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The Print
11-07-2025
- Health
- The Print
IIT Kharagpur wants students to run to mommy. ‘Campus Mothers' is regression not innovation
From India, Atmiyata is a community-based mental health initiative that has shown evidence-based success in Maharashtra and Gujarat. Similar community mental health models in Japan and other countries have also shown encouraging rates of success. However, in their decades-long global history, community mental health support has never been the exclusive domain or responsibility of women. The urgent need to expand mental health support on college campuses and create multiple avenues of care and intervention is not under debate here. What merits scathing scrutiny is the blatant gender stereotyping disguised as an innovative initiative. The core idea of community-based healthcare initiatives like 'Campus Mothers' is not new. One of the earliest examples is Assertive Community Treatment (ACT), developed in the US in the 1970s, which includes Peer Support Specialists to provide mental health support. At a time when gender equity discussions are taking centre stage, IIT Kharagpur's reductive framing of women through the 'Campus Mothers' initiative as default caregivers is tragically regressive. Reinforcing outdated gender norms under the guise of support, it sidelines efforts for gender parity and ultimately does a disservice to all genders. Reducing women to mommy roles Framing caregiving as inherently feminine erases the contributions of others and reinforces regressive gender norms that hinder gender equitable participation in both caregiving and mental health advocacy. By soliciting the active participation of women as 'Campus Mothers', the initiative is likely to exclude other genders, especially men from this important mental health initiative, undermining the very equity that such programmes should strive to promote. 'Many of these women have experienced motherhood themselves—some have grown up children who may now be living abroad or otherwise independent. Having gone through motherhood, they understand the unique challenges children face,' said the director of IIT Kharagpur, Suman Chakraborty. We find this quote especially problematic. The notion that experiencing motherhood inherently grants women a magical capacity for empathy is both reductive and exclusionary. By that logic, men—having never experienced motherhood—are naturally disqualified from being empathetic. But empathy is not biologically bestowed through motherhood; it is cultivated through a range of life experiences, self-awareness, and emotional engagement. The best counsellors and therapists, or psychiatrists are not defined by their gender or parental status. A nurturing environment requires participation from all genders. Since 'Campus Mothers' involves training, why not train all genders? This initiative deliberately propagates the surrogate maternal figure, reinforcing the 'run-to-mommy-when-hurt' stereotype. Equally troubling is the assumption that older women, having completed their primary caregiving roles, now need something to 'fill their time'. And 'Campus Mothers' is supposed to be a productive way to keep them occupied. This framing is deeply patriarchal and condescending, reducing women's identities to domestic roles and positioning them as permanent caregivers for other people's children once their own have left home. Also read: Bengaluru is leading India's mental health revolution. VCs say it's the next big field Weaponising bias Audaciously enough, the 'Campus Mothers' initiative has also been called a leadership opportunity for women. 'By involving women as key emotional anchors on campus, the initiative also promotes women's participation and leadership in the academic community,' reads an article on The Bridge Chronicle. What kind of leadership opportunity is envisaged for women who participate in this programme? Do they get visibility for leadership roles traditionally held by men in the administrative hierarchy? Or do they get awards elevating them as 'Super Moms'? The whitewashing of participation in this initiative as a leadership opportunity for women is indeed a master stroke in hollow propaganda. As a faculty colleague seethingly stated, 'Why take measures to mitigate bias when you can weaponise it as an innovative initiative? Why reach for progress when we can swaddle ourselves in the predictable hum of inequality?' There will always be those who think that launching an initiative with the moniker 'Campus Mothers', specifically targeting women volunteers, is not gender biased. It is imperative to recognise this as insidious bias, and an especially dangerous one, as the initiative is couched as friendly, well-meaning, and innovative. Gender stereotypes have no place in the modern professional environment—least of all at a place of learning. As a premier research institute in India, IIT Kharagpur should be vigilant of the gendered message that it is sending to an impressionable student community. As important as it is to call out bias, it is also important to suggest gender parity approaches. Perhaps institutes could offer implicit bias training for all their members? When policies and initiatives are discussed, such training will help committee members identify bias at nascent stages and nip it in the bud. As for 'Campus Mothers', we hope IIT Kharagpur sets a shining example for the rest of India by rethinking and relaunching this important initiative for student well-being in a gender inclusive manner. The views expressed in the article above are of the PowerBio group members, a collective of women scientists from India. Sreelaja Nair is a developmental biologist working on understanding how vertebrate embryos develop. Suhita Nadkarni is a computational neurobiologist working on synaptic plasticity in health and disease. (Edited by Ratan Priya)
Yahoo
20-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Arize EHR Advances HopeWorks' Delivery of Integrated Mental Health and Housing Services
