-
Housing and Support Services Create Greater Stability for Adults with Behavioral Health Issues
As supportive housing continues to be a necessity for individuals across New York City, Unique People Services’ (UPS) social workers, clinicians and case managers are working together to create safe havens and essential resources for hundreds in need. Our Bronx-based agency operates nearly 30...
-
For Those on the Threshold of Adulthood: No Thresholds Beckon
Supported housing for young adults living with mental/emotional challenges, including chemical dependency, is a rare commodity in New York and is almost non-existent on Staten Island. Once they leave home or the foster care system, no government funding, no agency contracts, no appropriate...
-
Crisis Respite: An Effective Intervention in the Continuum of Recovery
Think about your work with a client with a psychiatric diagnosis in emotional crisis. Did your client get what they needed at an emergency room? Or, after hours of waiting, were they told they were well enough to deal with it at home, perhaps by themselves? A peer-run Crisis Respite stay is an...
-
Housing People with Serious Mental Illness in Jails and Prisons: Why Are We Still Criminalizing Mental Illness?
Lack of appropriate access to mental health care for the seriously mentally ill in the U.S. is a critical issue. Such lack of access can lead to significant, adverse living outcomes for individuals living with mental illness, including homelessness and incarceration. It is a disturbing fact that...
-
Improving Health: Better Targeting of Supportive Housing
New York has demonstrated a strong commitment to addressing social determinants of health. At the center of this effort is supportive housing, which combines stable, affordable housing with services to meet the needs of homeless individuals facing multiple complex challenges like serious mental...
-
ICL Housing: Like a Nice Piece of CAKE
As the story goes, at ICL we’ve been saying for quite a while, that Housing is much more than just a bed, some clean sheets and case management services. At ICL we believe that Housing is far more complex and that at the very core of all of our Housing is hope and relationship building. Today,...
-
Let’s Strengthen Sober Housing Resources
Imagine someone drowning at night in the middle of the ocean. Suddenly a ship appears! Spotlights pinpoint the poor swimmer. A floatation device is tossed into the sea, and words of encouragement float down from the deck of the boat. The swimmer is quickly brought on board and provided with warm...
-
Housing as Healthcare
The design and operations of supportive housing programs in New York State has been positively impacted in numerous ways by the state’s Medicaid Redesign process over the last six years. The state’s Medicaid Redesign Team (MRT) recognized early on that housing is a major social determinant of...
-
Mental Illness and Homeless Baby-Boomers: What Can Be Done?
Greater longevity combined with the aging of the baby-boom generation is rapidly increasing the 50-and-over age group in the United States. The greatest surge will be seen among the population aged 65 and over, which is expected to increase by 65% by 2030 (“Demographics of an aging America”...
-
WellLife Network: Offering a Continuum of Residential Services Vital to the Recovery Process
More than 800 people live with dignity and as independently as possible in WellLife Network’s behavioral health housing settings throughout New York City and Long Island. Each day, our homes integrate care into the community and celebrate residents’ cultures and traditions. Using a...
