Pittsfield Doctor Receives Statewide Honor
PITTSFIELD, Mass. — The Massachusetts Psychiatric Society has named Alex Sabo, MD, Chairman of the Berkshire Medical Center Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Science, as its 2010 Outstanding Psychiatrist of the Year for Clinical Psychiatry. Dr. Sabo was recognized with the honor at the Massachusetts Psychiatric Association's annual meeting."Alex approaches each situation as a learning opportunity and engages his patients as partners in discovery," said Molly Boxer, president of the Berkshire chapter of the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI). "Despite his vast knowledge and experience in the field of psychology, he recognizes that each individual is on his or her own unique journey, and he brings willingness and an openness to question and learn that makes him an effective partner as well as a mentor in finding a way toward recovery."
According to the Psychiatric Society, "Dr. Sabo was chosen by his peers for recognition, based on outstanding achievements as a master clinician, teacher and leader, especially in the Wild West of Berkshire County. His leadership has been felt throughout the county, including the close collaboration with the Brien Center to provide a model network of community-based services clinically integrated with the health system."
Liza Donlon, MD, a BMC colleague of Sabo's, said, "Alex consistently thinks broadly and deeply about the work we do, truly integrating the biological with the psychodynamic. He is an energetic and intellectually rigorous thinker and a generous clinician, colleague and teacher."
Sabo joined BMC in 1994, and has led the hospital's behavioral health program since that time. He completed his undergraduate studies at Harvard College, taught middle school English and ancient history and coached football, basketball and baseball teams for three years before starting his medical studies at the University of Massachusetts Medical School. He completed his psychiatric residency at Cambridge Hospital and a Fellowship at the Austen Riggs Center. He also served at McLean Hospital as clinical director of the Psychosocial and Adult Specialty programs, and later, director of the Clinical Evaluation Center. At both the Cambridge Hospital, as Chief Resident in Psychiatry, and at McLean Hospital, as a clinical director, he took an active role in teaching medical students and residents in psychiatry. In Berkshire County from 1994 to the present he has played the key leadership role in the integration of mental health and substance abuse services and the outreach of those services to primary care medicine.
"The Berkshire County community looks to Alex for his leadership and wise counsel in addressing the seemingly intractable public health and safety challenges of substance abuse and addiction," said John Rogers, BHS Vice President and General Counsel. "The generosity of spirit that makes Alex outstanding at his clinical, institutional and community work also makes him an extraordinary good and loyal friend to us all."
Dr. Sabo's contributions are summed up by Benjamin Liptzin, MD, a Western Massachusetts colleague and past president of the Massachusetts Psychiatric Society: "As a master clinician, teacher and leader, as well as a true gentleman, Alex represents the best of Massachusetts psychiatry."
