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Keyword search: mental health

By SRUTHI GOPALAKRISHNAN

In a move to restructure New Hampshire’s mental health system, state officials are making investments aimed at eliminating the longstanding practice of boarding patients with mental illness in hospital emergency departments.As part of the “Mission...

By SRUTHI GOPALAKRISHNAN

With evident frustration, Governor Chris Sununu openly criticized the state Board of Mental Health Practice for its failure to implement rules to adopt new license types to reduce the workforce shortage in the field and issued a deadline of one month...

By SRUTHI GOPALAKRISHNAN

The clock never ticks the same way twice for those answering the phones at the state’s Rapid Response Access Point. Certain calls end within 20 minutes, while others stretch up to two hours as agents provide support to callers navigating a mental...

By SRUTHI GOPALAKRISHNAN

Still two years away, the completion of a new secure mental health hospital in Concord won’t be the right setting for some individuals held in correctional facilities with acute mental illness.“Not all of the patients in SPU [secure psychiatric unit]...

By SRUTHI GOPALAKRISHNAN

The intent of a new 24-bed psychiatric facility in Concord is to provide a safe and secure environment for patients – individuals who are currently or would potentially be residing in the secure psychiatric unit of the men’s prison.“Although...

By SRUTHI GOPALAKRISHNAN

Waiting for 11 days in the emergency room was the worst period of Patrick Dowling’s life.Dowling, like hundreds of other patients with mental illnesses in New Hampshire, had to wait in a hospital emergency department for more than a week before...

By NINA MOSKE

Clouded vision. Constrained fingers. Muted sounds of static, laughter and indistinct voices.Attendees of a free training program at Granite Ledges of Concord altered their senses to experience a taste of life with dementia. The event, organized for...

By SRUTHI GOPALAKRISHNAN

Bill Kelly became the executive director at the Veterans Northeast Outreach Center without the usual elation associated with such a promotion.The weight of the role settled heavily on his shoulders, as it came in the wake of devastating news. The...

By MICHAELA TOWFIGHI

Gavin Dubois sometimes doesn’t have the words to express how he feels. But when he picks up a pair of drumsticks, he can read his emotions as clearly as notes on a sheet of music. Amid the sounds of the snare, the melodies of his marimba, his rage...

 By JACQUELINE COLE

John Broderick is accustomed to talking to children about youth mental health, but on Wednesday, it was the parents who listened. Broderick relayed the words of a high school hockey player who confided in him: “I don’t think I ever had a childhood.”“I...

By SRUTHI GOPALAKRISHNAN

A decade of overwhelming challenges in New Hampshire’s mental health sector has reached a milestone after a federal judge ruled that the state must cease the practice of prolonged confinement for psychiatric patients in hospital emergency rooms.“I am...

By SRUTHI GOPALAKRISHNAN

Alison Palmer thought she had motherhood figured out after her first pregnancy.Her son Matt was a dream baby. He followed a predictable feeding schedule and slept on schedule like clockwork. But with her second son Ryan, it was completely different....

By RAY DUCKLER

After years of searching for some clarity, former Pembroke Academy basketball star Noah Cummings of Epsom knows his anxiety attacks will return.And that took a while to accept.Cummings doesn’t know when it will strike again, nor can he possibly...

By SRUTHI GOPALAKRISHNAN

Taking a day off from work is a luxury that farmers cannot afford.This particular reality is something that Cameron Huftalen is all too familiar with, having grown up in a family of farmers in Henniker.With Huftalen’s grandparents working on a dairy...

By HELEN HANKS, LISA MADDEN and CYNTHIA WHITAKER

Helen Hanks is commissioner of the NH Department of Corrections and lives in Tilton. Lisa Madden is president & CEO of Riverbend and lives in Litchfield. Cynthia Whitaker, PsyD, MLADC, is president & CEO of Greater Nashua Mental Health and lives in...

By SRUTHI GOPALAKRISHNAN

After evaluating potential locations, a state-commissioned firm has recommended Hampstead Hospital and Residential Treatment Facility as the best site for replacing the Sununu Youth Services Center.The new facility will serve as a secure and...

By MICHAELA TOWFIGHI

When Jagger Reep moved into his own apartment, it was his first taste of independence. His mom, Melissa, scoured Salvation Army and Goodwill to piece together the one-bedroom unit, coming back with a bed frame, couch, coffee table and more to help her...

By SRUTHI GOPALAKRISHNAN

Two and a half months have passed since the state Attorney General’s Office began investigating a fatal police shooting of a Gilford teenager by a police officer.Attorney General investigations into fatal police shootings are made public once they are...

By SRUTHI GOPALAKRISHNAN

Riverbend Community Mental Health will receive part of a $500,000 grant to help meet the behavioral health needs of the children and families in the community, which have been exacerbated by the pandemic.“Recognizing that New Hampshire has a long way...

By SRUTHI GOPALAKRISHNAN

Lisa Colburn, a schoolteacher who lives in Weare, woke up to a knock on her front door and bright blue lights flashing outside.On a Saturday night in December two years ago, the police had come to ask for her daughter. She had texted a friend about...