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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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From Collaboration to Collective Impact: A Community Approach to Tackle Youth Opioid Abuse on Staten Island
No single organization, however innovative or powerful, alone can address youth substance abuse in a community. A dedicated group of community members, philanthropists, behavioral health providers, law enforcement, government partners, and parents, understood this and came together to collectively...
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Living with Addiction: The Role of the Family
As you can see by the letters after my name, I am a Social Worker by profession but one of the most significant roles in my life has been as a mother. For the last 6 years I have been the mom of a 28-year-old son who is suffering from the disease of addiction. Prior to my knowing about his drug use...
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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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Peer Training and Empowerment at the Howie the Harp Advocacy Center: Keeping Pace with a Bigger, Stronger Peer Movement
Without meaning to stretch the analogy too far, there was perhaps something rather apt—albeit unfortunate—about the 17th Annual Howie the Harp Advocacy Center (HTH) Graduation Ceremony being delayed three months because of Hurricane Sandy. It was originally scheduled for October 29, 2012, the...
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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...
