HEALTH
By Kevin Rector, The Baltimore Sun | January 28, 2013
Sitting around a broad table in a nondescript office in Reisterstown last week, more than a dozen mental health advocates, medical professionals and law enforcement officials stared tensely at one another. Nearly a month after the state-created task force issued a report outlining its findings on psychiatric patients' access to firearms, several members were questioning a key recommendation - that mental health professionals should be required to report to law enforcement all patients who threaten suicide.
NEWS
By Jamie Smith Hopkins, The Baltimore Sun | January 6, 2013
Dr. Ellen G. McDaniel, whose distinguished career in psychiatry spanned more than 40 years and influenced patients, medical students and even juries, died of lung cancer Thursday at her home in Highland. She was 71. The former Ellen Garb was raised in Cleveland and went off to college with thoughts of becoming a nurse. But her father encouraged her to train as a doctor, and she did — graduating from the University of Michigan Medical School as one of only seven women in the class of 1966, said her husband, John P. McDaniel.
NEWS
By Mark S. Komrad | December 18, 2012
Though none of us yet knows much of Adam Lanza's backstory, it doesn't take a mental health professional to suspect that a man who killed his mother before killing so many children and adults was likely suffering from a severe mental disorder. Although mental illness very rarely results in violence, let alone such heinous behavior, the fact is that so many of those who could benefit from state-of-the-art treatment do not receive it, for a variety of reasons. For example, some fear the implications of facing a condition that might limit the power of will to control thoughts, feelings or behaviors.
NEWS
By Matthew Hay Brown, The Baltimore Sun | November 27, 2012
The former commander of the Marine Corps base at Quantico, Va., told a military court on Tuesday that accused WikiLeaker Bradley Manning was held in highly restrictive "prevention-of-injury" custody even though psychiatrists recommended the conditions be eased. Retired Marine Col. Daniel J. Choike told the court at Fort Meade that he agreed with the staff of the brig at Quantico that Manning should be kept on prevention-of-injury status based on his history, the seriousness of the charges against him and what he called his "erratic behavior.
NEWS
By Jacques Kelly, The Baltimore Sun | July 8, 2012
Dr. Edward Lawrence Suarez-Murias, a retired psychiatrist and World War II veteran, died of pneumonia July 2 at his Roland Park home. He was 96. Named a Distinguished Life Fellow of the American Psychiatric Association, he practiced in Baltimore for more than 40 years. A family biography said he was born in Havana, Cuba, to Marguerite Suarez-Murias y Vendel of Brussels, Belgium, and Eduardo Ramon Suarez-Murias, a Havana resident. He attended grade school in Waterloo, Belgium, and in the public school system of Los Angeles, where his father, a mining engineer, settled the family.
NEWS
By Frederick N. Rasmussen, The Baltimore Sun | March 3, 2012
Dr. Michael Victor Edelstein, whose career at Sheppard Pratt Health System spanned nearly 30 years and whose hobbies were auto repair and listening to gospel music, died of a heart attack Monday at St. Joseph Medical Center. The Cockeysville resident was 66. Dr. Edelstein was on his way to work Monday morning when he was stricken. He was taken by medics to St. Joseph Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead. "I've know Michael since I came to Sheppard Pratt in 1986, and he was one of the most remarkable doctors I've ever worked with," said Dr. Steve Sharfstein, Sheppard Pratt Health System president.