Important Publications

This set of guidelines, developed by the Center for Health Care Strategies for NYSHealth, is designed to help grant applicants think about and formulate a program evaluation as part of an NYSHealth grant proposal.

This NYSHealth-supported toolkit is designed to get both grantees and funders to consider sustainability from the onset of their grant projects. It provides resources and tools to help integrate sustainability strategies and practices into all stages of the grant process.

This November 2010 Preventing Chronic Disease article from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention discusses the importance of coordinating mental health care with general medical care, particularly through use of the medical home model of integrated health care delivery.

This report from the Kaiser Family Foundation’s Commission on Medicaid and the Uninsured examines the salient issues raised in a recent roundtable discussion of national and state experts to discuss Medicaid policy options available under health reform to help meet the needs of adults with mental illness.

This primer from the Kaiser Family Foundation’s Commission on Medicaid and the Uninsured provides an overview of behavioral health care, reviews the sources of financing for such care, assesses the interaction between different payers, and highlights recent policy debates in mental health.

This Medicaid Institute report examines policy considerations faced by New York on how to care for Medicaid beneficiaries with mental health and substance abuse conditions. These considerations include service delivery challenges resulting from the lack of coordination between physical and behavioral health services, especially for patients with the most complex behavioral health problems.

This report addresses whether New York’s Assisted Outpatient Treatment (AOT) Program is effective and under what circumstances. AOT ensures that individuals with mental illness and a history of hospitalizations or violence participate in community-based services appropriate to their needs through a court-ordered system. AOT can be used to prevent relapse or deterioration before hospitalization is needed, but more often is used as a discharge planning tool creating a smooth transition for hospitalized patients to outpatient treatment.

This article in the April 2009 issue of Psychiatric Services discusses the adaptation of the medical home concept to the care for individuals with serious mental illness (SMI). Medical home characteristics, such as access to and coordination of services, integration of primary and preventive care, adoption of recovery orientation and evidence-based practices, and family and community outreach, are ideal for the treatment of co-occurring disorders (COD). The authors cite individuals with COD as a target population for this kind of initiative.

A new study published in the Archives of General Psychiatry shows that although mental illness and violence are often thought by society to go together, the perception is not entirely true. "Mental illness alone does not increase the risk of violence," says Eric Elbogen, PhD, assistant professor of psychiatry, citing the results of his research at the the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Medicine.

In this memorandum, the Commissioners of the New York State Office of Mental Health (OMH) and New York State Office of Alcohol and Substance Abuse Services (OASAS) emphasize that individuals with co-occurring mental health and substance use disorders must receive screening, assessment, and treatment that addresses both conditions, and express their commitment to a patient-first philosophy.

The New York State Task Force on Co-Occurring Disorders (COD Task Force) was convened in June 2007 jointly by the New York State Office of Mental Health (OMH) and New York State Office of Alcohol and Substance Abuse Services (OASAS).

The New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene’s 2009 local government plan describes its ongoing initiatives to improve both the child and adult mental health service systems, and introduces new projects focusing on services for people with co-occurring disorders, physical wellness, and integration of mental and physical health care.

This overview of co-occurring disorder-related terms and definitions was prepared by the Co-Occurring Center for Excellence (COCE), which is funded by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

Screening, assessment, and treatment plans for co-occurring mental health and substance use disorders constitute specific principles that guide the provision of appropriate, client-centered services to persons with co-occurring disorders.

Treatment Improvement Protocol includes best-practice guidelines for the treatment of substance use disorders. The protocols are developed by the Center for Substance Abuse Treatment (CSAT), part of the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. CSAT draws on the experience and knowledge of clinical, research, and administrative experts to produce these protocols.

Integrated Dual Diagnosis Treatment (IDDT) is for people who have co-occurring mental health and substance use disorders. This treatment approach helps people recover by offering both mental health and substance use services at the same time and in one setting.

The United States Congress called on the Federal Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration to prepare a report outlining the scope of the problem, current treatment approaches, best practice models, and prevention efforts.

This presentation was prepared as part of a group process involving Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration’s Co-Occurring Center for Excellence and the 2003–2005 Co-occurring State Incentive Grant recipients. The presentation an introduction to the topic of screening and was most recently updated in June 2008.

This presentation was prepared as part of a group process involving Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration’s Co-Occurring Center for Excellence and the 2003–2005 Co-occurring State Incentive Grant recipients. The presentation an introduction to the assessment of co-occurring disorders and was most recently updated in June 2008.

This presentation was prepared as part of a group process involving Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration’s Co-Occurring Center for Excellence and the 2003–2005 Co-occurring State Incentive Grant recipients. This presentation—on the topic of services integration—is adapted from a presentation delivered to the COSIG workgroup by Richard N. Rosenthal, M.D., COCE Senior Fellow, and was updated in January 2008 for posting to the COCE Web.

This overview paper defines and explains services integration, and explains the difference between services integration and systems integration. Services integration refers to the process of merging previously separate clinical services at the level of the individual to meet the substance use, mental health, and other needs of persons with co-occurring mental health and substance use disorders.

In addition to distinguishing between systems and services integration, this paper describes the organizational structures and processes that can promote or inhibit systems integration.

In 1998 the National Association of State Alcohol and Drug Abuse Directors (NASADAD) in collaboration with the National Association of State Mental Health Program Directors (NASMHPD) convened State-level directors from alcohol and drug abuse agencies, mental health commissioners, expert panelists in mental health, and Federal officials to discuss opportunities and challenges to addressing co-occurring mental health and substance use disorders.

This report presents information on the prevalence and treatment of serious mental illness and their association with substance use based on the 2002 National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH). The survey, formerly known as the National Household Survey on Drug Abuse (NHSDA), is a project of the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration.

Community health centers are playing an increasingly central role in providing mental health and substance use treatment services in the United States. Between 1998 and 2003, the number of patients diagnosed with a mental health and/or substance use disorder in community health centers increased from 210,000 to 800,000, as found in this report in the American Journal of Public Health.

This report, Improving the Quality of Health Care for Mental and Substance-Use Conditions: Quality Chasm Series, examines the Quality Framework set forth in the Institute of Medicine, Crossing the Quality Chasm: A New Health System for the 21st Century (2001). This report concludes that the Quality Framework is applicable to health care for mental and substance use disorders, and describes a comprehensive strategy to do apply the Quality Framework.

This overview paper outlines 12 overarching principles for working with persons with co-occurring disorders. These principles are intended to help guide, but not define, clinical responses.

The advantages of employing evidence-based practices are now widely acknowledged across the medical, substance use, and mental health fields. This overview paper discusses evidence-based practices and their role in the treatment of co-occurring mental health and substance use disorders.

High-quality epidemiologic data are a cornerstone of planning services and improving service systems for persons with co-occurring mental health and substance use disorders. This paper is intended to serve as a starting point for those who wish to better understand the need for epidemiologic data, or to identify key sources for epidemiological data on co-occurring disorders.

This report presents information from the 2000 National Survey on Drug Use and Health, an annual survey sponsored by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration.

Only about half the people with mental health and substance use co-occurring disorders receive any services within either substance abuse or mental health settings.

In 2002 President Bush launched the New Freedom Commission on Mental Health to address the problems in the current mental health service delivery system.

Research on mental illness in relation to social problems, such as crime, unemployment, and homelessness, often ignores the broader social context in which mental illness is embedded. Policy, research, and practice will be improved if greater attention is given to the social context.