WASHINGTON – “I feel like I’m already better,” said 21-year-old Devine Cruz. “I feel myself being a person that I was supposed to be my whole entire life.”

Devine, who recently made a remarkable recovery after spending a decade in and out of hospitals and receiving a diagnosis of schizoaffective disorder, says of the team that treated her, “Without their help, I wouldn’t be here.” That team includes Dr. Sander Markx, one of the co-directors of the new Stavros Niarchos Foundation (SNF) Center for Precision Psychiatry and Mental Health at Columbia University.

Devine’s story and the new approach to mental health treatment Markx champions are the focus of a recent article in The Washington Post.

“These are the forgotten souls,” said Markx of the people he and his colleagues hope to be able to help by approaching treatment in new ways. “We’re not just improving the lives of these people, but we’re bringing them back from a place that I didn’t think they could come back from.”

SNF is proud of the amazing work being done by Dr. Sander Markx, Dr. Joseph Gogos, Dr. Steven A. Kushner, and their colleagues, at Columbia University. Above all, SNF is honoured and humbled to be playing a role in the amazing recovery of Devine and other patients like her that will follow.

Later this month, Devine will speak in Athens alongside Markx at SNF Nostos Conference 2023 which focuses on mental health.

Source: SNF