Addressing the Needs of Frontline Workers

Throughout the past year, I have been struck by the degree to which attention to mental health and wellness, specifically of the impact of trauma on mental health, has entered mainstream discussion. “Frontline Workers” (FLW) who continued to show up for work despite personal risks have been...

Innovative Disrupters in Behavioral Health

Innovation – the new buzzword in behavioral health. What is it and do you need this in your organization? Why is everyone discussing the need for it in behavioral health? If we look at the definition of innovation by the Merriam-Webster dictionary it’s “a new idea, method, or device; the...

Social Determinants of Health and COVID-19: A Peer Perspective

As a peer professional and advocate who helps people recognize their inherent strengths and works to facilitate recovery, it is so very disappointing to consider that after the huge volume of research that has been conducted, and the enormous number of scholarly articles which have been written,...

Using Local Data to Reduce Suicide Death

Suicide is often considered to be the most preventable cause of death. Yet, recent years have seen steadily rising numbers of loss to suicide in the United States. This rise has occurred despite the cultural shift that has allowed the fact of suicide to come “out of the closet;” despite the...

Priming for Post-Traumatic Growth

There is no shortage of media attention to the mental health impact of the current COVID-19 pandemic. It is so important to raise awareness of this, in order to diminish the stigma, normalize the experience, and help give people the tools they need to navigate through these challenging and...

Housing Heals: How MHA of Westchester is Making a Difference

The philosophy of The Mental Health Association of Westchester’s (MHA) housing services and supports is rooted in the principles of person-centered practice and the belief that individuals with behavioral health conditions—even those with histories of instability or little experience of living...

Transformations at MHA Westchester: Integrated Services to Address the Opioid Epidemic

Current national trends indicate that each year more people die of overdoses—the majority of which involve opioid drugs—than died in the entirety of the Vietnam War, the Korean War, or any armed conflict since the end of World War II. Each day 90 Americans die prematurely from an overdose that...

The Case for Integrated Care

Often, individuals seeking services report that finding quality healthcare services can be like searching for a needle in a haystack. However, it does not have to be this way. There is an emerging trend in healthcare, Integrated Care that can radically shift this challenging experience. Integrated...

Staff Development at the Mental Health Association of Westchester

In recent editions of Behavioral Health News, we have written of sweeping transformations in services offered at The Mental Health Association of Westchester (MHA). These transformations require critical staff development - learning new skills and new processes of working. To manage these changes,...

Transformations at MHA Westchester: Children’s Services

In a recent edition of Behavioral Health News, The Mental Health Association of Westchester wrote of sweeping transformations in process throughout our agency, with a specific focus on services for adults. In this edition, we describe the transformations occurring throughout our services for...