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Strengthening the Behavioral Health Workforce: Leadership Strategies for a System in Transition
Across North America, healthcare executives are facing a reality that can no longer be ignored: the behavioral health care workforce is stretched thin, unevenly distributed, and increasingly overwhelmed by the growing complexity of patient needs. The demands of mental health and addictions care...
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Addiction, Treatment, and the Evolution of Therapeutic Communities: The Legacy of Dr. David A. Deitch
David A. Deitch, PhD, is one of the most influential figures in the modern history of addiction treatment. A clinical and social psychologist, he currently holds the title of Emeritus Professor of Clinical Psychiatry at the University of California, San Diego, where he founded the Center for...
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Building Sanctuary: Creating Trauma-Informed Workplaces to Heal Burnout and Secondary Trauma in Behavioral Health
The quiet exhaustion in Sarah’s eyes told a story that statistics could never capture. After eight years as a behavioral health nurse, she found herself sitting in her car each morning, summoning the strength to walk through the clinic doors. Anxiety in her chest, her neck, and the very hands she...
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Investing in the Behavioral Health Workforce: Training, Professional Development, and Advancing Clinical Excellence
Behavioral health clinicians are seeing more patients with complex, co-occurring disorders and acute symptoms that require multidisciplinary care. At the same time, referrals and expectations for timely, high-quality care are rising. These demands take a toll on care quality and clinician...
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Innovative Training Through Personal Connections: How a Behavioral Health Podcast Is Transforming Staff Development
In today’s rapidly changing behavioral health landscape, frontline staff often face complex challenges that require continuous learning, updating skills, and meaningful guidance from those with deep expertise. Traditional training formats, while valuable, can be difficult to attend due to time...
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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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From Research to Recovery: Transforming Anxiety and Depression Care in New York
Our state has a long history as an innovator when it comes to improving the mental well-being of New Yorkers. From establishing the first state-funded psychiatric center to creating the first research institute dedicated to exploring mental health, this spirit of innovation has influenced and...
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Cultivating a Trauma-Informed Behavioral Health Workforce
Creating a trauma-informed behavioral health workforce is both a moral imperative and a practical necessity in today’s demanding care landscape. Understanding the concept requires recognizing its foundation: a workforce committed to safety, trust, empowerment, collaboration, peer support, and...
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The Generational Transmission of Untreated or Unresolved Relational Trauma
She leaned in close to me, whispering as if we were girlfriends rather than therapist and client: “I’m trying to get pregnant because then I’ll have someone who will love me forever and never leave me.” How do I, as a compassionate therapist, gently explain to this 13-year-old girl that...
