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“Children’s System of Care” in Westchester County, New York
The System of Care concept for children and adolescents with mental health challenges and their families was first published in 1986 in an article by Beth Stroul and Robert Friedman. They articulated a definition for a System of Care along with a framework and philosophy to guide its...
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SIMHS SafeTY.net Early Intervention Program Fills Gaps in Services for Staten Island Youth Battling Trauma-Related Substance Use/Abuse
For more than a decade, Staten Island has been harboring a shameful secret that is only recently coming to light. Our Island outranks each borough, as well as the whole of New York City and State, in the rate of adolescent drug and alcohol abuse, including binge drinking and use of prescription...
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The Right Support
Creating an atmosphere of inclusion and acceptance for all people coming to an organization for help begins with the core values of that agency. Here, at ICL, we believe in and offer person-centered, recovery-oriented, trauma-informed, and integrated physical and behavioral healthcare. No matter a...
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Substance Use Disorder and the LGBTQ Youth Community
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, compared with the general population, gay and bisexual men, lesbian and transgender individuals have higher rates of substance abuse, are more likely to use alcohol and drugs and to continue heavy drinking into later life...
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Building a Quality Behavioral Health Workforce: Employing Service-User Perspectives Throughout Your Organization
With the introduction of Managed Behavioral Health Care in October of 2015 and the soon to be implemented Home and Community Based Services (HCBS), engagement of “peers” in the workforce has become a topic of considerable interest. HCBS introduces peer support as a Medicaid billable service...
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Preparing the New Behavioral Health Workforce
The Affordable Care Act marked a national healthcare reform effort, and within that context, New York State, led by Governor Cuomo’s Medicaid Redesign Team, is undergoing a substantial shift in publicly funded physical and behavioral healthcare. The authors have been deeply involved in the...
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Meeting the Challenges of Healthcare Reform: Preparing the Workforce for Transformational Practice Change
There has been a tremendous amount of discussion associated with workforce retraining since the passage of the Affordable Care Act (ACA). Since its inception, it has been clear that the ACA establishes a new framework for health care from nearly universal insurance coverage to the...
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The Foundations of a New “Wellness” Workforce
A revolution in the payment and delivery of behavioral health services is poised to transform the healthcare industry and all of its participants. Key stakeholders, including service recipients and their families, medical professionals, social service and community-based organizations, governmental...
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Trauma-Informed Care Leads to More Integrated Care
Our inattention to the emotional dimensions of health and illness is a public health perfect storm, especially for the mentally ill. This group of people experiences high rates of illness, suffers greatly, uses an enormous amount of our precious healthcare dollars, and dies 25 years earlier than...
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Integration on a Continuum: Models for Integrating Behavioral Health and Primary Health Care
In the recent years of Medicaid Redesign in New York State, community-based mental health agencies who serve persons with serious and complex psychiatric conditions have addressed the evolving transformation of health care in a variety of ways. Much of the response has been reactive, with agencies...
