Dr. Benjamin Brody (Weill Cornell Medicine, New York) joins Dr. Dixon and Dr. Berezin to discuss how Joint Commission accreditation can be evolved to ensure that it is aligned with best incentives to for high-quality behavioral health care. Transcript 00:52 Brody background 02:51 Inpatient work 03:42 The tension of inpatient psychiatric care 05:28 The Joint Commission 07:39 What the Joint Commission is doing well 09:04 Best practices 11:02 Who ordered what, when, and where 13:33 Including the pa...
Jun 16, 2025•33 min
Dr. Judith Cook (University of Illinois Chicago) joins Dr. Dixon and Dr. Berezin to discuss an intervention designed to help improve financial literacy and competency and reduce economic strain for people receiving services for psychiatric disorders. Transcript 00:57 Psychiatric services research 02:05 Clinical work and Thresholds 03:46 Current role 04:23 Why does financial wellness matter for this population? 06:43 Psych rehab 08:05 Spending triggers 10:59 A psych rehab framework 12:53 Financia...
Apr 15, 2025•35 min
Dr. Kevin Simon (Harvard Medical School and Boston Public Health Commission) joins Dr. Dixon and Dr. Berezin to discuss the processes behind and concerns surrounding involuntary psychiatric hospitalization. Transcript 01:03 Career path 03:42 Boston Public Health Commission 09:28 Collaborators 13:09 Section 12 16:14 Transportation 17:17 Rates of involuntary transport 22:29 Requests that don’t end in transport 23:42 Police involvement Subscribe to the podcast here . Check out Editor's Choice , a s...
Mar 10, 2025•33 min
Eunice Wong, Ph.D., (RAND, Santa Monica, Calif.) joins Dr. Dixon and Dr. Berezin to discuss a review taking a look at the interactions of faith communities and the mental health sector in the provision of mental health care. Transcript 00:56 How did you arrive at this field of study? 02:58 What is RAND and what do they do? 04:11 How are works for a think tank evaluated? 05:21 The interaction of faith communities and mental health service provision 07:38 Types of collaboration – PSFPTP Hankerson ...
Jan 21, 2025•33 min
Dr. Mette Ødegaard Nielsen (Unit for Complicated Schizophrenia, Glostrup, Denmark) joins Dr. Dixon and Dr. Berezin to discuss patient motivations and experiences of antipsychotic medication tapering at a clinic in Denmark. Transcript 01:02 Nielsen interview 02:22 Tapering medication 04:09 Controversies around tapering 07:07 Debilitating effects of side effects 09:09 The tension between medication and side effects for the clinician 12:47 Top line findings 15:28 Psychotic symptom relapse 17:38 Dif...
Nov 18, 2024•34 min
Maggi A. Price, Ph.D., M.A. (School of Social Work, Boston College) joins Dr. Dixon and Dr. Berezin to discuss gender-affirming psychotherapy (GAP) , a comprehensive, evidence-informed, and human-centered set of practices focusing on the treatment of transgender youth developed by Dr. Price and colleagues. The training discussed in the podcast is available to the public at a reduced cost at https://www.affirmlab.org/gaptraining with the discount code “psychserv50." Transcript 01:27 How did you e...
Sep 16, 2024•32 min
Dr. Sharon Hoover (University of Maryland School of Medicine, Baltimore) joins Dr. Dixon and Dr. Berezin to discuss the provision of mental health services in schools : why it matters, who it touches, how it’s funded, and how it’s doing. 01:15 Background 02:46 Provision of school mental health 09:56 How mental health services differ between ages and grades 11:08 COVID pandemic and youth mental health 15:29 Federal funding mechanisms 18:39 Using the funding while it’s still available 22:10 Partne...
Jul 31, 2024•37 min
Simon Graham, M.B.Ch.B., M.R.C.Psych., and Kathy Curtis (Spring House Psychotherapy and Personality Disorder Service) join Dr. Dixon and Dr. Berezin to discuss the use of a local case management team and a combined day treatment and crisis service for patients with borderline personality disorder in Liverpool, United Kingdom. Transcript Subscribe to the podcast here . Check out Editor's Choice , a set of curated collections from the rich resource of articles published in the journal. Sign up to ...
May 14, 2024•33 min
Elizabeth Bromley, M.D., Ph.D. (University of California, Los Angeles) joins Dr. Dixon and Dr. Berezin to discuss the use of outpatient conservatorship in the effort to address mental health disability among unsheltered homeless persons in Los Angeles County, California. 00:00 Introduction 03:04 Homelessness in Los Angeles County, California 09:04 The paper and services 11:39 Lanterman-Petris-Short (LPS) conservatorship 13:44 Outpatient conservatorship (OPC) pilot program 15:54 Skepticism 18:48 ...
Apr 17, 2024•34 min
Gregory E. Simon, M.D., M.P.H. (Kaiser Permanente Washington Health Research Institute, Seattle) join Dr. Dixon and Dr. Berezin to discuss the use of machine learning models to analyze electronic health records to predict antidepressant treatment response. 00:00 Introduction 02:31 Focus on practical research 04:55 Population studied 05:57 Predicting outcomes 07:20 Using diagnostic codes, not personalized notes 08:04 What three data items might be more helpful? 08:49 What key indicators are we mi...
