News stories from Counterpoint

Does Safety Hurt More Than Help?

Does Safety Hurt More Than Help?

An increased regulatory focus on removing psychiatric inpatients’ opportunities for self-harm has led Vermont’s hospitals to make major changes to improve safety. But according to psychiatric survivors, some of these changes have yielded unintended consequences in how...

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Hospital Eyes New Beds for Youth

Hospital Eyes New Beds for Youth

BENNINGTON – Vermont could have ten to 12 new inpatient psychiatric beds for adolescents by 2024 if a proposal by Southwestern Vermont Medical Center comes to fruition. Direct input from psychiatric survivors or family members has yet to be brought into discussion on...

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New Legislative Agenda Unclear

New Legislative Agenda Unclear

MONTPELIER – With at least 47 new faces entering the Vermont House of Representatives and nine freshman senators, the 2023-2024 legislative biennium looks more than usual like a blank canvas. Mental health advocates will be watching closely to see how it fills up. The...

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Urgent Care Options Are Underway

Urgent Care Options Are Underway

BURLINGTON – The Department of Mental Health is actively looking to relieve Vermont’s overburdened emergency departments by expanding other options for care during mental health crises. There has not yet been any direct involvement by psychiatric survivors about...

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Arts and commentary from Counterpoint

Psychotherapy to the Rescue!

Psychotherapy to the Rescue!

Short fiction by Ron Merkin The more therapy I got the more my interest in women disintegrated. Don’t get me wrong, it didn’t transfer to men. Call it asexuality, distrust. My libido began fading after the psychologist Dr. Bloomstuck began our eleventh session by...

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Membership Has Real Power!

Membership Has Real Power!

Commentary by Zack Hughes, VPS Board Member Have you ever seen this? “We are having a membership meeting.” “Come renew your membership.” Why does it matter? VPS is a membership-driven organization. A member has obligations and has power! What obligations and power?...

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Editorial: Defining Input

Editorial: Defining Input

A brand-new initiative to develop a child and adolescent psych unit at Southwestern Medical Center in Bennington is already off on the wrong foot when it comes to input from psychiatric survivors and their families. Likewise for an initiative to develop an urgent care...

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Letters to the Editor

Letters to the Editor

Mental Anguish Versus Mental Illness Thanks for this, and for the article on Any Given Day… I agreed with you on almost every point. Thepremise of the film is that Mental Illness is Real… an a priori with which I take issue. The fact is thatsmoking weed or pcp or...

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January of ’21

January of ’21

Words by Patrick Stanton “The card of the day.” Jody shuffled her Tarot deck on the small, cafe-style table where we were served all three meals by the staff of the Unit. She was known as “Splash” by the patients (as in bringing “a splash of color/positivity” to the...

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