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Comprehensive Linkage to Care for Individuals Living With HIV Returning From Incarceration: Behavioral Health and Re-Entry Considerations
Comprehensive and expeditious linkage to appropriate care is vital for people being released from correctional facilities who are living with HIV and experience behavioral health conditions. In the United States, the incarcerated population, including prisons and local jails, has an HIV rate of up...
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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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Recovery Policies Consistently Fail When They Ignore Human Behavior
Recovery policies don't fail because people don't want to change; they fail because they're designed for an idealized version of patients that simply doesn't exist. Policies are built in committee rooms, around rational decision-making, clear consequences, and personal responsibility. However, the...
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Illness Anxiety Disorder: When Health Becomes Significantly Feared
Undoubtedly, it is important to be mindful of and proactive about taking care of one's health, such as maintaining annual check-ups or following up with a medical provider when signs of physical ailment arise. However, individuals can also reach a point of excessive concern and anxiety about their...
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A Call to Amend New York’s Constitution on Mental Health
For decades, New York has been a national leader in advancing mental health policy. Legislators, advocates, providers, and families have fought tirelessly to secure access to treatment, improve insurance coverage, and reduce the stigma surrounding mental illness. Yet despite these efforts, a...
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Child Welfare and Behavioral Health: Foster Care, Family Court, and the Policy Intersection
Behavioral Health and Trauma Impacts Behavioral health is not a side issue in the child welfare system but rather is a system pressure that is likely to bring families into court in the first place (CDC, 2026). Research indicates that this is a concern. In a systematic review, Engler et al. (2022)...
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Telehealth Prescribing Has Proven Its Value. Now Policy Needs to Catch Up
When HHS and DEA announced the fourth extension of telemedicine prescribing flexibilities on January 1, 2026, the news landed without much surprise in behavioral health circles. Clinicians had seen this before, each extension arriving just before the prior one lapsed. By now, the pattern is...
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A Policy Lens on Psychiatric Overprescribing: Federal Priorities and Provider Impact
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) continues to emphasize its commitment to strengthening behavioral health care, including mental health and substance use treatment. In June, the agency announced more than $700 million in new funding to expand access to mental health and...
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Recovery Works When Coverage Does: The Lifesaving Impact of Medicare’s IOP Expansion
Closing a Critical Coverage Gap in Medicare In 2024, following stalwart efforts by Congress, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, providers, advocacy organizations, and directly-impacted communities alike, Medicare closed a gap in its addiction treatment coverage by adding a benefit...
