May 15, 2013

Each May, we as a nation recognize Mental Health Awareness Month, during which we call for changes in the current system and stress the importance of mental health services. Following the tragedy in our area just a month ago at the Boston Marathon, mental health awareness as it relates to violence and coping is more important than perhaps ever before.

In Boston, where there was the biggest impact, the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority and the American Red Cross continue to present tips for coping on MBTA trains, and experts have been in the news for the past month offering guidance, while also analyzing the mental health of the bombing suspects.

The trauma of such an event can stay with those directly affected and those who suffered an indirect impact for months, even years. The psyche of our state has changed, but the attention on the mental health issues this trauma has uncovered and the process of coping are actually a positive step toward removing the stigma that remains with mental health issues, not just in our communities, but across the nation.

In the wake of the Boston Marathon tragedy and the number of mass casualty events our nation has experienced in recent months and years, we have finally begun to have the difficult discussions about mental health and the necessity to integrate it into health care systems on the national level, but what’s even more important are the conversations we are having in our homes and in our communities. Each family experiencing the impact of mental illness is different, but many feel the same shame or guilt that may make them shy away from the conversation and feel isolated from their neighbors or the community as a whole.

With the lack of conversation, it is often difficult for families and individuals to know about the services that are available to them. During the past 170 years, Child & Family Services has been expanding from New Bedford, and now our clinicians and psychiatrists offer mental health services and therapy throughout the region, adding our Fall River office in the early 1980s, and on Cape Cod, most recently with the Harwich Port location in 2012. We have been making mental health care more available to families and individuals in need, but we need the assistance of our communities to help us continue to make strides toward removing the stigma.

If you know someone with a mental illness, don’t walk on eggshells around them — talk about their illness and how they are coping, see if you can help, just as you would if they had a physical injury. By talking to those with mental illnesses, rather than shunning them like all too many people do, we can continue chipping away at the stigma and encourage those with illnesses not to feel ashamed about seeking assistance. After all, no one would be ashamed of visiting a doctor for a physical malady.

Just like a physical condition, mental illnesses require the proper attention, care and support, although unlike physical issues, many with treatable mental illnesses don’t seek help. They may not realize their conditions are treatable, they may feel unnecessary shame or they may not know where to start looking for support. It is the responsibility of everyone, not just those with a close friend or family member with mental illness, to start talking about mental health issues, offer an ear to listen or help find support services, and not just during Mental Health Awareness Month, but year-round.

This is the second guest column in a series from Child & Family Services celebrating our 170th anniversary. For more information about our mental health services available throughout the South Coast, click here.

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JOB CODE: IHTHY02

Requirements

• Masters Degree in Psychology, Social Work or a related field from an accredited educational institution.
• Experience/interest in child/adolescent family and intensive home-based family interventions.
• Able to provide clinical care and support toward effort to prevent hospitalization and maintain youth safely in community.
• Valid Driver’s License Required.

Summary

In-Home Therapy is a structured, consistent, strengths-based therapeutic relationship between a licensed clinician and the youth and family for the purpose of meeting the youth’s behavioral health needs, including improving the family’s ability to provide effective support for the youth to promote his/her healthy functioning within the family. Interventions are designed to enhance the family’s capacity to improve the youth’s functioning in the home and community and may prevent the need for the youth’s admission to an inpatient hospital, residential treatment facility or other treatment setting

Responsibilities

The following responsibilities are not meant to be all inclusive and may be adjusted to meet the agency’s needs.

• Provide direct diagnostic, crisis intervention and treatment services including behavioral strategies within a therapeutic relationship to assist persons to achieve stabilization with the family.
• Advocacy
• Utilize diagnostic skills involving practical knowledge of the DSM-IV and family assessment tools.
• Aggression outreach, tracking and follow-up.
• Maintain production expectations and record keeping requirements.
• Behavioral management training.
• Provide diagnostic and treatment consultation to other agency programs and community agencies.
• Provide Family therapy.
• Participate in appropriate clinical and administrative staff meetings.
• Participate in independent education and training opportunities.
• Training assistance in decision-making, vocational guidance, skill building, problem solving, and support in both crisis and non-crisis situations.

