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Kristen Nygren, MD, a board certified psychiatrist treating adolescents through geriatric clients, has been named the Medical Director of Family & Children's Service of Ithaca. She replaces David Sillars, MD who left the agency to accept a position with Cayuga County Mental Health Department. Dr. Nygren holds a BA degree from Harvard University and a medical degree from the University of California, San Francisco with honors in pharmacology, geriatrics, and psychiatry. She was a private practice psychiatrist in California for 13 years before moving to the Ithaca area. She previously worked as the head psychiatrist for the trauma subdivision of the Psychosocial Medicine Clinic at San Francisco General Hospital and also performed psychiatric evaluations and medication management for Kaiser Permanente in Redwood City, California and at Walden House, a residential facility in San Francisco.
Dr. Nygren will lead the agency's medical services along with Nurse Practitioner Ellie Kraft-Sanders, RNC, NP and Dr. Auguste Duplan, a child psychiatrist with Cayuga Medical Center who treats children and adolescents served at Family & Children's Service. Counseling and therapeutic services will continue to be led by Karen Schachere, PhD, who has been with the agency since 1990 as the Director of Clinical Services. Counseling and mental health services at Family & Children's Service of Ithaca are considered among the highest quality and most affordable in Tompkins County for adults, college students, children & adolescents, and families. The agency served 2,378 individuals in 2007 with mental health and psychiatric services.
Family & Children's Service of Ithaca offers a wide range of mental health, home health care, employee assistance, and youth services programs to families and children in Ithaca and Tompkins County. The agency, established in 1885, is one of the oldest existing non-profit human service agencies in Tompkins County. The agency is a member agency with the United Way of Tompkins County.
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