-
Understanding Trauma-Informed Care for Young Children and Families in the Shelter
Services for the UnderServed (S:US) is one of the premier and largest community-based social services agencies in New York State. Its mission is to “drive scalable solutions to transform the lives of people with disabilities, people in poverty, and people facing homelessness: solutions that...
-
Suicide Prevention and Response: Fostering Trust and Safety in Vulnerable Communities
Suicide carries grief and mourning and encompasses assumptions, histories, and fantasies. It holds the dialectic of abbreviated narratives and hope-filled storylines for those who survive. 2022 U.S. data from the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention (AFSP) indicates that 1.6 million adults...
-
Addressing Social Isolation and Loneliness in Older Adults
Social isolation and loneliness are health risks that affect a quarter of American adults 65 and older (National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, 2020). Social isolation is defined as the objective state of having few social relationships or infrequent social contact with others,...
-
Seeing Through Crisis: A Behavioral Health Approach to Chronic Pain
Pain is a subjective experience, which means it is influenced by an individual’s perceptions, emotions, beliefs, and cultural factors. When assessing pain, healthcare providers rely heavily on the individual’s self-report to understand the nature, intensity, and impact of their pain experience....
-
Redefining Supported and Transitional Employment as Key Tools for Recovery
Recognizing the significance of employment in the recovery journey, supported and transitional employment have emerged as crucial tools to empower those facing mental illnesses. Services for the UnderServed (S:US) has implemented these innovative approaches through evidence-based programming, such...
-
Consumer Perspectives: The Synergy of Housing and Employment Services in Mental Healthcare
This article is part of a quarterly series giving voice to the perspectives of individuals with lived experiences as they share their opinions on a particular topic. The authors are served by Services for the UnderServed (S:US), a New York City-based nonprofit that is committed to giving every New...
-
Safe at Last: Safe Options Support (SOS) Offers Options to Support the Homeless
Supporting the homeless population in NYC is a complex issue rooted in factors like the lack of affordable housing, mental illness, substance use, unemployment, and poor health conditions. Following the deinstitutionalization of the mentally ill, New York City (NYC) has grappled with a significant...
-
Consumer Perspectives: Substance Use Treatment and Mental Health
This article is part of a quarterly series giving voice to the perspectives of individuals with lived experiences as they share their opinions on a particular topic. The authors are served by Services for the UnderServed (S:US), a New York City-based nonprofit that is committed to giving every New...
-
Harm Reduction: A Bridge Back to Life
Harm reduction is a decades-long, well-established, effective tool in reducing illnesses, deaths, and other negative consequences of problematic substance use (Jones et al., 2022). This approach has never been more important as in the current overdose crisis (Perera et al., 2022). Harm reduction...
-
Consumer Perspectives: Overcoming Mental Health Challenges
This article is part of a quarterly series giving voice to the perspectives of individuals with lived experiences as they share their opinions on a particular topic. The authors are served by Services for the UnderServed (S:US), a New York City-based nonprofit that is committed to giving every New...
