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Healthy Aging Requires More Than Health
Our nation’s population is rapidly aging. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, by 2030 all members of the Baby Boom generation will have reached or surpassed 65 years of age, and the population of older adults will outnumber children for the first time in our nation’s history (United States...
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Meeting the Needs of Youth in Transition: Recommendations for Systems Reform
Adolescence is commonly defined as a period of transition between childhood and adulthood with distinct physical and psychological challenges that must be successfully navigated en route to maturity. One of these challenges is so deeply embedded in this period of development that it found its way...
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The Promise and Peril of Performance Measurement
Few would dispute the assertion that our behavioral healthcare system and the many institutions on which it depends are in a state of transformation, if not upheaval. This transformation is characterized by many overarching themes and trends, most of which aim to enhance the quality of care...
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Permanent Supportive Housing: The State of the Research
Researchers have a host of methods at their disposal with which to assess the efficacy of service interventions and to establish the foundations on which evidenced-based practices emerge. Some of these methods, such as the Randomized Controlled Trial (RCT) (arguably the most potent of instruments...
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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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The Evolving Health and Social Service Landscape: Promise for Persons with Co-Occurring Disorders
A year has passed since the United States Congress enacted sweeping legislation to address deficiencies in our national behavioral health service infrastructure. The Comprehensive Addiction and Recovery Act (CARA) and 21st Century Cures Act, both passed by the 114th Congress in 2016, authorized a...
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Supportive Housing Development: Achievements, Challenges and Opportunities
Government-funded supportive housing in New York State has a richly textured history that entails an amalgam of competing philosophies, political trends and economic imperatives. A complete survey of this history is beyond the scope of this article, and a comprehensive assessment of the “current...
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Policy and Practice: A Discouraging Disconnect
As soon as I learned the summer edition of Behavioral Health News would address our efforts to meet the needs of vulnerable populations, I experienced a rather sudden and dispiriting thought. In so many ways we have failed to satisfactorily address the needs of our most vulnerable citizens despite...
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Systems Transformation in Progress: Promise and Pitfalls
A couple of months ago I attended a conference in Albany in order to learn of the latest developments in the state’s movement toward a “value based” healthcare delivery system. Monica Oss, Chief Executive Officer of Open Minds, a publication that explores the intricacies of behavioral...
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A New Face on Familiar Trends
Last year I attended a conference at which Dr. Michael Hogan, the former Commissioner of the New York State Office of Mental Health, delivered a keynote address on emerging issues and trends within health care reform. He distilled a seemingly inchoate mass of movements, mandates and initiatives...
