Dr. Sridhar Yaratha is a psychiatrist dedicated to helping people with complex mental disorders. Working at Gateway Homes in Chesterfield, Virginia, Dr. Sridhar Yaratha manages psychiatric care for patients diagnosed with illnesses like depression and bipolar disorder.
Gateway Homes was established with the guiding belief that even people with severe mental disorders can attain fulfilling lives. The facility offers residential treatment programs that care for patients with tough mental illnesses, helping them recover and achieve independent living. At Gateway Homes’ central regional program, patients stay at the Supported Living Center, a licensed facility operating 24/7 and capable of serving up to 16 people. Patients begin their stay here. After admission, they are taken through a baseline assessment before a customized treatment plan is developed. Members of the staff educate them on their conditions and work with them to ensure they take their medication and develop skills to cope with their illnesses. Classroom education, counseling, and community activities are held every week. Residents who are prepared are moved to the Gateway’s Supported Living Apartments designed to mirror life in the outside community. Patients continue to receive mental health care and are motivated to develop the social, educational, and vocational skills necessary for job placement. Afterward, Gateway ushers them into independent living as full members of the outside community. Weekly staff support is offered and patients are encouraged to keep participating in on-going rehabilitation programs on campus.
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A psychiatrist caring for adults with chronic mental health challenges, Dr. Sridhar Yaratha delivers psychiatric treatment to patients at Gateway Homes, a provider in Chesterfield, Virginia. Over his career, Dr. Sridhar Yaratha has conducted numerous lectures and seminars on mental health topics, including a lecture on addiction before an audience of legal professionals in Charlottesville, Virginia. When people lose control of their behaviors, feelings, and thoughts regarding their craving for a substance, for example a drug, and this craving takes command of their lives, we say that they’ve become addicted to that substance. The decision to take drugs may be due to the drug’s ability to make the user euphoric, to reduce stress, or to enhance performance. Why does a person feel compelled to use a drug even if they understand that the drug is doing harm to them and even if they wish to stop, as is often the case? The answer may center on the way a drug interacts with chemical processes in the brain. Drug use can cause the brain to become flooded with dopamine, a chemical that gives rise to euphoria. With repeated drug use, however, the brain becomes acclimated to dopamine, and people no longer feel as euphoric when they take the usual amount of the drug. Moreover, when the brain releases dopamine during everyday, non-drug related occasions for pleasure, users may find that they do not feel as good as they expect to due to the brain's acclimation to the chemical. To get the pleasure they desire, users end up consuming more and more of the drug to release effective quantities of dopamine in the brain. This in turn leads to addiction. Dr. Sridhar Yaratha is a psychiatrist with Gateway Homes in Chesterfield, Virginia. In this position he is responsible for outpatient psychiatric care of adult patients living with chronic mental illness. A graduate of the West Virginia University School of Medicine, Dr. Sridhar Yaratha has nearly two decades of experience in the field. He is also a member of numerous professional organizations, including the American Psychiatric Association.
Every year, the American Psychiatric Association (APA) celebrates outstanding professional achievements through a comprehensive awards program. The program is comprised of nearly 50 unique honors, including the Administrative Psychiatry Award, which is given to an APA member who has excelled in an administrative role with a major mental health services provider, particularly those that improve mental health service delivery systems. The Davis Carol Ethics Award, meanwhile, was established in 2005 to recognize the important role ethics plays in psychiatric education. The honor is given to an APA member who has published an influential work regarding ethics. More generalized awards include the Distinguished Service Award, given for exceptional work in the field of psychiatry or meritorious work with the APA, and the District Branch Best Practice Award, which honors district branches maintaining high quality, innovative psychiatric programming. Additional awards include the Fryer John Award for mental health work in sexual minority communities, the Hartford-Jeste Award for Future Leader in Geriatric Psychiatry, and the Health Services Research Award. The awards program can be explored in full at www.psychiatry.org. A respected board certified psychiatrist who has been treating patients for more than a decade, Dr. Sridhar Yaratha works out of his private practice in Richmond, Virginia, and is also a staff psychiatrist at Gateway Homes in nearby Chesterfield. To augment this work, Dr. Sridhar Yaratha is a longtime member of the American Psychiatric Association (APA).
Medicaid coverage is vital to the overall physical and mental health of the American population. For this reason, the APA was one of numerous organizations to applaud a court ruling in early 2019 striking down laws that would take away coverage from individuals who don’t meet certain work requirements. These groups had filed an amicus brief in the case, laying out the reasons they believe such requirements would lead to a large number of people disenrolled from Medicaid, leading to a subsequent deterioration in the health of Americans. In a joint statement from the APA and six other groups, the letter stated that creating barriers to healthcare only creates more hardship for those looking to re-enter the workforce, as they can’t access the care they need to stay healthy enough to work. The groups also called upon stakeholders to make access to health care easier, not more difficult. Dr. Sridhar Yaratha possesses more than 15 years of experience practicing psychiatry and has also served as a faculty member at the Virginia Commonwealth University Medical Center. Active in his profession outside of his everyday duties, Dr. Sridhar Yaratha is a longtime member of the American Psychiatric Association (APA). In November 2018, the APA reaffirmed its stance against conversion therapy, a type of therapy designed to treat homosexuality as a mental health defect with the ultimate goal of turning a homosexual person into a heterosexual person. The organization has opposed this practice for two decades, but recently felt the need to restate its position given the recent public awareness of the practice through news and entertainment media. Conversion therapy has been deemed a harmful practice by 14 states, which have banned it outright. The APA concurs, citing the fact that conversion therapy is not rooted in evidence-based science and carries the potential for significant damage to the patient’s self-worth. Further, the APA has adopted the position that sexual orientation is not correlated to mental health and is not an aspect of a person’s life that necessitates change. |
AuthorSince 2006, Dr. Sridhar Yaratha has worked for Central State Hospital in Petersburg, Virginia, as a forensic psychiatrist and attending physician for the men’s long-term forensic unit. Archives
January 2020
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