Timely Treatment for Patients Experiencing Serious Mental Illness and Anosognosia

Jhilam Biswas, MD

In this talk, we'll discuss pathways to helping secure guardianships for patients experiencing SMI and anosognosia, the loss of insight into a person's own wellbeing. There will be a presentation of research and literature on this issue and a discussion on reducing the risk of adverse events for patients who are not receiving timely treatment due to medication non-adherence, anosognosia, and delays in patient court hearings.

About the Speaker

Dr. Biswas is an American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology (ABPN) certified forensic and adult psychiatrist. She is the Director of the Psychiatry, Law, and Society Program at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, the Co-Director of the Harvard Mass General Brigham Forensic Psychiatry Fellowship, and on the faculty of Harvard Medical School. She is also the Founding Director of Psych Expertise, LLC, a mental health consulting practice. 

She served as a forensic psychiatrist at Bridgewater State Hospital where she treated serious mental illness in individuals with criminal charges for six years. Additionally, she was a staff psychiatrist at Simmons University Health Center in Boston where she collaborated with internal medicine physicians and nurse-practitioners in college mental health for three years. Currently, her clinical responsibilities are located at a large, academic consult-liaison psychiatry practice at Brigham and Women’s Hospital. She spends much of her time teaching in various medical training programs across the Harvard system.  Dr. Biswas's specialized research interests include timely treatment for serious mental illness (SMI), trauma, and resilience, and cultural issues that impact mental illness treatment and care. She has spoken around the nation on issues related to the timely treatment of SMI patients.