Page 8 - Silver Linings Issue4

A broad approach to creating a complete care plan
8
Silver Hill’s
Argent Program captures the unique needs of the individual.
Many of Silver Hill Hospital’s patients live with complex mental health problems whose symptoms do not fit neatly into a single category. Diagnosing these patients, and planning a route forward for best outcomes, can be difficult without a complete picture of the individual.
The Argent Program at Silver Hill gets at that full picture with a comprehensive psychiatric assessment that includes individual, group, art and family therapy, spiritual and wellness evaluations, and a variety of psychological tests. Patients leave the 12-day residential program with a clear picture of their condition and a detailed road map for ongoing treatment.
“That question of what’s going on is something we feel we needed to address in a high-level, high-quality way that is distinctive to Silver Hill,” Silver Hill’s Chief Clinical Officer Michael Groat, Ph.D., says. “Humans are complex, and the symptoms one might experience can have a lot of different types of determinants. They can often be identified as having a biological component, or a psychological component, and we have a number of people who are unclear about what’s going on.”
Silver Hill launched the Argent Program in late 2020, and it has been met with strong demand and high praise from patients. Howard Weiner, M.D., a psychiatrist at Silver Hill, conceptualized and proposed the idea after noticing many patients with complex psychiatric disorders did not have a clear understanding of their diagnosis or treatment plan.
“It was important to bring together a lot of different people to get a varied view of the patient,” Dr. Weiner said.
Will Braun, Psy.D., joined the team recently as Director of the Argent Program and has made several enhancements to the program, such as extending the residential stay from eight to 12 days, and adding family therapy, art therapy and wellness components.
“I see the Argent Program as a kaleidoscope with different lenses through which to look at an individual,” Braun says. “This gives us as broad a picture as possible. It is beyond
a psychiatric evaluation. It is evaluating the whole person. Every person is unique and has their own way of seeing the world.”
“I tell everyone I run a detective agency,” he adds. “We have a very smart team of clinicians, and we look at people who really are like clinical mysteries. They’ve been told different things from different doctors. They need some diagnostic clarity. If we’ve done our jobs right, we are able to help them see themselves in a different light.”