Bipolar Disorder Related Content

How One Nurse Makes a Difference for Patients and Staff

Jeanne McElhinney, MS, RN, BC , nurse director for McLean’s Schizophrenia and Bipolar Disorder Inpatient Program , has seen a lot of changes. She arrived at McLean in 1986 during training for her associate degree in mental health at Middlesex Community College. At the time, she covered three shifts...

Yale Hicks: His Journey to Becoming a Peer Specialist

Yale Hicks told his college friends in New Orleans that he cut short his junior year abroad in Ghana because of malaria. “I lied to everybody, including myself,” said Hicks, who was experiencing hallucinations associated with what was eventually diagnosed as bipolar disorder . “I was about 21, and...

Peer Counseling’s Critical Role in Psychosis Treatment

If a journey of a thousand miles begins with a step, what is better than having someone along with whom to share it? That is the philosophy behind the peer counseling program at McLean Hospital’s Division of Psychotic Disorders . “A lot of people with these conditions have difficulty working outside...

Ross J. Baldessarini, MD: Celebrating a Pioneer

Ross J. Baldessarini, MD , originally thought he wanted to be an industrial organic chemist, not a doctor. The prospect of medical school didn’t thrill the Williams College chemistry major. He found it to be more like a trade school than an academic endeavor, not to mention it being “cutthroat and...

New PACT Team Offers Support 24/7

Monica Luke knows what it’s like to care deeply about someone with schizophrenia. Her son, now 37, had his first psychotic break at age 20 and hasn’t spoken to her in a decade. Although she’s pained by the estrangement, she’s thankful for one thing: she could use his college fund to pay for his care...

Brain Training Shows Promise for Patients With Bipolar Disorder

Researchers at McLean Hospital, an affiliate of Harvard Medical School, have discovered for the first time that computerized brain training can result in improved cognitive skills in individuals with bipolar disorder. In a paper published in the October 17, 2017, edition of The Journal of Clinical...

Hospital Without Walls for Individuals With Chronic Mental Illness

McLean Hospital’s Chloe Pedalino, LICSW, says that individuals receive “wraparound care while they’re in the hospital, but they don’t always get that care after discharge.” This is one reason McLean is launching its new Program of Assertive Community Treatment (PACT). The program will bring...

Family Funds Space for Young Patients to Gather and Heal

Andrew Smith was an avid sports fan. Always a contrarian, he rooted for the team his family wasn’t supporting. He had a quirky sense of humor, loved chatting on the phone, and taking long walks, often stopping for pizza. When he died in 2011 at age 30, after struggling for years with schizophrenia...

A Picture Can Say 1,000 Words

After taking dozens of photos of trains at commuter rail stations, Susan Camuti finally captured the image she was seeking. Using a specialized app on her smartphone, she transformed the image of an approaching train to depict what her mania feels like. “When I feel manic, it feels like a train is...