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Progress Over Perfection—Why Behavioral Health Policy Momentum Must Translate Into Action Now
For too many people seeking behavioral health support, the first step toward care can feel like a dead end. A referral that leads nowhere. A waitlist that stretches for months. A new provider who asks them to recount their story again and again, each retelling reopening wounds at the very moment...
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How Cities Can Follow Oklahoma City’s Example to Address Residents’ Mental Health Needs Through Coordinated Emergency Response
Over the past three years, Oklahoma City has reimagined its emergency response system to better meet residents' behavioral health needs. The results are already impressive: the city's new alternative response teams have kept thousands of people out of the emergency room and drastically reduced...
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Comprehensive Linkage to Care for Individuals Living With HIV Returning From Incarceration: Behavioral Health and Re-Entry Considerations
Comprehensive and expeditious linkage to appropriate care is vital for people being released from correctional facilities who are living with HIV and experience behavioral health conditions. In the United States, the incarcerated population, including prisons and local jails, has an HIV rate of up...
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Is Your Behavioral Health Facility Capturing All the Revenue It Needs?
Before co-founding Dazos, we operated a multi-state behavioral health organization with 10 facilities across five states. We struggled with the lack of accountability and transparency in our operations, feeling as though we were running our business blindly. Ultimately, we realized the tools we...
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Peer Support and Case Management: Complementary, Not Interchangeable
Across the behavioral health field, two frontline roles increasingly shape how services are delivered: case managers and peer support specialists. Both work directly with individuals navigating mental health challenges, substance use recovery, housing instability, and community reintegration. Both...
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How to Turn Behavioral Health Funding into Measurable Patient Outcomes
California’s recent proposal to implement a 1-nurse-to-6-patient staffing ratio at psychiatric hospitals has sparked widespread concern across the behavioral health system. The emergency regulations are set to take effect as early as June 1, and facilities that fail to meet the new thresholds...
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Your Leadership Style Will Shape Your Organizational Culture
Organizational culture is the collection of values, beliefs, and attitudes that shape the way a firm operates, that is, how its people think, feel, and act (Gutterman, 2025). Organizational culture can evolve, but it is not accidental. It is shaped and sustained by its leadership (Jaiyeola et al.,...
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How Psychiatric Office Support Directly Improves Mental Health Treatment Outcomes
When we evaluate why a patient improves or doesn't, we tend to focus on the method itself. Was the medication the right fit? Was the TMS protocol appropriately calibrated? Was the ketamine dosage well-tolerated? These are the right clinical questions to ask. But the quality of support surrounding...
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Integrating Peers in CCBHCs: The Power of Lived Experience
Certified Community Behavioral Health Clinics (CCBHCs) have shifted the way we approach treatment and the delivery of behavioral health services. Those who hold the designation of CCBHC have been tasked with providing a person-centered model that combines mental health services, substance use...
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From Access to Engagement: Reimagining the Consumer Experience in Behavioral Health
Behavioral health systems have made significant strides in expanding access to care. Peer services have grown across outpatient clinics, crisis teams, Certified Community Behavioral Health Clinics (CCBHCs), and substance use treatment programs. Telehealth has normalized remote care. Patient portals...
