CooperRiis
Mill Spring, NC

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CooperRiis Welcomes Dr. Caston To Clinical Team

CooperRiis Healing Community welcomes new Psychiatrist J. Christopher Caston, MD - Expert and Dedicated Member of our Clinical Services Team in Mill Spring, NC.

Dr. Caston is Board Certified by the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology and is licensed in both North and South Carolina. He has an extensive knowledge and background in bio-chemistry, including presenting papers at international research conferences.

Dr. Caston has had his own private practice of psychiatry in the Spartanburg, S.C. area for 35 years, has been the medical director of a psychiatric unit at Mary Black Memorial Hospital for the past 13 years and is a Senior Psychiatrist of the Spartanburg Regional Healthcare System.

Dr. Caston will continue his private practice at North Grove Medical Park in Spartanburg in addition to his duties at CooperRiis. But he says he is most looking forward to working in a healing community again, as he did in a partial hospital program earlier in his career.

He indicated, "So many of our current mental health systems are broken, underfunded, or a bureaucratic mess. They don't produce what we want for people with emotional disorders. At the partial hospitalization program, we worked with people in a home-like setting, where a team offered therapy, education, groups as well as meetings with physicians and psychologists. That's the part I'm excited about and enjoy the most, working in a program where the focus is on helping a person regain a functional role in society."

Dr. Caston said his aim is to aid in CooperRiis' efforts by helping its residents to manage their symptoms and their recovery with the optimal use of medications. Medications "used quickly and properly," he says, can ready a person for the host of other interventions offered in the CooperRiis Healing Community, from exercise to psychotherapy, improved nutrition and community work and service.

A particular aim of his practice has always been the reduction of "hard core" psychotropic drugs, Dr. Caston said. He decided this after inheriting a practice that included too many patients in his waiting room suffering terrible side effects, like tardive dyskinesia.

"I believe you can observe and analyze blood levels and figure out better ways than permanently over-medicating people with high levels of powerful medications," he said. In researching these methods, Dr. Caston has been asked to present at regional, national and international conferences and has published 19 papers in medical journals.

Dr. Caston is a member of the American Psychiatric Association, American Psychosomatic Society, Southern Medical Association, American Medical Association, C.J. Jung Foundation, South Carolina Medical Association and Academy of Psychosomatic Medicine. He is a 1971 graduate of the Medical University of South Carolina where he did his internship and residency, and where he served as an assistant clinical professor of psychiatry from 1976 to 1986. He earned his bachelor's degree at Clemson University.

Dr. Caston and his wife live in Spartanburg, S.C., near his family's old peach farm. They have two children, one a family practitioner and the other a teacher, and for fun they take their pack of beagles to field trials.

CooperRiis Executive Director Virgil Stucker says, "We are exceedingly pleased to add Dr. Caston to our team and to our efforts to be a mental health recovery model for the nation. I am confident that his deep level of caring and expertise will help our residents in remarkable ways."

CooperRiis is a Healing Community for individuals seeking to recover from mental illness and sometimes addictions. Its residents come from all over the country and most often are able to achieve full community re-integration. About half benefit from scholarships provided by CooperRiis' generous donors. CooperRiis' centers in Mill Spring and Asheville employ 180 staff members who are dedicated to the recovery of their 100 clients.