Northeast Behavioral Health Center

09/26/2025

It is too often that we get calls or work with individuals in situations similar to this. We need to work together to help our legislators create policies that will hold these insurance companies accountable. On the provider side, we work hard to provide the documentation to support the need for higher level of care. The last thing these families need is additional stress. ❤️

After a su***de attempt, doctors told the Benz-Bushlings their son needed residential mental health treatment. Their insurance said that level of care was “not medically necessary.”

08/28/2025

Mathew Portell
Trauma Informed Educators Network
Unapologetic Disrupter for Good Podcast

www.TIENetwork.org

08/27/2025

I have clients ask me about this from time to time, friends who have said they figured out how to handle a problem with ChatGPT. Please share this and caution your loved ones. Learning how and when to use AI willl be this generations biggest challenge. And similar to portable screens, and its predecessor the internet, our children and mental health may be at risk to be impacted the most.

California teen Adam Raine died by su***de in April. His parents, Matt and Maria Raine, have filed a wrongful death lawsuit against OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT, claiming the company is responsible for their son's death.

08/22/2025

07/22/2025

A new study on the impacts of owning a cell phone before 13 years old found negative impacts on mental health. This is consistent with other studies and recommendations by experts in the field of child mental health. Jonathan Haidt’s book The Anxious Generation provides more details on the rationale behind this recommendation.

I can relate to the challenge of setting rules or limits that are aberrant to the decisions of other parents, but if waiting for cell phone ownership becomes the new trend, children will quickly follow suit and accept this as the norm. This article provides a script that tou can use with your children if the already own a phone.

Things can always change but from a young age, I’ve started telling my children not to expect phones before they are 13. I’m anticipating a lot of conversations about this as they get older but luckily the research is rolling out and providing additional support for this decision.

If you have questions about this topic, please reach out for support.

Using smartphones before age 13 could damage kids’ mental health, according to a new study based on self-reports in a survey of nearly 2 million people in 163 countries.

07/16/2025

While we watch in horror at the events that have unfolded in Texas, many of our local families have not been directly impacted. However, the parallels that it holds to the other tradgeys across our country in the recent years is undeniable. From the floods to tornados to unexpected loss, many of which have been directly experienced from our own clinical staff, have also impacted many across our community. Trauma (and the impacts of trauma) doesn’t discriminate, it’s not predictable, and it’s definitely not preventable.

Research on the neurological impacts of trauma, though still in its infancy, is definitive and profound. We now know that children aren’t resilient to the impacts of trauma, as was once popular belief, and we also know that these impacts can last a lifetime, at times creating a snowball effect. We also know that traditional therapy is not always the best approach to helping individuals and children move through trauma and can even, at times, be detrimental. There are resources and education to help individuals better understand the complex cascade of symptoms that individuals can experience. I came across this video that features one of the most respected and experienced psychiatrists in the field of trauma. You can extrapolate the information from this video and apply it to any traumatic experience. If you, or someone you know, has experienced a traumatic event, this may be a good place to start.