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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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Mental Healthcare in America: An Industry on the Mend
America’s healthcare industry accounts for one fifth of its Gross National Product (GNP) and produces mediocre outcomes at best. Innumerable factors are implicated in this dysfunction, most of which are borne of a capitalist structure designed to maximize profits for its principal agents. This...
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Access for All: Achieving Behavioral Health Equity in Healthcare
Health equity is a fundamental principle that aims to ensure that all individuals have an equal opportunity to achieve optimal health, regardless of their social or economic circumstances. Behavioral health equity refers to the fair and just distribution of behavioral health resources, supports,...
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Art: A Tool for Breaking Stigma
While the reasons for stigma around mental illness are complex and vary by community – we know its prevalence prevents many from seeking treatment – from finding help and building a better life. At the Institute for Community Living (ICL), we offer an array of support services for people...
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Co-Creating an Equitable Crisis Care Continuum to Reduce Stigma
People are in pain. We are experiencing an onslaught of public health crises that is affecting our overall functioning. The fierce urgency of now to collectively move us to a space of wellness is imperative to our quality of life. The current crisis care continuum is not designed to meet the needs...
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Creating a Social Justice Action Framework for a NYC Social Service Provider
As one of the largest providers of community-based human services and housing in the state, the Services for the Underserved (S:US) team of over 1,800 dedicated staff serve over 38,000 New Yorkers each year. For more than four decades, S:US has served individuals and communities who face many...
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Breaking Down Barriers to Using Social Determinants of Health Data
This is the time to use technology to overcome the barriers in integrating social determinants of health (SdoH) information into healthcare but ensuring that infrastructure and standardization is in place will be a joint effort. If one were to think about individual health, you might think...
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Intersectionality in Behavioral Health: Serving Those with Membership in Multiple Stigmatized Groups
What are your social identities? How do you identify and how does the world see you? “Intersectionality, a term coined by legal scholar Kimberlé Crenshaw, emphasizes the “multidimensionality” of oppressed people’s lived experiences and recognizes how various types of oppression frequently...
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A Case for the Discerning Application of Treatment Models: Proceed with Caution
In recent decades we have witnessed a proliferation of models for the treatment of behavioral health conditions, many of which enjoy robust evidence bases that support their application in accordance with overarching principles and intended outcomes. In many respects, we inhabit a “Golden Age”...
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Overcoming Silos to Create Better Service Delivery
Over the past two decades, overcoming the silos of clinical practice that predominate how we provide care has become one of the biggest obstacles that healthcare has tried to tackle. Chronic mental, medical, or substance use conditions rarely occur independently, yet the majority of options offered...
