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Supporting Changing Needs Through the End of Life for Adults with Disabilities in Residential Settings
Everyone changes with aging, often in invisible ways. You may be surprised to learn that beginning at age 25, there is a slow decline in speed, reasoning, spatial skills, and memory (Salthouse, 2009). At the age of 30, there is a 3-8% loss of muscle mass per decade (Volpi, 2004). By the age of 65,...
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Addressing the Adolescent Behavioral Health Crisis
Over the last year I have been writing about the growing public health crisis of behavioral health challenges among adolescents and young adults, especially BIPOC and LGBTQ+ youth. The United Hospital Fund (UHF), in collaboration with the Boston Consulting Group (BCG), recently released The...
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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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PSA Addresses Mental Health Stigma in the Latino Community
The National Alliance on Mental Illness of New York City (NAMI-NYC), which has been providing support to families and individuals affected by mental illness for over 40 years, has developed culturally responsive programs to help address the mental health needs of the Latino community. Our Helpline...
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Ask Dr. Max: Family Life Cycle and Mental Illness Challenges
It is important to start with the understanding that everyone thinking about and desiring to have a family is not only with great expectations but with many hopes and aspirations. Unexpected events result in shocks and traumas impacting everyone and each family system based on many factors...
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Federation of Organizations: A Family Affair
Families have been and continue to be instrumental in the development and implementation of treatment and support options for people with mental illness. Founded by family advocates, for the last 50 years Federation of Organizations (Federation) has been developing an array of community-based,...
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Mental Health and Families: Working Together to Strengthen and Support Loved Ones
Having a family member diagnosed with a mental illness can cause great stress and a deep sense of isolation. Mental health challenges are difficult to open up about because of the fear of judgment, believing that no one will understand. Relationships with family and friends can be difficult to...
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The Lens of Loss: Perspectives of Family Members Following Suicide Loss
When we think about the suicide of a loved one, we think of profound loss, of grief, of finding a way to endure amid unyielding pain. But we gain something in the aftermath, one nearly as burdensome. It is a new perspective: Loss becomes a lens through which life is lived. And it can be difficult...
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Centering the Family: What It Means to Implement Family-Focused Practice (FFP) in Adult Mental Health Care
Providers have an important role and responsibility to engage families when patients have a psychiatric hospitalization. HIPAA is often used to deny patients' families access to critical information. By educating and engaging families along the way, we can significantly reduce patient readmission...
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Families and Suicide: How to Engage Your Child in Conversation
As parents, we must balance our feelings of anxiety and uncertainty, on top of our own emotions with those of our children. There are many aspects to the relationship between suicide and families, especially having conversations to find out if children are thinking about suicide. Many parents are...
