Page 11 - Healthcare News Jan/Feb 2023

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BEHAVIORAL HEALTH CONT’D
abuse issues who require constant monitoring. The highly structured inpatient environment emphasizes understanding the signs of psychiatric illness, rapid stabilization, developing strategies to avoid rehos- pitalization, and discharge planning. Patients in
meaning that they have extensive or significant unsafe thoughts of self-harm or harm to others, or they’re
so compromised by their psychiatric symptoms that they’re really unable to function out in the commu- nity, and do need that level of care in an inpatient
Reap What You Sow
Gould Farm in Monterey, in the Southern Berk- shires, is a twist on inpatient treatment programs, but on a more long-term scale.
Founded in 1913, Gould Farm became the first residential therapeutic community in the nation dedi- cated to helping adults with mental health and related challenges move toward recovery and independence through community living, meaningful work, and clinical care.
In a community of about 90 people, ‘guests,’ as residents are called, stay from nine to 12 months to help them get re-accustomed to life.
“People, prior to coming here, kind of lose relation- ships with themselves and others. And this is a way to step back into that and return to relationships with other people and with themselves,” explained Tamara McKernan, Admissions director and clinician on the farm. “There’s a level of trust here, where people step- ping out of the hospital have kind of had everything taken away, and need to step back into feeling trusted and able to do things.”
During their stay, guests have a structured sched- ule; they do many of the same things they would in any inpatient program, like check-ins with therapists and clinicians, group work, and activities that ground them, but they also have jobs on the farm: working in the dairy barn or making cheese; tending the gardens,
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“Usually, when people get to a point where they need inpatient psychiatric care, they are at a point where they are not going to be safe in the community, meaning that they have extensive or significant unsafe thoughts of self-harm or harm to others.”
DR. NEGAR BEHESHTI
inpatient care programs can work on rebuilding life skills without exposure to negative influences that fuel the urge to continue destructive behaviors.
MiraVista offers inpatient treatment to youth (ages 13-18) and adults who need the extra care. Dr. Negar Beheshti, chief medical officer for MiraVista and TaraVista behavioral health centers, told HCN that patients stay five to seven days, on average, at its inpatient facilities in Holyoke and Devens.
“Usually, when people get to a point where they need inpatient psychiatric care, they are at a point where they are not going to be safe in the community,
unit,” she added.
Behavioral-health practitioners and nurses are able
to provide education around diagnosis, symptoms, coping strategies, and medication while a patient is under MiraVista’s care. Patients are also given one- on-one check-ins with therapists and psychiatrists to discuss their feelings, medications, and concerns.
Beheshti said this setting is also an opportunity for patients to share their experiences with others in the program, and they can learn from one another about different strategies that may or may not work.