This month’s blog comes to us from our good friend Janet. We are grateful that she is willing to share it with us. I watch CBS Sunday Morning whenever I am home on the weekends. Last Sunday, they featured a story that is just all too common. 17-year old high school student Alexandra Valoras was…
This story was submitted by one of our Board Members and we thought it very appropriate to share with you. Good Will When You Least Expect It This morning I stopped for gas on the way to work. It’s a small station but always has the best prices. There are only 4 pumps, two on…
There is a lot of media attention being paid to the opioid addiction crisis we’re currently facing in this country. And with good reason. In 2017, more than 130 people died each day from opioid-related drug overdoses. That’s more than 47,000 people. That’s more than the number of people who died from breast cancer. That’s…
What is Core? In 2017, Westchester County Jail received an award from the National Commission on Correctional Health Care for implementing a progressive mental health program known as CORE, or the Community Oriented Re-Entry Program. The jail partnered with the Department of Community Mental Health who contributed staff and also invited several community providers to…
In this blog post, we welcome a member of our Board of Directors who has chosen to share her thoughts and observations on the subject of mental health stigma. The Battle Against Stigma Starts with Us All I am proud to be a member of the Board of Directors for CHOICE of NY. I believe…
A Smile & A Good Deed Go A Long Way In our latest post, we offer up a guest blog from Elizabeth Pedley, aka Sylvia Forrest, author of A View From My Window, a book of wonderfully enlightening short stories. She recently had an interaction with an Uber driver who reminded her just how impactful…
Cyber-bullying… technological overload… high-tech isolation… violent and realistic video games. And these are only some of the challenges facing our youth today. Add to that, the fact that globally, depression is one of the leading causes of illness and disability among adolescents, and you can see why the theme for this year’s World Mental Health…
In our latest post, we offer up a guest blog from Elizabeth Pedley, aka Sylvia Forrest, author of A View From My Window, a book of wonderfully enlightening short stories. Elizabeth will occasionally be blogging for us in the future so stay tuned for more of her inspirational stories. She recently had an exchange with…
In our opinion, the first step in helping someone… anyone, actually… is to recognize their value as a human being. At CHOICE, we operate under the premise that everyone who walks through our doors deserves to be treated with dignity and respect. And in that vein, we don’t pigeon-hole ourselves with regard to what types…
Two celebrity suicides made news recently. It’s a tragedy. Even more of a tragedy is that the rate of suicide is growing in this country. And whenever a well known celebrity suffers from this fate, the news media brings the issue into our collective consciousness for a brief moment and gives us the opportunity to…