News stories from Counterpoint
Standing Committees Reject Consolidation
The Vermont Agency of Human Services has drafted a rewrite of decades-old administrative rules that govern its advisory bodies. The potential update initially included the possibility of a merger between the State Program Standing Committees for Adult Mental Health...
New CEO Leads Vermont Psychiatric Care Hospital
When Wendy Shapiro thinks about inpatient psychiatric care, she thinks about her aunt, Shirley. Shirley “always had a special place in my heart,” Shapiro recalled. “My mom and dad would always have her and her boyfriend come over to play cards and eat dinner at...
Flooding Tests Vermonters’ Mental Health
By Vermont Emergency Management’s preliminary count, July’s flooding damaged 4,087 homes and 839 businesses statewide. Emotionally and psychologically, the event and its aftermath will yield serious, long-lasting challenges for Vermonters, according to mental health...
Does Patient Advocacy Advocate for Patients?
Not everyone leaves the hospital feeling content about the quality of their care. At the University of Vermont Medical Center, dissatisfied patients have a place to go: the Office of Patient & Family Advocacy. But what happens once they’ve filed a complaint? Last...
Survivor Trains Emergency Department Staff
With the Department of Mental Health still working to resolve prolonged wait times for psychiatric inpatient beds, hospitals have turned to the Vermont Program for Quality in Health Care to learn how to improve services within their emergency departments. One of its...
Another Way Stays Above Water
On Barre Street in Montpelier, Another Way Community Center sustained little damage from the flooding that devastated much of the rest of the city in July, keeping its doors open during and after the storm. “We did have some minor flooding in the basement. There was...
Counterpoint Articles Archives
Arts and commentary from Counterpoint
Summer Poems
An Empty, Colorless Canvas by Morgan Brown Absent requisite artistic studio space,not to mention various and necessaryart supplies, currently unavailablewith which to explore and pursue one’slifelong dream, hope and vision to potentiallyendeavor among the ever...
What Is a ‘Found Poem’?
Book review by Anne Donahue If you begin reading Parallel Pathways by thumbing through, looking for a poem or story that looks appealing to read, you are likely to pause as some point and ask, “What is a ‘found poem’?” Something written a long time ago, and recently...
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...
Then and Now – A Comparison from the Pages of Counterpoint: 35 Years of ‘Regionalization’
The summer issue of Counterpoint in 1988, 34 years ago, focused on a new plan called “regionalization” that had begun the year before to shift people who were being held at the Vermont State Hospital in Waterbury to living in their local communities with support...
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?...
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...
Peer Divisions Are Hurting Us
Publisher's commentary by Karim Chapman Despite our broad common interests, divisions in the peer movement are getting in the way of our ability to be successful in the state. In the past two years, there have been efforts in the peer community to push to be on the...
Making Community Connections, Virtually
Commentary by Laura Shanks In April, I launched a virtual peer-run wellness collaborative group on Zoom through Vermont Psychiatric Survivors with my colleague, Carter Kinoy, with a mission to provide a safe community space for open discussion, synergetic support,...
Beating Back the Imposter Syndrome
Commentary by Grace Walter Performing a job that is based on “lived experience” at the young age of 23 has been difficult but rewarding to develop. For a period of time when I first began this job I was dealing with impostor syndrome, the feeling that you are not good...
Helping Those Who Need a Safe Space
Commentary by ANONYMOUS I’ve been thinking about the question from the reader poll in the fall Counterpoint: Does Vermont need a forensic psychiatric hospital? A separate place from a regular psychiatric hospital? I’ve been giving this a lot of thought. If you think...