Cambridge Health Alliance: News

Cambridge Health Alliance Psychologist Receives Lifetime Achievement Award at 2007 Victim Rights Conference

Boston, Cambridge, MA…Mary Harvey, PhD, Founding Director of the Victims of Violence program at Cambridge Health Alliance, was recently honored at the Massachusetts State House with a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Massachusetts Office for Victim Assistance (MOVA). The presentation took place at the 2007 Victim Rights Conference, an event organized by MOVA and the Victim and Witness Assistance Board, chaired by Attorney General Martha Coakley, to recognize National Victim Rights Week and leaders in the field of victim services and trauma.

Dr. Harvey has worked for more than 30 years to creatively connect communities in response to violence and is a world-renowned expert in the field. She recently retired from her role directing the Victims of Violence program, a position she held for nearly 25 years. Dr. Harvey remains extremely active in the victim services field locally, nationally, and internationally, and continues her private practice, mentoring clinicians, writing, and lecturing. She also serves as Associate Clinical Professor of Psychology in the Department of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School.

Most recently, Dr. Harvey spearheaded Violence Transformed: An Exhibition of Selected Works, an art exhibit created in conjunction with Victim Rights Awareness Week and the 2007 Victim Rights Conference. As an art student herself, she has used her experience, expertise, and passion to create yet another example of remarkable vision and talent for mobilizing innovative community collaborations.

Dr. Harvey is also co-editor (with Pratyusha Tummala-Narra, PhD) of a new book titled Sources and Expressions of Resiliency in Trauma Survivors (The Haworth Press, Inc., July 2007). It provides a framework for understanding how — and why — resiliency is essential to the challenges of post-traumatic recovery. The book examines how this framework applies to trauma survivors, treated and untreated, from culturally, politically, and economically diverse backgrounds, using qualitative and quantitative research findings, clinical case reviews, and narrative studies to consider the implications for clinical practice, community intervention, and social change in the wake of violence. www.haworthpress.com

The Victims of Violence program at Cambridge Health Alliance is an adult outpatient trauma clinic that was created in 1984. Its mission is to develop comprehensive mental health services for people, families, and communities affected by violence and trauma, and to provide training opportunities for clinicians interested in helping people cope with violence and trauma. Its efforts cover the areas of crisis response and intervention, assessments, and longer term clinical care to trauma victims, including groups for people affected by trauma. www.challiance.org/vov/vov.shtml

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 Physician's Organization (CHAPO), and Network Health, a managed Medicaid and Commonwealth Care plan.