About MDSG

The Mood Disorders Support Group of NY (MDSG-NY) is a non-profit (501 (c)3) self-help organization. Since 1981, we’ve been supporting individuals with depression and manic-depression (bipolar disorder), as well as their families and friends.

MDSG’s Mission and Core Values

Our goal is to improve quality of life for those with mood disorders by providing much needed support and up-to-date information. We strongly believe in the effective management of these illnesses and we know the peer-based approach is a powerful guide to a better standard of living. The participants of our support groups are the backbone of our organization. Through our groups, invaluable information helps people just embarking on their journey, as well as those who have been managing their mental illnesses for years and are leading a full life.

In order to fully support our members, we believe the following to be true:

Depression and manic-depression are treatable diseases.
People with mood disorders can live productive and fulfilling lives.
People experiencing depression and manic-depression can be a tremendous help to each other.
All people with mood disorders deserve quality care and treatment should be guided by well-trained medical staff and other qualified professionals.
Knowledge and education are imperative to the understanding and management of these illnesses.
People with mood disorders have a right to a compassionate environment free of stigma and prejudice.
Careful, caring and knowledgeable operations are the goal of every MDSG volunteer and member.

Our Services

Unique to Manhattan, we offer 16 weekly support groups on both the East and West sides, a prestigious monthly lecture series, our quarterly newsletter, MOODS; plus an extensive website and a warm 24-hour phone line.

Our Brochure

MDSG publishes a brochure describing the group, appropriate for any health care provider to give to someone who might benefit from our support group. For copies email info@mdsg.org.

How Are We Funded?

While our support groups, lectures, newsletters, website and phones are all brought together by the effort and dedication of volunteers; we, like any other non-profit organization, still incur many expenses. Much of our support comes from our members who pay a nominal fee to participate in our services. We also rely on generous donations from our supporters and other patrons. If you are interested in making a donation, click here.

The MDSG-NY Board

Our board is comprised of a well-rounded group of individuals with a special interest in this area, including mental health professionals, family members of the affected, and dedicated volunteers from our groups who have contributed priceless time to building and maintaining our organization. Click on a board member name to read their bio.

Betsy Naylor, MSW, ACSW
Chairperson

Li Faustino, Ph.D.
Vice-Chairperson

Michael McKay
Treasurer

Tory Masters
Secretary

Ivan Goldberg, M.D.
Medical Advisor

Deborah Perlick, Ph.D.
Board Member

David Hellerstein, M.D.
Board Member

Yumiko Ikuta
Board member

Michael Roth
Board Member

Board Member Bios

Elizabeth B. Naylor, MSW, ACSW obtained her Social Work degree at Columbia School of Social Work in 1968. In addition to her position as chair, she has been a member of MDSG since 1995, she facilitates support groups every week and her “topic” group is one of our most popular. Betsy teaches the facilitator class and contributes the “Readers Corner” to the MOODS newsletter. As an avid reader, she is instrumental in choosing books for MDSG to recommend to our membership. She has a strong interest in matters of government and she volunteers regularly for the Board of Elections.

Li Faustino, Ph.D. began volunteering as a facilitator in 1997 and soon after founded the “Youth Group,” now known as the “20-Something” group. Over the years, Li was a site coordinator, led our phone team and revamped out facilitator class, of which she still teaches. Li played an active role as a fundraiser and was the first to institute our paid staff, the positions she now oversees. Currently Li is our vice-chairperson. Li recently completed her Ph.D. in clinical psychology at the New School of Social Research.

Michael McKay came to MDSG through the Friends and Family Group and has been Treasurer for the last ten years. For the last 30 years he has been Finance Director for various libraries and visual arts non-profit organizations. Michael obtained master's degrees in library science and business administration.