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HYANNIS — Ina Gould does a lot more than talk therapy when she visits the homes of child clients as a therapist with Child & Family Services.

She has helped young clients with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder organize cubbies to store belongings and demonstrated deep breathing techniques to families with a child diagnosed with anxiety.

The goal of Child & Family Services’ in-home therapy program, provided under the umbrella of the state’s Child Behavioral Health Initiative, is to get parents to understand a child’s diagnosis and help them manage the child’s behavior.

The program, which rolled out three years ago, has proved to reduce symptoms, meltdowns and child hospitalizations, program director Kristen Davies said.

“It’s truly family therapy,” said Gould, who travels from Hyannis to Orleans to counsel families whose children have been diagnosed with mental health disorders including ADHD, depression, post-traumatic stress syndrome and obsessive compulsive disorder.

“I get to feel and see what the home is like,” Gould said. “I’m seeing where they function.”

Her primary client is the child, who in almost all cases also has a therapist.

Gould said her job is to help everyone in the family understand what’s going on and what the diagnosis means.

“I work with the big picture,” she said. “The family dynamic can really make something better” — or worse.

For instance, when a child with ADHD doesn’t follow through with requests to clean the bedroom, the parents might feel “the child is just being oppositional out of spite,” Gould said.

But the children function best with “much more specific instructions,” Gould said. She said she helps parents break their requests into smaller bits — starting with a request to make the bed, for instance.

She also provides lots of phone support and help with referrals for everything from psychiatry to food pantries.

Often Gould takes a team approach, traveling with a colleague with a bachelor’s degree who may talk to the mother while she counsels the child, she said.

“It’s a wonderful approach to help kids and families heal what needs to be healed,” Gould said.

The program also is intended to save families the time and money associated with making extra trips to the therapist’s office, Davies said.

It is open only to children on MassHealth, the state version of Medicaid, a government-subsidized program for lower-income families.

“It’s a very effective form of treatment,” Davies said.

Child & Family Services is a nonprofit organization with offices in New Bedford, Fall River, Hyannis — and a newly opened location in Harwich Port.

It provides mental health services and child welfare programs for children, adults and families.

The in-home support is part of a state initiative to reduce mental health hospitalizations and provide more care in the community, Davies said.

“It’s a very effective form of treatment,” she said. It gives families a “lot more support about how to navigate their children’s mental health needs.”

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http://www.capecodonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20130506/NEWS/305060307

To learn more about Child & Family Services’ In-Home Therapy program, click here »

Director of Contracted Services
Program Director for Adoption Journeys
Child & Family Services
66 Troy Street
Fall River, MA

My role in the agency.

I first came to Child & Family Services in 1982 as a BSW intern from Bridgewater State College in the Young Parent Support Program and I never left. I’ve held many different positions from running the agency food bank, running a summer camp, being a Parent Mentor worker, an Adoption Worker, Adoption Supervisor, Coordinator of Regional Services, Director of Adoption Journeys, and now a dual role as Director of Contracted Services and Program Director for Adoption Journeys. My responsibilities for Adoption Journeys include oversight of fiscal, programmatic and overall service delivery of our statewide Adoption Journeys program at five sites (Fall River, Worcester, Somerville, Florence & Lawrence). In my role as Director of Contracted Services, I supervise the Directors of our Young Parent Support, Parent Mentor and Adoption Programs. Together with the Directors of these programs I share the responsibility for fiscal and overall programmatic issues.

What working at Child & Family Services means to me.

I consider myself lucky to have been placed as an intern at Child & Family Services over 30 years ago. Although I have been employed on a part-time basis by other agencies during my tenure here, I have always maintained full-time employment here as well. In my positions over the years, I have collaborated with and been exposed to many different agencies and realized how special Child & Family Services truly is. I have seen the agency grow from one site with about 30 employees to what we are today!

Goals I’d like to accomplish.

