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Providers Scramble to Expand Mental Healthcare as Access Erodes
Health systems struggling to fill gaps in mental healthcare are hiring staff and redeploying capital to try to keep pace with rising demand. Systems including Hartford Healthcare, Sentara Health and Northern Light Health are expanding their mental health networks and ramping up care coordination teams. Still, health system leaders fear they will not be able to move quickly enough to patch an eroding safety net for mental health patients. Nearly 23% of Americans 12 and older received mental health treatment in 2024, up from 20.6% in 2023, according to the latest national data from the federal Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. Meanwhile, 137 million people lived in areas last year where there was a shortage of mental health professionals, up 12% from 122 million in 2024, Health Resources and Services Administration data show. Read more here.
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Mayor Mamdani Announces Opening of First-of-Its-Kind Outposted Therapeutic Housing Unit as Part of Plan to Close Rikers Island
On Tuesday, New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani announced the opening of the City’s first Outposted Therapeutic Housing Unit at NYC Health + Hospitals/ Bellevue — a major step towards the Mamdani Administration’s commitment to closing Rikers Island.
The 104-bed unit will serve people in custody with complex medical needs by transferring the most clinically vulnerable detainees from Rikers Island into a therapeutic setting with closer access to specialty care. It is the first of three planned Outposted Therapeutic Housing Units across the city. The Bellevue site represents a fundamental shift in how New York City delivers care to incarcerated people — moving away from a system defined by delays towards one rooted in dignity, access and prevention. Read more here.
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Surprising Links Between Autism, Alzheimer's Could Change How We Treat Both
Joseph Buxbaum was initially unconvinced. When early hints of a connection between autism and Alzheimer’s began to appear in the medical literature a few years ago, they struck him as implausible — one a condition of early brain development, the other driving decline in old age. But the signals kept accumulating, and over time, his skepticism gave way to a new line of inquiry that could transform scientists’ understanding of the two diseases. “I came to this kicking and screaming. I didn’t want to believe it,” said Buxbaum, a professor of psychiatry, neuroscience and genetics/genomic sciences at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. Autism has long been treated almost exclusively as a childhood condition, with little attention paid to how it evolves with age. First formally recognized as a distinct diagnosis in 1980, it went largely unidentified in older generations. Only recently — as awareness grew and the first large diagnosed cohort reaches middle age — have researchers begun to study autistic adults in later life. Read more here.
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AI in the Mental Health Care Workforce is Met with Fear, Pushback - and Enthusiasm
Artificial intelligence has arrived in the field of mental health. Large health systems and independent therapists alike have begun to adopt different AI tools to manage the delivery of mental health treatment. The speed of the adoption — alongside disturbing incidents of individuals using general-use AI chatbots with catastrophic consequences — is causing some concern among practitioners and researchers. "There's fear and anxiety about AI," says psychologist Vaile Wright, senior director of health care innovation at the American Psychological Association (APA). "And in particular fear around AI replacing jobs." Those concerns were a key issue last month, when 2,400 mental health care providers for Kaiser Permanente in Northern California and the Central Valley went on a 24-hour strike. Read more here.
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To Grow The Mental Health Workforce, Streamline Licensure And Make Licenses Portable
Demand for mental health services has significantly increased in the past few years, far outpacing the number of available providers. In 2023, about 59 million US adults had a mental illness, and nearly half of them did not receive treatment. More than half (169 million) of the US population lives in a mental health professional shortage area. Increasing the pipeline alone isn’t a complete answer. Research suggests that some master’s level mental health graduates face barriers in becoming licensed. Licensure is the process states use to ensure that health professionals meet required training and safety standards before they are allowed to treat patients, often varying by state. The reasons that so many forgo licensure are complex, but state policy makers can play an important role in reducing these barriers. Read more here.
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Workplace Violence Is a Leadership Problem: How One Health System Built a Systemwide Response
Workplace violence in healthcare is no longer an isolated safety issue, it’s an enterprise risk that requires coordinated leadership, clinical oversight, and systemwide accountability. For many health systems, the challenge is not recognizing the problem but operationalizing a consistent response across facilities, shifts, and care settings. At Adventist HealthCare, workplace violence prevention has evolved from a frontline concern into a leadership priority led by the C-suite. The organization has developed a systemwide approach that integrates staff training, real-time response protocols, and post-incident support, offering a model for how CMOs can move beyond reactive measures and build a sustainable safety strategy. Read more here.
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A College for Health Care Apprentices
The country’s only nonprofit accredited university dedicated to apprenticeship degrees is opening a health-care college, it announced Thursday. Reach University, which launched in 2020, has thus far been focused on education, helping incumbent workers in K–12 schools earn degrees to become teachers while they continue to work full-time, typically as paraeducators. Just as Reach’s debt-free teacher apprenticeship model is designed to address a critical shortage of educators, the Apprenticeship College of Health is set to address a critical shortage of health-care workers—starting with those in behavioral health. The program will launch in Washington State, initially offering Reach’s existing associate of arts degree in liberal studies with a focus on social science, embedded within a behavioral health apprenticeship that prepares learners for careers as substance use disorder professionals. Subject to accreditor and state approval, Reach expects to add stackable bachelor’s and master’s degree pathways in health-care fields. Read more here.
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Serious Emotional Disturbances in Children, Youth, and Young Adults
Serious emotional disturbance (SED) is estimated to affect roughly 5 to 10% of youth in the United States, translating to approximately 5 to 7 million children and adolescents. Comorbidities such as substance use disorders, suicidality, and intellectual and developmental disabilities are prevalent and complicate diagnosis and service eligibility. This paper provides an overview of SED, including the role of functional impairment in identifying youth with SED and the important developmental considerations.
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More Teens Are Getting Hooked on Gambling. Parents Say It Often Goes Undetected
Kim Freudenberg, a longtime teacher in San Francisco, knew that raising two boys meant a lot of hard conversations. She warned them about all the usual dangers: drugs, alcohol, sex, social media, riding a bike without a helmet. "Never once did I even think that I needed to say 'gambling,'" she recalls. One day, when her oldest son was 11, he was watching someone play video games on a livestream and clicked on a link in the comments. It took him to an offshore online casino. There, he got sucked in — to blackjack, poker, roulette. He could use items from the video game as money. Soon he got hooked, but the signs of his addiction were hard to spot. "It's not like he was just holed up in his room 24-7," Freudenberg says. "He ran track. He played soccer. He was a great student." Until he dropped out of college at age 19. That's when his mom found out that he had been gambling for nearly half his life. He'd sold things from around the house to keep up with his debts, borrowed money from friends and, then, eventually, started stealing money from his parents.
It's a problem that educators, researchers and parents like Freudenberg say is affecting a growing number of young people, most of them boys. A recent national survey from Common Sense Media found that 36% of boys age 11 to 17 in the U.S. have gambled in the past year. Read more here.
Related: Study examines how young boys are being exposed to gambling in their favorite video games
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UPCOMING EVENTS & TRAININGS
Rural Overdose Prevention: What State Policymakers Need to Know
