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The Riggs Blog
The Riggs Blog is a mix of news about clinical work, research and educational activities from the Austen Riggs Center, as well as a source for information beyond our walls that we find interesting and thought-provoking. Senior clinical experts, researchers, and editors review all clinical content on this blog before it is published.
At a certain juncture in their training, some medical students and psychiatric residents confront a profound question: What is the best intervention to treat patients suffering with mental health problems—Is it medication? Is it psychotherapy? Is it both?
Dr. Jane Tillman’s presentation at Austen Riggs Center Centennial Conference Featured in Psychiatric News article by Mark Moran.
Psychiatric News Senior Reporter Mark Moran attended the recent Austen Riggs Center Centennial Conference and has authored three pieces related to the conference in their October 18 issue.
Psychiatric News Senior Reporter Mark Moran attended the recent Austen Riggs Center Centennial Conference and has authored three pieces about the conference and the Norman Rockwell Museum’s “Inspired! Norman Rockwell and Erik Erikson” exhibition (open through October 27, 2019) in their October 18 issue.
A joint team of researchers from the Austen Riggs Center, Long Island University, and Rutgers University hypothesize that for certain psychiatric patients, disturbed sleep negatively impacts daily interactions with others, and those negative interactions can in turn increase the likelihood of suicidal thoughts and behaviors.
Freedom from Dehumanizing Treatment is one of the Four Freedoms that is a foundation of mental health. Dehumanizing treatment is different from stigma, which is another of the Four Freedoms of Mental Health, as it refers to treatment itself as opposed to more general beliefs, attitudes, and actions related to stigma in the larger world.
Dehumanizing treatment includes: unnecessary restriction, seclusion, or restraint of those struggling with mental disorders; treating mentally ill individuals as merely a diagnosis rather than full people; or treatment that regards patients as mouths to swallow pills instead of people with stories that are meaningful. Underfunding mental health treatment generally is the result of stigma, but this results in dehumanizing treatment.
World Mental Health Day (WMHD) is today, Thursday, October 10, and the focus this year is suicide prevention. Organized by the World Federation for Mental Health, WMHD helps to raise global awareness about mental health topics and issues.
On the WMHD website, we are all invited to join in “‘40 seconds of action’ to raise awareness of the scale of suicide around the world and the role that each of us can play to help prevent it.”
Austen Riggs Center Medical Director/CEO Eric M. Plakun, MD, outlines four tools to help maximize appeal success when insurance claims are denied.
America is facing a growing crisis in mental health treatment, and one of the greatest forces to fight that crisis is raising public awareness through the media. On Friday, November 1, two outstanding works will be honored with the 2019 Austen Riggs Erikson Prize for Excellence in Mental Health Media.
Austen Riggs Center staff members Katie Lewis, PhD, and Lee Watroba spoke on local radio programs about suicide prevention awareness.
The Erikson Institute for Education and Research of the Austen Riggs Center in Stockbridge, MA invites applications for the fall 2020 Erikson Scholar-in-Residence. The Erikson Institute bridges the clinical work of the Austen Riggs Center, which treats patients with complex psychiatric disorders, and the wider academic and professional communities. Erikson Scholars engage in interdisciplinary work that spans a broad range of psychiatric, social, cultural and theoretical issues.
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