When families see their loved one struggling to thrive personally and or professionally due to mental health issues, it can be difficult to know what to do or who to trust.
The experts at McLean Hospital, an affiliate of Harvard Medical School, are here to help.
Located in Boston in the US state of Massachusetts, McLean is a leading international treatment facility, with specialty programmes developed specifically to assist individuals from around the globe to better understand and address their mental health issues.
Discretion and guidance when most-needed
The specialty staff at McLean is sensitive to the cultural concerns often faced by high-net-worth (HNW) families and their trusted advisors when determining how to handle mental health issues, including fear of public exposure, as well as the shame associated with failure to thrive. McLean staff understand these concerns and guarantee that the utmost discretion is followed to ensure privacy.
Through its extensive work with families and advisors in Europe, the Middle East, Africa, Asia and Australia, McLean has recognised that family members and their family office advisors often face an extended delay in seeking and finding appropriate care.
In an effort to better serve potential patients and their families, McLean Hospital has developed a concierge service dedicated to ensuring an immediate response to inquiries. Through this one point of contact, experts at McLean will assist family offices in accessing a comprehensive evaluation, a Harvard-based expert consultation, culturally-tailored treatment approaches, and guidance towards relevant programming.
“As the number one psychiatric hospital in the United States, our faculty and staff are internationally known in the field and are eager to help those who need their support and guidance,” says Rima Saad, PhD, Director of Behavioural and Group Therapy Services at McLean Pavilion and Assistant Professor of Psychology at Harvard Medical School. “We have cultivated and refined our resources to address many of the traditional problems that high-net-worth families face when a family member is struggling.”
First steps in seeking help
The first step in helping someone who is struggling to thrive is to accurately diagnose the problem and from there, work with a specialised team of physicians and other care providers to create a treatment plan. Treatment can include medication, therapy, learning new coping skills, substance abuse treatment and more.
McLean’s specialty programmes comprehensively treat mood, anxiety, substance abuse, and personality conditions in children, adolescents and adults.
“We take deep pride in our expertise and our ability to work with individuals from around the world in a discreet and compassionate manner,” says Dr. Saad. “Each one of our programmes draws a significant number of individuals from outside of the country and although we are located in a suburb of Boston, McLean Hospital has become a global resource for psychiatric care.”
For families who are at a loss with how to help their struggling family member, Dr. Saad recommends McLean Pavilion, a comprehensive two-week evaluation and treatment programme. Drawing on expertise from multiple disciplines — psychiatry, psychology, social work, neurology, medicine and nutrition, each person who comes to the Pavilion receives an unparalleled evaluation that can include neuropsychological and psychological tests, sleep studies, MRI, and other specialty consultations.
This type of extensive, expert work-up has led to relief and improvement for hundreds of patients who, prior to coming to the Pavilion, struggled for years with their inability to thrive because their issues were not accurately diagnosed.
“At McLean Pavilion, we don’t just focus on individuals’ narrowly defined productivity issues; we look at contributing medical and neurological problems, as well as lifestyle, family and relationship issues,” says Dr. Saad. “We consider a wide range of domains in order to develop a comprehensive understanding of who each person is and the kind of treatment needed to reach optimal functioning.”
In addition to the Pavilion, McLean has a number of other specialty residential programmes including a dialectical behaviour therapy programme for adolescents and young adults; a programme for women with impulsivity issues; a programme for adults with severe chronic mental illness; two substance use disorder treatment programmes for adults and a programme for anxiety and depression.
A history of trust and as a place to turn
Since its founding in 1811, McLean Hospital has been providing discreet and compassionate care to the ‘carriage trade’. In the last 15 years, it has enhanced its services to meet the needs of today’s HNW families seeking expertise and discretion. Additionally, the hospital has increased its capacity to accommodate international referrals from different parts of the world.
For HNW families, the stakes are high for both the individual dealing with personal problems and for the family as a whole. Concerned family members and family advisors can be relieved in knowing that world-class expertise, the utmost discretion, and culturally-sensitive interventions for the international HNW family are simply an email or a phone call away.
