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Archive for the ‘Serious Mental Illness (SMI)’ Category

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

Recovery Begins with Housing

Concern for Independent Living, a leading non-profit provider of supportive housing, held a Ribbon Cutting/Grand Opening Ceremony on June 30, 2017 to celebrate the opening of Concern Bergen, a 90-unit supportive housing development for persons with disabilities and families in need of affordable...

Stopping the Hospital Revolving Door: A Pathway Home to Stable Community Life

A not-for-profit organization formed by behavioral health (BH) community agencies, Coordinated Behavioral Care (CBC) operates one of NYS’s largest Health Homes (HH) and has formed an IPA to deliver integrated outcomes-oriented care. The many care managers who work with our HH members often face...

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....

Behavioral Health, the LGBTQ Community, and Managed Care

A wise man once said that at times of sweeping transformation, “all that is solid melts into air.” As the delivery system responds to changes driven by the transition to Medicaid managed care and, ultimately, value-based payment, many are concerned about meeting the needs of historically...