MaineHealth Behavioral Health

10/24/2025

✨ Make spirits bright this season! ✨
Join generous partners like Puritan Medical Products, Dirigo Solar, and our host Shipyard Brewing Company in helping behavioral health patients receive comfort and care this holiday season.

💙 Making Spirits Bright
🗓️ Tuesday, November 18 | ⏰ 5:30–7:30 PM
📍 Shipyard Tasting Room, Portland

Sponsorships start at just $250 — help us spread joy that lasts all year!
👉 Learn more: www.MaineHealth.org/BH-HolidayPartners

10/16/2025

🎶✨ Celebrate the Season — and Make a Difference! ✨🎶

Join us on November 18 at Shipyard Brewing Company in Portland for an evening of great food, live music by local favorite Cold Atlantic, and a curated raffle filled with standout prizes — from local dining experiences and artisan baskets to family adventures!

All proceeds benefit MaineHealth Behavioral Health’s Holiday Partners Program, helping provide essentials that bring comfort, dignity, and joy to our patients — including warm clothing, reading glasses, and medications.

Reserve your spot today and help make the holidays brighter for someone in need.
Can’t attend? You can still make a difference — click to donate and spread the warmth of the season! https://fundraising.mmc.org/BH/MSB

10/14/2025

What an inspiring day of learning and connection! 💙
More than 100 professionals joined us for the 2025 Glickman Family Center Child & Adolescent Psychiatry Symposium, focused on current trends in eating disorders among children and adolescents.
Special thanks to keynote speaker Dr. Lisa Namerow with UConn Health and all of our presenters for sharing their expertise and helping us strengthen care for youth across Maine and beyond.

10/08/2025

🌟 Celebrating Excellence at MaineHealth Behavioral Health 🌟

We are proud to recognize two outstanding winners for the first-ever Excellence Awards sponsored by MaineHealth!

🏆 Access Team MHBH
This team has become a model of unity, accountability, and compassion—ensuring patients receive the right care, at the right time, in the right place. Through daily huddles, peer mentoring, and a culture of respect, they’ve redefined what it means to deliver behavioral health access with excellence.

🏆 Contingency Management Program
As the first evidence-based program for Stimulant Use Disorder at MaineHealth, this team is changing lives with innovation and heart. With outcomes showing over 85% negative drug screens and strong patient engagement, their impact goes beyond numbers—creating a safe, welcoming space where patients feel respected, supported, and empowered in recovery.

👏 Congratulations to both teams for their compassion, creativity, and commitment to patient care. You inspire us all!

10/07/2025

Join professionals, advocates, and community members for the 2025 Substance Use Disorder Conference sponsored by MaineHealth on October 23 in Portland or online.

Participants will learn, connect, and be inspired by stories of resilience and recovery. Featuring:
🌟 Keynote by Avik Chatterjee, MD, MPH Boston University Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine
🎥 Screening of Recovery City directed by Lisa Olivieri with a live panel discussion
💬 Breakout sessions on best practices in prevention, treatment, and recovery

Together, we can save lives by building a future of care rooted in compassion and connection!
Register today: https://www.mhesevents.org/event/SUDConference2025/summary

09/23/2025

To kick off Deaf Culture Week in Maine, the 34th Annual Deaf Culture Awards & Tea was held at the State House. Governor Janet Mills offered opening remarks, and keynote speaker Mary Jane “MJ” Grant inspired the audience with her words.

We’re proud to share that our colleague, Maria “Mars” Hammond, received the Ginny Hewes Advocate for the Needs of the Deaf Community Award👏. Mars was recognized for her dedication, leadership, and impact on Maine’s Deaf community.

Congratulations, Mars — we’re so grateful for all you do! 🥰

09/22/2025

Together we make compassionate care possible! As we approach the end of our fiscal year on September 30, we invite you to join our community of supporters through the Behavioral Health Annual Fund.

Your gift helps expand access to high-quality behavioral health care for children, families, and adults across Maine and New Hampshire.