Tory Masters spent years as a senior producer and programmer for ABC News, Good Morning America. She then co-founded The Intrepid New Yorker, a corporate relocation consulting firm for expatriates. Currently, she is certified peer-specialist and recovery coach for individuals and groups with mood disorders and their families. She is also a psychiatric rehabilitation facilitator at Hands Across Long Island (HALI) that serves individuals in need with psychiatric and substance abuse disorders. At MDSG, Tory is lecture coordinator, teaches our facilitator class and has been an active site coordinator and facilitator since 1992.

Dr. Ivan Goldberg is a psychiatrist and clinical psychopharmacologist in private practice in New York City. He is the founder of DepressionCentral, an Internet clearinghouse of psychiatry-related research and professional papers, and has served as a staff member of the National Institute of Mental Health, the Departments of Psychiatry at Columbia-Presbyterian Medical Center, and Columbia University’s College of Physicians and Surgeons.

Currently, Dr. Goldberg is devoted to providing advanced and innovative treatment for disorders not responding to standard drug treatments. He is especially interested in depression and bipolar depression deemed “treatment resistant” and frequently works with people diagnosed with atypical depression, rapid-cycling bipolar disorder, and severe mixed states. Dr. Golderg’s extensive experience has allowed him to become one of the most prominent and respected leaders in his field.

Dr. Deborah A. Perlick has a psychotherapy practice specializing in cognitive-behavioral and mindfulness-based cognitive-behavior treatment of mood disorders. She has a longstanding clinical and research interst in the interplay between family education and consumer outcomes in bipolar disorder, and specializes in evidence-based family psychoeducation for bipolar disorder. Currently an associate professor in the Department of Psychiatry at Mount Sinai School of Medicine as well as Associate Director for Family Intervention Research at the VA Integrated Services Network 03 in the Bronx, NY, she has conducted NIMH-funded clinical research on families and bipolar disorder for over 20 years and published numerous scientific articles and book chapters in this area. She is also working with the Connecticut chapter of the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI-CT) to develop interventions to reduce the adverse impact of mental illness stigma.

Dr. David J. Hellerstein has been on the MDSG board since 2009. He has a psychiatry and psychopharmacology private practice in New York, and is a research psychiatrist at the New York State Psychiatric Institute, New York, NY, and a Professor of Clinical Psychiatry at Columbia University.

He specializes in the treatment of mood and anxiety disorders, and conducts studies on the medication treatment of dysthymia, or low-grade chronic depression at Columbia’s Depression Evaluation Service. He has published many scientific articles on subjects including psychopharmacology, supportive psychotherapy, and behavioral activation therapy.

Dr. Hellerstein has also received national recognition for his literary writing. His books include Battles of Life and Death (essays about medical training), Loving Touches (a novel), and A Family of Doctors (a memoir of five generations of doctors in one family). He writes a blog, “Heal Your Brain” for Psychology Today. His 2011 book, Heal Your Brain: How the New Neuropsychiatry Can Help You Go From Better to Well (Johns Hopkins University Press) was praised by Kay Jamison as “a lucid and practical guide to the brain and how it can go awry.”

Yumiko Lorraine Ikuta spent over 10 years working in the corporate sector for major Fortune 100 companies as well as owning businesses. She then spent many years overseas in the international economic development field in Micronesia with the Peace Corps, Mongolia, and Southern Africa for the US Department of State (USAID). Yumiko is the Deputy Director for Community Access Inc. – Howie the Harp Peer Advocacy and Training Center which trains and places people with psychiatric disabilities to obtain jobs in the human services field as peer counselors. She possesses a BA in Economics & East Asian Studies and an MBA in International Business & Marketing both from Columbia University.

Michael Roth grew up in England and studied aeronautical engineering at the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology in Haifa Israel. He started freelancing as a computer programmer and was a computer programming instructor at Haifa University. Today he continues to work as software consultant. Michael has been facilitating groups at MDSG for about 4 years, has served on the phone committee, and is a site coordinator for Friday groups and the lecture series. He is of the opinion that coping adequately with a serious mood disorder is more than just a medical matter but one that calls for family involvement. He has found his involvement with MDSG to be both helpful and uplifting.