- We're pleased to be joined by Lisa Dressner, who's Vice President of Behavioral Health and Psychiatry at Trinitas Regional Medical Center.

Good to see you, Lisa.

- Good to see you also, Steve.

- You got it.

And also, let's make the connection.

You are tied, there's a Rutgers affiliation, there's an RWJBarnabas Health Affiliation, correct?

Lay that out for us.

- Yes.

Yes, so Trinitas integrated with Rutgers, RWJBarnabas Health, and we are part of the largest academic healthcare institution now in the state of New Jersey.

- Got it, and to disclose, RWJBarnabas Health is a longtime underwriter of public broadcasting and the Caucus Educational Corporation.

Let me ask you this, what's so interesting to me is that the issues that you face every day that the patients you deal with every day.

It appears that the mental health issues, behavioral health issues is more challenging than ever before.

Talk to us about exactly the services you and your colleagues provide and why it's so critically important now.

- So Trinitas has a vast continuum of services, both inpatient and outpatient for children and adults.

And we have been providing these services for many, many years and have really been committed to identifying what the particular needs are of the city of Elizabeth where we're located, Union County, and also the statewide needs.

So, you know, particularly around people who have co-occurring developmental disabilities and mental illness, that has been an area that we've been very committed to since the 90s and is part of the continuum of services that we provide here.

- What is the New Jersey Center for Autism and Developmental Disabilities?

What is it?

And talk about the folks you serve every day.

- Sure.

So as part of the continuum of care that we provide for people with co-occurring intellectual disabilities and mental illness, we had 10 beds, 10 inpatient beds for this population for many, many years.

And it just wasn't enough.

There were emergency rooms that were holding patients for days and sometimes weeks for one of the very few beds that were available for this population in the state.

So we saw that.

The Healthcare Foundation of New Jersey very generously supported our expanding the number of beds that we have for this population.

And so we were able to open 12 additional beds with their support and started operating those 12 additional beds last September.

- And in fact, the formal name is The Healthcare Foundation of New Jersey, Center for Autism and Developmental Disabilities, correct?

- Correct.

- So let's talk about this.

New Jersey has the third highest rate of autism in the nation.

One in 34 children.

Is there something about New Jersey and this high autism rate?

- I don't know if it's something about New Jersey.

It certainly speaks to the efforts in New Jersey that have been undertaken for many years now to more aggressively assess children and to be able to identify those kids that do need intervention and treatment.

So I think we've done a better job with assessing that, especially in those communities that were typically underserved.

So, you know, the research is showing trends upwards for New Jersey, but we have to remember that we have made tremendous progress in New Jersey, focusing on getting better services around assessing young children to get them the treatment they need.

- Lisa, talk about the training of your staff.

What does the training look like, and why does the training matter so much in terms of providing the services needed to the patients and the families you serve?

- Sure.

Working health in behavioral healthcare is really a calling and working with this population is really a special calling.

We have been very fortunate here at Trinitas.

We've had the same doctors working with this population in our inpatient and our outpatient units for over 15 years.

We have a team that is very committed to understanding the specialized needs of this population.

We have a psychiatry residency program here, so our residents have the experience of learning, working on these inpatient and outpatient units with people with a dual diagnosis of intellectual disabilities and mental illness.

It really calls for certain skills that are above and beyond what you get in a general psychiatry rotation.

- Such as, Lisa?

- Such as really being able to look at the whole person in their environment.

So we are really looking at what is happening environmentally for this person.

Are they living at home?

Was there a change in the family structure?

Did they move to a new group home setting?

Did they get a new roommate?

Were there staff changes?

Looking at behaviors and really identifying patterns of behavior and changes in behavior and being able then to look at, you know, the more traditional assessment in terms of medical conditions that we very often see that go along with having a developmental disability and the psychiatric component.

So it's not as simple and clear cut as I have a symptom, what is the best medication?

It's really looking at all of these things and being able to take a whole systems approach to understanding what would be best to help this person to reach their optimal level of functioning.

- How did you find yourself to this work?

How did you get to be where you are and why?

- I was very fortunate.

I always knew that I was going to wind up in this field.

I found myself at Trinitas years ago.

I came in as the director of Psychiatric Emergency Services.

Steve, actually, you were here at that time doing your leadership.

- I was doing leadership development and I remember you.

- I was in one of your classes, yes.

- And you're even better, not because of it, in spite of it, but go ahead.

(Steve chuckles) - I owe it all to you, Steve.

- I knew I knew you.

Okay, so you came through the system, but your passion for this work comes from where?

- You know, I have always been really a curious learner and wanting to understand people and systems.

I actually started my undergraduate career more in politics, and I met a lot of people working for Governor Florio when he was the governor, and met a lot of the colleagues and mentors that I have in healthcare that continue today through that experience.

- Lisa Dressner, not only is a former student who's done very well in spite of my teaching leadership, she's the vice president of Behavioral Health and Psychiatry at Trinitas Regional Medical Center.

Lisa, thank you so much for joining us.

We appreciate, keep doing important work.

- Thank you, thanks for having me.

- You got it.

I'm Steve Abubato.

Thank you so much for watching.

We'll see you next time.

- [Narrator] Think Tank with Steve Adubato is a production of the Caucus Educational Corporation.

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