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News in Brief
(November
2004 Issue)
McLean researchers to study fear and schizophrenia
Vadim Bolshakov, Ph.D., and Deborah L. Levy, Ph.D. were awarded
grants totaling $200,000 by the National Alliance for Research on
Schizophrenia and Depression. Bolshakov is director of McLean Hospital's
Cellular Neurobiology Laboratory and Levy is interim director for
McLean's Psychology Laboratory.
Bolshakov will try to better understand human anxiety disorder
by conducting a study on brain conditioning in rats. Levy's research
will involve study of relational memory in schizophrenia patients.
McLean Hospital is the largest psychiatric teaching facility of
Harvard Medical School and an affiliate of Massachusetts General
Hospital. It is located in Belmont, Mass.
Division created to oversee support services
The Massachusetts Department of Mental Retardation Commissioner
Gerald Morrissey announced the creation of the Division of Autism
Spectrum Disorders to oversee services and offer support and information
to parents of children with autism.
The office is scheduled to open by July 2005 at the start of the
2006 fiscal year although staffing and funding details are yet to
be announced.
In a statement at the spring State House ceremony, Morrissey said,
"We need a system that works for kids, families and adults across
the state. We can't rely on parents finding a solution on their
own."
The Department of Public Health in December will release the results
of a study on the number of children under age 18 with autism in
the state.
Nurses donate to Fair Harbor Residence
Nurses from Spring Harbor Hospital, a nonprofit psychiatric hospital
and chemical abuse recovery center in Westbrook, ME, contributed
$1,000 to the Greater Portland YWCA's Fair Harbor Residence, a treatment
and temporary refuge for troubled girls.
The money was originally intended to honor 130 nurses, but they
decided it would be better spent assisting young women at the Portland
facility.
"I think this is a wonderful testament to the quality and compassion
of our nursing staff," said Mary Jane Krebs, Spring Harbor's chief
clinical and nursing officer.
Teens affected by neglect, physical or sexual abuse, substance
abuse, psychiatric illness or family dysfunction live at the Fair
Harbor Residence an average of six to nine months before going back
home or to other residential settings.
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