💙 Start a monthly gift ($25 = $300/year)
💙 Join the Leadership Giving Society ($1,000+)
💙 Or give at any level that’s meaningful to you

Every gift matters. Every gift strengthens behavioral health services in our communities.

Make your gift today: https://www.mainehealth.org/mainehealth-behavioral-health/giving-mainehealth-behavioral-health/annual-fund-mainehealth-behavioral-health

09/15/2025

When I was a child, my great-grandfather died by su***de. Unlike others in my family who passed, his name and memory quickly disappeared from conversations—as if he had never lived. Years later, when a young classmate of my sister died by su***de, the same silence followed. At first, there was talk, but within a short time, her name was never mentioned again.
Experiences like these taught me to believe su***de was something shameful.
I now know better. I’ve learned that silence only deepens pain, while compassion and openness can bring healing. That’s why I am part of this work today: to help ensure our care team members have the skills and confidence to support patients experiencing suicidality.
I believe it takes just one person doing one right thing to offer hope on someone’s hardest day. And I believe our team members can be that one person.
- Alan Bean Burpee, Director of Case Management
***deprevention ***deawareness

09/08/2025

Alex Keuroghlian, the new Chief of MaineHealth Behavioral Health and Chair of the Department of Psychiatry at MaineHealth Maine Medical Center, knows firsthand how devastating su***de can be. That experience motivates him every day to advance our efforts to improve su***de care across MaineHealth.
As Alex shares:
“I’ve lost a relative, a colleague, and a mentee to su***de. Each loss was a painful reminder that suffering is often invisible—it took me and others who knew them completely by surprise. I had never worried about them or known they were suffering. The impact on our community was devastating. I believe we can do better—by reducing stigma, improving screening, and building prevention programs that bring hope before crisis. Together, we can save lives.”
Bravo, Alex! ***deawareness

09/05/2025

What a joyful day at the MaineHealth Glickman Lauder Center of Excellence in Autism and Developmental Disorders! Families and friends gathered to celebrate our preschool graduates from the Bluebells, Sunflowers, and Buttercups classrooms. The little ones charmed everyone with their songs and dances before receiving their diplomas and gifts from Preschool Director Kathy Hill. Congratulations to our amazing graduates, and heartfelt thanks to our wonderful educators and staff for making this milestone so special!

09/01/2025

For Dora Anne Mills, MD, MPH, Chief Health Improvement Officer, MaineHealth, su***de prevention is deeply personal.
Her brother David lived with schizophrenia and made three su***de attempts as a young man in the 1970s. Yet thanks to support from family, community, and access to basic needs—housing, food, meaningful work, medical care—David went on to live a full and generous life until the age of 78.
“David didn’t live that long by chance,” Dora shares. “He had the building blocks of health and community around him. These ‘social drivers of health’—from safe housing to human connection—are as critical as medical care in preventing su***de and helping people live to their fullest potential.”
As we honor Su***de Prevention Awareness Month, we remember David and the lessons his life teaches: prevention is possible, support matters, and together we can save lives. 💙
***dePrevention

08/28/2025

We are so grateful to our legislators and leaders who are so committed to helping our most vulnerable citizens. Thank you!

State legislators recently toured the new outpatient behavioral health facility at the MaineHealth Parkview Campus, which brought behavioral health and substance use disorder care from three locations into one location. In addition to touring the new space, MaineHealth discussed the behavioral health crisis and the need for the State to make immediate investments to stabilize and expand the continuum of care to ensure patients receive the right care in the right setting and at the right time.

From left to right: Karen Simone, MHBH Board Chair, Kelly Barton, President of MHBH, Dr. Chris Bowe, President of MaineHealth Mid Coast Hospital, Rep. Dan Ankeles, Rep. Cheryl Golek, Rep. Rafael Macias, Rep. Allison Hepler, Sen. Denise Tepler (sitting), and Rep. Poppy Arford.