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From the Bronx to Harvard: A New Start Thanks to Mount Sinai’s Adolescent Health Center

Nov 19, 2018 | Adolescent Health, Community

“My life got a brand-new start the day I walked through those doors,” says Anthony Otey Hernández.

Anthony Otey Hernández was a young, insecure gay man of color growing up in poverty in the Bronx with a single mother who battled illness and depression. At 15, he felt the weight of the world on his shoulders as depression struck while he was struggling to come to terms with his sexuality.

It all changed when a school counselor recommended that he visit the Mount Sinai Adolescent Health Center.

“My life got a brand-new start the day I walked through those doors,” Anthony recalls.

At the Adolescent Health Center, he saw a psychiatrist, and underwent therapy. “I found people who cared about me, supported me, and loved me unconditionally,” he says. “I felt like I had a second home to go to. They helped me to believe in myself, and to take risks and overcome my fear of failure and my inner-loneliness.”

Most importantly, they helped him to find peace and success. “I am grateful that these people—some of whom are still in my life today—went above and beyond their official responsibilities, especially when they helped my mom avoid eviction and when they supported me so I could help her.”

With the help of the Adolescent Health Center, Anthony turned his life around.

He was valedictorian of his high school class, earned a BA from Beloit College, and an MA from Dartmouth College, both in comparative literature, and is currently pursuing a PhD in Romance Languages and Literatures at Harvard University. Along the way, he was a Fulbright Scholar to Portugal.

The fearful young man who says he once considered suicide, and who, as a teenager, rarely left the Bronx, has confidently travelled to numerous countries and conducted research and lived in France, Portugal, Iceland, and Brazil.

As he remembers his struggles, he does not forget today’s underserved youth. He has had the chance to teach and mentor seventh-graders in Brooklyn, and high-schoolers from low-income neighborhoods in Paris and São Paulo, Brazil.

Now 27, he credits much of his success to the Adolescent Health Center. “I owe the remarkable life I have lived over the past 11 years to the people who helped me at this wonderful place,” he says. “I went from different, defenseless, and alone, to beautiful, validated, and loved.”

Celebrating 50 Years of Adolescent Health

Nov 19, 2018 | Community, Featured

Angela Diaz, MD, PhD, MPH, center, with honorees Lenore Katz-Cohen, OD, optical care sponsor and provider, and Robert Cohen, OD, Chief Executive Officer of Cohen’s Fashion Optical, who together with the Cohen family established optical care at the Mount Sinai Adolescent Health Center.

The Mount Sinai Adolescent Health Center marked its 50th anniversary by honoring five individuals and the Mount Sinai Auxiliary Board at its 15th Annual Breakfast of Legends benefit at the Ziegfeld Ballroom on Tuesday, October 30. The Center provides free, comprehensive, confidential health and wellness services to nearly 12,000 young people each year and has become a national leader in adolescent health research, training, and care.

Peter W. May, Chairman, Boards of Trustees, Mount Sinai Health System, welcomed the 500 guests, noting that he had attended every breakfast for the last 15 years. “The Center is one of the shining stars in the Mount Sinai galaxy,” he said. Mr. May also received the Dr. Joan E. Morgenthau Lifetime Advocate for Youth Award.

Honoree Peter W. May

Angela Diaz, MD, PhD, MPH, Jean C. and James W. Crystal Professor in Adolescent Health, and Director of the Mount Sinai Adolescent Health Center, acknowledge benefactors, leaders, and staff who have contributed to the Center’s success. “One tree doesn’t make a forest, and one string doesn’t make music,” she said. “All of you make the forest and make the orchestra.” Dr. Diaz also recognized Henry S. Berman, MD, who was one of the original physicians on staff at the Center and worked with Dr. Morgenthau, the Center’s founder; and Jay Roberts, the Center’s first administrator.

“When I stop to think how many young people have been served at the Center, I have to pause—the number is huge, in the hundreds of thousands—and if I then think of the ripple effect on the families and friends of those patients, the number swells exponentially,” said Dennis S. Charney, MD, Anne and Joel Ehrenkranz Dean, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, and President for Academic Affairs, Mount Sinai Health System. “How many of us can say we have transformed the lives of so many?”

