-
Addressing the Psychological Fallout of The Coronavirus Pandemic
The coronavirus pandemic in the United States has led to great efforts to prevent the spread of the virus and to prevent fatalities. But the problems that people will face due to the pandemic will go beyond medical issues. In addition, it will be important to address a variety of psychosocial...
-
Supported Housing Saved My Life
This article is part of a quarterly series giving voice to the perspectives of individuals with lived experiences as they share their opinions on a particular topic. The authors of this column facilitated a focus group of their peers to inform this writing. The authors are served by Services for...
-
CEO Barbara Faron Celebrates 40th Anniversary with Federation of Organizations
Barbara Faron, CEO, recently celebrated her 40th anniversary at Federation! When Ms. Faron joined Federation in the late 1970s, it had one office and a handful of employees. The organization was founded in 1972 by an alliance of family advocacy groups and originally focused on supporting the needs...
-
Mental Health Services and Opioid Use and Dependence: A Non-Sequitur?
What does mental health have to do with mitigating the opioid epidemic? Isn’t it a problem for substance disorder programs, or addiction doctors? Well not really, if you consider the rates of opioid use and opioid use disorder (OUD) in patients seen in the community-based, non-profits in NYS...
-
Lessons Learned: Tools to Treat Opioid Misuse
In the 20 years it took opioids to become the deadliest substance misuse epidemic in American history, the response from the public is overwhelmingly in favor of controlling access to opiates by limiting their use, supporting prevention education and prevention campaigns, and equipping first...
-
New York State Office of Mental Health Using Medication-Assisted Treatment and Other Resources to Fight the Opioid Epidemic
Every day, more than 130 people die in the United States as a result of opioid overdose. The opioid abuse epidemic has become a national public health crisis with devastating economic, societal and human costs. People with mental illnesses served in the public mental health system have...
-
Pain and The Nation’s Opioid Epidemic: An Interview with Luana Colloca, MD, PhD, MS
The so-called “opioid epidemic” is a far more complex social phenomenon than it appears to be when politicians and pundits propose solutions to it. They work largely from a simplistic and only partially true narrative that lately concludes that the villains are the drug companies that promoted...
-
Trauma-Informed Care in Community Mental Health Settings
Utilizing a trauma-informed approach in behavioral healthcare can potentially improve patients’ mental health and protect the well-being of providers. Integrating a trauma-informed approach, however, can seem overwhelming, as it requires resources, time, patience, and insight. Fortunately, the...
-
Co-Occurring System of Care Committees (COSOCCs): An Innovative Regional Approach to Integrated Care
The integration of care for individuals with co-occurring mental health and substance use disorders continues to elude our healthcare and social service systems despite a nearly universal acknowledgment of its importance, both to the individuals afflicted with these conditions and the viability of...
-
Engaging Patients at Critical Moments is Key to Improving Behavioral Health Outcomes
Massachusetts is home to thousands of individuals with behavioral health needs who lack access to quality care. In fact, according to recent estimates, only 54 percent of adults with mental illness in Massachusetts receive any kind of mental or behavioral health treatment (SAMHSA, Behavioral Health...
