News stories from Counterpoint
Northwestern Medical Center Refines Psychiatric Subunit Plans
In St. Albans, the pandemic-delayed plan by Northwestern Medical Center (NMC) to build a new emergency department, announced in 2019, remains underway. One component of the process, mandated by the Green Mountain Care Board as a condition of the project’s Certificate...
Forensic Care Working Group at Loggerheads
After receiving an extension on a pair of reports owed to the state legislature earlier this year, the Vermont Department of Mental Health (DMH) offered an update in July to the General Assembly’s Joint Legislative Justice Oversight Committee on the progress – or lack...
Self-Neglect Cases on the Rise
The annual number of referrals for self-neglect received by Adult Protective Services (APS), a subdivision of the Vermont Department of Disabilities, Aging, and Independent Living (DAIL), increased by 50% between 2017 and 2021. The major jump occurred in 2020, when...
United Way of Northwest Vermont Mental Health Initiative Gets Going
For decades, the United Way of Northwest Vermont (UWNWVT) has raised funds on behalf of mental health organizations in Chittenden, Franklin, and Grand Isle counties. In February, however, it announced a new effort to “become more directly involved in assisting change”...
Burlington Proclaims Mad Pride Day
On July 16, Mayor Miro Weinberger issued an official proclamation, declaring Mad Pride Day in the City of Burlington. With the mayor stuck in Italy after contracting COVID-19 while on vacation, MadFreedom founder Wilda White read the proclamation in his absence. Its...
In the News
• On June 21, the University of Vermont Health Network (UVMNH) opened a new, 18-room adult inpatient psychiatric unit at Champlain Valley Physicians Hospital (CVPH) in Plattsburgh, NY. At 19,000 square feet, the facility triples the size of CVPH’s previous psych ward....
Counterpoint Articles Archives
Arts and commentary from Counterpoint
Drugs vs. “Psychotherapy”: A True Story
Essay by Ron Merkin. All names, except the author’s, have been changed. Part One: Drugs “How do you feel about the use of psychotropic medication in the treatment of psychiatric patients?” she asked. Her question caught me completely unprepared. It was my first...
Documentary Sheds Light on Mental Health Court
The term “mental health court” has the ring almost of an oxymoron. But for some criminal justice reformers, such programs (which include Vermont’s Chittenden Adult Drug Treatment and Mental Health Court Dockets) demonstrate a means of reducing the rate of...
She Always Comes Home
Short fiction by Ron Merkin, Montpelier The Jaltsens lived in New Jersey. Walking through Manhattan after a concert we attended with them one night, my husband asked if they'd be taking the George Washington Bridge home. “Oh, no!” Alice responded. “It'd be much too...
Voices from Mad Pride
The bandshell at Burlington’s Battery Park hosted speakers from across the state on Mad Pride Day. Excerpts follow. Chris Hansen, Burlington My chief qualification for being here is my own history of being seen as mad enough to lock up at a significant time in my...
Editorial: New Week, New Ideas
How should psychiatric survivors and ex-patients interact with mainstream progressive demands for a fully funded mental health system? On July 31, the popular HBO show Last Week Tonight with John Oliver aired a 25-minute video essay about mental healthcare in the...
Fall Poems
Reflection Lakeby Raven Joy Crispino, RutlandYou came to me in a fragmentLess than a sentence drew meIntrigued, I opened the door to a worldThat could hold our weightIn pain, in laughter, in heart-hardening silence. I promised to cry less… Was told I saved you from...
Eleven Years of Being Peers
Essay by Linda Fuglestad This year, 2022, Alyssum quietly, but proudly, celebrates 11 years of being here in Vermont as the first peer-hosted alternative holistic crisis intervention and respite! In doing this work, we have been happy to celebrate our ongoing...
Crazy or Not, Here I Come
Essay by Phoebe Sparrow Wagner I used to be “crazy.” Labeled CMI, chronically mentally ill, prone to psychosis, I was a revolving-door mental patient, one who spent almost as much time in her adult life in the hospital as out of it. Although I had various diagnoses,...
Mental Health and Cycling
Essay by Tanawat Luekr-u-suke Riding my bike and walking have always been a way for me to clear my thoughts and improve my attitude. Over time, long walks and bike rides became meditation sessions for me, allowing me to boost my mental health simply by making time to...
Editorial: Who Decides if the News Is ‘Bad’?
In April, the Burlington-based alt-weekly Seven Days published the following headline: “UVM Health Network Halts Badly Needed Psychiatric Bed Project.” The article was a news story, not a commentary, about an announcement by the University of Vermont Health Network...