Read Two Success Stories

Anthony Otey Hernández — From the Bronx to Harvard: A New Start Thanks to Mount Sinai’s Adolescent Health Center

Mary Medina — Growing Up with the Mount Sinai Adolescent Health Center

The honorees also included Gary C. Butts, MD, Chief Diversity and Inclusion Officer for the Mount Sinai Health System, and Dean for Diversity Programs, Policy, and Community Affairs for the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai; Lenore Katz-Cohen, OD, optical care sponsor and provider, and Robert Cohen, OD, Chief Executive Officer of Cohen’s Fashion Optical, who together with the Cohen family established optical care at the Center; The Mount Sinai Auxiliary Board; and Bethany Novak, MS, RN, FNP-BC, who joined the Center as a family nurse practitioner in 1988.

Youth speaker Adam Neville

Former and current patients related how the Center had transformed their lives. Adam Neville, a young patient, said that his mother was a patient at the Center when she was a teenager, and that he is named after the counselor she saw. He spoke of his emotional struggles and the support he receives at the Center, saying, “I owe my life as I know it to the Mount Sinai Adolescent Health Center.”

A poignant personal history was given by Hector Vazquez, MD, MS, now a pediatric emergency medicine specialist at Maimonides Medical Center, who, as a 14-year-old growing up in East Harlem, walked three life-changing blocks to the Adolescent Health Center. “Living in East Harlem, I was earmarked for failure. But, the Center’s providers educated me on safer sex practices, the effects of drugs, and making good life decisions, and they challenged my mind on what my life goals were.”

At the time, the staff did not realize they were shaping a future physician. When Hector was a medical student—at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai—he did a one-month rotation at the Center.

“It was then I learned just how revolutionary this Center was. I saw how it touched the lives of many, and it inspired me to do the same.”

Honoree Gary C. Butts, MD, left, and speaker Hector Vazquez, MD, MS

Five Honored at “Wonderful World” Benefit Gala

Nov 19, 2018 | Community, Featured

Honorees at the gala, from left, Paul Zucker, Vanessa Williams, Charles Radcliffe, and Shantelena Mouzon, with Joanne V. Loewy, DA.

With live music, dance, and heartfelt tributes, the 13th annual “What a Wonderful World” gala was held on Monday, October 15, to benefit the Louis Armstrong Center for Music and Medicine at Mount Sinai Beth Israel. Nearly 200 guests attended the event, which was hosted by the nonprofit Wonderful World: Friends of Music Therapy Inc. at The Cutting Room night club in Manhattan.

This year’s honorees were five people who have “made the world more wonderful” with their support of music and healing: singer and actress Vanessa Williams; jazz pianist Eddie Palmieri; Charles Radcliffe, philanthropist and jazz enthusiast; and Paul Zucker, Vice President of Ambulatory Operations, Mount Sinai Beth Israel, who was thanked for his broad vision of integrative care and his support in creating an environment that promotes wellness through music and medicine.

Honoree Shantelena Mouzon received medical care and music therapy at Mount Sinai Beth Israel for neuropathy and laryngeal disorders. At the gala, Ms. Mouzon performed a piece she had written called “Metamorphosis” about her journey to wellness—starting out cocooned in a hospital gown and then untying it to reveal a sparkling white evening dress.

Honoree Eddie Palmieri at the piano

Guests also enjoyed jazz and cocktails, a performance by the dance troupe Urban Bush Women, and a silent auction to benefit the Center’s clinical services throughout the Mount Sinai Health System. Mercedes Ellington, dancer, choreographer, and granddaughter of Duke Ellington; and Bill Daughtry, host of WBGO jazz and sports radio programs, served as emcees. Ellen Devens was the Chair for the event.

“Each year the scope of practice and the range of our community service and commitment grow. We are proud of our growing research projects with doctors and nurses—from neonatal care to cancer and dementia,” says Joanne V. Loewy, DA, LCAT, MT-BC, the founder and Director of the Louis Armstrong Center for Music and Medicine. The Music Therapy Department at Mount Sinai Beth Israel provides a range of clinical services to adults and children, both in-house and in the community. The department’s music therapists are licensed to provide care that complements medical treatment, assisting with sedation, pain management, and neurologic and respiratory function.

Learn more about the Louis Armstrong Center for Music and Medicine

Panel on Palliative Care Shines a Light on Caregivers

Nov 19, 2018 | Community, Featured, Patient Stories

From left: R. Sean Morrison, MD, moderator of the “Partners in Care” event, with panelists Elizabeth Gilbert; Jennifer Homans, PhD; Cardinale Smith, MD; and Michael Ausiello—who each cared for a seriously ill loved one.

They spend an average of 20 hours a week in an unpaid, emotionally draining job. One in three is in poor health, and 97 percent say they need more help. Who are they? They are the 65 million Americans who provide care to an adult relative at home, and a panel discussion called “Partners in Care” was held on Monday, November 5, to shine a light on their experience.

