-
Carmen Collado: Championing Community Care and Strategic Growth in Mental Health Services
Carmen Collado, LCSW-R, is a seasoned leader in the behavioral health field, recently appointed as Chief Operating Officer (COO) at Community Counseling & Mediation (CCM). With over 30 years of experience in human services, Collado brings a wealth of expertise in delivering compassionate,...
-
Dutchess County’s Stabilization Center Among New York’s First Licensed Supportive Crisis Stabilization Centers
Dutchess County’s first-of-its-kind Stabilization Center, a partnership between the Dutchess County Department of Mental Health (DCDMH) and People USA, recently became one of the first Supportive Crisis Stabilization Centers licensed by the New York State Office of Mental Health (NYS OMH) and the...
-
Saving Lives: New York State’s Comprehensive Approach to Suicide Prevention
It is critical that across our state, we ensure that our local communities have the resources they need to identify and help individuals who are most at risk for suicide. Suicide is the second leading cause of death among individuals between the ages of 25 and 34 and the third leading cause of...
-
Suicide is NOT a Symptom
Too many have lost a loved one to suicide. Every 11 minutes, someone dies by suicide in the US, often without warning. Suicidality has historically been regarded as a symptom of major depression and mental illness in general. During my training, when someone was at risk of suicide, we were...
-
Saving Lives At Work: How Employers Can Lead in Suicide Postvention As Prevention
It’s OK to talk about suicide. The more we do so, the more we break down barriers that stop people from feeling safe enough to seek help. Vital strides have been made to open the dialogue on suicide. For example, the World Health Organization (WHO) Suicide Prevention Day theme for 2024-2026 is...
-
Prolonged Grief and Suicide Survivors: Understanding Risks and Treatment
NOTE: The terms complicated grief, traumatic grief, and prolonged grief are essentially synonymous. They are used interchangeably here based on the sources being cited and terminology used in those sources, eventually settling on prolonged grief as it appears in the DSM-5-TR and the...
-
The Ripple Effect: Impact of Suicide on Family and Friends
The loss of a person to suicide touches friends, family, and other loved ones who must grapple with a host of emotions in the wake of tragic loss. The pain of suicide bereavement can ripple through personal relationships and affect the emotional health of the community of the individual who was...
-
When Outpatient Psychiatric Care Is Not Enough
Key Points: The accepted goal of treatment is recovery—pursuit of a self-directed life, not just crisis stabilization. Those having difficulty pursuing recovery in outpatient treatment should consider residential treatment. Residential treatment ideally occurs in a community over...
-
Assisting Grieving Families to Find Closure While Maintaining Compliance with HIPAA
The most fundamental goals of Harm Reduction and Buprenorphine Programs are to keep people alive and safe. Despite the best efforts of a very dedicated SUD workforce, over 107,000 people died of overdose deaths in 2023. Behind every overdose death is a family or friends in mourning. Often, they are...
-
The Overlap of Substance Use Disorders and Suicide: Key Insights and Intervention Strategies
Substance Use Disorders (SUDs) coupled with suicide are a critical dual concern that has severe implications for the public health of the entire world. The National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) also reports that people with SUDs are more prone to suicide, with statistics showing that their risk...
