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The Integrated Role of Housing and Employment in Recovery
When you think of recovery, you often think of what we would consider our social determinants of health: financial stability, housing and surrounding environment, health care access, education, and social connections. When a person is doing well in all these domains, they generally thrive and...
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When Happy Hour Isn’t Always So Happy: One Clinician’s Point of View
I’m sure many of us reading the words “Happy Hour” get a little excited: as a time to socialize, network, and let loose. For some, it’s a chance to be an extrovert - while an invisible cloak helps suppress insecurities, fears, and worries. For many, in fact, happy hour is not really very...
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Why Personalized Recovery-Oriented Services (PROS) Works: Achieving Independence and Fulfillment
The deinstitutionalization of the mentally ill in New York State some 50 years ago had a clear goal: To create accessible and adequate housing and support programs to allow people to live independently in the community, to work toward recovery and a full and productive life outside a psychiatric...
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Art: A Tool for Breaking Stigma
While the reasons for stigma around mental illness are complex and vary by community – we know its prevalence prevents many from seeking treatment – from finding help and building a better life. At the Institute for Community Living (ICL), we offer an array of support services for people...
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Mental Health and Families: Working Together to Strengthen and Support Loved Ones
Having a family member diagnosed with a mental illness can cause great stress and a deep sense of isolation. Mental health challenges are difficult to open up about because of the fear of judgment, believing that no one will understand. Relationships with family and friends can be difficult to...
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Overcoming the Stigma of Mental Illness: Peers Play a Critical Role
Sharing a lived experience may be the single most important tool we have to address the stigma of living with a mental illness, and the isolation of COVID only exacerbated how important it can be to have someone to talk with who truly understands. Over the past two years, we all learned to keep a...
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Navigating the Road to Recovery: An Art and a Science
Defining recovery is all-encompassing. It may be recovery from mental illness, substance use, trauma, losses and, as we’ve recently learned, from the effects of a pandemic. Most often it is thought about as a journey toward regaining something that was lost or returning to a former state. In...
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Lessons of COVID-19: Staff Dedication and Skill Key to Success
The Institute for Community Living (ICL) compass shines brightly on our North Star: “People get better with us.” This simple yet profound message has given us meaning and purpose during unprecedented social upheaval. We know, empirically, that what matters most and keeps people in their job is...
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Trauma-Informed Care: Children in Crisis
We know that most if not all of the people we serve at the Institute for Community Living (ICL) have experienced multiple traumas in the course of their lives. This is true for every ICL program, whether in behavioral health clinics and crisis services or housing for people living with mental...
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Telehealth: Short and Long-Term Implications for Behavioral Health
Since the pandemic took hold just over a year ago, behavioral health entities had to adjust almost overnight to virtual care to ensure that services were not interrupted, especially for our most vulnerable populations. For many of these clients, in addition to the help they receive for their mental...
