Health Care Delivery
Health equity: When equality is not good enough
When discussing public health, we often hear the terms “health equity”, “health equality” and “health inequality”, but what do they really mean?
What are the subtle variances in meaning, and why is it important to understand these differences?
Beacon expands into Florida as a Project ECHO hub
Beacon Health Options has an important new partnership in Florida: Beacon is serving as a Project ECHO hub to train practitioners on medication-assisted treatment (MAT) for treating opioid use disorder (OUD).
With a live hub in New York and one successfully completed in Connecticut, Beacon is the first managed behavioral health organization to become an official partner of Project ECHO.
Enhance behavioral health crisis systems to improve health, reduce costs
People with mental health and substance use disorder challenges are using emergency department (ED) services more frequently than in prior years.
From 2006 to 2013, there has been a 52 percent increase in ED utilization by people with serious mental illness (SMI).
Healthcare workers: You have the power to manage COVID-19
The anxiety and fear resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic can be profound, and nowhere is that more evident than with frontline healthcare workers.
Working long hours in substandard conditions with patients who are often very ill and highly contagious, they fear for their personal health and that of their families.
Beacon Health Options to expand presence in Walmart
In a continued effort to make healthcare more affordable and accessible, Beacon Health Options has partnered with Walmart on the opening of their second Walmart Health center, located in Calhoun, GA.
Beacon Care Services, a subsidiary of Beacon Health Options, will provide behavioral and mental health care, including individual, couples, group and family counseling to consumers, aged 6 and up, to address mild-to-moderate mental health issues.
Mental health crisis systems redesigned: Focus on prevention, recovery
The need for behavioral health crisis services in the United States has never been stronger.
Traumatic national catastrophes, such as mass shootings, are on the rise. The opioid epidemic shows no signs of abating. The stigma around accessing mental health services persists. Suicide rates are high and rising. Access to mental health services remains elusive for many Americans.
Autism: Wide-ranging study reconfirms the need for care coordination
A study released on autism spectrum disorder (ASD) in the January issue of JAMA Psychiatry sheds new light on old knowledge – that individuals with ASD have a higher rate of co-occurring disorders than the general population.
However, the study raises the bar in two ways: 1) it draws on an unmatched amount of data – nearly 6 million people; and 2) provides greater insight into the association between pairs of conditions over time.
Improve behavioral health: Together, we can
The 2019 National Council for Behavioral Health Conference that occurred in Nashville last week provides reason to pause. Its theme, “Celebrating 50 Years of WE”, gets to the very heart of what will bring about change – for behavioral health and beyond. Together, we can make a difference.
Cutting-edge rating system for addiction treatment heralds new era of transparency
The United States is in the midst of an unprecedented opioid epidemic, but the unfortunate reality is that only one out of 10 Americans with a substance use disorder (SUD) receives treatment.
That statistic alone is shocking, but even worse, widespread adoption of evidence-based practices has been limited.
Retail therapy: The best health care is local
With one in five Americans suffering from a mental illness at any point in their lives, the demand for behavioral health services is loud and clear, but the reality is that many people do not have access to quality care.
Indeed, only 26 percent of the need for mental health services is met in this country, according to the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services.