Page 12 - Silver Linings Issue2

Dr. Marotta: Solving Problems. Transforming Lives.
“I think that solving problems about life and death and suffering are the most important problems there are to solve.”
Rocco Marotta, MD, PhD
Dr. Rocco Marotta, or Rocky as he
is better known, never shies away from a problem. He has been a psychiatrist at Silver Hill Hospital for 11 years and has built a reputation as being an out-of-the-box thinker who gets unusually successful outcomes for patients with challenging
mental health conditions, such as schizophrenia and bipolar disorder.
“I’m most proud of taking care of patients and building up the program for persistent psychosis,” Dr. Marotta says. “Taking care of really sick patients has always been an interest of mine because we live in a world that makes it really hard for people with vulnerabilities.”
Rocky says working at Silver Hill Hospital gives him the freedom to pursue research and to transform the lives of those living with serious persistent psychosis. Silver Hill is entirely focused on its mission of providing patients with the best available treatment for mental illness and addiction. It’s a place where staff and patients are treated like family and where the clinicians are highly trained professionals who have eschewed the academic life in order to care for patients every day.
“I’m atheoretical. I try not have any ideology,” Rocky says. “I don’t think of things as an illness, even though we talk about them as if they are
an illness. Helping people is about believing it is possible.”
He enjoys working with patients that doctors elsewhere were not successful in helping. In the last edition of Silver Linings, you met Carl. His son Jake had gone from “capable to catatonic” in one year presumably because of heavy cannabis use. Jake had seen many doctors in his home state of New Jersey to treat his psychosis. None of them were able to help him and the last doctor suggested that Jake be moved to a state mental health facility to live.
As a last resort, Carl turned to Silver Hill Hospital because he had heard of a doctor there who works with extremely difficult patient cases.
“Rocky was my only hope,” Carl recalls.
“If it’s a business, you take the cases that are easy,” Rocky says. “If it’s a vocation, you take what God grants you and you try to make the most with that situation. The Romans would lose battles but not lose wars. Why? Because of their tenacity.”
At 73, he is already beyond the age at which he could retire. The concept, however, does not appeal to Dr. Marotta. “I’m not ready to sit down and write poetry and paint just yet,” he says. “My wife asked me what’s on my bucket list. I said to have health and strength to continue the work I’m doing. If you have meaningful work and love in your life, what more could you want?”
Academic Affiliations
Associate Clinical Professor of Psychiatry, New York Medical College
Fellow, American Psychiatric Association
Ph.D. in Neuropsychology – City University of New York
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EXPERIENCE AND CREDENTIALS Rocco Marotta, MD, PhD
Board Certification
American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology
Residency
New York Hospital, Payne Whitney Clinic
Medical School
Cornell University Medical College
Fellowship
Biological Psychiatry, NIH Fellowship