Social Determinants of Health

This technical assistance brief will review many aspects of crisis system collaboration, incorporating stakeholder input gathered during this exciting transition from a default emergency medical and law enforcement response to a more intentional, varied continuum of behavioral health crisis responses.

This paper focuses on the potential that technological innovations have in making behavioral health crisis services more accessible and equitable across the United States and includes case studies from states and providers who were early adopters of leveraging technology to facilitate crisis care.

This paper discusses employee- and organization-level strategies to combat barriers to employee recruitment, retention, and wellness among the crisis response and general behavioral health workforce.

This paper presents best practices that will help to circumvent current challenges facing peer support workers and allow them to integrate within the crisis continuum.

This technical assistance brief reviews areas of critical need in mental health services across the United States. It discusses the behavioral health workforce, youth mental wellness, the justice system, social determinants of health, suicide, and drug-related overdose fatalities. It highlights five core principles that guide strategies to combat these problems.

This advisory highlights the need for primary substance use prevention programs for young adults ages 18 to 25 with disabilities, provides guidance to prevention specialists on designing and tailoring these programs, and describes factors that may affect the delivery of prevention.

This tool highlights examples of successful People With Lived or Living Experience (PWLLE) engagement in data collection, interpretation and dissemination, as well as novel approaches to community-based participatory research, such as patient journey mapping and PWUD/researcher collectives. It also includes key considerations for gathering and disseminating data. The target audience for this tool includes the staff of epidemiology and surveillance departments.

This tool highlights another valuable method for health departments to ensure the inclusion of People With Lived or Living Experience (PWLLE): establishing grantmaking programs and developing meaningful partnerships with community-based organizations (CBOs) that are led for and by PWLLE, including harm reduction organizations. The target audience for this tool includes all staff within substance use-related departments.

This tool highlights examples of successful People With Lived and Living Experience (PWLLE) engagement in data collection, interpretation and dissemination, gathered through key informant interviews — including overdose fatality review committees, drug checking, patient surveys and overdose reversal reporting — as well as novel approaches to community-based participatory research.

This tool identifies key elements for health departments to consider when hiring People With Lived and Living Experience (PWLLE), from identification and description of job roles and responsibilities to recruitment and interviewing.