For decades, thoughtful state leaders and DH Psychiatry faculty and administrators have joined together to quietly build the strong partnership programs that exist today. Quality does not happen by accident – it takes a sustained, dedicated effort.
William C. Torrey, MDAn opinion piece by William C. Torrey, MD, Chair of Psychiatry at Dartmouth Health and Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth.
Mental Health Awareness Month may be winding down, but every month Dartmouth Health’s Department of Psychiatry (DH Psychiatry) seeks to increase timely access to high-quality care for people who develop mental health and substance use difficulties.
As part of this effort, DH Psychiatry partners with New Hampshire’s Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) to create and sustain excellent clinical programs.
DH Psychiatry and the State have been collaborating to provide outstanding care at New Hampshire Hospital (NHH) for almost 35 years. NHH is our state’s psychiatric intensive care unit. None of us wants to develop, or to have a loved one develop, any psychiatric disorder, let alone one that is severe enough to require the level of acute care only available at NHH. But when we do become very ill, we want top-notch care, which is consistently available at NHH for our citizens.
Over the years, we have built on the success of this partnership at NHH to improve care across many populations served by the State. DH Psychiatry provides talented clinical leadership to DHHS, the Bureau of Behavioral Health, the Bureau of Elderly and Adult Services, the Bureau of Developmental Services, the Glencliff Home for the elderly and, soon, Hampstead Hospital and Residential Treatment Facility (HHRTF). This most recent partnership will provide psychiatric and medical care to patients at HHRTF, the only source of pediatric psychiatric inpatient and psychiatric residential treatment facility (PRTF)-level care in New Hampshire.
As New Hampshire's only academic health system, we have about 300 psychiatry faculty and staff, including ~130 physicians, Psychiatric Advanced Practice Registered Nurses (APRNs), PhD Psychologists, and licensed social workers who provide care, consultation, and expert training in evidence-based practices for children and adults, develop infrastructure for the care of people with a first episode of psychosis, and run one of the state’s Doorways programs for the care of people seeking help for substance use disorders. In all these activities, we build new knowledge and spark the interest of students in using their professional lives in public service care.
Our dedicated clinicians are drawn by the opportunity to work with equally dedicated and talented state employees - from senior leaders to nurses, social workers and mental health workers. We recruit highly motivated professionals who are attracted by the chance to train New Hampshire’s future mental health workforce – psychiatrists, psychiatric nurse practitioners, social workers, and psychologists – and engage in mission-driven work, supporting the recovery of people who live with severe psychiatric illnesses.
For decades, thoughtful state leaders and DH Psychiatry faculty and administrators have joined together to quietly build the strong partnership programs that exist today. Quality does not happen by accident – it takes a sustained, dedicated effort. The people of New Hampshire – our families, our friends, and our communities – deserve nothing less.
About Dartmouth Health
Dartmouth Health, New Hampshire's only academic health system and the state's largest private employer, serves patients across northern New England. Dartmouth Health provides access to more than 2,000 providers in almost every area of medicine, delivering care at its flagship hospital, Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center (DHMC) in Lebanon, NH, as well as across its wide network of hospitals, clinics and care facilities. DHMC is consistently named the #1 hospital in New Hampshire by U.S. News & World Report, and recognized for high performance in numerous clinical specialties and procedures. Dartmouth Health includes Dartmouth Cancer Center, one of only 56 National Cancer Institute-designated Comprehensive Cancer Centers in the nation, and the only such center in northern New England; Dartmouth Health Children’s, which includes Children’s Hospital at Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center, the state’s only children’s hospital, and multiple clinic locations around the region; member hospitals in Lebanon, Keene and New London, NH, and Bennington and Windsor, VT; Visiting Nurse and Hospice for Vermont and New Hampshire; and more than 24 clinics that provide ambulatory services across New Hampshire and Vermont. Through its historical partnership with Dartmouth and the Geisel School of Medicine, Dartmouth Health trains nearly 400 medical residents and fellows annually, and performs cutting-edge research and clinical trials recognized across the globe with Geisel and the White River Junction VA Medical Center in White River Junction, VT. Dartmouth Health and its more than 13,000 employees are deeply committed to serving the healthcare needs of everyone in our communities, and to providing each of our patients with exceptional, personal care.