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 largest private employer, serves patients across New England. Dartmouth Health provides access to more than 2,300 providers in nearly every area of medicine, delivering care at its flagship hospital, Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center (DHMC) in Lebanon, NH. Its network of hospitals, outpatient centers, clinics and home care facilities, spans a broad geographical area. Year after year, DHMC is named the #1 hospital in New Hampshire by U.S. News & World Report, and is consistently recognized for high performance in numerous clinical specialties and procedures. Dartmouth Health includes Dartmouth Cancer Center, northern New England’s only National Cancer Institute-designated Comprehensive Cancer Centers and one of less than than 60 total nationally; Dartmouth Health Children’s, which includes the state’s only children’s hospital (Children’s Hospital at DHMC/CHaD) and more than 20 locations around the region; eight member hospitals in Lebanon, Keene, Claremont, Hampstead, and New London, NH, and Windsor and Bennington, VT; Dartmouth Health Home Care; Dartmouth Health Connected Care Center for Telehealth, serving patients as far away as Texas; and more than 30 primary and multi-specialty clinics across New Hampshire and Vermont. Through its partnership with Dartmouth College, Dartmouth’s Geisel School of Medicine and the White River Junction VA Medical Center, Dartmouth Health trains nearly 400 medical residents and fellows annually and performs cutting-edge research and clinical trials with international impact. Dartmouth Health and its more than 16,000 employees are committed to serving the healthcare needs of everyone in the communities it serves and to providing every patient with exceptional, state-of-the-art, personalized care. Learn more at dartmouth-health.org.