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My Autistic Brother Nearly Died Waiting. Now They Want to Cut What Saved Him.
He stood over me and his companion Steve on the steps leading into the Senate building and prayed, "God, give me the words today." It was March 24, 2026, and my 30-year-old autistic brother Stephen was invited to Capitol Hill to meet with Congressional staffers and share his experience living with...
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The Bar for Behavioral Health Care Just Got Higher: The Workforce to Meet It Is Shrinking
On April 6, 2026, New Jersey adopted NJAC 10:36, new integrated behavioral health program service standards that replaced three separate regulatory frameworks with a single unified standard. Every ambulatory licensed behavioral health program in the state must now coordinate physical and behavioral...
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The Adusu Advocacy Framework: A Strategic Model for Advancing Policy Reform in Developmental Disability Services
Across many countries, systems supporting individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD) are experiencing significant pressure. Workforce shortages, increasing service demand, and funding constraints have created fragile service environments that test providers, policymakers,...
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Bridging the Gap Between Behavioral Health Policy and Network Reality
On paper, behavioral health coverage in America has never looked better. Parity laws have teeth. A national crisis line exists. New clinic models are reaching communities that waited decades for them. And yet a Senate Finance Committee investigation found that more than 80 percent of mental...
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From Advocacy to Systems Transformation: Dr. Isaac Mawuko Adusu’s Contributions to Disability Policy Reform and the Advancement of Equitable Services
Advocacy in disability and behavioral health services often begins with a simple goal: improving quality of life for individuals and families. Yet meaningful and lasting policy change rarely emerges from isolated efforts. Systems transformation requires strategic leadership, coalition alignment,...
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How Federal Policy Is Reshaping the Funding of Youth Behavioral Health Treatment
The behavioral health crisis among adolescents is not a new story. For decades, clinicians, researchers, and policymakers have watched the statistics accumulate: an estimated 80 to 90% of adult substance use disorders have their roots in adolescence; half of all lifetime mental health conditions...
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Protecting Trust, Enabling Care: The Balance of Behavioral Health AI Policy
AI is no longer a future consideration for behavioral health providers, with a recent report highlighting that clinicians' adoption of these tools is outpacing nearly all recent health technologies. It is being used to support everything from documentation, session preparation, and scheduling to...
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The Recovery Industry’s Policies Are Killing People and They Won’t Change Unless We Make Them
The first time I watched the recovery system harm someone in real time, it was not a mistake. It was merciful advice in the face of restrictive policy. This person described how he voluntarily walked into a rehab facility after his last binge. He was not intoxicated. He was scared, exhausted,...
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Medicaid Is Reshaping ABA Care: Providers Are Caught in the Middle
Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) providers are entering a new phase of scrutiny, and the shift is happening faster than many expected. Across the country, federal audits are uncovering widespread documentation and billing issues in Medicaid-funded ABA services. At the same time, states are...
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When High-Functioning Leaders Over-Function: The Psychological Cost of Internal Pressure
There is a particular kind of exhaustion that high-functioning leaders rarely name out loud. Not the exhaustion of doing too much. The exhaustion of the constant internal management required to keep going. The background process of monitoring, adjusting, absorbing, and holding that runs beneath...
