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Suicide and Substance Use
In America, one person dies by suicide every 13 minutes. According to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), it is the 2nd leading cause of death for teens, and the leading cause of death among people with substance use disorders. There is a strong association...
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The Evolving Health and Social Service Landscape: Promise for Persons with Co-Occurring Disorders
A year has passed since the United States Congress enacted sweeping legislation to address deficiencies in our national behavioral health service infrastructure. The Comprehensive Addiction and Recovery Act (CARA) and 21st Century Cures Act, both passed by the 114th Congress in 2016, authorized a...
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The Integrated Mental Health and Addictions Treatment Training Certificate (IMHATT)
The New York State Office of Mental Health (OMH) and the Department of Psychiatry, Columbia University, established the Center for Practice Innovations at Columbia Psychiatry and New York State Psychiatric Institute (CPI) in November 2007, to promote the widespread use of evidence-based practices...
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The Myths, Abuses and Pseudoscience Surrounding “Evidence Based Medicine”
There are 3 types of lies: Lies, Damn Lies and Statistics (Mark Twain). In approximately the last 10 years there’s been great interest in the concept of Evidence Based Medicine as a unifying concept for teaching, evaluating data and practicing medicine. The concept goes back at least 150 years to...
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The NYSPA Report: PTSD and It’s Co-Morbidities
Posttraumatic Stress disorder (PTSD) is a mental health problem that some people develop after experiencing or witnessing a life-threatening event, like combat, a natural disaster, a car accident, or sexual assault. The following data shows the gravity of the problem posed due to PTSD. The National...
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The Sensory Comfort Cart: A Portable Resource to Assist in the Recovery of Patients with Co-Occurring Diagnoses
This article describes a brief history of sensory modalities in mental health and substance abuse treatment, the purpose and current use of a sensory comfort cart at NewYork-Presbyterian Westchester Division (NYPWD), early patient outcomes, and implications for discharge and recovery. Brief...
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Trauma and “Whole Person” Healthcare
Any effort to understand and treat co-occurring disorders cannot ignore the prevalence of trauma in the lives of those who are struggling with recovery from mental illness and addiction. A look at the trauma prevalence data in both general and behavioral health populations clearly makes the case....
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Understanding Co-Occurring Disorders
For decades, we have talked about substance use and mental health conditions as “co-occurring.” We have incorporated it into our language, for example, saying that a person “needs a co-occurring program.” Sometimes the term takes on a life of its own, prompting providers to view treatment...
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Why Integrated Care for Co-Occurring Disorders Is So Important
Providing integrated treatment for people with co-occurring behavioral and physical health disorders has become a central goal of mental health policy reform. Why? In part the answer is that the failure to provide effective integrated care drives up the cost of care. But the answer also is that...
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A Human Right Still Unmet: Medical Treatment of Mentally Ill Prisoners
Individuals with mental illness have the right to receive appropriate medical treatment in correctional settings and upon release. It sounds perfectly reasonable, but unfortunately, is far from reality. That was the consensus of a distinguished panel of mental health and legal experts who recently...