HopeWorks replaces aging EHR with Cantata's Arize platform to centralize communication, enable collaboration across stakeholders LAKEWAY, Texas, May 20, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Cantata Health Solutions, a leading provider of technology solutions for behavioral health and human services providers, announces that HopeWorks, one of the largest homeless service providers in New Mexico, has implemented the Arize platform to improve support for clients receiving services from multiple departments. The implementation of Arize allows the staff across 10 of HopeWorks' programs to operate within a single solution, providing enhanced communication and a holistic view of all the services provided to each client. This collaborative approach has simplified workflows, empowers the full treatment team to make informed decisions, and allows staff to quickly address emerging issues or crises. HopeWorks provides access to day shelter, housing, and mental/behavioral health services, as well as supportive services like the Psycho-Social Rehabilitation (PSR) Program and the Assertive Community Treatment (ACT) Program. The Albuquerque-based organization also opened a new Behavioral Health Center in November 2024. Arize integrates clinical, billing, medication management, and client engagement tools that HopeWorks has configured to meet the needs of each program and facility. This flexibility will also allow HopeWorks to expand the system if they add new service lines in the future. "We have a large campus and offer many services, so we need a user-friendly, web-based platform to communicate in one place about the clients we all share," said Heidi Shultz, CEO of HopeWorks. "Arize is bringing our teams together by allowing everyone to access the same system and information, which helps boost productivity while making staff happier. We know Arize will be able to grow with us as we continue to expand our programs." HopeWorks' previous EHR lacked collaboration tools and required extensive training just to learn the basics of how to use it. The system's limited functionality and steep learning curve lowered morale. By replacing the aging system with Arize, HopeWorks now has an EHR that staff can quickly learn to use and navigate. They can easily complete clinical documentation, share updates on client progress within their respective programs, and see the other services and treatments individuals and families receive. "The environment in which HopeWorks operates can be very challenging, especially when each program has a different view of clients' needs and individual staff have to manage cases in isolation," said Alan Tillinghast, CEO of Cantata Health Solutions. "Arize takes a different approach, offering all stakeholders access to all appropriate data across the organization, which enhances the team's ability to support clients. This ability to configure the EHR based on what the organization needs empowers HopeWorks to improve both the quality and integration of services provided." For more information about Cantata Health Solutions and the Arize EHR platform, please visit About Cantata Health Solutions Cantata Health Solutions is challenging the convention of complexity and transforming care for Behavioral Health and Human Services with Arize, a modern EHR designed to simplify work and eliminate the frustrations of outdated systems. Developed by experts driven by empathy with deep industry experience, Arize puts you in control—with tools that can run right out of the box or can be easily configured to adapt to providers' work. With integrated features like built-in telehealth, full mobile functionality, and real-time team collaboration, Arize eases workloads and empowers providers to elevate care to improve lives. For more information, visit View original content to download multimedia: SOURCE Cantata Health Solutions Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
Yahoo
17-05-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Opinion: Medicaid is holding our community together — we can't let it slip away
Every day as mayor, I witness stories in our community — of struggle, of strength and of second chances. I think of the young mother I met who, after years of substance use and homelessness, was able to get her life back on track after completing a residential treatment program. She's working again. Her children are back with her. Their family has been given a second chance at life together. I think of the man with mental health challenges who used to cycle in and out of jail, emergency rooms and shelters. He is now in recovery thanks to our Assertive Community Treatment team funded through Medicaid, and has a case manager, a place to live and stability for the first time in years. These stories aren't rare anymore. They are becoming our new reality. Because we've decided, as a community, to invest in care. We've decided that people matter. And that no one should fall through the cracks simply because they're struggling with addiction, mental illness or poverty. Medicaid is a lifeline. Yes, it's health insurance. But in Salt Lake County, it's also what allows us to keep families together, reduce homelessness, lower crime, and bring dignity back to lives that had lost it. It's what helps us build a stronger, safer, more compassionate Utah. That's why talk of cutting Medicaid — or shifting more of the cost to states — keeps me up at night. In Salt Lake County, Medicaid expansion currently helps fund nearly 500 residential treatment beds for people experiencing substance use disorders. It's allowed us to grow our Assertive Community Treatment (ACT) teams to serve 300 more people and to support the opening of the Kem and Carolyn Gardner Mental Health Crisis Center and other crisis services — programs that provide wraparound support to Utahns with serious mental illness who are frequent users of emergency services, hospitals, homeless shelters and jails. The price of cuts to that expansion wouldn't just be felt in budgets. It would be felt on our streets, in our jails, in our families. We would likely lose those 500 treatment beds for people in recovery. The Mental Health Crisis Center could be forced to turn people away. Housing supports would dry up. Our ability to help people reenter society after incarceration would be gutted. And the people left behind would be more likely to end up back in jail, back on the streets or worse. This isn't just about numbers. It's about who we are. In Utah, we believe in personal responsibility, but also in giving people the tools they need to rise. We believe in family. We believe in public safety. We believe that our community is only as strong as the support we offer in our hardest moments. Medicaid protects that. It protects our shared values. It protects the investments we've made in healing, in hope and in people. It's the bridge that connects a troubled past with a possible future. We need that bridge to stay strong. We are at a turning point. We've built momentum in our fight against homelessness, in how we support mental health, in how we treat addiction not as a crime, but as a condition. We're finally doing things right. But if we pull Medicaid out from under all of that, we don't just lose progress — we lose people. We lose families. We lose safety. We potentially lose our community as we know it. As Salt Lake County Mayor, I am calling on our leaders — both in Washington and here in Utah — to protect Medicaid. To protect the values that make Utah the place we're proud to call home. Let's not tear down what we've built together. Let's stand up for care, for compassion and for the preservation of our community.
