Archive for the ‘Recovery from Mental Illness’ Category

Critical Questions for the Development of Housing that Supports Recovery

There is no doubt that housing supports recovery – i.e., having a satisfying life as a person with a serious mental illness depends first and foremost on having a decent place to live – but many people need help to have decent housing. Amazingly, that was not recognized in the initial phase...

Recovery: An Ongoing Process, Not a Destination

At its core, the idea of “Recovery” expresses an amalgam of aspiration and hope. From practice, I learned that each patient has highly individual ideas of recovery. Examples: A man was pleased when a change from a traditional antipsychotic to clozapine, a more potent medication, meant a...

New Tool Deployed to Help Veterans: Supported Recovery Training and Certification

The prevalence of suicide, addiction to alcohol and other drugs, homelessness, unemployment, incarceration, physical and mental health challenges, and the need for health and social services is disproportionate among Veterans compared to the general population. Among Veterans, one in six who served...

Why Personalized Recovery-Oriented Services (PROS) Works: Achieving Independence and Fulfillment

The deinstitutionalization of the mentally ill in New York State some 50 years ago had a clear goal: To create accessible and adequate housing and support programs to allow people to live independently in the community, to work toward recovery and a full and productive life outside a psychiatric...

Supporting Families in the Recovery Process

At the New York State Office of Mental Health, our Office of Advocacy and Peer Support Services (OAPSS) – formerly the Office of Consumer Affairs –supports families to play a vital role in the recovery and resilience process. The office is staffed by individuals with expertise gained through...

Mental Health Is Essential to Stability

We are seven New Yorkers ranging in age from the 20s to the 70s. We all have a variety of behavioral health needs and have benefited from S:US programs such as housing assistance and supported housing, crisis respite, care coordination, substance use treatment and recovery clinics and services,...

Peer Professionals and the Important Role They Play in the Recovery Process

When two people have something in common, it creates a bond that allows for meaningful discussions and a trusting relationship. This is the foundation of Peer Support and the reason for its success. Peer professionals share the knowledge, skills, and information they’ve learned from their own...

Utilizing Recovery-Oriented Cognitive Therapy When Treatment-Oriented Care is Not Leading to Recovery

Recovery-Oriented Cognitive Therapy (CT-R) was originally developed by the Beck Institute to promote recovery and resiliency in individuals with a diagnosis of schizophrenia, but it can be applied broadly to individuals with various challenges. The Beck Institute describes CT-R as “highly...

Recovery, Hope and Resilience During the Pandemic

As one of the largest providers of outpatient mental health services in New York State, New York Psychotherapy and Counseling (NYPCC) works together with tens of thousands of New Yorkers facing mental health challenges. NYPCC embraces a recovery-oriented, trauma-informed model of community mental...

Navigating the Road to Recovery: An Art and a Science

Defining recovery is all-encompassing. It may be recovery from mental illness, substance use, trauma, losses and, as we’ve recently learned, from the effects of a pandemic. Most often it is thought about as a journey toward regaining something that was lost or returning to a former state. In...