-
Early Childhood Mental Health Clinic: Unmasking Social-Emotional Needs in Young Children
Think about this: a child who turned 5 years old in March 2022 will have spent 60% of their young life in the age of COVID. Most, if not all, of the child's active memories will be a time when traveling outside the home means wearing a mask. They were told that masks keep them safe; masks protect...
-
The Integration of Treatment and Recovery: Special Considerations for Working with Children
Historically, the term “recovery” was commonly associated with substance use/addiction services and was popularized in the United States through Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) (Witkiewitz, K., et al., 2020). Beginning in 1939, AA published materials highlighting recovery as a personal journey toward...
-
Context Counts in Caring for Chemically Dependent Kids and Families
Despite feeling blindsided, many of us now know that we are living in the midst of an unprecedented drug epidemic. According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, since 1999, the rate of overdose deaths including prescription pain relievers, heroin and synthetic opioids such as...
-
“Wrapping Around” Integrated Care
In 2014, Bergen’s Promise, Bergen County’s Care Management Organization within New Jersey’s Children’s System of Care (CSOC), took a bold step by agreeing to pilot a CSOC Behavioral Health Home; thus, establishing the first Pediatric Behavioral Health Home (BHH) in New Jersey and the first...
-
The Impact of Youth Peer Advocates: An Early Look at Findings
The incorporation of peer support in the treatment process for individuals experiencing mental health challenges has been increasing over recent decades (Campbell, 2005). Adults with mental health conditions have pursued roles as facilitators in recovery-based work (Mead, Hilton & Curtis,...
-
Integrating the Social and Cultural Determinants of Health into Peer Advocates Training
The phrase social and cultural determinants of health has entered the lexicon of medical and social service providers and is often mentioned alongside health disparities. Since the early 90s, public health researchers have been suggesting that a person’s socioeconomic characteristics, including...
-
Strengthening the Addiction Workforce and Beyond
Over 20,000 professionals make up the Substance Use Disorder (SUD) Prevention, Treatment and Recovery Workforce in NYS. The US Bureau of Labor Statistics projects that the SUD workforce will grow at a much faster rate than other occupations in the country and in NYS. The Credentialed Alcoholism and...
-
Changes in Our Children’s System of Care
In this important children’s issue of Behavioral Health News, we wish to address “Caregiver’s Challenges: Working with Families in Distress.” JCCA is a not-for-profit child welfare agency with a nearly 200-year history of providing comprehensive care to more than a million abused,...
-
Collaborating to Improve Children’s Health Care: The Time is Now
In 2015, New York State’s Medicaid Redesign Team (MRT) issued a “Roadmap for Medicaid Payment Reform” that laid out a path for dramatic and innovative change in the way the state financed and administered healthcare. Initially, MRT took on a volume-based approach to health care through the...
-
Community Capacity: Can We Deliver Better Treatment for Children and Families?
On October 15, 2011, the Behavioral Health Subcommittee of Governor Andrew M. Cuomo’s Medicaid Redesign Team (MRT) gave its final report. For the adult behavioral health system, the report recommended an unprecedented investment into the housing needs of individuals with mental health and...