Feb 21, 2024•32 min
Misty C. Richards, M.D., M.S. (University of California, Los Angeles), and Nicole Kozloff, M.D. (University of Toronto), join Dr. Dixon and Dr. Berezin to discuss the need to remodel our systems and provision of mental health services for children and adolescents. 00:00 Introduction 01:18 Impetus 05:45 What constitutes a mental health crisis? 11:14 “Remodeling” 16:21 Differences by location 18:28 Remodeling primary care 21:25 Virtual care 27:19 New service models 32:19 Are we moving in the right...
Jan 16, 2024•37 min
Andrew D. Carlo, M.D., M.P.H. (Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, Chicago) joins Dr. Dixon and Dr. Berezin to discuss the insurance acceptance rates of psychiatric practitioners compared with other medical disciplines. 00:00 Introduction 01:04 Background and Motivation 02:46 Data Set and Methodology 05:12 Restricted Data Set and Privacy Concerns 06:08 Research Questions and Goals 10:04 Findings: Insurance Acceptance Rates 11:29 Factors Influencing Insurance Acceptance 14:23 Mag...
Dec 04, 2023•30 min
Eliza Hallett, M.S., (Oregon Health & Science University, Portland, Oregon) joins Dr. Dixon and Dr. Berezin to discuss the challenges faced by staff and behavioral health service providers, including low wages, traumatic work environments, low wages, and physical and administrative infrastructure. Workforce crisis in behavioral health care [01:33] How representative of the country is Oregon? [03:45] Who were you talking to? [05:32] A figure on radio [06:30] Generating a theoretical framework...
Sep 15, 2023•32 min
Henry Chung, M.D., (Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Bronx, New York City) joins Dr. Dixon and Dr. Berezin to discuss the differences between the collaborative care model and the colocation model, and the impact on Medicaid costs and utilization, for the treatment of patients with depression. Chung interview [00:58] A bridge between clinical and research work [02:32] The colocation model and the collaborative care model [03:44] What populations are you working with? [07:21] Differences in se...
Aug 04, 2023•31 min
Joseph Parks, M.D., joins Dr. Dixon and Dr. Berezin to discuss guidelines for clinicians on how to deal with the increased prevalence of drugs adulterated with fentanyl and similar potent fentanyl analogs. MDI publications can be found here . Parks interview [00:53] The National Council for Mental Wellbeing [01:21] Guidelines [03:50] Contemplation [05:02] A back-to-basics approach [07:13] Fentanyl test strips and harm reduction [08:37] Spillover [10:06] Issues with fentanyl [12:05] Incremental b...
Jun 28, 2023•23 min
Eric P. Slade, Ph.D., joins Dr. Dixon and Dr. Berezin to discuss the complex and often confusing world of dual eligibility for Medicare and Medicaid coverage when it comes to mental health services, in particular Dual Eligible Special Needs Plans (D-SNPs), a type of Medicare Advantage plan designed around those eligible for both programs. Slade interview [00:59] Medicare and Medicaid [02:24] Eligibility for each, and both [06:36] Dual eligibility [08:09] Who pays for care? [09:51] Managed care [...
May 12, 2023•42 min
Lauren Southwick, M.P.H., and Sharath Guntuku, Ph.D., join Dr. Dixon and Dr. Berezin to discuss whether using a digital dashboard maintained by patients to track social media and other digital data usage had an impact on mental health therapy outcomes. • Southwick and Guntuku interview [01:37] • What led you to this study design? [03:06] • What did you think this would look like in a therapy setting? [08:00] • Amount of data patients contributed varied widely [09:39] • The dashboard [10:12] • Wh...
Apr 11, 2023•30 min
Breanna C. Keepers, M.D., M.B.A., and Ish P. Bhalla, M.D., M.S., join Dr. Dixon and Dr. Berezin to discuss the results of a survey of mental healthcare providers and their usage of measurement-based care. Dr. Keepers is in the Department of Psychiatry at New York-Presbyterian Hospital, and Dr. Bhalla is Medical Director of Behavioral Health Value Transformation at Blue Cross-Blue Shield of North Carolina. • Keepers and Bhalla interview [00:50] • Incentivizing provider behavior changes [03:01] • ...
Feb 27, 2023•29 min
Navdep Kaur, M.P.H., joins Dr. Dixon and Dr. Berezin to discuss persistent racial and ethnic disparities in mental health treatment access and outcomes prior to and following the passage of the 2010 Affordable Care Act. Ms. Kaur is a predoctoral fellow at the Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health in New York. Kaur interview [01:01] Connecting your work with your passion [03:09] Affordable Care Act and mental health [05:39] What did you look at to study this? [09:11] What are we tal...
