The Village Dispatch: CMHRC's November 2025 Newsletter
Topic: Gratitude and Hope: Our Mission in Action
Giving Corner: Give Thanks By Giving a Gift

Clinical Seminar for Professionals: Treatment of Early Onset Bipolar Disorder in Children, Featuring Dr. Robert Post and Dr. Demitri Papolos

Book Club: The Body Keeps the Score, by Bessel van der Kolk

As Thanksgiving nears, we are reflecting on our gratitude for one another and for you. Whether you attend our Book Club meetings, webinars and seminars, Palliative Parenting^TM classes, are a donor, one of our Wayfinder families, or earn CE credits through CMHRC, every single one of you is a crucial part of our community. We're grateful that you keep showing up and taking part in building a community of families and practitioners who are there for one another, understanding, supporting, and providing resources.

As the days grow shorter and we head into winter, we want to take a moment to shine a light of appreciation on a few individuals within our community who have made a real difference this year. 

Ethan had battled cyclical anxiety since 5th grade, trying different therapies and interventions along the way. Like most young people, Ethan's mental health challenges progressed as he aged making effective treatment more complicated and difficult to maintain.

We're so grateful and honored that Ethan and his parents joined the CMHRC community and found support within. As part of the Ketogenic Therapy in Action! program he and his parents were able to access the additional resources they needed to find stability. They also found a welcoming and encouraging community to walk alongside them on the path to recovery.

This past year Ethan has worked with diligence and determination, developing the self-knowledge and confidence to manage his condition, ask for help when he needs it, accepting that help with grace and an open heart, all while thriving in daily life. We're so proud of you!

Thank you Ethan, and your whole family for being an inspiring part of the CMHRC community. Your perseverance is admirable, and lights the way for others! 

"I had anxiety attacks all the way until 11th grade, when they finally 'stopped.' But hypomania snuck up on me, and I eventually became fully manic. Thankfully, I was hospitalized and diagnosed with Bipolar Disorder. I felt upset that I had a new condition, but relieved that it was identified.

After a whole school year being mildly depressed and then becoming manic I entered residential treatment. It helped resolve the winter and spring depression, and I went on medication that made me feel different.

I then tried ketogenic therapy. It was hard at first but the benefits came quick. I felt completely asymptomatic. It was one of the best experiences I’ve had in the last decade. Now, I’m in my freshman year of college, feeling normal as ever, and bipolar feels like nothing but a distant memory."

Beth Zupec-Kania, RDN, CD & Board Member of the Charlie Foundation

Beth Zupec-Kania is a world-renowned ketogenic expert, clinician, and speaker. For over thirty years she has walked alongside providers, patients, and families as they adopted a safe and effective ketogenic therapy plan. As a consultant and board member with the Charlie Foundation, her work and expertise applies nutritional science to improving both mental and physical health outcomes. Also author of the Modified Keto Cookbook, Beth supports individuals and families with practical tools for their ketogenic journey. 

Beth, and The Charlie Foundation, continue to be generous collaborators in our work on ketogenic therapy for mental health. As an advisor on CMHRC's ketogenic therapy pilot study, Beth guided and supported not just the investigators, but the families as well. Her passion for metabolic therapies, and sharing her time with families, is changing lives!

Thank you Beth, and the Charlie Foundation, for your continued support as we prepare to launch our nextKetogenic Therapy in Action! study. We are so grateful to have you in our community! 

Most people don't think of data collection and analysis as being crucial to mental health treatment, but it can make the difference between effective treatment and worsening symptoms. Stefanie has been a loyal supporter of CMHRC for years, educating us on the use of data in mental health. Her guidance on data collection supported the original development of our Toolkit software, as well as our current project to rebuild its capacity to support research. 

As we continue to expanded our programs and services, Stefanie provides both support and teaching to not just CMHRC staff, but families in the CMHRC community as well. Her work on analyzing and visualizing the data from our pilot study on Ketogenic Therapy, helped us communicate the results effectively to our community and beyond. 

Thank you Stefanie! We so deeply appreciate your commitment to ensuring individuals and families have manageable ways to track symptom and medication data, and to present it to others. Your guidance is paving the road to stability!

Dr. Robert Post is one of the modern pioneers and towering figures in the investigation and treatment of bipolar illness. He is a practicing psychiatrist who spent 35 years at the National Institute of Mental Health, 20 of those years as the Chief of the Biological Psychiatry Branch. Dr. Post's career has focused on bettering the understanding and treatment of bipolar disorder, emphasizing the importance of early, long-term treatment to prevent progressive episode recurrence and treatment resistance. Dr. Post is the editor of Bipolar Network News, and author of Treatment of Bipolar Illness: A Casebook for Clinicians and Patients.

