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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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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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The NYSPA Parity Enforcement Project: New Tools for Patients and Providers in The Fight Against Parity
The passage of the federal Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act of 2008 (MHPAEA) represented a landmark moment for those fighting for parity in behavioral health benefits. In the years since MHPAEA and its implementing regulations went into effect, many of the financial restrictions and...
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Point of View: Improving American Mental Health Policy
We mental health advocates all agree that America’s mental health system should be better. We do not all agree about how to make it better. That’s a problem. Our differences have contributed to a political standoff in Washington where efforts to bring about major changes in the nation’s...
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Towards Seamless Integration: Advocating for Reform
Many people with serious mental illnesses have difficulty accessing primary care or do not feel comfortable in primary care settings, for a host of reasons. Often, they have experienced trauma, resulting in trust issues that impact their ability to form relationships with new providers. As a...
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Drinking for Two: Why We Need to Prevent Alcohol Use During Pregnancy
It was forty years ago that Fetal Alcohol Syndrome (FAS) was first diagnosed by Drs. David Smith and Kenneth Jones at the University of Washington, when a group of babies born to different mothers who consumed alcohol during pregnancy were noticed to have similar physical and behavioral problems....
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Suffering from Mental Illness in the Orthodox Jewish Community
After being diagnosed with bipolar disorder, I had a tough time being accepted, especially in the Orthodox Jewish community. You see, I am an Orthodox woman – I keep my head covered, dress modestly, keep kosher, observe the Sabbath and Jewish holidays, and am readily identified as an observant...
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Making Recovery More Than Just a Word
Over the past 50 years, the mental health system in New York City has evolved from a system of dependent care to a more person-centered system. But there is still much work to be done. Employment rates for people living with mental illness are still abysmally low….unemployment for people with...
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How Can We Fight the Prejudice and Discrimination of Psychiatric Labels?
Raptly watching President Obama’s inaugural address on January 21, I was struck by his acknowledgement – on equal terms – of three stunning civil rights milestones: Seneca Falls, Selma, and Stonewall. The Stonewall Inn, of course, is the gay bar where, in 1969, a police raid sparked several...
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Murders and Mental Health Advocacy: Opportunity or Temptation to Resist?
From time-to-time, a person with a severe mental illness (or assumed to have a mental illness) commits a heinous act that makes headlines. The reactive call for better mental health services is entirely predictable, not only on the part of those who are trying to distract us from issues such as gun...
