-
New York Health Equity Reform: A Transformative Shift in New York’s Medicaid Landscape
On January 9, 2024, New York’s Department of Health received its long-awaited amendment to our Medicaid 1115 demonstration, newly rebranded NYHER (NY Health Equity Reform). It’s not as flashy nor as generously funded as the special purpose DSRIP (Delivery System Reform Incentive Payment)...
-
Guide to Equity Terminology: Promoting Behavioral Health Equity through the Words We Use
In the field of behavioral health, words are often our primary tools. We don’t have hammers and saws, thermometers and stethoscopes, or brushes and palettes. Words are powerful tools and using them with intention is central to our craft. “I’ll never forget, years ago, when I was asked to...
-
Peer Support Workforce Shortages Anticipated: What You Can Do
Imagine this: You are the manager in a behavioral health agency that has decided to hire peer support providers in your workforce. This position can give the agency a boost in revenue, additional help in needed areas with personnel shortages, and hope and practical help to service participants. You...
-
Safe, Stable Housing and Employment Are Key Social Determinants of Health, and Critical for Recovery!
Safe and stable housing, together with appropriate employment, are important determinants of mental and physical health. For people who are living with mental illness, housing and employment can play a critical role in their journeys towards recovery. Governor Hochul has long recognized the...
-
Redefining Supported and Transitional Employment as Key Tools for Recovery
Recognizing the significance of employment in the recovery journey, supported and transitional employment have emerged as crucial tools to empower those facing mental illnesses. Services for the UnderServed (S:US) has implemented these innovative approaches through evidence-based programming, such...
-
Stand Up for Mental Health: Comedy that Gets Respect!
While performing comedy at hotels in the Catskill Mountains of New York, Rodney Dangerfield first complained in the 1960s, “I don’t get no respect.” Born “Jacob Rodney Cohen,” he was one of many Jewish comedians, such as Jackie Mason, George Burns, Mel Brooks, Carl Reiner, and Sid Caesar,...
-
Mental Health Parity in New York – How It Started, How It’s Going
Picnics and Pizza The fight for mental health parity - equal coverage and reimbursement by health insurers of mental illnesses and conditions - has been long and challenging. In the 1990s, the National Picnic for Parity became a grassroots movement in support of parity. The group hosted spirited...
-
Mental Health Advocacy With and Without Advanced Technology
I just switched from E-mail to Microsoft Word to write this article about mental health and technology. I left 250 E-mails unanswered to make the move. Oy vey! I feel like I’m guilty of E-mail neglect. Who will I offend today by not responding to them? It wasn’t always like this. 45...
-
Behavioral Health Care: How Far We’ve Come in 15 Years
Fifteen years goes by in the blink of an eye. This summer I’m stepping down after 15 years as president and CEO of the National Council for Behavioral Health, which is celebrating it’s 50th anniversary. This is a good time to take stock of where we have been as a field and where we are...
-
Mental Health Parity and Its Impact on the Behavioral Health Workforce
In 2006, New York enacted a parity mandate in the form of Timothy’s Law, which requires group health plans to provide 30 inpatient days and 20 outpatient days for most mental health diagnoses and requires large plans to provide full coverage for certain biologically based illnesses. Several years...
