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The Behavioral Healthcare System’s Response to Families: A Legacy of Unfulfilled Promises
Family members of those with serious behavioral health conditions often encounter innumerable obstacles in the pursuit of effective treatment and other essential services for their loved ones. Navigating a byzantine network of resources, many of which entail restrictive eligibility criteria and...
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Recognizing the Root Cause of What Ails Us
Our behavioral healthcare system has navigated innumerable challenges in pursuit of its overarching aim to alleviate human suffering. Ostensible improvements in treatment protocols and related technologies, sociocultural developments (specifically those that promote a greater understanding and...
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A Real and Present Danger in the Fight Against Stigma
By many measures we have achieved considerable progress in combatting stigma and its insidious effects. Persons who experience behavioral health challenges are now more inclined to pursue treatment without incurring the reputational risks they might have borne in prior years. We regularly encourage...
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A Case for the Discerning Application of Treatment Models: Proceed with Caution
In recent decades we have witnessed a proliferation of models for the treatment of behavioral health conditions, many of which enjoy robust evidence bases that support their application in accordance with overarching principles and intended outcomes. In many respects, we inhabit a “Golden Age”...
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Volunteer Engagement: Considerations for Organizational Success
Health and social service agencies, and the nonprofit sector generally, rely on volunteers to advance their missions and to ensure their continuing viability. As nonprofit organizations (NPOs) must compete for resources necessary to sustain their operations, the availability of an engaged workforce...
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Help Wanted! Now More Than Ever
A 2016 report of the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) offered a bleak depiction of the current and future state of the nation’s behavioral health services workforce. Nearly half the American population resides in a designated Mental Health Professional Shortage Area (HPSA), and...
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On Becoming Trauma-Informed: It Takes a Village
Healthcare and social service providers who aim to promote optimal health and wellness among the populations they serve cannot achieve their objectives unless they address the impact of traumatic life events (both past and recurring) on vulnerable individuals. The landmark Adverse Childhood...
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The Emergence of Telehealth and a Deepening Digital Divide
In recent years it has become commonplace to reference “transformational” initiatives within our health and social service systems that have altered the manner in which care is delivered and reimbursed. A movement to replace “Fee-for-Service” models with “Value-Based” alternatives...
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The Loneliness Epidemic and its Consequences
Former Surgeon General Dr. Vivek H. Murthy described loneliness as an epidemic long before the Coronavirus emerged and disrupted relationships in ways we might never have imagined (McGregor, 2017). Despite extraordinary advances in telecommunications technologies that have enabled us to connect in...
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Does Our Healthcare System Perpetuate an Epidemic?
Suicide has been rightly classified as an epidemic, as evidenced by a precipitous increase in its incidence in recent decades. Between 1999 and 2018, the rate of completed suicides has risen by 35% in the United States (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2020). Some authors suggest suicide...