Yahoo
29-04-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Thousands wait for long-term mental health treatment while Hochul pushes involuntary commitment
— This story originally appeared in New York Focus, a nonprofit news publication investigating power in New York. Thousands of New Yorkers around the state are sitting on waitlists for two state-funded mental health treatment and support programs, according to data obtained by the Legal Aid Society and reviewed by New York Focus. Some applicants wait years for voluntary long-term mental health support, even as the state has increased funding for such programs in recent years, the records show. The state and mental health advocates have embraced the programs — supportive housing and Assertive Community Treatment — as effective ways to help people with serious mental illnesses. Supportive housing programs offer people subsidized apartments or community residences staffed with service providers. ACT teams provide around-the-clock services and recovery programs, allowing people to live in their communities rather than in hospitals. While the state has boosted funding for the programs in recent years, there are more people seeking treatment than can receive it, and mental health advocates have said more is needed to meet that demand. The Legal Aid Society requested supportive housing and ACT data from 49 counties around the state over the past year. At the time they responded, all of the 19 jurisdictions that maintain the relevant data, including rural and urban areas as well as New York City, had waitlists for supportive housing programs, ranging from one month to more than two years. In some cases, the number of applicants on a county's waitlist was nearly double the available beds. Some of the counties did not have ACT programs, which are funded by the state and federal governments and administered by nonprofits. Eight counties reported that they have waitlists for ACT, while five counties said they do not. In February, advocates asked legislative leaders to boost funding for mental health and supportive housing programs in their budget proposals. In a letter, dozens of groups asked the state to expand ACT to eliminate waitlists, fund more supportive housing, and increase pay for mental health clinicians, among other measures. The Senate proposed new funding for ACT this year, but Hochul and the Assembly did not. Hochul proposed some new funding for the state's supportive housing programs, although advocates warn it would not be enough to keep all existing units from falling into disrepair or going offline. The legislature proposed a bigger funding boost for two of the programs. Hochul is currently negotiating a deal with the legislature on her flagship mental health budget item — to expand police and clinicians' power to involuntarily hospitalize people experiencing mental health crises. Advocates and downstate lawmakers contend that the governor's push to expand involuntary commitment — which involves coerced, short-term hospitalizations — overshadows the role of the voluntary supportive services that might prevent crises in the first place. Funding for such services may be in jeopardy after the Trump administration slashed federal grants. Last month, Hochul announced that the state Office of Mental Health expects to lose $27 million. 'We don't think it makes sense to expand involuntary commitment when we know that people are waiting for voluntary services,' said Nadia Chait, senior director of policy and advocacy for the Center for Alternative Sentencing and Employment Services, which receives state funding to provide mental health treatment. Asked for comment, Hochul's office referred New York Focus to the Office of Mental Health. 'The proposed changes to the state's involuntary commitment law are designed to ensure those most at risk of serious harm can get critical inpatient care before they are connected with the outpatient supports designed to help them live safely and stably in the community,' an OMH spokesperson said in a statement. As many as 5 percent of New York adults struggle with severe mental illnesses, according to the state comptroller's office, and there's been a sharp uptick in the number of people receiving mental health care from state programs in the past decade. But state leaders and advocates largely agree that more support is needed. State leaders have weighed how to tackle the challenge and its overlap with homelessness, which has more than doubled in New York in recent years. Some politicians, including Hochul, have framed the issue as one of public safety in the wake of extremely rare but high-profile assaults by people experiencing mental health crises. 'We have underinvested in mental health care for so long, and allowed the situation to become so dire, that it has become a public safety crisis as well,' Hochul said in 2023. That year, the governor announced a $1 billion, multi-year investment in the state's mental health system. Since then, the state has expanded its ACT and supportive housing programs. New York had launched 25 new ACT teams across the state and opened nearly 1,300 new OMH-funded supportive housing beds as of January. More of both are on the way, though Trump's federal cuts would hit both adult and youth ACT programs, Hochul's office said. The state has plans to build over 2,200 more short- and long-term supportive housing residences. That's a start, said Doug Cooper, interim executive director of the Association for Community Living, an organization of nonprofit housing and rehabilitation providers — but not nearly enough. 