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More Than an Acronym: How LGBTQ+ Health is Transforming Industry
It’s a typical scenario: you walk into the doctor’s office, possibly after several postponements, afraid of what they might find. Will your blood pressure be up? Or maybe your cholesterol, you think. A myriad of possible underlying conditions flash suddenly through your head. But what if,...
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The NYSPA Report: The Launch of 988 and Crisis Stabilization Centers Are Among New Efforts in NYS to Help Loved Ones and Family Members
New York State has undertaken significant new efforts in 2022 to continue building a comprehensive crisis response system to help meet the needs of New Yorkers living with a mental illness and their families, including launch of the 988 crisis line and establishment of supportive and intensive...
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The Behavioral Healthcare System’s Response to Families: A Legacy of Unfulfilled Promises
Family members of those with serious behavioral health conditions often encounter innumerable obstacles in the pursuit of effective treatment and other essential services for their loved ones. Navigating a byzantine network of resources, many of which entail restrictive eligibility criteria and...
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Using the Seven Principles of Afrocentricity to Frame a Community-Based Organization’s Programs and Services for Individuals, Families, and Communities
Services for the UnderServed (S:US) is one the largest community-based, health and human services organizations in New York State and intentionally works daily to "right" societal imbalances by providing comprehensive and culturally responsive programming. The need to fulfill its mission of driving...
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Family Matters: Designing for Empathy & Inclusion
As the understanding and treatment of behavioral health patients has evolved, so too has the approach taken by facility planners, architects, and interior designers. The design professional’s challenge is to incorporate innovative improvements while respecting the underlying realities of the...
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Recognizing the Root Cause of What Ails Us
Our behavioral healthcare system has navigated innumerable challenges in pursuit of its overarching aim to alleviate human suffering. Ostensible improvements in treatment protocols and related technologies, sociocultural developments (specifically those that promote a greater understanding and...
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The Evolution of the Behavioral Health Model: 24/7, Walk-Ins, and Crisis and Stabilization Centers
Our communities are in crisis. Mental health and substance use disorders are affecting communities nationwide from all levels of society, without regard for political affiliation, economic status, age, cultural origin, or educational level. Furthermore, the impact of the crisis is particularly...
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Innovative Programs are Transforming New York State’s Behavioral Healthcare System
As we recover from the COVID Pandemic, we must look forward to the future and the critical issues our behavioral health care system will need to address. We know that over 40% of New Yorkers will have a mental health impact from this pandemic and we are seeing over twice the number of our youth...
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Better Together: Addressing Challenges by Working Together
Positive growth as a result of navigating challenges and building resilience is a basic tenet of the behavioral health care world. It’s the journey through which we support clients; it’s how clinicians and other staff flourish in their professions; and it’s how we, as organizations,...
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50-Year-Old Organization Reflects on Its Achievements and Hopes for the Future
Federation of Organizations is celebrating the 50th anniversary of its incorporation as a not-for-profit by the parents of people with serious mental illness and/or developmental disabilities. Fifty years ago, these parents dreamed of changing the system. That has certainly come true! We can see...
