Health Care Delivery
Health and wellness: Is zip code more important than genetic code?
The evidence exceeds the tipping point – that point where compelling ideas by necessity transform into action.
The evidence? Unmet social needs significantly impact our health, especially our emotional well-being. In fact, it is often said that zip code is more important than genetic code in determining overall health and wellness.
Minority mental health: What can we do together?
Recognizing July as Minority Mental Health Awareness Month, there is no more appropriate time to talk about mental health disparities among minorities.
People of color continue to experience inequitable mental health care, and the solution to closing the gap is long overdue.
Cultural competency can help improve health equity
When we think of a visit to the doctor or a mental health specialist, a common experience emerges.
In the case of the doctor, questions are asked, knees are tapped, hearts are listened to, and height and weight are measured. With a mental health clinician, questions are asked, questions are answered, and a meaningful conversation ensues.
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.