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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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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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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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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...
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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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Mobile Teams: A Catalyst for Success
As we closely examine the topic of housing, it is important to stress one of the main catalysts for success in a supportive housing environment: the mobile transition team. Mobile transition teams have revolutionized the way in which we deliver care to individuals and are the future of treatment...
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A Good Place to Live Is Critical for Older Adults with Psychiatric Disabilities: Needed Public Policy Changes
Not so many years ago a diagnosis of schizophrenia was a life sentence, shortened only by the low life expectancy of people with serious and persistent mental illness. Thanks to the recovery movement, we now understand that a diagnosis of schizophrenia or other serious psychotic disorder does not...
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A Healthy Place to Rest Your Head
The Second Chance Program at NewYork-Presbyterian Westchester Division is an in-patient psychiatric rehabilitation program for men and women with difficult to treat psychotic disorder illnesses. Most of the individuals referred to the Second Chance Program (SCP) have struggled with being able to...
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Housing and Support Services Create Greater Stability for Adults with Behavioral Health Issues
As supportive housing continues to be a necessity for individuals across New York City, Unique People Services’ (UPS) social workers, clinicians and case managers are working together to create safe havens and essential resources for hundreds in need. Our Bronx-based agency operates nearly 30...
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For Those on the Threshold of Adulthood: No Thresholds Beckon
Supported housing for young adults living with mental/emotional challenges, including chemical dependency, is a rare commodity in New York and is almost non-existent on Staten Island. Once they leave home or the foster care system, no government funding, no agency contracts, no appropriate...
