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Center Focus
December 2012
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Best wishes for a safe and joyful holiday season from all of us at CMHC
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Wellness Center to Open in 2013
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Robert Cole, MHSA (Chief Operating Officer) and Jeanne Steiner, DO (Medical Director) are leading the effort to establish the CMHC Wellness Center.
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The CMHC Wellness Center will provide primary care for patients who really need it. Read more
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Voter Registration Drive Succeeds
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Summer Willoughby, MHA
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The non-partisan Voter Registration Drive offered clients and staff the information and resources they needed to vote on November 6th. On the Inpatient Unit, Summer Willoughby, a Mental Health Assistant, made it happen. Read the story |
 | | Eddrena Claggett, Peer Leader, co-led focus groups with CMHC clients |
Peer-Led Focus Groups Offer Insights and Suggestions
The first-ever peer-led focus groups at CMHC uncovered new information about consumer satisfaction and offered ideas for change. Find the story, plus the final report, by clicking here.
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Mindfulness in Mental Health
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Yoga training participants
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A weekend training with 108 Monkeys brings yoga
principles to practice at CMHC and within the Community Services Network. Learn more
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Client Voices: "Love"
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Desiree's manuscripts
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Editor's Note:
Thank you, Desiree Branch, for submitting your poems to Center Focus. "Love" strikes a deep chord in the aftermath of events in Newtown, Connecticut.
LOVE
Love blossoms like a flower,
a flower full of life
It grows and grows getting more and more beautiful with every moment
But unlike a flower it does not die or ever lose its beauty
but keeps on growing stronger
and stronger and rebels against
all hate
Love turns things right side up
It brings hope where there is despair
joy where there is sorrow
It warms the heart and guides the soul
to do God's holy will
-- Desiree Branch
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Rising to the Challenge of HHI
CMHC is the first mental health center in the nation to join the Healthier Hospitals Initiative (HHI). Learn more |
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What is the Single Best Thing You Can Do for Your Health?
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Dr. Sernyak at his new treadmill desk
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Dr. Michael J. Sernyak, our CEO, says it may be easier than you think to improve your health and wellness.
Watch Dr. Sernyak's favorite wellness video 23 1/2 HOURS to learn the simple secret!
Want to Change Your Habits in 2013?
(What are habits, anyway?)
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CBS Evening News Visits CMHC
The CBS Evening News visited our Clinical Neuroscience Research Unit (CNRU) in November to film a story about the promising new depression medications being tested here.
View the story, which aired on December 6th and features the work of Gerard Sanacora, MD, Director of the Yale Depression Research Program and a CNRU scientist.
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Thinking About Newtown
I was finishing this issue of Center Focus on Friday, December 14th when I heard the devastating news of what had happened at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut.
The CT Department of Mental Health & Addiction Services has posted links to online resources for helping people cope with the tragedy. Clinical staff members at CMHC are among those who may be asked to travel to Newtown to provide crisis counseling for people who are grieving.
While we will never fully understand what went wrong in a young man's life, the mental health community has been, and will continue to be, affected by the Newtown tragedy. But it is historic and profound in its implications for all of us who are U.S. citizens, regardless of our professions. I hope that we are entering a period of national soul-searching regarding the violence in our society, which claims too many individual lives and creates lifelong trauma for many more.
I'd like to thank Desiree Branch for sharing her poem Love, which is printed above in the inaugural "Client Voices" section of this newsletter. Desiree submitted this poem to the newsletter several weeks ago. Today, it touches me even more than when I first read it. If there is an answer to the Newtown tragedy, it's contained somewhere in Desiree's lines.
This holiday season, may we take the time to hear, taste, smell, touch, and see the many blessings of this fragile life.
Lucile Bruce, Editor
lucile.bruce@yale.edu
p.s. Please spread the word that Center Focus is looking for submissions for "Client Voices." Interested clients should contact me themselves, either by email or in Room 142. |
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Home Tour Visits
CMHC
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Mary McBride
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Singer Mary McBride and her band launched Home Tour Connecticut at CMHC on December 5th. The band performed all over the State, including at DMHAS centers in Hartford, Bridgeport, and Middletown. At CMHC, the concert was followed by a delicious luncheon donated by our friends at Miya's Sushi and CitySeed.
For a few concert photos, click here.
Thanks for an amazing afternoon, Mary!
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Edwin Renaud Joins Clinical Leadership Team
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Edwin Renaud, LCSW, Ph.D.
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Edwin "Ed" Renaud joined the CMHC staff in November as the new Associate Director of Clinical Services. He is responsible for Ambulatory Services and works closely with Peggy Bailey, LCSW, Director of Clinical Services. Welcome, Dr. Renaud!
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Bryant Appointed to National Council
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Katurah Bryant, RN, LMFT, LADC
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The United States Department of Agriculture has appointed Katurah Bryant, Assistant Director of CMHC's Substance Abuse Treatment Unit, to the National Advisory Council on Maternal, Infant and Fetal Nutrition. She will serve as an Addiction Specialist on the Council. Congratulations, Ms. Bryant!
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John Brenner, MS, MSN, APRN, Police LT. (Ret) (pictured above) from Cornell Scott-Hill Health Center provides primary care for CMHC patients two days per week in his temporary office on the fifth floor. When the CMHC Wellness Center opens (see story, this issue), Brenner will work there, along with a full-time nurse educator from Hill Health. For an appointment with Nurse Practitioner Brenner, speak to your clinician.
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Linda Wheaton, RN and Colleen Kerelejza, RNC
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Nurses on the third floor Clinical Neuroscience Research Unit received new scrubs in December. They are very happy with their new attire! Thanks to all the staff members who worked together to accomplish this goal.
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Yale Department of Psychiatry monthly e-newsletter |
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