The Importance of Equity for All: Accessing Preventative Affordable Behavioral Health Care

• By: Allashia Smith-Harris, LMHC, CASAC-T The Mental Health Association of Westchester
• April 18th, 2023
• affordable care, behavioral health mobile units, community-based services, equity, health equity, in-home services, Spring 2023 Issue
• 375    0

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,...

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
• 759    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...

A Trauma-Informed Approach to the 1115 Waiver: A Critical Ingredient for Success

• By: Jenna Velez, LCSW Tricia Williams Coordinated Care Services, Inc.
• October 7th, 2022
• 1115 waiver, adverse childhood experiences, community-based organizations, Fall 2022 Issue, health equity, trauma, trauma-informed care
• 874    0

Despite an increasing recognition and surge of evidence that trauma is pervasive and has significant negative health consequences, the traditional healthcare system has not yet been configured in a way that is adequately responsive to this knowledge. Conversely, the system creates barriers to...