ROMANCE IMBALANCE –
NOV. 11, 2024 – THE DARKEST moment in Courtney Barrows McKeown’s path to recovery came when she considered driving over a bridge. As she tells it, she had been drinking from a bottle of wine and contending with feelings of hopelessness and shame; a routine test had come back positive for alcohol, and she had just learned she’d been fired from her surgical fellowship as a result. After half an hour, she decided to call her psychiatrist, who set in motion a series of supports that brought McKeown back from the edge. She said it was a relief.
McKeown, a surgeon who had trained at a prestigious program in Boston, had been connected to her psychiatrist through a Physician Health Program, or PHP, an organization that supports practitioners whose medical licenses hang in the balance after substance use disorders and other serious problems affecting their work come to light. PHPs walk the line of offering support while monitoring behavior and may give evidence to state medical boards when a practitioner applies to return to practice.
