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Overcoming Stigma to Create More Inclusive Communities
April is Autism Awareness Month and World Autism Day was April 2, 2023. These observances create important opportunities to break down existing biases and build more inclusive communities where all people are valued for their unique abilities. While greater awareness is needed to foster...
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Mental Health in Schools: Moving Stigma Out in the Open
Since the start of the pandemic, rates of psychological distress and chronic mental health issues among young people have increased. In New York, state officials estimate that one in five children ages 2-17 has one or more emotional, behavioral, or developmental condition while approximately...
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Peer Professionals and the Important Role They Play in the Recovery Process
When two people have something in common, it creates a bond that allows for meaningful discussions and a trusting relationship. This is the foundation of Peer Support and the reason for its success. Peer professionals share the knowledge, skills, and information they’ve learned from their own...
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The Adolescent Therapeutic Community: An Integrated Model of Care
I was once told early in my career that the Therapeutic Community (TC) takes an hour to explain but a lifetime to master. The traditional Therapeutic Community model has saved countless lives over the past several decades featuring a therapeutic milieu that uses the community as the healer and...
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Today’s Treatment Models Use All the Tools in the Toolbox
Treatment for substance misuse begins before someone walks through the doors of a rehabilitation center asking for help. It starts when a person acknowledges their life is out of control - or controlled by a drug of abuse - and harms themselves and potentially others. Denial, conscious and...
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Recovery, Hope and Resilience During the Pandemic
As one of the largest providers of outpatient mental health services in New York State, New York Psychotherapy and Counseling (NYPCC) works together with tens of thousands of New Yorkers facing mental health challenges. NYPCC embraces a recovery-oriented, trauma-informed model of community mental...
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Connection as Treatment: The Healing Power of the Community Center
Humans are social beings by nature. While our level of socialization differs from person to person, the great majority of people have emotional and psychological needs that are best met by interpersonal engagement. In a healthcare system defined and often enhanced by outcome measures,...
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Navigating the Road to Recovery: An Art and a Science
Defining recovery is all-encompassing. It may be recovery from mental illness, substance use, trauma, losses and, as we’ve recently learned, from the effects of a pandemic. Most often it is thought about as a journey toward regaining something that was lost or returning to a former state. In...
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Recovery and Inclusion: A Viewpoint in Retrospect
Currently we are faced with a delicate dance, between saving lives and promoting and perpetuating a zombie underclass. Tens of thousands are dying from drug overdose each year. Those who are living in addiction inflict on the society, higher healthcare costs, crime rates and human services costs....
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NY State Governor Hochul Appoints Debbie Pantin, MHNE Chair, and Anne Constantino to NYS Opioid Settlement Board
On March 19th, 2022, New York State Governor Kathy Hochul, after signing legislation expanding the Opioid Settlement Board from 19 members to 21 members, announced her two appointments to the Board. "As we make our comeback from the COVID-19 pandemic, we must commit to also mitigating the impact...
