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NEWS FROM CAMBRIDGE HEALTH ALLIANCE

January 12, 2007

Cambridge Health Alliance Authors Tackle War Crimes, Autism, Troubled Kids, and Legendary Writer Bernard Malamud at Free Meet the Authors Event

Cambridge, Chelsea, Everett, Medford, Revere, Somerville, Winthrop, MA…Cambridge Health Alliance (CHA) is pleased to announce it will host a reception on Thursday, January 25, 2007 in honor of four staff who have recently published books: Janna Malamud Smith, MSW; Robert Jay Lifton, MD; Karen Levine, PhD; and Kathleen Regan, RN, BSN, MHA. All four are members of CHA's Department of Psychiatry and exemplify the impressive and diverse array of interests, experience, and expertise that characterizes the program.

Janna Malamud Smith, MSW, is a social worker at CHA and a lecturer on psychology at Harvard Medical School. Her father, Bernard Malamud, cemented his status as a twentieth-century literary genius with beloved short stories and novels including The Assistant, The Natural, and The Fixer, winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1967. In My Father Is a Book: A Memoir of Bernard Malamud (Houghton Mifflin, March 2006), Smith offers an intimate and captivating portrait of her father, the first to tell his life story. In his review, Washington Post critic Jonathan Yardley writes the book is "at once loving and lovely ... [an] intimate recollection of a very decent and very complicated man." The Washington Post also named it one of the "Best Books of 2006."

Robert Jay Lifton, MD, CHA psychiatrist and a lecturer on psychiatry at Harvard Medical School, is a leading scholar of the psychological dimensions of war, torture, and political violence. The new book Crimes of War: Iraq (Nation Books, March 2006), co-edited by Dr. Lifton, presents a comprehensive legal, historical, and psychological exploration of the war in Iraq from the same editorial team whose 1971 Crimes of War was a landmark book about Vietnam and the revelation of American war crimes.

Karen Levine, PhD, is Clinical Director of Autism and Developmental Disabilities at CHA's Center for Child and Adolescent Development and an instructor in psychology at Harvard Medical School. She is also the co-author of Replays: Using Play to Enhance Emotional and Behavioral Development for Children with Autism Spectrum Disorders (Jessica Kingsley Publishers, December 2006). Replays guides parents and professionals through the steps needed to help children access their emotions and behavioral responses using playful and humorous reenactment.

In 2002, CHA's Child Assessment Unit (CAU), based at The Cambridge Hospital campus, underwent a paradigm shift in inpatient care under the direction of nurse manager Kathleen Regan, RN, BSN, MHA. Regan steered the unit to adopt a more humane, trauma-sensitive treatment model for patients. The transformation has been successful; the CAU is an award-winning child and family-centered care facility. Regan's new book, Opening Our Arms: Helping Troubled Kids Do Well (Bull Publishing, November 2006), recounts her journey and offers insights to anyone seeking to improve the culture of care for troubled children.

CHA Chief Executive Officer Dennis D. Keefe will host the festivities, which will take place at The Cambridge Hospital campus from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. The authors will read from their works, followed by a book signing and a reception. Refreshments will be provided. Porter Square Books is the bookstore sponsor and will be on hand with copies of each title available for purchase.

Cambridge Health Alliance is a regional healthcare system with three hospitals and more than twenty primary care practices in Cambridge, Somerville, and Boston's metro-North communities. As a teaching affiliate of Harvard Medical School, Cambridge Health Alliance offers medical residency/training programs and undergraduate learning experiences in hospital and community settings. Cambridge Health Alliance also includes the Cambridge Public Health Department, CHA Physicians Organization (CHAPO), and Network Health, a managed Medicaid plan.