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Integration: Some Progress and a Need for More
Every contact with a medical provider is an opportunity to help someone address their addiction. And so, it is important for everyone who works in a healthcare setting to recognize addiction, understand the neurobiology, know the standard treatments and be familiar with the resources available...
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Behavioral Health Care: How Far We’ve Come in 15 Years
Fifteen years goes by in the blink of an eye. This summer I’m stepping down after 15 years as president and CEO of the National Council for Behavioral Health, which is celebrating it’s 50th anniversary. This is a good time to take stock of where we have been as a field and where we are...
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An Effective Work Force Embraces and Drives Integrated Care
The behavioral health sector has been in the throes of a generational change over the past decade, one that has challenged the very way we offer treatment, organize operations and receive funding for our services. Our agencies have worked hard to adapt to these changes while maintaining the...
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Investing in the Integrated Care Workforce
It is no longer a new idea that the mind and body are intrinsically connected; Socrates via Plato, described this around 360 B.C. Yet, we still separate and silo these aspects of care; treating behavioral health needs like schizophrenia in mental health clinics and physical issues like diabetes in...
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The Center for Practice Innovations: A Resource for the Behavioral Healthcare Workforce
The New York State Office of Mental Health (OMH) and the Department of Psychiatry, Columbia University, established the Center for Practice Innovations at Columbia Psychiatry and New York State Psychiatric Institute (CPI) in 2007 to promote the widespread use of evidence-based practices developed...
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Flushing Hospital Medical Center: Leveraging the Geriatric Service Demonstration Program to Sustain Integrated Care for Patients
In order to lay the groundwork for systems change to better meet the needs of older adults in New York State, the Geriatric Mental Health Act was enacted on August 23, 2005. The law authorized the establishment of the Interagency Geriatric Mental Health and Chemical Dependence Planning Council, the...
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Healthy Aging Requires More Than Health
Our nation’s population is rapidly aging. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, by 2030 all members of the Baby Boom generation will have reached or surpassed 65 years of age, and the population of older adults will outnumber children for the first time in our nation’s history (United States...
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Leading the Way in Older Adult Mental Health: Recommendations for New York State
In 2005, New York State enacted the Geriatric Mental Health Act, the first act of its kind in the nation. With this legislation, New York demonstrated a significant commitment to older adults with mental health challenges, allocating $2 million per year in funding for statewide geriatric mental...
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Reaching Out to Meet the Mental Health Needs of the Aging
There are more than with 3.7 million individuals aged 60 and older in New York State. It’s expected that this number will increase to 4.63 million by 2040. At the same time, the number of older adults with mental illness will increase by 80 percent, to 900,000. Studies have shown that the...
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Ongoing Transformations at The MHA of Westchester
The Mental Health Association of Westchester (MHA) continues to actively transform the delivery of our expansive array of services, increasingly moving from a conceptual commitment to provide holistic services to operationalizing a unified fabric of existing and newly created services....
