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The NYSPA Report: Spotlight on OnTrackNY – New York’s First-Episode Psychosis Early Intervention Program
OnTrackNY is a coordinated specialty care program for adolescents and young adults who have started experiencing psychotic symptoms. Started in 2013, the program is a joint collaboration of the New York State Office of Mental Health (OMH), the New York State Psychiatric Institute (NYSPI), the...
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To Help Transition Age Youth and Young Adults Succeed: Focus on Their Education
While transition age youth and young adults ages 16 to 25 with serious mental health conditions (TAYYA) face many challenges and risk factors, not graduating from high school is possibly the single biggest one, predictive of multiple future problems including unemployment, homelessness, and...
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Will “System Transformation” Transform the System? Before We Celebrate: 20 Questions That Need Answers
System transformation is underway in New York State and throughout the United States through the development of elaborate financial structures such as accountable care organizations and health homes. No doubt these new structures will change the way business is done in the mental health system. But...
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A Virtual Pathway to Technology-Assisted Care Models: Keeping Up with New Technology in Behavioral Health Care
Community-based behavioral health organizations and the individuals they serve would benefit from embracing new media and digital technologies. Technology-assisted care allows providers an additional set of tools to supplement engagement and establish more meaningful lines of communication. With...
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Social Isolation: A Solution-Focused Approach
Doris has been living in her studio apartment in the Crown Heights section of Brooklyn for the past 15 years. She obtained this apartment after finding herself homeless following the breakup of her marriage and other stressors she was experiencing. Doris is quite humble as she describes how her...
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Unique People Services Opens Lynn’s Place: Agency’s First Mixed Income Affordable Housing Development
The grand opening and ribbon cutting ceremony of Lynn’s Place, the much anticipated first affordable mixed-income development created by Unique People Services (UPS) took place on May 11, 2018. Ann Sullivan, Commissioner of NYS Office of Mental Health, Emily Lehman, Assistant Commissioner of...
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What’s New and Promising from the New York State Office of Mental Health Psychiatric Research Institutes
The NYS Office of Mental Health (OMH) operates two institutes, making our psychiatric research enterprise among the largest in the country. We are proud of the work underway at the institutes, knowing that their continued clinical advances will improve the lives of New Yorkers, as well as people...
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NYS OMH ACT Teams Utilize Harm Reduction Techniques
Harm Reduction can be a useful tool to help address potentially risky, dangerous, or self-destructive behaviors, including drug addiction, unsafe sexual activities, self-harm, and binge eating. The goal of harm reduction is to make dangerous behaviors safer, and to reduce the level of harmful...
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A Human Right Still Unmet: Medical Treatment of Mentally Ill Prisoners
Individuals with mental illness have the right to receive appropriate medical treatment in correctional settings and upon release. It sounds perfectly reasonable, but unfortunately, is far from reality. That was the consensus of a distinguished panel of mental health and legal experts who recently...
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The Evolving Health and Social Service Landscape: Promise for Persons with Co-Occurring Disorders
A year has passed since the United States Congress enacted sweeping legislation to address deficiencies in our national behavioral health service infrastructure. The Comprehensive Addiction and Recovery Act (CARA) and 21st Century Cures Act, both passed by the 114th Congress in 2016, authorized a...
