Porter-Starke Services is dedicated to enhancing the quality of life for those in the community, in hopes to inspire, balance, and advance the health of those within. Since becoming CEO last year, Matt Burden is committed to making a meaningful difference by focusing on mental health and addiction treatment.
The LaPorte native has spent much of his career focused on understanding human behavior through the research lens. Before leading one of the Region’s top service providers, Burden worked in academics, with a focus on brain-behavior research at Wayne State Med School in Detroit.
“Our team was interested in assessing how the prenatal environment could impact children’s later cognitive development and brain functioning, especially when exposed to alcohol, drugs, or environmental contaminants during pregnancy,” said Burden.
Burden also worked on similar research as a postdoc at the University of Michigan with a focus on iron deficiency anemia in infancy. The goal of the research - to identify and specify issues so that intervention and treatment can occur.
“The earlier we know of a problem in a child’s development, the better equipped we are to address it.”
Along with his Master’s and Ph.D. in Developmental Psychology from Loyola University Chicago (LUC) , Burden has worked on several different brain development research projects.
During his time at LUC, Burden studied memory development in kids with or without ADHD for dissertation and found some interesting distinctions based on the same information processed in different ways.
“All of my research sparked my passion for brain development and the underlying causes of why we think and behave the way we do,” Burden reflected. “Much of my earlier career focused on understanding human behavior, I had always hoped to apply some of that knowledge in a way that would have a more direct impact on individual human beings.”
“The mission of Porter-Starke Services is exactly that - to make meaningful differences in the lives of those we serve by focusing on health, mental health, and addiction treatment,” Burden explained. “To me, and increasingly to others in our society, mental health is health.”
Burden continues to develop techniques to treat health, mental health, and addiction. He plans to grow school-based programs, serving kids who are having emotional problems, combative behaviors, and difficulties with impulse control and other issues.
“Working with students on these issues can increase their academic performance, improve their relationships, and set them up for greater success in the future.”
For the last decade, Burden has considered great lengths, such as inspiring change through legislation to better the future of mental health, and health in general.
“Being a part of the Indiana Council of Community Mental Health Centers, I hope to effect legislative changes that will help the cause of behavioral health,” said Burden. “The beauty of our industry is that typically what is best for the patient benefits society as well, as a direct result of providing or coordinating care that leads to more productive, less costly, and happier lives.”
For more information visit, https://www.porterstarke.org/.
