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Older Adults and Substance Misuse: Hiding in Plain Sight
Last winter “Lucy,” an 87-year-old woman, was referred to Service Program for Older People (SPOP) by her primary care doctor. Lucy’s husband had died during the COVID-19 pandemic, and she was struggling with unresolved grief, depression, and panic attacks. A retired teacher, she had enjoyed a...
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Addressing Stigma: The Importance of Cultural Relevance and Early Intervention
The stigma surrounding mental illness can take a huge toll on children, youth, adults, and families with mental health concerns. Addressing stigma not only helps the individual, but the entire community. Eliminating discrimination that is caused by stigma can lead to improved opportunities for...
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The Integral Role of Families in Promoting Mental Health and Managing Mental Illness
When you think about those at the forefront of managing mental health concerns – psychiatrists, psychologists, therapists, counselors, and other professionals may come to mind. However, former Surgeon General Dr. David Satcher released a mental health report in 2000 that declared “families are...
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Ketamine for Mental Health Treatment: How Promising Is It?
For centuries, we have sought cures for depression. Some discoveries, such as psychotherapy and medication treatment, are now widely accepted. But they don’t work for everyone. More recently, an unorthodox drug has garnered attention as a new, possible intervention: ketamine. Classified as...
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How the Pandemic Turned Behavioral Healthcare for Older Adults on Its Head
The past three years have brought about the greatest transformation in behavioral healthcare practices that I have seen in four decades. I have served as Chief Executive Officer of Service Program for Older People (SPOP) for 33 years. We provide community-based behavioral healthcare for adults...
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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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Psychological Fallout of the Pandemic: What We Know, What We Don’t
More and more studies confirm widespread psychological fallout from the pandemic. The studies also confirm intuitive expectations about which populations are most psychologically vulnerable—those directly experiencing illness and death, those with economic hardship, frontline health care and...
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Key Elements for Providers to Address During COVID-19
With the urgency in care for vulnerable populations during this current pandemic, SAE & Associates (SAE) understands providers are looking for answers and solutions to continue and possibly grow services to meet the needs of overall population outcome during COVID-19. It is clear that, as...
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Behavioral Health During and After the Pandemic
The response of the behavioral health system to the COVID pandemic has been rapid and remarkable. But it is, of course, imperfect and incomplete. What are the challenges still to be met? And what will happen after the pandemic, hopefully, ends and we move on to a new normal? What Has Been Done...
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The Perils (and Promise) of a Pandemic
The COVID-19 pandemic has upended our lives unlike anything most of us have experienced. It has exacted an incalculable toll in terms of lives lost or forever altered, and its impact on our institutions and economies is beyond measure. It is exceptionally insidious in its effects on our...
