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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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Advocacy Through Data: Making the Case for Community Behavioral Health Under Value-Based Payment
Most behavioral health policy arguments still run on stories. A person who was in and out of the hospital for years, then found a community program, got stable, went back to work. The stories are true and they matter. But a recovery story does not hold up well in a budget hearing or a payer...
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Showing Up Matters: The Power of Relationship-Based Advocacy in Behavioral Health
Behavioral Health Advocates: Association for Community Living, Coalition of Medication-Assisted Treatment Providers and Advocates of New York State (COMPA), Families Together in New York State, InUnity Alliance, Mental Health Association in New York State, National Alliance on Mental Illness New...
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When Opioid Narratives Become Policy
For more than a decade, US opioid policy has been guided by a compelling but incomplete story: aggressive pharmaceutical marketing and overprescribing by physicians flooded communities with addictive pills, igniting an epidemic of opioid use disorder (OUD) and death. This narrative drove sweeping...
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Recovery Policies Consistently Fail When They Ignore Human Behavior
Recovery policies don't fail because people don't want to change; they fail because they're designed for an idealized version of patients that simply doesn't exist. Policies are built in committee rooms, around rational decision-making, clear consequences, and personal responsibility. However, the...
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A Call to Amend New York’s Constitution on Mental Health
For decades, New York has been a national leader in advancing mental health policy. Legislators, advocates, providers, and families have fought tirelessly to secure access to treatment, improve insurance coverage, and reduce the stigma surrounding mental illness. Yet despite these efforts, a...
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Child Welfare and Behavioral Health: Foster Care, Family Court, and the Policy Intersection
Behavioral Health and Trauma Impacts Behavioral health is not a side issue in the child welfare system but rather is a system pressure that is likely to bring families into court in the first place (CDC, 2026). Research indicates that this is a concern. In a systematic review, Engler et al. (2022)...
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Telehealth Prescribing Has Proven Its Value. Now Policy Needs to Catch Up
When HHS and DEA announced the fourth extension of telemedicine prescribing flexibilities on January 1, 2026, the news landed without much surprise in behavioral health circles. Clinicians had seen this before, each extension arriving just before the prior one lapsed. By now, the pattern is...
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A Policy Lens on Psychiatric Overprescribing: Federal Priorities and Provider Impact
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) continues to emphasize its commitment to strengthening behavioral health care, including mental health and substance use treatment. In June, the agency announced more than $700 million in new funding to expand access to mental health and...
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New York State Announces Statewide Enhancements to Improve Assisted Outpatient Treatment
Critical Investments from the FY 2026 Budget Standardize 'Enhanced Voluntary Agreements' with Recipients; Improving State Oversight State Also Completes Massive Data Modernization Enhancing Local Coordination and Improving Outcome Monitoring The New York State Office of Mental Health (OMH)...