Jan 24, 2023•28 min
Howard H. Goldman, M.D., PH.D. ( PS emeritus Editor-in-Chief) and Alison Cuellar, Ph.D., (George Mason University, Fairfax, Virginia) joins current PS Editor-in-Chief Dr. Lisa Dixon to discuss the peer review process from the perspective of both reviewers and editors. Transcript Subscribe to the podcast here . Check out Editor's Choice , a set of curated collections from the rich resource of articles published in the journal. Sign up to receive notification of new Editor's Choice collections. Br...
Dec 20, 2022•45 min
Nathaniel P. Morris, M.D., joins Dr. Dixon and Dr. Berezin to discuss an evidence-based approach to involuntary psychiatric hospitalization. Dr. Morris is an Assistant Professor of Psychiatry in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at the University of California, San Francisco. How did you get interested in this topic? [00:51] What is involuntary psychiatric hospitalization? [02:28] How does it vary by state and nationally? [04:46] What don't we know about the evidence behind in...
Nov 22, 2022•26 min
Shalini Lal, Ph.D., joins Dr. Dixon and Dr. Berezin to discuss the perspective of patients related to recovery, treatment, and relapse following first-episode psychosis. Dr. Lal is the Canada Research Chair in Innovation and Technology for Youth Mental Health Services and an associate professor at the School of Rehabilitation, University of Montreal, Montreal, Canada. How did you get interested in this topic? [01:26] What do we mean by the word “relapse”? [04:33] What’s the perspective of an occ...
Oct 20, 2022•31 min
Dr. Bonnie Zima, M.D., M.P.H., joins Dr. Dixon and Dr. Berezin to discuss trends in child emergency department discharges, hospitalization, and mental health care utilization before and after statewide school closure orders due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Dr. Zima is a Professor-in-Residence in the Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences at the University of California, Los Angeles. How did you get interested in this topic? [01:06] Study design [02:26] The team [03:25] The data set: Pe...
Jul 26, 2022•28 min
Dr. George Pro, Ph.D., M.P.H., joins Dr. Dixon and Dr. Berezin to discuss the downward trend in the provision of mental health services in Spanish across the US, despite the rapidly increasing Hispanic population. Dr. Pro is an Assistant Professor in the College of Public Health at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences. How did you get involved in this research? [01:04] What are the demographic challenges and what do we know about services provision in this population? [02:20] The leve...
Jun 27, 2022•27 min
Courtney von Hippel, Ph.D., joins Dr. Dixon and Dr. Berezin to discuss burnout and negative job attitudes , and how lived experience might help provide a buffer in mental health workers. Dr. von Hippel is an Associate Professor of Health and Behavioural Sciences at the University of Queensland in Brisbane, Australia. How did you get involved in this research? [01:16] A profession with a huge amount of burnout [03:20] What does burnout lead to? [05:45] Private versus public practice [08:07] How d...
May 16, 2022•30 min
Mark Savill, Ph.D., joins Dr. Dixon and Dr. Berezin to discuss using online psychosis screening data to see what can be learned about the population taking the assessment, what can be done to close the gap between screening and treatment, and to reduce the duration of untreated psychosis. Dr. Savill is a professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at University of California, Davis. What’s your background? [01:17] Prodromal Questionnaire Brief (PQ-B) [03:03] Duration of Unt...
Mar 29, 2022•32 min
Daniel M. Blonigen, Ph.D. joins Dr. Dixon and Dr. Berezin to discuss implementing moral reconation therapy (MRT) in a noncorrectional setting among justice-involved veterans receiving residential mental health treatment in the U.S. Veterans Health Administration with an aim towards reducing criminal recidivism. Dr. Blonigen is an Associate Director at the Center for Innovation to Implementation, VA Palo Alto Health Care System, in Palo Alto, California. Blonigen interview [00:55] Veterans Justic...
Feb 28, 2022•31 min
Margaret E. Balfour, M.D., Ph.D., and Jason Winsky, B.A., join Dr. Dixon and Dr. Berezin to discuss their special article published in Psychiatric Services , “Cops, Clinicians, or Both? Collaborative Approaches to Responding to Behavioral Health Emergencies,” looking at collaborations between police and clinicians in the treatment of mental health and behavioral health emergencies. Dr. Balfour is Chief of Quality & Clinical Innovation at Connections Health Solutions in Tucson, Arizona, and S...
Jan 10, 2022•40 min
Cameron Schilling, M.P.H, joins Dr. Dixon and Dr. Berezin to discuss the effects of high deductible health insurance plans on enrollees with mental health conditions and substance use disorder. Mr. Schilling is a programmer and data analyst from the Center for Mental Health and Addiction Policy at the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health, and an author of an article in the journal. Health insurance and how it works What is a “high deductible” health insurance plan? Premiums, health care utiliza...
Nov 09, 2021•25 min
Dr. Debra A. Pinals, M.D., joins Dr. Dixon and Dr. Berezin to discuss two forthcoming articles from Psychiatric Services looking at persons with intellectual and developmental disabilities in mental health systems. The first paper addresses clinical considerations, and the second looks at policy and systems considerations. Dr. Pinals is a Clinical Professor of Psychiatry and the Director of the Program in Psychiatry, Law, and Ethics at the University of Michigan Medical School in Ann Arbor, Mich...
Oct 12, 2021•41 min
