-
Building the Missing Middle: How Advocacy Helped Create a New Behavioral Health Intervention for New Yorkers With Serious Mental Illness
For decades, our behavioral health systems have faced the growing challenge of meeting the needs of people with serious mental illness (SMI). In New York, where the Institute for Community Living (ICL) operates, and most places in the country, demand for services far exceeds supply. Furthermore,...
-
Advocacy’s Strange Bedfellows: How New York’s Landmark Behavioral Health Budget Came to Be
Governor Hochul's Executive Budget for Fiscal Year 2023-2024 (FY 2024) included unprecedented investments in behavioral healthcare and related services for the most vulnerable residents of New York. This emerged in response to widespread homelessness, rapidly rising rates of suicide, and epidemics...
-
Showing Up Matters: The Power of Relationship-Based Advocacy in Behavioral Health
Behavioral Health Advocates: Association for Community Living, Coalition of Medication-Assisted Treatment Providers and Advocates of New York State (COMPA), Families Together in New York State, InUnity Alliance, Mental Health Association in New York State, National Alliance on Mental Illness New...
-
New York Behavioral Health Advocates Rally at Capitol, Win Support of 100+ Legislators for Critical Funding Increase
The Mental Health Association in New York State and leading statewide behavioral health and human services organizations have been rallying with legislators at the State Capitol in support of the final budget for FY 2026-27 including a 4% targeted inflationary increase (formerly known as the cost...
-
Supporting Recovery Through Peer Services: How Community-Based Support Helps People Reconnect, Heal, and Thrive
Peer services are often described as supportive, but at their best, they are transformational. Recovery is rarely a straight line, and it rarely happens in isolation. For many people living with mental health or substance use challenges, progress is shaped not only by treatment, but also by...
-
A Harm Reduction Approach to Informed and Compassionate Care
Harm Reduction allows us to consider and implement practices that help individuals make safe, viable choices in support of overall wellness. Harm Reduction is also “a movement for social justice built on a belief in, and respect for, the rights of people who use drugs”1 and is “a key pillar...
-
Young Adult Access Centers: A Massachusetts Model for Supporting Young Adults with Behavioral Health Challenges
The Massachusetts Department of Mental Health (DMH) Young Adult Access Centers are unique community spaces that serve young adults with mental health and co-occurring behavioral health concerns and support them with their transition to adulthood. These 10 Access Centers are tailored to young people...
-
Colorado Reforms Seek to Expand, Strengthen the Behavioral Health Safety Net
July of 2024 brought new laws impacting Colorado’s behavioral health system. While Colorado has continuously made some improvements and investments in behavioral health programs, the fundamental definitions of safety net services and providers were more than 60 years old. New Colorado reform laws...
-
Innovative Delivery of Therapy for Older Adults with Depression
There are many changes that take place as we age, but many people assume that depression is a normal part of aging. Instead, depression is best thought of as a response to losses and changes associated with aging, and most importantly – it is treatable! In our work with community-dwelling older...
-
The Importance of Equity for All: Accessing Preventative Affordable Behavioral Health Care
The Office of Behavioral Health Equity (OBHE) coordinates with SAMHSA’s efforts to reduce disparities in mental and/or substance use disorders across populations. These efforts are focused on the promotion of behavioral health equity for underserved racial and ethnic minority, as well as lesbian,...
