InvisALERT Solutions – ObservSMART

Archive for the ‘Spring 2018 Issue’ Category

Supervised Injection Facilities: A Logical Progression in Harm Reduction or a Bridge Too Far?

The scourge of opiate abuse continues to rage unabated. It claimed 42,000 lives in 2016, more than in any previous year (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 2018). That’s 115 human lives per day. Five of our brothers and sisters are lost each hour. One of our parents, spouses, sons or...

NYS OMH ACT Teams Utilize Harm Reduction Techniques

Harm Reduction can be a useful tool to help address potentially risky, dangerous, or self-destructive behaviors, including drug addiction, unsafe sexual activities, self-harm, and binge eating. The goal of harm reduction is to make dangerous behaviors safer, and to reduce the level of harmful...

Boulevard Outpatient Stabilization Program

According to the National Survey of Substance Abuse Treatment Services (2016), facilities were asked how many patients in treatment on 03/21/16 received MAT for detoxification and maintenance purposes. Within this survey, MAT includes the use of methadone and buprenorphine for the treatment of...

Compassionate Care for Substance Users in Traditional Settings

Like many other mental health treatments, substance use treatment has struggled with high dropout rates and problems with engaging clients. Only 0.9 percent of people who have some substance use issues engage in treatment. While some of this may be the client’s internal reluctance to get care,...

Through Health Care System Integration

In many communities, harm reduction programs have helped prevent overdoses, lower HIV risk and hepatitis transmission and open the door to treatment for substance users. Originally started in the late 1980s, harm reduction approaches introduced syringe exchange initiatives with the goal of reducing...

Helping, Engaging, and Linking to Health Interventions (HEALTHi)

The Staten Island Performing Provider System (SI PPS) is partnering with Coordinated Behavioral Care (CBC) on an exciting new project – HEALTHi (Helping, Engaging, and Linking to Health interventions). The program will focus on providing a safety net of resources to individuals with complex...

Harm Reduction: Theory and Practice

If we want to reduce the harm that derives from psychoactive substances, we need to begin by ending two ineffective, enduring and hugely expensive policies and practices in this country. Then we can get to true harm reduction. The first are strategies that seek to control access to and...

CoveCare and MHA Putnam Team up to Provide Continuity and Services

CoveCare Center and the Mental Health Association in Putnam (MHA) have formed an affiliation that will leverage the strengths of both organizations in order to continue and grow the robust mental health services available to residents of Putnam and neighboring counties. Through this partnership,...

Drug and Alcohol Prevention Education for Specialized Populations

Evidence based practice curricula for drug and alcohol prevention education in the United States are designed for high-school and college age individuals. However, it is the philosophy of our program that prevention can be provided, and have an impact, throughout the life span of an individual. It...

Impulsivity as a Predictor of Suicidality

Few topics trigger more dread to the human experience than death. Discussing death brings up fears of the unknown and loss of personal control- two of the primary components of anxiety. We know that when anxiety arises, avoidance is one of the more predictable coping mechanisms and as such, death...