Mental Health
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.
Digital technology: Friend or foe to mental health?
It’s clear that digital technology – especially in the form of social media – is here to stay.
Facebook, Instagram, Twitter – these are all household words by now. Digital technology has engaged healthcare as well; electronic health records, health apps and websites have ramped up the capacity for information-gathering and sharing, and perhaps even more relevant, actual treatment.
Know the signs: Help prevent a loved one’s suicide
Anna was one of the most talented and creative people I had ever known, and just about everyone who met her felt the same.
Anna was sadly successful, as she was in everything, in ending her life. . . .Unfortunately, the story of a Beacon Health Options employee’s friend is not unique or unfamiliar to many people. Often, the friends and families of people at risk for suicidal behavior disorder have no idea of that risk.
Confronting an opioid crisis: Beacon funding supports local efforts
Beacon Health Options (Beacon) believes that excellent health care is local health care.
Standing by that belief, Beacon is distributing $128,000 in grants to four community-based behavioral health organizations that are combatting the opioid crisis in Massachusetts at the grassroots level.
Beacon Health Options offers questions to ask and answer during Mental Health Awareness Month
In any given year, an astonishing 1 in 5 Americans will face mental illness. Anxiety disorders are the most common mental illness in the U.S., with more than 40 million lives affected. Additionally, about 16 million have major depression. But despite the prevalence of mental health conditions, only about a third of Americans seek treatment. Just as other illnesses – such as high blood pressure or diabetes – are treatable and manageable, so too are mental health issues. That’s why May has been designated as Mental Health Awareness Month, an observance developed to raise awareness of mental health issues and the stigma attached to them. At Beacon Health Options, our entire focus is on mental and behavioral health, because that’s…
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.
I feel your pain: Suicide’s impact on the mental health professional
As a mental health professional, two experiences with suicide have stayed with me over time.
The first occurred while working on an inpatient unit. A young woman jumped five stories from a parking garage and survived.
AI in behavioral health care: When artificial intelligence became real
Not long ago, the concept of artificial intelligence (AI) in health care may have seemed like the stuff of which science fiction books and movies is made, but AI is fast becoming positioned to become business as usual in an industry that is already steeped in data and analytics.
AI amps up the game, and Beacon Health Options has become a willing player in using this cutting-edge technology to improve people’s health at a reduced cost.
The Many Faces of Stigma
The theme “Live. Learn. Share Hope” of the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) National Convention to be held June 27-30 in New Orleans provides an excellent launching pad to start a conversation regarding stigma as we live, learn and share hope about the people affected by mental illness.
Stigma, like so many of life’s experiences, can be as individual as the person experiencing it.
Honoring Mental Health Awareness Month: What Does the Future Look Like?
In 1949, Mental Health America led the way in establishing May as Mental Health Awareness Month. Since that time, mental health care has come a long way through a better understanding of behavioral health conditions, the development of corresponding evidence-based practices, and improved health care delivery.
However, we still have a ways to go.