News – Fall 2024

Princeton House Nurses to Present at APNA

Several Princeton House nurses will present at the American Psychiatric Nurses Association (APNA) 38th Annual Conference to be held in Louisville October 9-12. Robbi Alexander, PhD, APN, PMHCNS-BC, Assistant Vice President for Behavioral Health Nursing, Mavin Sakwa, RN, and Allyson Quay, BSN, RN, along with peers from Penn Medicine Princeton Health, will discuss “Psychiatric Mental Health Nursing as a Career Choice: Addressing the New Graduate Nurse’s Dilemma.” The presentation will highlight the development of a hybrid medical-surgical nurse residency program at Penn Medicine to better support new graduates.

In addition, Stacy Horowitz, BSN, PMH-BC, CARN, will present “Universal Precautions for P/MH Nurses: Interventions to Mitigate Secondary Traumatic Stress,” featuring insights from focus groups with clinical psychiatric nurses on protecting against secondary traumatic stress.

For more details on the conference, visit apna.org.

Sharing Healthcare Finance Perspectives

Erica Munger, MA, Director of Utilization Management and Auditing for Outpatient Services at Princeton House, joined health system leaders from across the Northeast region to share best practices in solving revenue cycle and finance challenges at the Healthcare Finance & Revenue Cycle Management Forum in Boston in September. Munger presented innovative tactics to address the challenges of denial management in behavioral health care, including best practices for streamlining denial resolution processes and optimizing reimbursement.

International Insights on GLP-1 Medications

Rebecca Boswell, PhD, Administrative Director of Psychiatric Services at Princeton Medical Center and Director of Princeton Center for Eating Disorders, presented “Biological, Psychological, and Social Impacts of GLP-1 Medications: Implications for Eating Disorder Care” at the Eating Disorders Research Society (EDRS) Annual Meeting in Sitges, Spain in September. Dr. Boswell provided insight on how these innovative medications can be effective for people with diabetes and other medical conditions, yet how they can also be used inappropriately and exacerbate eating disorder pathology.

Princeton House Focuses on Dual Diagnosis

Substance use and psychiatric issues are tightly linked, and most Princeton House patients struggling with substance use also need assistance with other behavioral health symptoms. In focusing on all of our patients’ needs, Princeton House no longer offers outpatient substance use-only programs, which had been available at the Moorestown and Hamilton sites. Our dual diagnosis program is available across our sites with specialty tracks for adolescents, young adults, and adults with co-occurring diagnoses, and for adults at our inpatient program in Princeton.

Check Out the Latest Podcasts

Our Mind on Mental Health podcasts, hosted by Andrew Dean, LCSW, feature insight from an array of Princeton House and Princeton Center for Eating Disorders experts. Check out the latest topics, including working with first responders, communicating with people when they’re in crisis, how to support tweens, and what it’s like to be a new therapist.

Listen at princetonhouse.org/podcast.