My main goal for each day and my career is to be able to say, “I have done the best I am capable of today” and know that there is always room for improvement. Knowing that success for the children and families we serve, and for ourselves, is measured in many different ways. Recognizing how things can change for the better and challenging myself to think out of the box to better serve others is a constant goal.

A few of my favorite things.

I love the water during all four seasons! The sounds, the sights, the smells and all that come with it! Combine reading by the water and that is my “happy place”. I enjoy walking, skiing and need to get back into cycling (a goal this summer). And of course, I love riding my motorcycle. I love going on rides alone or with others. Riding makes you focus on all that is around you and forget about other things. The feel of the wind, the smells of the earth and all your surroundings are all part of the experience.

I love spending time with the children in my life. I love to travel. Being able to do these things full-time is the goal for my retirement!

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Recent gun violence has crowded news headlines across the nation, raising difficult questions within our government about gun control, but also bringing much-needed attention to the connections between gun violence and mental health awareness and care. Although Massachusetts has some of the strictest laws surrounding purchasing firearms, there have been significant increases in gun violence and deaths here in recent years, with 122 murders committed with firearms in 2011 as compared with only 65 in 1998, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, a trend that persists nationwide. While not nearly every gun-related death is tied to mental health, the high-profile tragedies in Connecticut and Colorado in 2012 brought to light the mental health of violent offenders and the gaping holes in our country’s health care system where mental health is concerned.

Children and adults alike frequent physicians’ offices, dentists and specialists to keep their physical health in check, but the vast majority do not speak to their physicians about mental health issues. For hundreds of years there has been a stigma around those with mental health illnesses, but if we are going to stop tragedies like Sandy Hook from happening, we have to consider mental health as an increasingly important part of a person’s overall health and well-being.

Nearly everyone knows someone who struggles with mental health, whether it’s anxiety, depression or another illness. They may not talk about it openly, but it is important for everyone to be aware of the warning signs and know what resources are available. It can be difficult to spot warning signs, but some include extremely low or high moods, social withdrawal, dramatic changes in sleeping or eating habits, and inability to cope with daily problems. Once we identify a possible problem, the vital next step is to find out what services are available to properly treat an illness. Many people may deny their own illnesses or those of family members and friends because of the stigma that has existed for so long, but with increased violence related to mental health comes increased recognition of the need to treat it as well. Here in New Bedford, we at Child & Family Services have masters-level clinicians who offer comprehensive assessments through our Emergency Services Program, coupled with ongoing counseling programs and support groups for individuals of all ages to work toward diagnosing and treating mental illness so we all can live happy, healthy and successful lives.

There are crisis stabilization programs in place as well to prevent anyone from doing harm to themselves or others. One of these programs is a voluntary Community Crisis Stabilization Center here in New Bedford, which works in tandem with the Emergency Services Program for those suffering from mental illnesses to receive referral-based expert care after an initial clinical assessment. As part of the Community Crisis Stabilization program, clients meet with counselors on a daily basis to learn about psycho-education, symptom management, coping strategies, stress relief and more. This short-term program focuses on returning clients to the community as soon as possible with the care needed to successfully cope and the knowledge to know when to get help.

Programs like ours should not be so uncommon or unknown. Mental health is an important issue and one that we cannot continue sweeping under the rug. As we have seen recently, easy access to firearms and little integration between physical and mental health can be a deadly combination, and without more of a focus on mental health care, it is highly unlikely we will be able to do anything to stop this tragic trend. Keep an eye out on your own mental health and that of those around you and don’t hesitate to get help, even if it’s just discussing your mental health with your primary care physicians. The resources are out there, but it is all of our jobs to keep the spotlight on mental health and the need for increased integration between physical and mental care to reduce the likelihood of these tragedies.

This is the second guest column in a series from Child & Family Services celebrating the agency’s 170th anniversary.

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Mike Page, LICSW, is site manager and community crisis stabilization program coordinator who oversees the Emergency Services Program at Child & Family Services.

http://www.southcoasttoday.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20130422/OPINION/304220326/-1/NEWS06

Job Code: ESCNON1

Qualifications

• Master’s degree in Social Work, