Addressing Health Care Disparities and COVID-19: Mental Illness Prevention in Communities of Color.

As the COVID-19 pandemic emerged in March 2020, the New York State Office of Mental Health received funding from the Federal Emergency Management Agency to implement the agency's Crisis Counseling Assistance and Training Program statewide. Because COVID-19 infections were disproportionately affecting minority communities of color, engagement strategies that prioritized contracting with community agencies that were already well established in the most highly affected racial-ethnic minority neighborhoods were used. This approach to outreach successfully made engagement and counseling support available to Black and Hispanic citizens, at levels significantly exceeding their proportional representation in the state population.

Effect of the Communities that HEAL intervention on receipt of behavioral therapies for opioid use disorder: A cluster randomized wait-list controlled trial.

Background: The U.S. opioid overdose crisis persists.

Redesigning Public Mental Health Systems Post-COVID-19.

The COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted public mental health systems across the country, nowhere more than in New York State (NYS). The authors describe the NYS public health agency's response to the pandemic and offer ideas for redesigning public mental health systems post-COVID-19.