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Reimagining Integrated Care: Why Social Interventions are Vital in Providing Support for People with Serious Mental Illness
The concept of “integrated healthcare” has been regarded as an optimal treatment approach for individuals experiencing co-occurring mental and physical illnesses. Twenty years ago, Fountain House – the most widely replicated evidence-based community model for people living with mental illness...
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Integrating Primary Care into Assertive Community Treatment
The great health disparities and poor health outcomes experienced by people with serious mental illness are even more significant for the people served by Assertive Community Treatment (ACT) teams. Individuals are eligible for ACT services if they have been hospitalized more than four times in 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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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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Collaborations Make Aging in Place a Reality for People Living with Mental Illness
When we say someone is “aging in place” what do we mean? If a person remains in the same home or setting as they age, does that qualify? The New York State Office of Mental Health (OMH) has been exploring this question in the context of the service delivery system, most integrated setting...
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Building an Integrated Delivery System Through Community Collaborations
Coordinated Behavioral Care (CBC) was launched in 2011 by a committed group of NYC not-for-profit behavioral health organizations to meaningfully participate in NYS’s Medicaid Redesign and Value Based Purchasing initiatives. CBC is dedicated to improving the quality of care for New Yorkers with...
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Will “System Transformation” Transform the System? Before We Celebrate: 20 Questions That Need Answers
System transformation is underway in New York State and throughout the United States through the development of elaborate financial structures such as accountable care organizations and health homes. No doubt these new structures will change the way business is done in the mental health system. But...
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A Virtual Pathway to Technology-Assisted Care Models: Keeping Up with New Technology in Behavioral Health Care
Community-based behavioral health organizations and the individuals they serve would benefit from embracing new media and digital technologies. Technology-assisted care allows providers an additional set of tools to supplement engagement and establish more meaningful lines of communication. With...
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Social Isolation: A Solution-Focused Approach
Doris has been living in her studio apartment in the Crown Heights section of Brooklyn for the past 15 years. She obtained this apartment after finding herself homeless following the breakup of her marriage and other stressors she was experiencing. Doris is quite humble as she describes how her...
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A Human Right Still Unmet: Medical Treatment of Mentally Ill Prisoners
Individuals with mental illness have the right to receive appropriate medical treatment in correctional settings and upon release. It sounds perfectly reasonable, but unfortunately, is far from reality. That was the consensus of a distinguished panel of mental health and legal experts who recently...
