Call 888-647-0579 to speak with an alcohol or drug abuse counselor.

Who Answers?

NY reforms treatment of addiction, mental illness

The vast majority of New Yorkers struggling both with mental illness and substance abuse don’t get treatment for both conditions at the same time – a barrier that can result in relapse, discontinued treatment and, in some cases, suicide.

It’s a problem that’s gone on for years because of a flawed Medicaid coding system, and now a joint effort of the Office of Alcohol and Substance Abuse Services and the Office of Mental Health is trying to help the 90 percent of people who couldn’t get simultaneous treatment. Health officials say 1.4 million New Yorkers experience both mental illness and substance abuse.

“We’ll save lives,” said Michael Hogan, commissioner of the state Office of Mental Health. “We have roughly three suicides a day in New York of people, 90 percent of whom we know from psychological autopsies had a mental illness at the time. And it’s not just mental illness, it’s very often drinking or drug use.”

A $3.2 million grant from the National Development and Research Institutes Inc. will help train mental health workers and substance abuse workers to treat people who struggle with both problems. The entire structure of treatment will be reassessed, including screening, assessment, rehabilitation, discharge, and ongoing care.

People struggling with addiction and mental illness often don’t feel motivated to go to multiple state agencies seeking help for problems that may overlap, said Karen Carpenter-Palumbo, commissioner of Office of Alcohol and Substance Abuse Services.

“It is finally taking a person-centered approach to care, and saying emphatically,’If you need treatment for a dual diagnosis, you will get it,'” she said.

In the past, patients have been turned away when seeking help for mental health problems while in drug treatment, and the other way around. Medicaid simply didn’t pay for people to get both kinds of help at once.

“If you were going to treat people with both sets of problems, you would have to go to both sets of agencies and get two different licenses,” Hogan said. “You’d have to have two different waiting rooms, you would have to have two different bathrooms, for Pete’s sake.”

The services will be integrated at all of New York’s 1,223 licensed mental health and substance abuse outpatient treatment centers.

“The illusion (was) that you could deal with your depression, that you could deal with your bipolar disorder, and when that was fixed, then you can go deal with your drug problem,” Hogan said. “We just know that that does not work.”

source: http://www.examiner.com

More Treatment & Detox Articles

Alcohol Recovery Sunday

A friend sent me the following reflection from one of his parishioners, who asked not to have his name attached. Well worth reading: I am an alcoholic. I can say that now and know what it means- that was not always the case. When I first started coming to the rooms of AA I couldn’t….

Remember all the risks of binge drinking

Drinking heavily is not uncommon in Pullman. Whether it’s because of our age, peer pressure or some other reason straight out of the D.A.R.E. program, it happens. And while I’m sure you’re well aware drinking too much equals a hospital visit, there are a slew of other issues you should be aware of before going….

Intervening in lives of children with alcoholic parents group's goal

“A little 8-year-old boy told me that his mother was a drug addict. She would use drugs and pass out. “He told me he would carry his little baby brother down the street to the store to buy milk and feed the baby because his mom was passed out.” Tammy Grantz, Prevention Workz executive director,….

Adventure helps boy beat alcohol problem

15-year-old who woke each morning wanting a drink has sobered up after therapy involving mountain biking and abseiling. The boy who spent eight months on a Christchurch City Mission adventure therapy course agreed to speak to The Press after an Otago University study into the care of young people with alcohol and drug problems. The….

How Christian Alcohol Treatment Centers Restore Faith

Faith-based organizations continue to meet vital social needs within communities across the country. According to the Manhattan Institute, faith-based organizations contribute an estimated $20 billion in private funding to social service agencies on an annual basis. With alcoholism a continuing social problem within the U.S., Christian alcohol treatment centers offer a multi-faceted treatment approach to….