System Change and Service Providers: Opportunities and Challenges in Addressing Unmet Needs

In 2011, a priority of New York’s Governor Andrew M. Cuomo was Medicaid redesign, with the substantive presence of behavioral health services in both the Medicaid Redesign Team (MRT) and the subsequent Delivery System Reform Incentive Program (DSRIP). The focus was to reduce inpatient...

The Behavioral Health Community Today: Change, Challenge and Opportunity

Over the last several years, the community behavioral health landscape has changed. New York State is driving reforms toward achieving the Triple Aim for better care and improved health at lower costs. In doing so, the community-based behavioral health sector has been charged with undergoing...

Innovation into Practice: The Future is Now

Innovators and experienced providers are joining together to build the infrastructure required to meet the needs of people living with co-occurring mental health conditions and substance use disorders, as well as physical health care conditions. They are facilitating networks to address social...

Sleep Issues: An Opportunity for Integrated Care

Who should take the lead when issues of sleep problems come up? Is the sleep problem a physical or a behavioral health issue? If a client only has diabetes, there is no question that the lead in the integrated team needs to be the primary care provider (PCP) or endocrinologist. If a person only has...

Mental Health and Addiction Recovery: A Comparison

Three months ago, I accepted a new position as Director of the Center for Rehabilitation and Recovery at the Coalition of Behavioral Health Agencies. During the interview process, I was asked about my understanding of mental health recovery as it related to addiction recovery (an appropriate...

When Government Looks for Healthcare Savings, Supportive Housing Has the Answer

These days, it seems that on all levels of government, healthcare programs are being reexamined for cost savings, efficiencies and better outcomes. Nationally, healthcare reform and the Affordable Care Act will provide new opportunities to serve the most vulnerable populations and perhaps bend the...

OMH’s Mental Health Services Restructuring: A Commentary

The Coalition of Behavioral Health Agencies has been gratified to be an active participant in the stakeholder process established and nurtured by the New York State Office of Mental Health (SOMH). For close to five years, we have maintained that restructuring of clinic reimbursement and attendant...

Recovery: A Participant in Life

Living one’s own life: a rather simple concept but somehow thrown on the back burner. Somewhere along the path in this journey of mental illness, we lose ourselves. Prior to the onset of my mental illness—well into adulthood—I was someone: a daughter, an educated woman, a teacher, a wife, a...

Exploring Creative Approaches to Improve Health and Wellness

It is widely recognized that a strong connection between physical health and mental health exists. But where do we go from here? What creative approaches can health care providers explore for improving general health and mental wellness to enhance recovery? With a growing shift toward...