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Mentorship and Leadership in Advancing Behavioral Health Equity
Growing up in Jamaica, Queens, in a working-class family, I learned early that one’s circumstances do not define one’s potential. My grandparents instilled in me the value of perseverance and the belief that education is a powerful equalizer. I was driven not only to advance myself, but also to...
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Between Two Homelands: The Mental Health Burden and Strength of South Asian Immigrants
My father is fluent in English. He has two master’s degrees and a law degree from India. He can debate policy, analyze contracts, rattle off political science, and write with precision. But when he came to America in the early 1980s, he learned that fluency was not the same thing as...
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Healing at the Source: How Tribal Nations Are Redefining Substance Use Disorder Treatment
Substance use disorder (SUD) has taken a devastating toll on the Nation’s Tribal Lands, yet Tribal Nations are confronting the crisis with courage, creativity, and cultural wisdom. Native communities carry a disproportionate burden of addiction and mental health challenges while facing some of...
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Reaching the Unreachable: Why Human-Centered Engagement Is the Missing Link in Behavioral Health
Behavioral health needs are a major driver of overall healthcare use and yet they are still often overlooked across the care continuum. The total health care costs of undertreated behavioral health disorders are more than $290 billion each year in the U.S. alone. When behavioral health issues go...
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Addressing Nonparticipation in Treatment Courts: The 5 As Framework
Treatment courts face persistent challenges with participants failing to fully engage in treatment or dropping out altogether. Because engagement and retention are critical to public safety and outcomes, treatment courts must understand why nonparticipation occurs and how to respond when it does....
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An Epidemic of Anxiety and Depression Requires a Reevaluation of Conventional Treatment
The field of psychiatry has been governed by a medical model of illness in recent decades. This model posits behavioral health conditions, including anxiety and depression, are manifestations of biological abnormalities that may be corrected through interventions commonly employed in other branches...
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The Overlapping Roots of Mental Health Disparities: Poverty, Racism, and Trauma as Social Determinants
Mental health cannot be fully understood — or effectively addressed — without considering the powerful forces that shape people’s everyday lives. Poverty, racism, and trauma are more than just challenges individuals face; they are deeply embedded social determinants of mental health that...
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Maternal Mental Health Is Societal Health
An emerging crisis in maternal mental health may be attributed to innumerable causes, many of which have been implicated in other behavioral health crises. Recent epidemics of Suicidality and Substance Use Disorder are the most notable and tragic manifestations of human distress that attend the...
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The Holidays Are Coming: How to Handle Disagreements
Key Points: Group narcissism refers to the tendency to exaggerate the positive image and importance of a group to which one belongs. Factors woven into the psychology of individuals may increase the likelihood of buying into group beliefs. Pay attention to how your emotions affect your...
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Addressing Social Isolation and Loneliness in Older Adults
Social isolation and loneliness are health risks that affect a quarter of American adults 65 and older (National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, 2020). Social isolation is defined as the objective state of having few social relationships or infrequent social contact with others,...
