Thursday, January 20, 2011

Doctors to assess mental health efforts

Initiatives at Barrington High School to raise awareness about teenage mental illness in the wake of a number of suicides in new years will be critiqued by doctors under a new partnership announced Wednesday. The doctors from Rush University Medical Center in Chicago and the Feinberg School of Medicine at Northwestern University will evaluate such labors as policies and procedures, programs, resources and communication surrounding mental health issues. They also will offer recommendations for improvements.


The Skokie-based Cheryl T. Herman Foundation, which supports education, diagnosis and treatment connected to depression, bipolar disorders and associated illnesses, is funding the partnership. Dr. John Zajecka, an associate professor of psychiatry at Rush University Medical Center who specializes in bipolar disorder, depressive disorders and mood disorders is one doctor and the other is psychologist Mark Reinecke, a professor and chief of the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Feinberg School of Medicine. His specialty is developmental psychopathology of depression and suicide, and the treatment of teenager depression.

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