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The Presidential Election: Time for Behavioral Health Advocates to Speak Out
The next President of the United States can act to improve or to harm the American mental health system. Behavioral health advocates should speak out now to provide the political pressure that will be needed to improve rather than to harm the system. Preserve The Affordable Care Act Perhaps the...
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The Right Support
Creating an atmosphere of inclusion and acceptance for all people coming to an organization for help begins with the core values of that agency. Here, at ICL, we believe in and offer person-centered, recovery-oriented, trauma-informed, and integrated physical and behavioral healthcare. No matter a...
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Transgender and HIV: Stigma and Discrimination Can No Longer Have a Place in Healthcare
In the past five or six years, I was privileged to be invited by several non-profit organizations and universities to deliver cultural humility trainings and presentations about transgender identities and experiences, and how to improve services to meet the needs of the transgender community. As a...
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Understanding Eating Disorders in Gay Males
The National Association of Anorexia Nervosa and Associated Disorders estimate that men account for 1 million of the roughly 8 million Americans that suffer from eating disorders (McMurray, 2013). Within the gay community there is a hidden epidemic of eating disorders. Gay men are up to three times...
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Uniquely LGBTQ
This article is the second 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 Services...
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What This Parent of a Transgender Child Wants You to Know
I am the proud mother of two young men, but I didn’t always know I had two sons. For 15 years, I believed I was raising a daughter. My younger child, who I now know is my son, is transgender. My husband and I supported his transition, at 15, from female to male. I’ve been criticized and...
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Behavioral Health, the LGBTQ Community, and Managed Care
A wise man once said that at times of sweeping transformation, “all that is solid melts into air.” As the delivery system responds to changes driven by the transition to Medicaid managed care and, ultimately, value-based payment, many are concerned about meeting the needs of historically...
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Clinical Work with Transgender Individuals
The first step toward clinical work with any client involves understanding the individual, their reasons for seeking treatment, and the goals they hope to accomplish through therapy. It is important to remember that every client is unique regardless of the aspects that may be used to describe them,...
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LGBTQ: A Community in Need of Effective Care
As the current heroin epidemic holds the nation in its grips, due in part to the over-prescription of opioid pain medications, there is another drug that continues to take its toll on the LGBTQ community: crystal methamphetamine. Crystal methamphetamine is not new to this community. According to...
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LGBTQ Parenting Issues
Adolescence is a time for growth and exploration. In the best of circumstances, children are encountering new experiences, making new friends, pushing limits and testing boundaries, and withdrawing from family to be with friends during this time of rapid development. They are learning social skills...
