On March 1st, President Biden announced a strategy to address the national mental health crisis as part of his first State of the Union. At Better Life Partners, we applaud and loudly support this strategy because it aligns with what we know will work based on our experience.
How Better Life Partners’ is Addressing the Mental Health Crisis in Alignment with the President’s Strategy
Our vision is to rebuild communities by transforming lives, with a focus on those affected by addiction and mental illness. While we are fully aligned with the President’s agenda, we want to highlight key areas of focus where our innovations have had a sizable impact. These innovations, if implemented at scale, could help further push the President’s strategy on Mental Health. *The full fact sheet can be found here.
Expand the availability of evidence-based community mental health services
We partner with local community-based organizations to bring primary and behavioral care to people with addiction and trauma. These partnerships, along with our telehealth options, help us expand service availability across states and populations With 20% of our members without housing and 48% screening positive for depression, our ability to provide user-friendly telehealth service brings accessible care to the populations who need it the most. And, within 30 days of joining Better Life Partners, members with depression see their depressive symptoms go into remission.
Expand access to tele- and virtual mental health care options
In addition to our in-person services, we also offer virtual/telehealth services across New England because it’s proven to be a safe and effective option for treating various health concerns, including addiction and trauma. It also increases access to care, allowing our members to reach us right when they need us, wherever they are. We recently expanded to Massachusetts, bringing our virtual and in-person care options to more people in need.
Embed and co-locate mental health and substance use providers into community based settings
This is our bread and butter at Better Life Partners. Our mission is to partner with community-based organizations to bring primary care to their members with addiction and trauma. With over 80 partners across New England, we’re able to better serve those in need, right where they are, right when they need care. As our members have said, “[The best part about BLP is] the community. The people and the connection between the people.”
Increase mental health resources for justice-involved populations
27% of our members are on probation when they start receiving our services. We know that the criminal justice system often retraumatizes those involved, which is why it’s critical that we offer trauma treatment and harm reduction services to folks who are justice involved. In fact, we make interventions for trauma a core pillar of everything we do. We show our members unrelenting support and work with them on developing coping skills and processing their experiences. From over 1,000 member surveys, 96% of our members said we “show them kindness and compassion” and 94% said they “feel welcomed as part of a community.”
Promote the mental well-being of our frontline workforce
With 75% of front line health workers reporting burnout, it’s critical that we care for our team as we do our members. To prevent burnout and improve the wellbeing of our team, we’ve recently expanded our benefits to include 4 weeks paid vacation, sick days, and wellness days to support the holistic health of our staff. We also offer remote work stipends, professional development opportunities, and more.
Want to work for us? Check out our careers page. Want to work with us? Check out our partners page.
To watch the full State of the Union, see below. The transcript can be found here.
