Archive for the ‘Treatments and Interventions’ Category

The Myths, Abuses and Pseudoscience Surrounding “Evidence Based Medicine”

There are 3 types of lies: Lies, Damn Lies and Statistics (Mark Twain). In approximately the last 10 years there’s been great interest in the concept of Evidence Based Medicine as a unifying concept for teaching, evaluating data and practicing medicine. The concept goes back at least 150 years to...

Co-Occurring Conditions in Mild Autism Spectrum Disorder: Integrated Treatment Approaches

Co-occurring mental health conditions are the rule rather than the exception in autism spectrum disorder (ASD). A full 70% of individuals with ASD have one co-occurring condition and 40% have two or more (Siminoff et al, 2008). Living with autism is a journey, and in talking to families, I often...

BHN Winter 2018 Issue

"Understanding and Treating Co-Occurring Disorders”   Articles in This...

Crisis Respite: An Effective Intervention in the Continuum of Recovery

Think about your work with a client with a psychiatric diagnosis in emotional crisis. Did your client get what they needed at an emergency room? Or, after hours of waiting, were they told they were well enough to deal with it at home, perhaps by themselves? A peer-run Crisis Respite stay is an...

Meeting the Needs of Vulnerable Populations

An Interview with Donna Colonna, S:US CEO and Richard Taylor, Peer Specialist, Blake Men’s Shelter J.J. SUS is an organization that takes its name seriously, and literally: Services for the UnderServed. Put more casually, SUS is dedicated to providing services for people who often get the short...

Stopping the Hospital Revolving Door: A Pathway Home to Stable Community Life

A not-for-profit organization formed by behavioral health (BH) community agencies, Coordinated Behavioral Care (CBC) operates one of NYS’s largest Health Homes (HH) and has formed an IPA to deliver integrated outcomes-oriented care. The many care managers who work with our HH members often face...

Treating Vulnerable, Mentally Ill Patients Who Are Navigating the U.S. Criminal Justice System

It is an alarming statistic that more people with serious mental illness are housed in America’s jails than in the nation’s hospitals (Torrey, E. F., Kennard, A. D., Eslinger, D., et al. 2010. More mentally ill persons are in jails and prisons than hospitals: a survey of the states....

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...

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...

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...