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Addressing the Social Determinants of Health in Program, Payment, and Policy: Extrapolating the Triple Aim for Population Health
There is much more to being healthy than traditional health care. In fact, “health care” is a surprisingly minor factor in health and the prevention of premature death, just 10 percent. Social circumstances, environmental exposures, genetic predisposition, and personal behavior combined...
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Adapting to System Reform
This article is the first in 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 SUS...
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Congressional Mental Health Policy Reform: Hope or Hype?
Since the tragic killings in Newtown, CT in 2013, most politicians have mistakenly maintained that mass murder is largely a consequence of a “broken” mental health system. In Washington, and elsewhere, elected officials have been promising to “fix” the system, and to their credit they have...
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A New Face on Familiar Trends
Last year I attended a conference at which Dr. Michael Hogan, the former Commissioner of the New York State Office of Mental Health, delivered a keynote address on emerging issues and trends within health care reform. He distilled a seemingly inchoate mass of movements, mandates and initiatives...
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The Promise and Peril of Value Based Behavioral Health Care
By aligning payment with value, we can achieve the triple aim of better outcomes and better experience of the healthcare system at a lower cost IF we define value in terms of wellness, recovery and improved quality of life. In this case as with almost everything in our healthcare system today, the...
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BHN Spring 2016 Issue
"Preparing the New Behavioral Health Workforce” Articles in This...
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Make a 2016 Resolution to Talk About Mental Illness: Your Story Could Change a Life
As we look to the new year and the resolutions we can make to improve our lives and the lives of others, Beacon Health Options (Beacon) urges you to resolve to break the silence and stamp out the stigma around mental illnesses. Talk about it; your story could change a life. Today, Beacon, the...
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A Behavioral Health Workforce for An Aging America
As efforts are made to improve America’s inadequate behavioral health workforce, the needs of older adults should be a central concern. By 2030, Americans over the age of 65 will become as large a portion of the population as children under the age of 18. But there is far more interest in...
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Addressing Workforce Challenges in Serving Individuals with Co-Occurring MI/IDD
Individuals with mental illness (MI) co-occurring with intellectual/developmental disability (IDD) have complex needs and present clinical challenges to the professionals, programs, and systems. These individuals are among the most challenging, expensive, and intractable to work with. Although the...
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Brief Inpatient Psychiatric Treatment: Designing Social Work Education to Enhance Clinical Practice
Over the past several years, the primary focus of inpatient psychiatric treatment has moved to a model of brief treatment and shortened length of stay. There have been many factors driving this, including the advent of managed care. The main goal of inpatient treatment has become rapid assessment...
