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Early Childhood Social-Emotional Development: Building Healthy Foundations for A Lifetime of Success
A seminal publication in 2000 From Neurons to Neighborhoods, The Science of Early Childhood Development has established the importance of early childhood experiences on lifelong well-being (JP Shonkoff & DA Phillips, Eds., 2000). Ongoing research continues to demonstrate that the early years in...
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Embracing Harm Reduction
Many of the people we serve in supportive housing use drugs and alcohol; some in ways that disrupt their lives. That is a fact. Behavior change is hard. That is a truism, and a fact. It is our job as supportive housing providers to serve people who may have struggled for most of their lives with...
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Food Addiction: Chemical Dependency’s Twin
Most addicts start on the path to addiction using food as the first drug. The addict “to be” starts life with a genetic predisposition. Whatever was happening in the future addict’s life to set him/her on the addiction journey (with this genetic vulnerability), happened at an early age. The...
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Hurricane Sandy Kids Need Substance Abuse Services
The catastrophic destruction of property and psyche on Staten Island wrought by Hurricane Sandy last October devastated thousands of our residents. The monster waves and tidal surges that overwhelmed communities on the Island’s East and South Shores destroyed 500 homes, sweeping some completely...
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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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Integrating Mental Health and Substance Abuse Treatment
Integrated treatment produces better outcomes for individuals with co-occurring mental and substance use disorders. Without integrated treatment, one or both disorders may not be addressed properly. Mental health and substance abuse authorities across the country are taking steps to integrate...
