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An Integrated Model of Care and Education: Wellspring and the Arch Bridge School
Residential Treatment” has been under assault for some time, as you may know. Critics have made claims about its shortcomings, many of which are absolutely true. But residential treatment is not just one model. There have been several models available to families that have been successful, time...
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Implementing Best Practices – Seven Core Processes
Implementing best practice care for persons struggling with mental illness and substance use in real world settings can be challenging. At the Institute for Community Living (ICL), where we provide behavioral and physical health care for a widely diverse population and place strong emphasis on...
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Prevention, Treatment, and Recovery in Substance Use and Mental Illness
With the changes brought about by the growth of managed care, evidence-based practice and the advent of the Affordable Care Act, we increasingly recognize that substance use disorder and mental illness are behavioral health issues often found together in the same patient. The field of behavioral...
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We Don’t Treat Brains, We Treat People
The US government estimates there are 80,000,000 Americans with diagnoses of substance abuse, dependence or binge drinking patterns, and we treat a tiny, tiny fraction of them effectively. We spend billions on the war on drugs, on research and on treatment and yet have little overall impact on the...
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Intensive Outpatient Programs: When More is Better
The world of substance abuse treatment has gone through a great deal of change in the last decade. In the past, when a person entered substance abuse treatment, there was an immediate assumption that they needed a 28-inpatient rehab in order to “recover”. However, this standard has been changed...
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Merging Legal, Clinical and Medical Issues for the Most Effective Treatment Outcomes
Drug courts began in Miami-Dade County Florida started a maverick program to combine rehabilitative substance abuse treatment within the justice system sanctions. Since that time, 2,743 drug courts have been developed across the country. This was a progressive initiative that has proven to be...
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Outdated Perspective, Says Who? Therapeutic Work Programs with Land and Animals
In 1870 the Quakers’ Friends Hospital used greenhouses and acres of its natural landscape as integral parts of treatment for the mentally ill. At the turn of the century, Frederick Peterson, a neurologist and head of the New York State Board of Lunacy, did the same with a state asylum. Both the...
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Preventing Mental Illnesses and Substance Use Disorders
The New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene (DOHMH) has a unique mandate in our City to prevent illness and disability. How does this mandate translate to our work in behavioral health? This inaugural publication of Behavioral Health News, with its focus on the interconnectedness...
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Intentional Peer Support: Using a Crisis as an Opportunity for Growth and Change
In January 2013, Community Access, in partnership with the NYC Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, launched the first alternative to hospitalization program in New York City. Called a crisis respite center, the new program has several unique features that, compared to “treatment as usual,”...
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Web-Based Virtual Humans for Supporting Healthcare and Medical Needs
The rapid pace of Virtual Reality (VR) and interactive computer games advancements are producing significant opportunities for the health and medical communities. The Department of Defense (DoD) is capitalizing on these advancements through research centers such as the Institute for Creative...
