As a leading provider of inpatient mental health and outpatient substance use treatment, members of MiraVista’s team are often called upon to lend their experience and expertise in their respective fields. Such is the case with, Carl Muldrow a Mental Health Technician on MiraVista Behavioral Health Center’s adolescent unit, who was among the panelists sharing best practices for the delivery of mental health care to Black youth as part of the recent Black Youth Mental Health Clinical Case Conference Series at Yale Child Study Center (YCSC) in New Haven, Conn.
“We had a case study and were asked to break it down and to offer insight as to what should have happened as opposed to what did happen,” Muldrow said. “We answered questions from very engaged audience and discussed the level of dedication this type of requires.”
Muldrow, who has worked in the field of human services for more than two decades, spoke passionately about his encouragement of young patients during their stay with MiraVista to help them become better educated about their mental health as they meet with their team of providers and to be actively involved in treatment.
“I communicate very compassionately with our patients supporting the work they are doing to improve their self-esteem, validating them while stressing that their voice matters and it is highly important in their treatment.”
Muldrow said he told the audience that included healthcare executives, mental health providers, and medical students, that perception – both for a provider as well as the patient – “can be everything in how a person is treated.”
Muldrow’s participation was on the March 13 panel, the third in the inaugural series of six at YCSC that is part of Yale School of Medicine. Dr. Carmen Black, an assistant professor of psychiatry at Yale, and Lashuana Cutts, a licensed clinical social worker, were among the other panelists.
The series includes six sessions organized by Dr. Amanda J. Calhoun, chief resident and chief child psychiatry fellow at YCSC.
A narrative account of a clinical case from Calhoun is presented at the start of each session. The panelists then discuss and analyze it in terms of systemic issues within medicine that prejudice how a Black youth may be diagnosed and treated.
She has described the series, that can be attended in-person or remotely, as “high-level, nuanced conversations of what it is like to care for Black children” and what advocacy is needed for “optimal care.”
More questions have been raised in recent years around why suicide rates among Black youths continue to rise, how youth surveys fail to target behavior that might proceed a suicide attempt among this population, how research into this behavior is underfunded and how comparatively few providers of mental health care are Black.
The series examining how the medical system addresses the mental health needs of Black youth is open to the public. The first session is said to have attracted some 300 participants in person and remotely. For more information, visit https://medicine.yale.edu/event/black-youth-mental-health-series-at-yale-2024-10-april/.
For more information on MiraVista Behavioral Health Center, visit https://www.miravistabhc.care/
MiraVista Behavioral Health Center opened in April of 2021 in Holyoke, Mass. MiraVista offers psychiatric care services for both adults and adolescents, as well as an array of recovery treatment programs including outpatient services such as substance use individual and group counseling, day and evening Intensive Outpatient Program (IOP), court-ordered services, and outpatient Medication Supported Recovery and Massachusetts Impaired Driving programs.
MiraVista cares for thousands of individuals from across New England. MiraVista’s purpose is to provide effective, inspiring care for those challenged by mental health and substance use so they are empowered to lead fulfilling lives.