CSO Adds Local Medical Director Dr. Adam Lau to Leadership Team
NORTHAMPTON — Clinical & Support Options (CSO), a nonprofit community behavioral-health agency, has added a familiar, local name to its leadership team. Dr. Adam Lau, previously Cooley Dickinson Hospital’s medical director for Behavioral Health Services and vice president of the medical staff, has signed on as CSO’s medical director.
“Increasingly, we’re seeing integrated care become the norm,” CSO President and CEO Karin Jeffers said. “Physical health and behavioral health are being given the holistic consideration that’s deserved. So it’s beneficial for us to bring Dr. Lau aboard. His close working relationships with regional Cooley Dickinson physicians and nurses will be invaluable.”
CSO, which operates licensed clinics throughout Western Mass. and emergency service programs (ESPs) under contract with MassHealth in both Hampshire and Franklin counties, averages more than 500 crisis evaluations each month. For Lau, this means he will have the opportunity to affect access to urgent-care services.
“CSO is ahead of the curve when it comes to integrated care, with on-staff nursing and medical prescribers embedded throughout the behavioral services,” he said. “I’m eager to join an agency that’s so forward-thinking and to help improve quality and outcomes wherever I can.”
CSO recently partnered with Cooley Dickenson Hospital to add a community-based behavioral-health location within the hospital campus.
“Adding the depth of experience and leadership that Dr. Lau brings to our team will help advance our strategic goals,” Jeffers said, “one of which is increasing access to high-quality behavioral-health services”
Lau graduated medical school with honors at Trinity College University in Dublin, Ireland and moved to New York City for his residency. Prior to his role at Cooley Dickinson Hospital, he was associate director of Psychiatry at St. Joseph’s Medical Center in Yonkers, N.Y.
Lau replaces outgoing CSO Medical Director Dr. John Swanson, who is relocating to Texas.