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February 19, 2020
The numbers tell a sobering story – after a dip in deaths from drug overdoses in 2018, Connecticut recorded 1,200, or 18 percent more, drug-related deaths in 2019, according to the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner. The one stagnant piece of information in the equation, however, is the fact…
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January 30, 2020
Deanna Bencivengo and her team didn’t get to work until well after dark recently, and moved from the warmth of Rushford buildings into the streets as part of annual efforts to count the area’s homeless population and ensure needed services are available to them. Called the Point in Time (PIT)…
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January 24, 2020
By Jeffrey A. Flaks Hartford HealthCare President and Chief Executive Officer and Sarah S. Lewis Hartford HealthCare Vice President, Health Equity Among the New Year’s resolutions that you’ve made (or maybe already broken), here’s one that should be easy to keep: Complete your U.S. Census form, and encourage everyone you…
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January 04, 2020
You’ve probably heard about CPR, right? It’s a certification that anyone can earn to help someone in medical distress. But did you know there is a similar program to help people learn how to provide first aid in the event of a mental health crisis? It’s called Mental Health First…
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October 26, 2019
Several recent scientific papers have tackled the health effects of alcohol, some claiming there are health benefits while others suggest the national published guidelines for “safe drinking” should be lower. The debate may make it harder to know if you or someone you care about has a drinking problem. “The…
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October 25, 2019
Dr. Hank Schwartz doesn’t throw the adjective “legendary” around loosely, so when he used it to describe this year’s winner of the Dr. C. Charles Burlingame Award, it spoke volumes. Indeed, that winner, Dr. Max Fink, a pioneer and champion of the use of electroconvulsive therapy (ECT), has generated volumes…
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October 23, 2019
After 40 years of social and eventually heavy drinking, Keith Bunnell was diagnosed with pancreatitis. He was told that if he didn’t stop drinking he would be dead in six months. He quit for a week. Four months later, the successful electrical designer and father of four had another bout…
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October 15, 2019
By Kate Carey-Trull Lyne Stokes, a former teacher in Hartford Public Schools, was in a severe depression this summer when she reached out to her friend Karen Kangas and found out about the Recovery Leadership Academy. “I was in a dark place in my life at the beginning of the…
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October 11, 2019
Hartford HealthCare’s Behavioral Health Network (BHN) will be well represented this fall at the 66th annual American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry (AACAP) annual meeting, one of the most prestigious research venues in the field. “At the Behavioral Health Network, we are fortunate to have some of the world’s…
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October 10, 2019
It’s easy enough to talk about the urge to use opioids when you’re seated across from your counselor in a regular appointment. It’s the reason you’re there. But office visits are typically not when the temptation of opioid use disorder (OUD) is most challenging. That itch comes later, when you’re…