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Licensed Practical Nurses: Furthering the Goal of Integrated Health
It is a startling and sad fact that individuals with serious mental health problems on average die earlier than those without mental health issues. An article in JAMA Psychiatry reported that these premature deaths are primarily due to largely preventable conditions, such as high blood pressure,...
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Investing in the Integrated Care Workforce
It is no longer a new idea that the mind and body are intrinsically connected; Socrates via Plato, described this around 360 B.C. Yet, we still separate and silo these aspects of care; treating behavioral health needs like schizophrenia in mental health clinics and physical issues like diabetes in...
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The Center for Practice Innovations: A Resource for the Behavioral Healthcare Workforce
The New York State Office of Mental Health (OMH) and the Department of Psychiatry, Columbia University, established the Center for Practice Innovations at Columbia Psychiatry and New York State Psychiatric Institute (CPI) in 2007 to promote the widespread use of evidence-based practices developed...
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The Behavioral Health Workforce Crisis: Past, Present, and Future
First on the list of topics for this issue of Behavioral Health News was “The Workforce Crisis Today.” That’s interesting because the workforce “crisis” is anything but new. For example, when I first entered this field during the height of deinstitutionalization in New York—the early...
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Primary Care Integration: Alternative Workforce Strategies for Community-Based Behavioral Health Service Organizations in the Era of Physician Shortages
It has been many years since the surgeon general report declared that vastly poor health outcomes for persons suffering from behavioral health disorders was a public health crisis. Lives filled with long term disability and early mortality caused, in part, by service fragmentation within the U.S....
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AGES (Assessing, Guiding, and Empowering Seniors): Supporting Seniors Aging in Place in Supportive Housing
The Bridge’s Aging Services program addresses critical gaps in the mental health system by offering individualized care to seniors with behavioral health and physical health conditions living in supportive housing. In 2014, with approximately 800 beds in service, The Bridge recognized that we...
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Caring for Older Adults
We are now eight years into the “elder boom.” Sadly, the implications of this vast demographic shift are still not taken seriously. Yes, there is anxiety about sustaining Social Security and Medicare. And yes, there’s increasing talk about “healthy aging.” But even with these most obvious...
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Leading the Way in Older Adult Mental Health: Recommendations for New York State
In 2005, New York State enacted the Geriatric Mental Health Act, the first act of its kind in the nation. With this legislation, New York demonstrated a significant commitment to older adults with mental health challenges, allocating $2 million per year in funding for statewide geriatric mental...
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A Comprehensive Look at What’s Needed to Age in Place with Dignity
Former First Lady, Rosalynn Carter stated, “There are only four kinds of people in the world: those who have been caregivers, those who are currently caregivers, those who will be caregivers, and those who will need caregivers.” Caregiving for the elderly is a growing phenomenon in the...
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When and Where They Need It: Providing Community-Based Services to Families and Youth for Foundational Wellbeing
For community providers serving children and families in New York, there is a contemplative question our work presents to us like an ever-unfolding puzzle – how can we get young people to the services that will support their ability to live their best lives? Many creative strategies have been...
