Montefiore-Einstein Psychiatry Associates Expansion/Employer Partnership Programs

The Montefiore Einstein Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences entered a formal agreement with 23 Westchester school districts to serve as their preferred behavioral health partner. The State-Wide School District Cooperative Health Plan (SWSCHP) is a public school district health-benefits cooperative across these 23 Westchester school districts, representing 7,000 employees (including teachers, administrators, bus drivers and more) and 21,000 covered lives with competitive Empire PPO and POS insurance plans. In July 2021, Montefiore Einstein Psychiatry Associates (MEPA), in collaboration with the Patient Access Center (PAC), developed a Preferred Access Program with a dedicated phone line for SWSCHP members and has completed over 500 visits to date for these members.

ACUTE Psychiatry Patient-Centered Pathways

Ambulatory Consults, Urgent Treatment and Evaluations (ACUTE) Psychiatry is a new program aimed at addressing key systemic gaps in patient access to care. These gaps include but are not limited to the reduction of new-patient appointment lag times, the avoidance of lapses in medication for patients seeking care and the creation of a service pathway for patients excluded due to Office of Mental Health Guidelines or an affiliation with an outside primary therapist. Specific areas that this program covers include Bridge Care, a temporary telehealth service that offers medication intervention and support to ensure patients don’t have lapses in care while waiting to get connected to outpatient mental health treatment; and Medication Treatment, a telehealth treatment for patients who graduated from our clinic programs or who are connected with therapists in another treatment setting and would benefit from medication intervention.

Division of Psychiatry and Medicine

With the goal of integrating and advancing psychiatric programs that interface with other areas of medicine, our department launched a new Division of Psychiatry and Medicine. Led by Andrea Kondracke, MD, the division will oversee Consultation-Liaison Psychiatry across our Moses, Wakefield and Weiler Hospital campuses, as well as services like transplant psychiatry.

Racial, Ethnic and Cultural Healing (REACH) Program

The Racial, Ethnic and Cultural Healing (REACH) program was launched by Ryan DeLapp, PhD, Attending Psychologist in the Moses Campus Child Outpatient Psychiatry Division (Child OPD) and in the Einstein Student Mental Health Center at Albert Einstein College of Medicine (AECOM). Initially started as a group intervention led by Dr. DeLapp and co-facilitated by a psychology intern for adolescents, REACH seeks to promote anti-racist, therapeutic spaces for the Bronx community via program development and evaluation. The group provides a space for teens to discuss racial and cultural stressors and promote self-acceptance, empowerment and healing. Adolescents who participated in the group have reported growth in mindfulness skills, self-validation, values-based decision-making and a sense of cultural pride.

Beyond its offering at the Child OPD, REACH is currently planning to launch in the Becoming an Emerging Adult at Montefiore (BEAM) program in the Moses Adult OPD. The program is also recruiting for a project entitled Racial, Ethnic and Cultural Healing—Uplifting Parents (REACH-UP) in effort to refine the REACH group intervention by seeking feedback on how Bronx parents and caregivers engage in racial socialization practices with their children.

Trauma Healing and Resilience in Vulnerable Environments (THRIVE)

Traumatic stress comes in many forms, including but not limited to COVID-19-related stress, racial stress, second-victim syndrome in healthcare providers, traumatic bereavement, interpersonal violence, early childhood abuse/neglect, medical trauma and exposure to disasters. Trauma Healing and Resilience in Vulnerable Environments (THRIVE) is a specialty clinic housed in the Moses Adult Outpatient Psychiatry Division that’s dedicated to providing evidence-based therapy for trauma and stress-related disorders. Directed by Laurie Gallo, PhD, Attending Psychologist at Montefiore, THRIVE offers individuals experiencing trauma-related stress access to a variety of evidence-based therapies, including cognitive behavioral therapy, acceptance and commitment therapy and dialectical behavior therapy