
The enormous charge to the mental health care system to keep hospital length-of-stays brief while delivering Person-Centered care grows increasingly complicated. One key to meeting regulatory mandates while focusing on long-term healing is to use simple spiritual recovery tools that people can...
-
Predicting Suicide: Difficulties for Treatment Professionals
A widely quoted clinical aphorism is that there are two kinds of therapists: those who have experienced the loss of a patient to suicide, and those who haven’t yet. Although the expression sounds a bit nihilistic, this adage conveys a warning to those clinicians who have not experienced a...
-
Therapeutic Groups for Girls
Girls with learning disabilities, attention deficits and pervasive developmental disorders commonly experience different degrees of social impairment. They can be referred to the Social Skills Program in our Child and Adolescent Outpatient Clinic at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital-Westchester...
-
Providing a Second Chance for People with Schizophrenia
Despite advances in psychopharmacology, many individuals with schizophrenia remain too impaired to be discharged from the state hospitals. One response to this problem in New York State was the establishment of a unique partnership among a private hospital, the New York Presbyterian Hospital-Payne...
-
The Economy’s Impact on Vocational Services
Traditionally, behavioral health patients have been referred for vocational counseling because their illness has formed a barrier to obtaining and maintaining employment. Patients may have presented with ambivalence about entering the work force, or fears that their treatment may interfere with the...
-
How Our Programs Are Making a Difference
Numerous consumer surveys, research projects, interviews and patient satisfaction studies confirm what most clinicians already know—behavioral health consumers want and need the same things the rest of us do; a balanced, rewarding and healthy life. The role of psychosocial rehabilitation...
