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Archive for the ‘Substance Use Disorders’ Category

Workplace Wellness: Taking Care of Our Most Precious Resource – Our Employees

The majority of workplace wellness programs are focused on enhancing physical wellness, such as stress management, promoting weight, and smoking cessation. While physical wellness continues to be a hot topic, there are other important issues in the workplace that are less often part of the...

Building an Integrated Healthcare System: Blending Public Health and Prevention Models

The very first time I ever thought about physical and behavioral healthcare together was when I heard of a psychiatrist who wanted to do complete blood chemistry before prescribing medication to new patients within a mental health clinic, a unique situation some 20 years ago. Clearly, this...

Opportunities for Improved Services with Integrated Care

The key component of integrated care – coordination of primary and behavioral health services in a way that is accessible from one place – is not a new concept for many substance abuse treatment organizations, such as Odyssey House in New York City, that operate Article 28 licensed medical and...

Integration on a Continuum: Models for Integrating Behavioral Health and Primary Health Care

In the recent years of Medicaid Redesign in New York State, community-based mental health agencies who serve persons with serious and complex psychiatric conditions have addressed the evolving transformation of health care in a variety of ways. Much of the response has been reactive, with agencies...

The NYSPA Report: A Multifaceted Approach to the Opioid Epidemic

There has been much discussion around NY State and the country about a surge in heroin usage and overdose deaths. Although the perception is that a drop in “doc shopping” caused the increase in heroin usage, the picture is complex and the history goes back further than some may realize. Heroin...

Unintended Consequences: Are We Inadvertently Increasing Heroin Overdose Deaths?

Two years ago, The Fix spearheaded an effort to highlight the public health epidemic caused by the overprescribing of opioid pain medications which resulted in the tens of thousands of overdose deaths that were making front page news. The epidemic was iatrogenic- “caused by physicians”- in...