April 9, 2 - 3 pm, National Conference of State Legislatures
Breaking the Busy Cycle: How to Prevent Burnout in Your Organization
April 14, 3 - 4 pm, National Council for Mental Wellbeing
Community-Informed Justice Diversion and Care
April 14, 3 - 4:30 pm, NAMI
Building an Intensive Outpatient Program (IOP) in an OTP Setting: Adapting to the Expanding ASAM Criteria 4th Edition
April 15, 12 - 1:30 pm, NAADAC
Becoming an MHFA Instructor
April 16, 2 - 3 pm, National Council for Mental Wellbeing
Accelerating Reentry: Recidivism Data & A New Roadmap for Success
April 16, 2 - 3:30 pm, SAMHSA's GAINS Center
New York's Healthcare System in the Face of Federal Uncertainty
April 20, 12 - 1 pm, Albany Law School
Brain Injury Treatment: Psychopharmacology & Medical Interventions
April 21, 10 - 11 am, DOH/OMH/OASAS
Workforce Solutions Jam: Extending the Behavioral Health Workforce - Alaska’s BH Aide Model
April 21, 1 - 2 pm, National Council for Mental Wellbeing
Community-Initiated Care in Behavioral Health: Exploring Funding Mechanisms for Substance Use Disorders
April 21, 2 - 3 pm, SAMHSA CFRI
Stronger Together: Elevating the Family Peer Role in Multidisciplinary Teams Part 1: Clarity in Roles, Strengthening Collaboration
April 22, 10 - 11:30 am, CTAC
Unseen, Unheard, Untreated: A Disconnected System’s Call for the Medicine of Connection
April 22, 12 - 1:30 pm, NAADAC
What to Know About H.R.1 and Immigration Restrictions
April 22, 1 - 2 pm, Corporation for Supportive Housing
An Introduction to Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) in Young Children: Part I
April 22, 1 - 2:30 pm, TTAC
New Insights on Veterans' Health in New York State
April 23, 12:30 - 1 pm, NY Health Foundation
Responding to High Acuity Challenges in Supportive Housing (Part 1)
April 23, 12:30 - 1:30 pm, CSH
Youth Mental Health: Trends, State-Level Strategies & the Role of Digital Technology
April 23, 2 - 3 pm, NIHCM Foundation
Ethical Issues and Best Practices in Substance Use Disorder Treatment for Clinical Supervisors, Counselors, and Interns
April 29, 12 - 1:30 pm, NAADAC
From Data to Dollars: Using American Community Survey Data to Strengthen Grant Proposals
April 29, 2 - 3 pm,
Mental Health Outpatient Treatment and Rehabilitative Services (MHOTRS) Proposed Part 599 Regulation Changes Webinar
April 29, 2:30 - 4 pm, MCTAC
An Introduction to Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) in Young Children: Part II
April 30, 11:30 am - 1 pm, TTAC
Hospital and Community Transitions: Webinar for MHOTRS Providers
May 5, 1:30 - 2:30 pm, MCTAC
Innovations in Substance Use Care Delivery for Medicaid Members: A No Wrong Door Approach
May 6, 2 - 3:30 pm, CHCS
Stronger Together: Elevating the Family Peer Role in Multidisciplinary Teams Part 2: Strength Based Collaboration
May 6, 3 - 4:30 pm, CTAC
Responding to High Acuity Challenges in Supportive Housing (Part 2)
May 7, 1:30 - 2:30 pm, CSH
9th Annual Older Adult Mental Health Awareness Day Symposium
May 7, 10 am - 5 pm, National Council on Aging
Supporting Individuals Engaged in Opioid Use Disorder Treatment for Peers
May 13, 12 - 1:30 pm, NAADAC
Brain Injury: Practical Strategies for Engagement
May 19, 10 - 11 am, DOH/OMH/OASAS
Integrated Care in MHOTRS Webinar
May 28, 2 - 3 pm, MCTAC
Beyond Dual Diagnosis: Understanding the Relationship Between Personality Disorders and Substance Use Disorders Among Adults
June 10, 12 - 1:30 pm, CTAC
Balancing Public Meeting and Records Transparency Amid Rising Threats and Public Pressure
June 11, 2 - 3 pm, NACo
Essential Clinical and Peer Supervision Practices in Substance Use Disorder Services
June 17, 12 - 1:30 pm, NAADAC
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CLMHD CALENDAR
April
LGU Clinic Operators Call
April 14: 10 - 11 am
Membership Call
April 15: 9 - 10:30 am
Developmental Disabilities Committee Meeting
April 16: 1 - 2 pm
Children & Families Committee Meeting
April 21: 12 - 1:30 pm
May
LGU Clinic Operators Call
May 5: 10 - 11 am
Executive Committee Meeting
May 6: 8 - 9 am
CLMHD Spring Full Membership Meeting
May 11 - 13, Albany, NY
Addiction Services & Recovery Committee Meeting
May 14: 11 am - 12 pm
Mental Health Committee Meeting
May 14: 3 - 4 pm
Children & Families Committee Meeting
May 19: 12 - 1:30 pm
Membership Call
May 20: 9 - 10:30 am
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