Archive for the ‘Social Determinants of Health’ Category

The Case for Integrated Care

Often, individuals seeking services report that finding quality healthcare services can be like searching for a needle in a haystack. However, it does not have to be this way. There is an emerging trend in healthcare, Integrated Care that can radically shift this challenging experience. Integrated...

An Effective Work Force Embraces and Drives Integrated Care

The behavioral health sector has been in the throes of a generational change over the past decade, one that has challenged the very way we offer treatment, organize operations and receive funding for our services. Our agencies have worked hard to adapt to these changes while maintaining the...

A Dedicated but Neglected Workforce: A Clarion Call for Change

The social service agencies on which vulnerable New Yorkers depend rely heavily on the state government for financial support inasmuch as they act as extensions of it in fulfilling many responsibilities that would otherwise be borne by the public sector. Nevertheless, the period following the Great...

Integrating the Social and Cultural Determinants of Health into Peer Advocates Training

The phrase social and cultural determinants of health has entered the lexicon of medical and social service providers and is often mentioned alongside health disparities. Since the early 90s, public health researchers have been suggesting that a person’s socioeconomic characteristics, including...

Aging with I/DD as a Paradigm for the Aging Population at Large

Americans are getting older—by 2030 one in five will be 65 or older according to the U.S. Census Bureau. These demographics are driven by young adults having fewer children and baby boomers living longer. Individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities (I/DD) are also living longer,...

Impact of Social Isolation Among Older Adults Living with a Mental Health Diagnosis

Risk of social isolation and resulting loneliness becomes increasingly more prevalent as we age, lose friends and family, and navigate chronic health conditions. Situational factors including diminished social and familial roles, together with physical limitations increase the incidence of...

Telephonic Care Management Program for Patients with Medicare

In this important issue on care for the elderly in Behavioral Health News, we hope to highlight the success of our telephonic care management service to the aging population at The Institute for Family Health’s (IFH) network of community health centers in New York City and upstate New York....

Changes in Our Children’s System of Care

In this important children’s issue of Behavioral Health News, we wish to address “Caregiver’s Challenges: Working with Families in Distress.” JCCA is a not-for-profit child welfare agency with a nearly 200-year history of providing comprehensive care to more than a million abused,...

Community Capacity: Can We Deliver Better Treatment for Children and Families?

On October 15, 2011, the Behavioral Health Subcommittee of Governor Andrew M. Cuomo’s Medicaid Redesign Team (MRT) gave its final report. For the adult behavioral health system, the report recommended an unprecedented investment into the housing needs of individuals with mental health and...

Collaborating to Improve Children’s Health Care: The Time is Now

In 2015, New York State’s Medicaid Redesign Team (MRT) issued a “Roadmap for Medicaid Payment Reform” that laid out a path for dramatic and innovative change in the way the state financed and administered healthcare. Initially, MRT took on a volume-based approach to health care through the...