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Financial Stability: Building Practical Infrastructure for Reentry
James1 completes a 90-day residential treatment program with a job interview set up for the coming week and a probation meeting he cannot miss. He also leaves with thousands of dollars in outstanding legal financial obligations (LFOs), a suspended driver's license related to unpaid fees, and no...
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When Opioid Narratives Become Policy
For more than a decade, US opioid policy has been guided by a compelling but incomplete story: aggressive pharmaceutical marketing and overprescribing by physicians flooded communities with addictive pills, igniting an epidemic of opioid use disorder (OUD) and death. This narrative drove sweeping...
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An Ecological Perspective on Policing and Behavioral Health
The ecological model helps us understand how people’s environments—from family systems to institutions like policing—shape behavioral health outcomes. Environmental determinants help explain how systemic and structural conditions contribute to mental health disparities. This article examines...
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Reaching the Unreachable: Why Human-Centered Engagement Is the Missing Link in Behavioral Health
Behavioral health needs are a major driver of overall healthcare use and yet they are still often overlooked across the care continuum. The total health care costs of undertreated behavioral health disorders are more than $290 billion each year in the U.S. alone. When behavioral health issues go...
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An Epidemic of Anxiety and Depression Requires a Reevaluation of Conventional Treatment
The field of psychiatry has been governed by a medical model of illness in recent decades. This model posits behavioral health conditions, including anxiety and depression, are manifestations of biological abnormalities that may be corrected through interventions commonly employed in other branches...
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A Harm Reduction Approach to Informed and Compassionate Care
Harm Reduction allows us to consider and implement practices that help individuals make safe, viable choices in support of overall wellness. Harm Reduction is also “a movement for social justice built on a belief in, and respect for, the rights of people who use drugs”1 and is “a key pillar...
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The Overlapping Roots of Mental Health Disparities: Poverty, Racism, and Trauma as Social Determinants
Mental health cannot be fully understood — or effectively addressed — without considering the powerful forces that shape people’s everyday lives. Poverty, racism, and trauma are more than just challenges individuals face; they are deeply embedded social determinants of mental health that...
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Maternal Mental Health Is Societal Health
An emerging crisis in maternal mental health may be attributed to innumerable causes, many of which have been implicated in other behavioral health crises. Recent epidemics of Suicidality and Substance Use Disorder are the most notable and tragic manifestations of human distress that attend the...
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Findings from New York State’s Report on Postpartum Depression Screening
Postpartum depression (PPD)—the most common perinatal mood and anxiety disorder—is a debilitating condition affecting at least one in eight people who give birth. PPD is more than just the “baby blues.” It is a more severe mood disorder that can last for many months. PPD may impair a...
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Teen Mothers: When Stigma Trumps Compassion (and Research)
Key points: Many teen mothers succeed but do so despite the stresses that stigma imposes on them. Stresses on both mothers and babies are associated with severe health consequences, sometimes affecting their entire lives. Healthcare providers are often experienced as stigmatizing by teen...
