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Social Isolation: A Solution-Focused Approach
Doris has been living in her studio apartment in the Crown Heights section of Brooklyn for the past 15 years. She obtained this apartment after finding herself homeless following the breakup of her marriage and other stressors she was experiencing. Doris is quite humble as she describes how her...
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A Performance Driven System of Care at NYS’s OASAS
The New York State Office of Alcoholism and Substance Abuse Services (OASAS) envisions a performance-driven system of care, one that is adaptable to the changing needs of individuals with substance use disorder (SUD) and their families. A learning system that is integrated with healthcare,...
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A Virtual Pathway to Technology-Assisted Care Models: Keeping Up with New Technology in Behavioral Health Care
Community-based behavioral health organizations and the individuals they serve would benefit from embracing new media and digital technologies. Technology-assisted care allows providers an additional set of tools to supplement engagement and establish more meaningful lines of communication. With...
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Consumer Perspectives: The Right Research
This article is part of a quarterly series giving voice to the perspectives of individuals with lived experiences as they share their opinions on a particular topic. The authors of this column facilitated a focus group of their peers to inform this writing. The authors are served by Services for...
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BHN Spring 2018 Issue
"Harm Reduction: Theory and Practice” Articles in This...
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Supervised Injection Facilities: A Logical Progression in Harm Reduction or a Bridge Too Far?
The scourge of opiate abuse continues to rage unabated. It claimed 42,000 lives in 2016, more than in any previous year (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 2018). That’s 115 human lives per day. Five of our brothers and sisters are lost each hour. One of our parents, spouses, sons or...
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NYS OMH ACT Teams Utilize Harm Reduction Techniques
Harm Reduction can be a useful tool to help address potentially risky, dangerous, or self-destructive behaviors, including drug addiction, unsafe sexual activities, self-harm, and binge eating. The goal of harm reduction is to make dangerous behaviors safer, and to reduce the level of harmful...
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Boulevard Outpatient Stabilization Program
According to the National Survey of Substance Abuse Treatment Services (2016), facilities were asked how many patients in treatment on 03/21/16 received MAT for detoxification and maintenance purposes. Within this survey, MAT includes the use of methadone and buprenorphine for the treatment of...
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Compassionate Care for Substance Users in Traditional Settings
Like many other mental health treatments, substance use treatment has struggled with high dropout rates and problems with engaging clients. Only 0.9 percent of people who have some substance use issues engage in treatment. While some of this may be the client’s internal reluctance to get care,...
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Through Health Care System Integration
In many communities, harm reduction programs have helped prevent overdoses, lower HIV risk and hepatitis transmission and open the door to treatment for substance users. Originally started in the late 1980s, harm reduction approaches introduced syringe exchange initiatives with the goal of reducing...
