InvisALERT Solutions – ObservSMART

Archive for the ‘Summer 2017 Issue’ Category

We Must Advocate for Older Adults with Behavioral Health Conditions

As of this writing, the healthcare and behavioral health systems are facing unprecedented threats from proposed legislation to significantly roll back the gains achieved through the Affordable Care Act (ACA). Medicaid is also under threat, as the current legislative proposal attempts to alter its...

Innovation and Efficacy Modeled at ANDRUS: Meeting a Vulnerable Population Using a Sensory and Body Regulation Approach

Meeting a Vulnerable Population Where They are At Some children experience mental and behavioral difficulties that make their daily life a challenge. They struggle to regulate their emotions and cope with a world that isn’t always receptive to their reactive behavioral outbursts. At risk...

Helping the Most Vulnerable Among Vulnerable Populations

Our client, LM felt guilty when she wasn’t able to make it to her weekly counseling session. She felt like the therapist she was working with became disappointed with her and that added guilt made her not motivated to go to the next counseling session as well. The therapist wasn’t necessarily...

Have Some CLAS: What Leading Organizations Are Doing to Address Population Health

Adherence with the National Standards on Culturally and Linguistically Appropriate Services (CLAS) is a common expectation for healthcare organizations of all types. Many providers assume that their efforts are sufficient as long as they hire staff who reflect the racial, ethnic, cultural, and...

Elder Abuse: A Challenge to the Mental Health System

As the elder boom gathers momentum over the next 25 years, there will be more and more victims of elder abuse. America’s mental health system is not prepared to respond appropriately. It is not prepared to effectively engage victims, who are often suspicious of offers of help; it is not...

Commentary on Treating Vulnerable, Mentally Ill Patients

Dr. Falconer effectively drives home the travesty of the disproportionate representation of those with serious behavioral health issues behind bars. Alarming, but not new, the “trans-institutionalization” of the 80’s and 90’s continues unabated to its tragic conclusion. She cogently...

Collaboration for People with MI/IDD: System Failures and Promising Practices

Individuals who have both mental illness (MI) and intellectual/developmental disabilities (IDD) present unique challenges to both mental health and developmental disability service structures. The group comprises a complex population whose needs are often poorly identified and who are often...

Care Coordination Enhances the Medical Model for Individuals with Substance Abuse Disorder

WellLife Network recently launched the Substance Abuse Care Coordination Team, a specialized program within their Long Island Care Management Division, designed to address the needs of the Medicaid Substance Use Disorder (SUD) population. Care Management is a comprehensive person-centered...

Animal Assisted Therapy for Vulnerable Youth

For almost two decades, North Shore Child & Family Guidance Center has been utilizing Animal Assisted Therapy (AAT) in outpatient mental health work with youths and their families, working in partnership with local canine and equine organizations. An adjunct to traditional therapy, AAT relies...

Why Trauma Informed Care with Vulnerable Populations?

A vulnerable population can be described as a group of persons whose range of options is severely limited, who are frequently subjected to coercion in decision making, or who may be compromised in their ability to give informed consent (U.S. National Library of Medicine). There are many populations...