PEOPLE

When psychologist Allen Bergin, PhD, received the Oskar Pfister award at the American Psychiatric Association?s annual meeting in June, he surprised the association by making a presentation to them.

Bergin gave the psychiatrists a rare first edition copy of one of Pfister?s books that colleague Sally Barlow, PhD, had found in a rare bookshop. Oskar Pfister, MD, was a psychoanalyst and Protestant minister who challenged Freud?s theories on religion by saying that religion had a positive affect on mental health. The Pfister award honors similar pioneers in the study of religion and mental health.

Bergin, a professor of clinical psychology at Brigham Young University (BYU), is credited with some of the earliest research on psychiatry and religion. Through his work, he established the now well-accepted idea that devout religious belief and participation can have mental and physical health benefits. He has created tools for clinicians to study religion, including a religious and spiritual intake questionnaire and a diagnostic guide to determine if a person?s religious and spiritual orientation is healthy or detrimental.

Bergin has published more than 100 journal articles and books, including 'A Spiritual Strategy for Counseling and Psychotherapy,'(APA Books, 1997), which he co-authored with P. Scott Richards, PhD.

Before joining the BYU faculty in 1972, Bergin was a professor at Columbia University Teachers College for 11 years.

Psychologist Miki Paul, PhD, of Tucson, Ariz., is using her own frightening experience with domestic violence to help others. After leaving a physically and emotionally abusive relationship of nine years, Paul became a psychology practitioner and community activist specializing in counseling battered women. In July she received the Sunshine Peace Award from the Sunshine Lady Foundation, Inc.?a private foundation that works to end domestic violence?and the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence for her contributions to stopping domestic violence.

Paul uses her own story to illustrate the experiences of battered women when she talks to community and professional groups about domestic violence. She has volunteered and served on the board of directors at the Brewster Center for battered women.

Paul was appointed by Tucson?s mayor to a task force on domestic violence that developed a domestic violence commission for the county. As commissioner of the task force, Paul organized the city?s first Domestic Violence Awareness Day. She won the Mayor?s Award of Excellence for her work on the commission in April.

Armed with his third Fulbright award, psychologist James Scorzelli, PhD, is helping develop Thailand?s first master?s-level program in rehabilitation counseling. Scorzelli won a Fulbright grant to work at the Ratchasuda College at Mahidol University, located in Salaya, a subdistrict of the province of Nakornpathom about 12 miles from Bangkok.

Scorzelli, a professor in Northeastern University?s department of counseling psychology, rehabilitation and special education, is expanding the Ratchasuda College rehabilitation counseling program?s curriculum and developing a research proposal for the college to strengthen the program. Scorzelli is not teaching courses because of the language barrier, but he is presenting two seminars a week to faculty on issues in rehabilitation counseling.

Scorzelli also traveled east for his other Fulbright grants. In 1983, he spent a year at the National University of Malaysia while he developed a drug-counseling program in the psychology department. And in 1993, he spent two months teaching at Women?s Christian College in Madras, India, and one month in Calcutta at the Spastic Society of Eastern India conducting a workshop for students studying special education.

?Jamie Chamberlin

Psychologist?s program lowers emergency room visits for at-risk patients

In examining patient records at San Francisco General Hospital, psychologist Alicia Boccellari, PhD, and her colleague Robert Okin, MD, discovered an alarming trend: About 200 patients were frequent visitors, needing emergency room care 12 or more times a year. Most were homeless, had histories of substance abuse and sought emergency services for chronic medical problems or when they had been beaten or hurt themselves while high on drugs or alcohol.

Hoping they could improve the care of these patients?and lower health-care costs?Boccellari and Okin launched an innovative program to help these patients rebuild their lives and stay healthy. In July, the program was recognized by the National Association of Public Hospitals (NAPH) for its creative approach to health-care delivery with its Jim Wright Vulnerable Population Award.

Through the program they developed, Boccellari and Okin assigned a case manager to 16 frequently visiting patients. The case manager actively worked with the patients?helping them find housing, getting them into substance abuse programs and completing paperwork for entitlements with them. The case managers also set up appointments with primary-care physicians for the patients. The results were compelling. After one year of case management the annual cost of treating the 16 patients went from $586,603 to $263,204.

The following year they assigned case managers to 45 frequent visit patients and had equally successfully results. Emergency department visits for the group fell by 21 percent, substance abuse by 38 percent and homelessness by 44 percent. The San Francisco Department of Public Health allocated funds for eight full-time case managers to work for the program, and now 138 patients participate.

When patients agree to participate, they are photographed and tell hospital staff which parts of the city they frequent, says Boccellari. Then if the patient misses an appointment with a primary care physician or a case manager, the program?s tracker can locate them.

Media coverage of the program has sparked local businesses to lend support. The program has arrangements with several hotels to allow patients in the program to stay there, and businesses are donating food and clothing. The hospital has launched social and education activities for the patients, such as a regular movie group and a health-education class. The hospital also hired a nurse practitioner to visit patients at home when necessary, says Boccellari.

She says getting patients to participate is often a struggle, but persistence pays off.

'They don?t all agree to be part of the program right away, but we approach them over and over and over again,' says Boccellari. 'Some patients say to us, ?If it?s the only way you will stop bugging me, I?ll join.?'

Even though the program is improving the health and personal lives of these patients, most of them still face significant health challenges. Twenty-six of their patients have died since the program started, says Boccellari.

But those who died have died in some kind of housing and not on the streets, she says, which makes staff feel they are making progress.

But their work is generating some inspiring stories as well. Several patients have secured jobs and returned to the program as volunteers, and others have reunited with families they haven?t seen in more than 30 years, says Boccellari.

?Jamie Chamberlin