Philanthropy Related Content

Brian Scott sees his own depression and anxiety as a gift. And that’s a lesson he tries to impart to the patients with whom he works. As McLean’s first formal patient/family navigator, Scott helps patients and families negotiate the challenges to living meaningful, fulfilling lives after hospital...

Our spring edition of Horizons highlights philanthropy’s unique ability to enable one person’s charitable gesture to directly impact other individuals not known to them. Among these stories you’ll discover: A teenage girl who transformed her life after two months of additional care—which her family...

When Maria Curtis’s son was released from a McLean treatment program, she was so impressed by the follow-up he received that she and her husband John made a gift to the hospital, directing it to help patients during their early recovery. Their generosity was enormously appreciated, says Roger D...

“That’s the outfit I wore when I overdosed and when I was discharged from the emergency room–the last day I used and the first day of sobriety.” - Ava Grieco Ava Grieco’s canvas shows her floating through a blue sky, arms wide and stippled with needle marks. A chain anchors her to a hypodermic...

As a young psychiatrist, John G. Gunderson, MD, was fascinated by certain patients that he, and even his more experienced colleagues, struggled to diagnose and treat. They were challenging and sometimes erratic. They would cut or burn themselves. Often, they would grasp on to one person as their...

Alexandra Yogman, LICSW, recalls the first time she talked alone with a patient with borderline personality disorder (BPD). It was 2015, and as part of her social work master’s degree program, she was interning on McLean’s Short Term Unit. She had spent several months shadowing experienced...

The McLean Board of Trustees recently welcomed three new members: Michelle Williams, PhD, Josef H. von Rickenbach, and Gloria Cordes Larson, Esq. Michelle Williams, PhD Williams is an internationally renowned epidemiologist and public health scientist and the dean of the faculty at the Harvard T.H...

They did what they were trained to do: ran toward the explosions to shield and tend the injured and held the hands of the frightened as they were transported to waiting ambulances. The first responders were among the biggest heroes of the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing. The Richard family experienced...

Our Winter edition of Horizons showcases new partners, old friends, true heroes, and a creative way to approach addiction recovery. Our first story features a legacy of kindness honoring the late Martin Richard, the 8-year-old victim of the 2013 Marathon bombing. The Martin Richard Foundation...

Why does one person who experienced severe childhood adversity become homeless or addicted, while another with a similar background builds a loving family life and a thriving career? Is the answer in our genes, or perhaps in how trauma affects our genes? A collaboration between McLean Hospital and...

For a substance that has been used by humans for more than 5,000 years, there remains much to learn about marijuana’s effects on the brain. McLean neuroscientist and clinical researcher Staci Gruber, PhD, has spent more than two decades trying to advance knowledge in this domain. Now, with the help...

Former Board Chair David Barlow has endowed a fellowship that forges a closer relationship between two institutions that are dear to his heart: McLean Hospital and his alma mater, Bates College. The John Kelsey Fellowship is named after the retired Bates professor who built the college’s...

NFL wide receiver Brandon Marshall received the 2018 McLean Award at the hospital’s annual dinner on June 1. McLean President and Psychiatrist in Chief Scott L. Rauch, MD, donned a Seattle Seahawks cap in homage to the breaking news that Marshall had just been drafted to the Seattle team. Rauch made...

This edition of Horizons highlights our June annual dinner when we honored NFL wide receiver Brandon Marshall with the 2018 McLean Award. Michi Marshall, Brandon’s wife and partner in advocacy, accepted the award on his behalf and spoke eloquently about their work together. It was an uplifting night...

Yoga has become ubiquitous. In fact, it is difficult to find a community that doesn’t offer classes ranging from “flow” and “hot” yoga to those with nearly unpronounceable names. Tracing roots back more than 5,000 years, yoga is an array of techniques or practices aimed at integrating mind, body...

Technology is ubiquitous. Children have smartphones, octogenarians are savvy iPad users, and nearly everyone tracks steps and calories with wearables. It is no surprise that the field of psychiatry is forging a path toward using technology to revolutionize the way mental illnesses are diagnosed and...

On April 17, 2017, suicide survivor Ana Febres-Cordero and her father Rafael ran the Boston Marathon to support public awareness and outreach programs focused on eliminating the stigma surrounding mental illness. Ana was inspired to partner with McLean Hospital to develop Deconstructing Stigma: Ana...

Samuel Plimpton and Wendy Shattuck target their giving to organizations that leverage gifts to achieve returns for society. Sam, senior advisor and partner emeritus at the Baupost Group, LLC, is interested in the long-term value created through investment to address unmet needs. “There is...

With depression being the leading cause of illness and disability worldwide, this issue features a new research endowment established by a former trustee and her family. The $1 million fund will prioritize studies focused on adolescents, as depression commonly onsets in youth. More and more, there...

Ten years ago, then 27-year-old Mike Muccio thought he was having a heart attack or a stroke. His heart raced, he was dizzy, off-balance, and felt like he was dying—and it kept happening. With his parents at his side, Mike spent the next nine months in and out of physician’s offices with no concrete...