'To New York state and OMH's credit, they are adding units every year,' Cooper said, adding that New York has far more mental health supportive housing than other states. But building and staffing new units takes a long time, and the demand still far outweighs the supply. The supportive housing waitlist in Westchester County alone was close to 1,300 people, records show, while Suffolk County's was nearly 1,600 people long last May. Even in counties with significantly shorter waitlists, like Lewis and Monroe, people seeking supportive housing have had to wait anywhere from a few months to nearly a year. Assessing the full extent of supportive housing demand is impossible, Cooper said, but his organization estimates that there's a roughly 30,000-bed shortfall. 'We just don't have the capacity,' he said. 'Something like mental health emergency crisis apartments, the wait time could be two to three months,' said Lauren Nakamura, a staff attorney with the Legal Aid Society, referencing the new data. ''Emergency crisis' implies a level of urgency, and if even those spots are not available, then there's a real problem.' 'Governor Hochul's $1 billion investment to strengthen our mental health system has significantly expanded outpatient behavioral health services, outreach teams, peer support and specialized housing statewide,' the OMH spokesperson said. In addition to ACT and supportive housing expansion, OMH pointed to new regulations aimed at helping people connect with support when they leave inpatient treatment, dozens of new support teams to help people find and coordinate housing and care, and a planned expansion of the behavioral health clinics system. Hochul herself has acknowledged that the recent cash infusions aren't filling all the gaps. In her State of the State speech in January, she said the investments in the state's mental health system had not been adequate to tackle what she describes as a problem of 'severely mentally ill and homeless' people on the streets, particularly in the New York City transit system. 'We cannot allow our subway to be a rolling homeless shelter,' she said, and held up expanding involuntary commitments as a solution. Hochul's proposal includes changes to state laws that allow police to remove people experiencing mental health crises from their homes or the streets and take them to a hospital if officers or a clinician assess that the person poses a risk to themself or others. The proposal would expand the scenarios under which authorities can involuntarily commit someone, including if they 'are at substantial risk of harm due to their inability to meet basic needs like food, shelter, or medical care.' The mayors of all of the state's largest cities have voiced their support for Hochul's proposal. Mayor Eric Adams similarly expanded involuntary commitment in New York City three years ago. While it's difficult to pinpoint the impact the expansion has had on residents' access to intensive mental health care, data shows that people sent to hospitals under involuntary commitment laws often are not admitted. Last year, police officers in New York City transported people to the hospital on 7,721 occasions under the state mental hygiene law, according to city data. In most instances, people were taken from their residences, not from the subway or the streets. and for those transports where the relevant data is available, 42 percent of people who were taken to the hospital — some in handcuffs — weren't actually admitted for inpatient treatment. Meanwhile, homelessness in New York City is currently higher than at any point in the past two decades, when the city first started keeping track. 'Expanding involuntary removals and commitments is not going to actually address the problem that [Hochul] wants it to solve,' said Alison Wilkey, director of government affairs for the Coalition for the Homeless. 'People who were involuntarily removed are going to the hospital and then being released back into the streets and subways without the care that they need.' Mental health advocates say the approach often does more harm than good, especially when there aren't services to help people when they leave the hospital. 'It's kicking the can down the road,' said Nakamura of Legal Aid. Many have pushed for an approach like the one used in supportive housing and ACT programs, which keeps people in their communities or connects them with housing if they're homeless. The city has its own capacity issues with supportive housing and ACT. Homeless people accepted into supportive housing programs, whether for mental health care or other types of services, waited an average of 367 days as of last summer. Meanwhile, many supportive housing units in the city are empty for a variety of reasons, including because they need improvements or because people can't afford the rent. The city placed over 1,400 people on an ACT waitlist last year. There were 672 people on the waitlist as of last month, Gothamist reported. (OMH said this week that its planned ACT expansion 'is expected to eliminate the existing ACT waitlist in New York City,' though it's unclear how federal cuts will impact those plans.) According to Cooper, of the Association for Community Living, Hochul's involuntary commitment proposal makes expanding supportive housing even more urgent. 'If they're going to strengthen involuntary commitment, there has to be the investment in services for that to work,' he said. Neither the Senate nor the Assembly included Hochul's proposed changes to the involuntary commitment laws in their own budgets, and the topic has been one of a number of policy issues that is holding up budget negotiations. As of last week, no deal had been reached, according to Jo Anne Simon, chair of the Assembly Committee on Mental Health. The status of negotiations over supportive housing and ACT funding are unclear. 'There is a problematic assumption that if somebody isn't being treated, that it needs to be coercive,' said Simon. 'The real problem with people not getting treatment is the unavailability of treatment.'
