“This hospital is a sacred space, an island where for generations people have come to heal.”
Rocco Marotta, MD, PhD
“This hospital is a sacred space, an island where for generations people have come to heal.”
Healing people is a mission, a vocation, a calling to Dr. Rocco Marotta, Director of the Center for the Treatment and Study of Neuropsychiatric Disorders. “It’s what the ancients would call the Animae Cura,” he says, invoking millennia of medical tradition. “It’s the curing of souls, the healing of the sick.”
Dr. Marotta joined Silver Hill Hospital in 2008, serving first as the Service Chief of the Transitional Living Programs and eventually developing and directing what we now call ‘The Lodge’ program in 2010-11. At The Lodge — an extended-stay, highly structured program for adult neuropsychiatric patients — Dr. Marotta introduced a team-based model of care with an intense patient focus designed to produce better diagnoses and individualized treatments.
“Team members at the Lodge engage the patient many times every day,” Dr. Marotta notes, “and they witness and capture a lot of vital feedback. When colleagues discuss a particular patient situation, there are different viewpoints that get thought about simultaneously, helping us sometimes see things that aren’t immediately visible.”
In 2020, the Center for the Treatment and Study of Neuropsychiatric Disorders was founded, with Dr. Marotta assuming the position of Founding Director. The Center was founded to extend and complement the approach to treatment developed at The Lodge. It is dedicated to educational and training initiatives and family support, as well as the study of treatment interventions for psychotic illness. Educational initiatives include conferences, Grand Rounds presentations and lectures, community events, training for medical students, residents, and staff at various organizations, and the publication of a book, Lives Reimagined: Changing the Course of Psychotic Illness.
Dr. Marotta believes the mission of healing has been paramount within the hospital’s institutional culture for generations, and scrupulously passed down. “We never give up here,” he says. “We use every means possible to help patients and their families. That’s the magic of this place.”
Residency
New York Hospital, Payne Whitney Clinic
Medical School
Cornell University Medical College
Fellowship
Biological Psychiatry, NIH Fellowship
Board Certification
American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology
Academic Affiliations
Associate Clinical Professor of Psychiatry, New York Medical College
Fellow, American Psychiatric Association
Ph.D. in Neuropsychology – City University of New York