“When we think about health policy, when we think about medical coverage, we always think about the patient who is living with serious illness, and we forget their caregivers. They need help, as well,” said the moderator of the panel, R. Sean Morrison, MD, the Ellen and Howard C. Katz Chair of the Brookdale Department of Geriatrics and Palliative Medicine at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai.

The panel was held at the Lotos Club in Manhattan, one of the nation’s oldest literary clubs, and it consisted of three noted authors who had each cared for a seriously ill spouse or partner: Elizabeth Gilbert (author of Eat, Pray, Love); Michael Ausiello (author of Spoiler Alert: The Hero Dies); and Jennifer Homans, PhD (author of Apollo’s Angels: A History of Ballet); along with Cardinale Smith, MD, Associate Professor of Medicine (Hematology and Medical Oncology), and Geriatrics and Palliative Medicine, who cared for her father when he was dying of cancer. The event was sponsored by longtime Mount Sinai donors Margery and Stephen Riker.

Ms. Gilbert told the story of caring for her partner, Rayya Elias: “This was an incredibly powerful person, even though she was 87 pounds,” who decided to move out of hospice to live near friends in Detroit just months before she died in January 2018 of pancreatic cancer. Ms. Gilbert called her years as a caregiver “the most brutal, beautiful experience of my life.”

Dr. Homans spoke of trying to write a book, raise her children, and care for her husband, who was living with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). “Palliative care meant introducing someone else who could stand with us among all those whirling parts—this third person who was calm and knowledgeable and could steady the ship for a moment.”

Palliative care focuses on treating the symptoms, pain, and stress of a serious illness for patients and their families. It is appropriate at any age and at any stage in a serious illness, and unlike hospice, it can be provided alongside curative and all other appropriate medical treatments. “It truly is whole-patient care, and we offer the same support for loved ones,” Dr. Smith said.

The nation is headed for a shortage of caregivers, Dr. Morrison said, adding that “2030 is an important number in health care.” That is the year when, for the first time in history, there will be more people in the world who are 65 and older than people who are under 21. Increased public awareness and health policy reform will help alleviate the caregiver shortage and burden, he said. The Brookdale Department, which hosted the “Partners in Care” event, strives to advance this conversation, and to support seriously ill people and their caregivers through multifaceted work, from clinical care, to training doctors, to pursuing research.

“There is no coverage for caregivers in our nation’s health system, and that is fixable,” Dr. Morrison told the audience. “That means asking your local representative to make it an important policy issue. Become involved in one of your palliative care organizations, become a voice, and become active.”

Run for Research Raises Awareness of Brain Aneurysms

Nov 19, 2018 | Community

Department of Neurosurgery faculty and staff with friends and family at the Run for Research.

About 50 faculty and staff, patients, and their families in September took part in the Fifth Annual 5k Run for Research, hosted by the Department of Neurosurgery at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai and TeamCindy, a fundraising arm of the Brain Aneurysm Foundation.

The event in Riverside Park raised more than $38,000. Christopher P. Kellner, MD, Assistant Professor of Neurosurgery, and Director of Mount Sinai’s Intracerebral Hemorrhage Program, came in third place among the 350 participants and first place in his age division.

“Brain aneurysms are a ‘silent killer’ because most show no symptoms over time. To honor those who have brain aneurysms, we are doing what we can to provide critical awareness, education, support, and research funding to reduce attacks,” says J Mocco, MD, MS, Vice Chair of Neurosurgery, and Director of the Cerebrovascular Center, Mount Sinai Health System.

Patient Reimagines Her Surgery as Art

Nov 19, 2018 | Community, Patient Stories

Artist Frances McGuire transformed the arduous experience of multiple knee surgeries into creative inspiration by sketching serious, and sometimes whimsical, images of the experience.

Now, the lively prints are on display at the Orthopedic Center and the surgery waiting room at Mount Sinai West, thanks to Michael J. Bronson, MD, Chair of Orthopedics at Mount Sinai West and Mount Sinai St. Luke’s, who performed each of Ms. McGuire’s surgeries, and Evan L. Flatow, MD, President, Mount Sinai West.

Ms. McGuire created the sketches during a months-long recovery in which she was unable to paint in her studio. Each piece was crafted using a drawing app on her iPad. “It was extremely therapeutic,” Ms. McGuire says of making her sketches. “I loved the energy of doing them, and I love sharing them.”

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