Department of Psychiatry
The Outpatient General Psychiatry Clinic at Brigham and Women’s Faulkner Hospital offers contemporary, evidence-based psychiatric evaluations and treatments for patients with psychiatric difficulties and substance use disorders. A multidisciplinary team including psychiatry, psychology and social work provides balanced evidence-based psychopharmacologic care and psychotherapy. We offer individual psychotherapy with an emphasis on skills-based training. Examples of this include cognitive behavioral therapy, mindfulness-based therapy, interpersonal therapy and dialectical behavioral therapy.
Areas of Focus Include:
Please call 617-732-5148 to book a new patient appointment.
The 2 South inpatient unit provides acute psychiatric treatment for up to 24 persons in single- and double-occupancy rooms. Our services are multidisciplinary and are offered within a therapeutic milieu with an emphasis on evidenced-based treatments and recovery-oriented care. The inpatient unit is secure and accepts patients 16 years of age and older whose psychiatric or medical conditions require 24-hour care in a safe, locked setting. Admissions are accepted on a 24-hour, seven-day-per-week basis, and are coordinated through our Triage and Psychiatry services. As an acute service, the unit will admit patients with chronic illnesses who are in acute relapse and who would benefit from a short-term hospitalization to improve health and support life functioning. The inpatient unit is under the overall supervision and medical direction of the Chief of Psychiatry.
Admissions are accepted without regard to race, color, national origin, citizenship, alienage, religion, creed, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, age or disability.
The 2 South unit offers an integration of medication and intensive individual psychotherapy, group psychotherapy, occupational therapy, family contact and activities within a therapeutic milieu. Our services are provided by a team of psychiatric nurses, psychiatrists, social workers, a psychologist, a peer specialist and occupational therapists. The therapies offered on the inpatient service are designed to be holistic in approach to provide psychoeducation, cognitive and behavioral coping skills and recreation with the goal of improving psychiatric symptoms and supporting recovery-based living. Therapy is also designed to improve psychosocial functioning overall, which, beyond alleviation of symptoms, is accomplished through interactional therapies, whose goals are primarily supportive and educative. Our framework for treatment is centered upon models of care including trauma-informed and patient-centered approaches.
View current schedule examples in English or Spanish.
Doctoral students in clinical and counseling psychology programs are invited to apply to our Inpatient Psychology Advanced Practicum training program. Our training program follows the Massachusetts Practicum Training Collaborative guidelines (www.massptc.org). For more information about our program, please click here.
BWFH's Inpatient Psychiatry Department can be reached by phone at 617-983-7211 or by fax at 617-983-7812.
Additional inpatient psychiatry services for patients who receive care within the 2 South unit include: psychological testing and assessment, electroconvulsive therapy (ECT), ketamine for treatment resistant depression, long acting medication and occupational therapy evaluations. All psychiatric inpatients will receive general and specialized medical care by Brigham and Women's Faulkner Hospital staff as indicated by their health needs while hospitalized.
All 2 South patients will be encouraged to engage family members within their treatment and discharge planning while on the unit. A member of the treatment team is assigned to coordinate family contact and facilitate family meetings with 2 South patients. Family members are encouraged to contact the unit directly to identify the team member caring for their family member.
For additional information recommended for family support by our peers, please click here.
Inpatient professional staff maintain frequent contact with outpatient psychiatry providers to ensure a collaborative approach to treatment and to support the patient’s return to outpatient treatment. We encourage referring and existing outpatient providers to join inpatient staff in coordinating care with patients. Contact with the patient's primary care physician (PCP) is offered during the hospitalization.
Our goal is to discharge each patient into as stable and supportive an environment as possible. Accordingly, discharge planning is an important part of each patient's treatment, one to which all treaters address each day during the hospitalization. When appropriate, and with the patient’s permission, contacts are made with family members or other significant sources of support, medical and psychiatric caregivers, nursing home or halfway house staff, school counselors and, at times, employers. Patients are discharged to the most appropriate next level of care. These include halfway houses or nursing homes, partial hospital programs, day treatment programs, geriatric day care programs or intensive or routine outpatient treatment sessions. Appointments are made and relevant information is shared with outpatient providers before discharge and after release of information forms are signed by the patient or guardian.
Brigham and Women’s Faulkner Hospital is an academic medical center and the psychiatric inpatient unit is a teaching service for diverse trainees specializing in mental healthcare. All trainees who provide care within the 2 South unit are supervised by licensed and credentialed clinical staff. These trainees include Brigham and Women’s Hospital/Harvard Medical School psychiatry residents and medical students, psychology interns and externs, physician assistant students, occupational therapy students, social work interns and nursing students.
Carlos Fernandez-Robles, MD, MBA
Chief of Psychiatry
Paul Schoenfeld, MD
Medical Director
Jennifer Brady, RN, BSN
Nurse Director
Christopher AhnAllen, PhD
Director of Inpatient Psychology
Chris Wagner, LICSW
Social Work Supervisor
Katelyn Ryan, OT, MSOT, OTR
Occupational Therapy Supervisor
Offering comprehensive medical, surgical and psychiatric care as well as complete emergency, ambulatory and diagnostic services to residents of southwest Boston and the surrounding suburbs.
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