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The Importance of Self-Care and Staff Care for Mental Health Professionals
Dr. Francis Peabody one wrote: “The secret of the care of the patient is caring for the patient.” We must practice self-care in order to prevent becoming “Wounded Warriors.” Adversity is one of the primary reasons people seek help, and it is the mission of the mental health professional...
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The Future of Behavioral Healthcare in New York State
The future of behavioral healthcare in NYS is promising and full of great opportunity. While we understand that the future of all Medicaid care being managed creates some anxiety for providers, Governor Cuomo’s Medicaid Redesign Team (MRT) recommendations ensured that the NYS behavioral health...
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Texting to Save Lives
At a family dinner, my granddaughter Sarah, a high school sophomore in Fairfield, CT, and I were talking about the tragedy in Sandy Hook. She asked me, “Why?” I talked about the need for school programs for early detection and prevention, but I had no real answers or solutions. Later, I...
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Integrating Dialectical Behavioral Therapy (DBT) and Co-Occurring Disorder Treatment at Four Winds Hospital
Four Winds continues to be a leader in mental health care as we are now well into our fifth year of applying Dialectical Behavior Therapy to our Co-Occurring Disorder treatment. The Co-Occurring Track, one of two treatment tracks in our Adult Inpatient Program, offers a structured program for...
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Intentional Peer Support: Using a Crisis as an Opportunity for Growth and Change
In January 2013, Community Access, in partnership with the NYC Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, launched the first alternative to hospitalization program in New York City. Called a crisis respite center, the new program has several unique features that, compared to “treatment as usual,”...
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It’s About Time
Back in the height of what was called the “Humane Care” period, state hospital institutions took care, to the limits of their abilities, of the full spectrum of people’s needs. While one can certainly look back and question the quality of the care and the enormous personal consequences of...
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Merging Legal, Clinical and Medical Issues for the Most Effective Treatment Outcomes
Drug courts began in Miami-Dade County Florida started a maverick program to combine rehabilitative substance abuse treatment within the justice system sanctions. Since that time, 2,743 drug courts have been developed across the country. This was a progressive initiative that has proven to be...
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Outdated Perspective, Says Who? Therapeutic Work Programs with Land and Animals
In 1870 the Quakers’ Friends Hospital used greenhouses and acres of its natural landscape as integral parts of treatment for the mentally ill. At the turn of the century, Frederick Peterson, a neurologist and head of the New York State Board of Lunacy, did the same with a state asylum. Both the...
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Preventing Mental Illnesses and Substance Use Disorders
The New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene (DOHMH) has a unique mandate in our City to prevent illness and disability. How does this mandate translate to our work in behavioral health? This inaugural publication of Behavioral Health News, with its focus on the interconnectedness...
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Promoting Integrative Behavioral Healthcare: Gradualism and the Mechanisms of Change
The behavioral healthcare field is currently going through a period of transition – a time of increasing emphasis on the use of integrative approaches in the treatment of substance use and mental health problems. This change is not only being driven by economic necessity, but also by innovations...
