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Peer Services in Behavioral Health: New York State Leading the Way
Individuals with lived experience with mental illness have a unique perspective that can play a crucial role in helping others on the path to recovery. A key facet of reaching and forming bonds with individuals seeking support is the strong connection peer support workers offer. We have made...
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Strengthening Behavioral Health Through Peer Services: Advancing Recovery Across the Continuum of Care
Recovery from addiction is often strengthened through connection with others who have lived experience. Across New York State, peer professionals - individuals with lived recovery experience - are playing an increasingly important role in behavioral health services. Through strategic policy...
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Beyond Boundaries: Oh, the Places Peer Support Can Go!
Peer support has always been bigger than the box systems tried to paint it in. Long before it was codified, credentialed, or added into service plans, it was ordinary folk reaching for one another—standing in the front, behind and to the side of each other sharing hard-earned wisdom, offering...
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A Brief History of Peer Support and its “Integration” into Behavioral Healthcare: The Uneasiest of Bedfellows
The proliferation of peer services throughout the behavioral healthcare and social welfare systems has transformed them in ways their progenitors might not have anticipated. The peer support and recovery movements originated in eighteenth-century France under the auspices of Phillipe Pinel and...
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The Need for More Effective Approaches to Mental Health Crises
Law enforcement officers are most often the first responders when individuals are experiencing a mental health crisis. Some research studies have estimated that at least 20% of police service calls involve a mental health or substance use crisis, and this demand has been increasing for many...
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Recovery Works When Coverage Does: The Lifesaving Impact of Medicare’s IOP Expansion
Closing a Critical Coverage Gap in Medicare In 2024, following stalwart efforts by Congress, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, providers, advocacy organizations, and directly-impacted communities alike, Medicare closed a gap in its addiction treatment coverage by adding a benefit...
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New York State Must Intervene in the Behavioral Health Crisis
New York State is in the middle of a behavioral health crisis. Suicide rates are up over 40% in the last 20 years. Overdose rates are almost four times higher than they were in 2010. During this crisis, Medicaid Managed Care Organizations (MCOs) paid by the State are taking hundreds of millions of...
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NY State Governor Hochul Receives National Award for Outstanding Leadership in Mental Health Policy
Mental Health America’s 2026 Governor’s Leadership Award Cites Administration’s ‘Significant and Sustained Investments’ in Mental Health Governor Hochul has Channeled Approximately $2 Billion into Expanding Access; Strengthening New York State’s Continuum of Care Governor...
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Building and Maintaining New York’s Behavioral Health Care Workforce
New York State has made tremendous investments in mental health treatment and services since 2022 and has made great progress addressing mental health needs in our State with a series of initiatives, such as expanding prevention and access, embracing innovative treatment methods, and increasing...
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The NYSPA Report: Federal and State Coverage of Telehealth and Its Role in Expanding Access to Mental Health Care
Following the COVID-19 public health emergency, the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) made permanent expansions to the coverage of telehealth under the Medicare program. CMS has greatly increased the number of services included on the permanent list of telehealth services and...
