Amplifying Peer Specialists in the Behavioral Health Continuum of Care

• By: Jantra Coll, PsyD Johnell Lawrence, MSW Vibrant Emotional Health
• January 19th, 2026
• access to care barriers, community-based mental health, crisis and prevention services, lived experience, mental health workforce shortage, peer support, trust in care, Winter 2026 Issue, youth and family support systems
• 545    0

We have witnessed the ongoing strain on our traditional mental health care system over the past five years. There is a growing need for help across communities, where help seekers are experiencing nuanced mental health challenges. From suicidality, stress, bullying, substance misuse, to family...

Mental Health in America: Looking Back With Pride and Ahead With Hope

• By: Michael B. Friedman, LMSW Columbia University School of Social Work
• October 7th, 2022
• advocacy, community-based mental health, deinstitutionalization, Fall 2022 Issue, health equity, institutionalization, psychiatric hospitalization, serious mental illness
• 2156    0

In the early 1970s at the height of deinstitutionalization in New York, I worked at a psychiatric rehabilitation program on the West Side of Manhattan that primarily served people who had been in state psychiatric hospitals for 5, 10, 20, even 40 years. Each week I went to Manhattan State Hospital...