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...

Challenges and Solutions: Mental Health Responses During COVID-19

During the most challenging times, even in the face of an unprecedented crisis — The Institute for Community Living (ICL) seeks to implement strengths-based approaches to helping people cope and eventually to thrive once again. This holds true whether a person is living with a childhood trauma,...

Investing in Whole Person Care in Supported Housing: Improving Health, Enhancing Recovery

At ICL, we offer a range of housing opportunities for people with serious mental illness – people who have been homeless, living in a shelter or on the streets, with long histories of mental health and substance use issues; some with HIV/AIDS; many from prison, state hospitals and adult homes....

An Effective Work Force Embraces and Drives Integrated Care

The behavioral health sector has been in the throes of a generational change over the past decade, one that has challenged the very way we offer treatment, organize operations and receive funding for our services. Our agencies have worked hard to adapt to these changes while maintaining the...

Aging Through a Strengths-Based Lens: Dreaming Big, Living Longer

Nearly 50 million Americans are over the age of 65; by 2030, that number will surpass 70 million and account for about 20% of the population. While for some, late adulthood can be a time of great fulfillment, for many, our culture’s emphasis on youth and a fast-paced life leads to a declining...

Social Isolation: A Solution-Focused Approach

Doris has been living in her studio apartment in the Crown Heights section of Brooklyn for the past 15 years. She obtained this apartment after finding herself homeless following the breakup of her marriage and other stressors she was experiencing. Doris is quite humble as she describes how her...

ICL Housing: Like a Nice Piece of CAKE

As the story goes, at ICL we’ve been saying for quite a while, that Housing is much more than just a bed, some clean sheets and case management services. At ICL we believe that Housing is far more complex and that at the very core of all of our Housing is hope and relationship building. Today,...

The Right Support

Creating an atmosphere of inclusion and acceptance for all people coming to an organization for help begins with the core values of that agency. Here, at ICL, we believe in and offer person-centered, recovery-oriented, trauma-informed, and integrated physical and behavioral healthcare. No matter a...

Effective Supervision: An Essential Component to Enhancing Consumer Outcomes

The behavioral healthcare industry is facing a monumental time of change. The mental health field in particular is faced with putting more responsibility on consumers to drive their own treatment. No longer, it seems, will a person with mental health challenges be cared for in a prescriptive, or...

With Older Adults, The Work Continues

Working with older adults who struggle with substance abuse is extremely complex. Each individual has a different story to tell. Many older adults, who have used substances over the course of their life spans, often have a tremendous amount of shame, remorse, and sadness. Many of these individuals...