Thank you, Bob for partnering with us on our mission of the early identification and management of mood disorders in children. Your guidance and expertise will be highlighted this month in our seminar on bipolar disorder and your wisdom brings insight and knowledge to our community of individuals, families and practitioners. Your passion and expertise is changing the trajectory of childrens' lives. 

Of course, none of what we do would be possible without the generosity of our donors. Each and every gift, no matter the size, makes it possible for us to do the important work of supporting families and practitioners as they navigate the arena of children's mental healthcare.

In 2025 we have been especially grateful for the generosity of two institutional funders, the Baszucki Group and the Stavros Niarchos Foundation, both of which made transformational gifts to CMHRC this year. 

Through their visionary understanding of the intersection of metabolism and mental health Baszucki Group supports innovative research into the growing field of metabolic psychiatry. 

It is through their generosity that CMHRC's pilot study and program on ketogenic therapy for children was made possible. Each day of this study we learned more about what it takes to help families implement this cutting edge, high reward, low risk lifestyle intervention. All of the knowledge we're gaining, and the support we're providing, wouldn't be possible without Jan, David, Matt, the other members of the Baszucki family, and the dedicated staff at Baszucki Group who partner with us every day. 

Stavros Niarchos Foundation works to empower humanity through education, healthcare, and social welfare. We're so grateful to them for their worldwide focus on the growing mental health crisis.

Their support of CMHRC allowed us to launch our wildly successful Palliative Parenting^TM courses and to make sure that the cost to participate stayed as low as possible. We appreciate their faith in CMHRC and our value to families and providers.

Thank you to the Baszucki Group family and the team at Stavros Niarchos! 

Ready to join the ranks of those who make all of this work possible? Want an easier way to give? 

Consider setting up a monthly, recurring gift! A recurring contribution means steady support — that’s how real change happens!

On our safe and secure giving platform, you can also make a one time gift or schedule an annual gift to contribute to our Giving Thanks campaign every year. 

Your contribution can make a big impact for those who need it most.

November 19th, 2025

5:00-6:30pm Eastern Time

Pediatric onset bipolar is a misunderstood diagnosis. Come learn from two of the country’s leading experts on bipolar as they discuss the disorder known as Bipolar Not Otherwise Specified (NOS), how it impacts children, and the newly recognized disorder known as FOH. 

We’ll be live with Dr. Robert Post and Dr. Demitri Papolos, who will take your questions as we explore the essentials of how to recognize, diagnose, and treat bipolar in children.

Dr. Robert Post is a practicing psychiatrist who spent 35 years at the National Institute of Mental Health, 20 of those years as the Chief of the Biological Psychiatry Branch. Dr. Post’s career has focused on bettering the understanding and treatment of bipolar disorder, emphasizing the importance of early, long-term treatment to prevent progressive episode recurrence and treatment resistance. Dr. Post is the editor of Bipolar Network News, and author of “Treatment of Bipolar Illness: A Casebook for Clinicians and Patients.”

Dr. Demitri Papolos is the author of the book, The Bipolar Child, founder and Director of Research at the Juvenile Bipolar Research Foundation, a renowned child psychiatrist, and the researcher who discovered the newly identified subtype of bipolar known as Thermoregulatory Sleep Dysregulation Disorder.

November 20th, 2025 8:30pm Eastern Time

Trauma is a fact of life. Those living with mental illness and their families experience more than their share of trauma. From involuntary symptoms to the pain of lost expectations to the physical toll emotional outbursts take, trauma is a part of every day life for parents and children living with mental health conditions.

In The Body Keeps the Score, Dr. Bessel van der Kolk, one of the world’s foremost experts on trauma, uses recent scientific advances to show how trauma literally reshapes both body and brain, compromising sufferers’ capacities for pleasure, engagement, self-control, and trust. He explores innovative treatments—from neurofeedback and meditation to sports, drama, and yoga—that offer new paths to recovery by activating the brain’s natural neuroplasticity. Based on Dr. van der Kolk’s own research and that of other leading specialists, The Body Keeps the Score exposes the tremendous power of our relationships both to hurt and to heal—and offers new hope for reclaiming lives

Book club sessions have a $10 registration fee, which helps us staff the book club sessions. We appreciate your support. 

Sent by CMHRC

::unsubscribeLink::