Home | Business News | Browse by Publication | B | Behavioral Health Management

Champions of behavioral health: profiles of three who are leaving their individualized marks on behavioral healthcare.

Article Excerpt
People who work in behavioral healthcare certainly do so because of a special calling to serve those who are in deep distress. But working with people with mental illnesses and substance abuse problems can be difficult, and it isn't made any easier by limited funding, regulatory paperwork, and constant questions about treatment effectiveness from both outside and inside the field. Many in the field have risen to meet these challenges, to the benefit of millions of people with behavioral health disorders, and some have even excelled to the point of leaving a significant mark on the wider practice of behavioral healthcare.

In this issue of Behavioral Health Management, we profile the accomplishments of three such "champions" of the field--a patient, a researcher, and a provider. We hope you find their stories interesting and inspiring as you go about your daily task of meeting your call to serve. We hope, too, that you will be inspired to share your own stories of champions in behavioral healthcare. E-mail us at editor@behavioral.net.

Relying on Cultural--and Personal--Experiences

"My first exposure to serious mental illness came personally, not through the medical world," recalls Alex Kopelowicz, MD, who recently was honored by the American Psychiatric Foundation (APF) with an Award for Advancing Minority Mental Health.

A friend suffered with schizophrenia when the two were teenagers. His friend was able to stabilize his illness with the help of medication by his early 20s and is now married, has two kids, and works full time. "When I first went into medicine, my expectations for people with illnesses like schizophrenia were not pessimistic because my first experience was very optimistic," he says.

It was from this experience that Dr. Kopelowicz became interested in the recovery model of treating mental illness. "The recovery model is really focused more on trying to improve people's overall functional outcome. It's not just focused on symptoms," he explains.

Born in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Dr. Kopelowicz and his family moved to the United States when he was a young child....