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Staffing Shortages Halt Progress
This article is part of a quarterly series giving voice to the perspectives of individuals with lived experiences as they share their opinions on a particular topic. The author is served by Services for the UnderServed (S:US), a New York City-based nonprofit that is committed to giving every New...
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Digital Transformation, Virtual Learning, and the Resilient Organization
With onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, human services organizations across the United States had their worlds turned upside down. For many, the effects of the pandemic only exacerbated the community issues their organizations were founded to fight. The increased risk of infection, the effects...
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Federal and State Vaccine Mandates and The Behavioral Health Workforce
The COVID-19 public health emergency has contributed to workforce crises across almost all industries, fields and professions. The behavioral health field has not been immune. Even worse, behavioral health has historically been impacted by workforce challenges, stemming from “chronic underfunding...
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Attracting and Retaining Employees During the Workforce Crisis of 2021
The COVID-19 pandemic is beyond unpredictable. No one can really say with certainty how and/or when this situation will be under control to the point where behavioral health organizations can go back to normal or know what the new normal would look like. With lockdowns, social distancing, and a...
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Let’s Celebrate Our Workforce
Every day when he left home to serve as the attending psychiatrist at an inpatient unit at a general hospital, he wondered whether he would contract COVID at work that day and bring it home to his wife and two small children. Maybe he had already brought it home. Had stripping in the garage and...
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From Crisis to Connection: Meeting the Workforce Shortage Head On
The workforce shortage has been felt keenly in the behavioral health field (BHECON, 2018). To effectively address this shortage, we must identify its root causes, understand dynamics that result in staff resignation decisions and connect the perceived impact on business sustainability while...
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Lessons of COVID-19: Staff Dedication and Skill Key to Success
The Institute for Community Living (ICL) compass shines brightly on our North Star: “People get better with us.” This simple yet profound message has given us meaning and purpose during unprecedented social upheaval. We know, empirically, that what matters most and keeps people in their job is...
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Telehealth: An Unexpected Silver Lining During a Pandemic
Cozy up in your home’s coveted armchair, paired with a blanket, headphones and your smart phone. Click on your telehealth link. Begin your remote outpatient therapy session from the comfort of your own home. But wait … are we referring to individuals served, therapists, or perhaps...
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Training the Workforce in Non-Traditional Modalities of Self-Care: A COVID-19 Silver-Lining
Over the past 18 months, the pandemic and the many associated societal stressors, have caused great suffering, and the behavioral health (BH) workforce has been no exception. The novel coronavirus and ongoing pandemic have wrought tremendous personal loss, job and/or income insecurity, and forced...
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Lessons Learned from Senior Executives of Human Service Agencies Over the Past 20 Months
* Italicized quotes from members of NYIN are included, with a contributor listing provided at the end of this article. Who is in charge? Over the last 20 months, chief executives of human service agencies were faced with unprecedented crisis. The twin epidemics of the tragic consequences of...
