How peer-led support can change mental health outcomes
Interview with Taina Laing
Taina Laing became CEO of Baltic Street Wellness Solutions, a peer-run organization focused on mental wellness, in the summer of 2020. But, she has been with Baltic Street for nearly 23 years, starting in 2002 at the organization’s Baltic Bazaar, a thrift store on Atlantic Avenue in Brooklyn. There, she assisted individuals with mental health diagnoses get back into the workforce through Baltic’s Assisted Competitive Employment program.
Laing, who graduated from Stony Brook University with a Masters in Social Work, said she firmly believes that peer-led support has the ability to change mental health outcomes across the nation and hopes that through advocacy and leadership, the stigma surrounding mental health can be dismantled – calling herself a testament of resiliency…
Expanding the clubhouse model and community based therapy
Interview with Ken Zimmerman
Clubhouses in the mental health space are a form of community-based therapy. The model was introduced in the 1930s and 1940s as a form of psychosocial rehabilitation. Clubhouses focus on providing services to people with serious mental illness. The goal is to rehabilitate members back into society where they can thrive and be healthy.
Fountain House, a New York City nonprofit which has pioneered the clubhouse model, focuses on providing free, safe, and diverse spaces for its 2,000 members. The voluntary organization encourages members to help design and lead activities. Members also, through participation in the program, saw their Medicaid costs drop 21%, according to an NYU study. “Among individuals who used Fountain House services, we see a reduction in medical costs of $637 per month from the 12-month period before enrollment to the 12-month period after enrollment,” said James Knickman and Claudia Solís-Román, the lead researchers on the study…
Fighting to save the state’s Health Home program
Interview with Matthew Lesieur
The Governor’s budget for fiscal year 2025 included significant budget cuts to programs. The Health Home program, a service that currently provides for 170,000 New Yorkers, is on the guillotine.
Health Home focuses on individuals in the Medicaid program who need coordinated care. Members in the program suffer from mental and physical illnesses like HIV, sickle cell disease, and depression. The program finds qualifying constituents through hospitals who report individuals who repeatedly go to the ER for non-ambulatory services. These individuals do not have general practitioners or care plans.
iHealth, a coalition of twenty-one community-based organizations providing specialized care management services across New York State, is appealing to the state Legislature to reject this proposed cut…