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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...
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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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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...
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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...
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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....
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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...
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From Neighboring Institutions to Collaborators: A Joint Effort to Improve Integrated Care
The integration of primary and behavioral health has become a major focus of healthcare restructuring across the country in the past several decades. New partnerships, emerging from a historically siloed system, share the triple aim of improving health status, containing costs and enhancing service...
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Changing Physician Roles and Relationships in Integrated Care
Unacceptably high mortality and morbidity among people with serious mental illness have prompted a call to action for behavioral health providers from all disciplines. Included among these providers are physicians and other prescribers, who have an important part to play in the integration...
