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What is Imposter Phenomenon and How Can it Result in Anxiety and Depression?
Have you ever felt like an imposter in your own life? People who experience this phenomenon express the feeling that they might not be as talented or intelligent as others might believe them to be. They hesitate to credit their experience or problem-solving skills when responding to compliments or...
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Healthy Aging: For Older Adults, The Pandemic is Far from Over
As we move into Year Three of the Covid-19 pandemic, older adults remain at high risk. Those over age 65 now account for 90% of COVID deaths – and many of those becoming ill are fully vaccinated and boosted. While many Americans feel confident to resume social activities and travel, our older...
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The Behavioral Health Workforce Crisis and its Impact on Families
The behavioral health field has been enduring a workforce shortage for some time. In 2021 alone, direct support organizations saw a turnover rate of 43%. On top of that, research has shown an increase in the demand for behavioral and mental health services since the beginning of the COVID-19...
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Addressing Clinician Burnout in a Community Mental Health Setting During the COVID Pandemic
More than two years into the COVID pandemic, we are probably all familiar with the term “burnout.” According to the literature, burnout is defined as a syndrome resulting from one’s profession that is comprised of three dimensions of symptoms: fatigue and emotional exhaustion, a low sense of...
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Recognizing the Root Cause of What Ails Us
Our behavioral healthcare system has navigated innumerable challenges in pursuit of its overarching aim to alleviate human suffering. Ostensible improvements in treatment protocols and related technologies, sociocultural developments (specifically those that promote a greater understanding and...
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Behavioral Health News Spotlight on Excellence: An Interview with Johana Lizarraga, Program Coordinator with Outreach
Overview David Minot, Executive Director of Mental Health News Education, the non-profit organization that publishes Behavioral Health News, interviews Johana Lizarraga, a Program Coordinator of Outpatient Substance Use Services at Outreach in NYC and Long Island. Johana details her work with the...
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How the COVID-19 Pandemic Affects the Future of Behavioral Health Care
“Out of all human events, it is tragedy alone that brings people out of their own petty desires and into awareness of other humans’ suffering. Tragedy occurs in human lives so that we will learn to reach out and comfort others.” - C. S. Lewis Throughout history, we have learned many of...
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Associative Stigma: An Unseen Force Impacting Mental Health Professionals and Service Users
Stigma toward people diagnosed with serious mental illnesses is a powerful force with pervasive impacts, some of which operate in subtle ways. In explaining the broad-reaching effects of stigma, Goffman (1963) asserted that persons who are “related through the social structure to a stigmatized...
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Burnout and Why You Should Volunteer Your Time
“Honestly this might be the most rewarding work I’ve done in Psychiatry yet,” one of my co-residents Alex told me recently after completing an evaluation at SUNY Downstate Asylum Clinic. The clinic, completely run by medical students and resident and physician volunteers provides free medical...
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Telehealth, Burnout, and the New Normal
No amount of education, training, or clinical experience could have prepared us, as therapists, for the reality of collective trauma on a global scale. As clinicians at the largest provider of community-based outpatient mental health services for our county, Westchester Jewish Community Services...
