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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...
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Crisis Respite: An Effective Intervention in the Continuum of Recovery
Think about your work with a client with a psychiatric diagnosis in emotional crisis. Did your client get what they needed at an emergency room? Or, after hours of waiting, were they told they were well enough to deal with it at home, perhaps by themselves? A peer-run Crisis Respite stay is an...
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Meeting the Needs of Vulnerable Populations
An Interview with Donna Colonna, S:US CEO and Richard Taylor, Peer Specialist, Blake Men’s Shelter J.J. SUS is an organization that takes its name seriously, and literally: Services for the UnderServed. Put more casually, SUS is dedicated to providing services for people who often get the short...
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Helping the Most Vulnerable Among Vulnerable Populations
Our client, LM felt guilty when she wasn’t able to make it to her weekly counseling session. She felt like the therapist she was working with became disappointed with her and that added guilt made her not motivated to go to the next counseling session as well. The therapist wasn’t necessarily...
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Have Some CLAS: What Leading Organizations Are Doing to Address Population Health
Adherence with the National Standards on Culturally and Linguistically Appropriate Services (CLAS) is a common expectation for healthcare organizations of all types. Many providers assume that their efforts are sufficient as long as they hire staff who reflect the racial, ethnic, cultural, and...
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Commentary on Treating Vulnerable, Mentally Ill Patients
Dr. Falconer effectively drives home the travesty of the disproportionate representation of those with serious behavioral health issues behind bars. Alarming, but not new, the “trans-institutionalization” of the 80’s and 90’s continues unabated to its tragic conclusion. She cogently...
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Collaboration for People with MI/IDD: System Failures and Promising Practices
Individuals who have both mental illness (MI) and intellectual/developmental disabilities (IDD) present unique challenges to both mental health and developmental disability service structures. The group comprises a complex population whose needs are often poorly identified and who are often...
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Care Coordination Enhances the Medical Model for Individuals with Substance Abuse Disorder
WellLife Network recently launched the Substance Abuse Care Coordination Team, a specialized program within their Long Island Care Management Division, designed to address the needs of the Medicaid Substance Use Disorder (SUD) population. Care Management is a comprehensive person-centered...
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Stopping the Hospital Revolving Door: A Pathway Home to Stable Community Life
A not-for-profit organization formed by behavioral health (BH) community agencies, Coordinated Behavioral Care (CBC) operates one of NYS’s largest Health Homes (HH) and has formed an IPA to deliver integrated outcomes-oriented care. The many care managers who work with our HH members often face...
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Treating Vulnerable, Mentally Ill Patients Who Are Navigating the U.S. Criminal Justice System
It is an alarming statistic that more people with serious mental illness are housed in America’s jails than in the nation’s hospitals (Torrey, E. F., Kennard, A. D., Eslinger, D., et al. 2010. More mentally ill persons are in jails and prisons than hospitals: a survey of the states....
