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Housing People with Serious Mental Illness in Jails and Prisons: Why Are We Still Criminalizing Mental Illness?
Lack of appropriate access to mental health care for the seriously mentally ill in the U.S. is a critical issue. Such lack of access can lead to significant, adverse living outcomes for individuals living with mental illness, including homelessness and incarceration. It is a disturbing fact that...
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Let’s Strengthen Sober Housing Resources
Imagine someone drowning at night in the middle of the ocean. Suddenly a ship appears! Spotlights pinpoint the poor swimmer. A floatation device is tossed into the sea, and words of encouragement float down from the deck of the boat. The swimmer is quickly brought on board and provided with warm...
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The Current State of OMH Housing
New York is one of the most expensive states in the country to live in, while the consumers that our nonprofit OMH housing providers serve are among the poorest. This combination requires New York State to step in to help make available enough safe and affordable housing for the most vulnerable...
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Supportive Housing Development: Achievements, Challenges and Opportunities
Government-funded supportive housing in New York State has a richly textured history that entails an amalgam of competing philosophies, political trends and economic imperatives. A complete survey of this history is beyond the scope of this article, and a comprehensive assessment of the “current...
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The NYSPA Report: Recovery and the Federal Fair Housing Act
This issue of Behavioral Health News focuses on “the vital role of housing in the recovery process.” We know that stable housing is important to individuals seeking treatment and that recovery is possible when a person’s basic need for safety and housing are met. Having somewhere safe and...
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BHN Fall(2) 2017 Issue
"Addressing the Nation’s Opioid Epidemic” Articles in This...
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Policy and Practice: A Discouraging Disconnect
As soon as I learned the summer edition of Behavioral Health News would address our efforts to meet the needs of vulnerable populations, I experienced a rather sudden and dispiriting thought. In so many ways we have failed to satisfactorily address the needs of our most vulnerable citizens despite...
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Seeking Health Care Services While Undocumented
This article is the fourth in a series giving voice to the perspectives of individuals with lived experiences as they share their opinions on a particular topic. The authors of this column facilitated two focus groups with their peers to inform this writing. The authors are served by Services for...
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The NYSPA Report: Repeal and Replace Should Not Harm Our Most Vulnerable
I am honored to serve as editor of the NYSPA Report and I want to begin by thanking my friend and colleague, Dr. Barry Pearlman. Barry has served as editor of this column since its inception and has provided useful and interesting information since day one.I’m proud to have the opportunity to...
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Treating Vulnerable, Mentally Ill Patients Who Are Navigating the U.S. Criminal Justice System
It is an alarming statistic that more people with serious mental illness are housed in America’s jails than in the nation’s hospitals (Torrey, E. F., Kennard, A. D., Eslinger, D., et al. 2010. More mentally ill persons are in jails and prisons than hospitals: a survey of the states....
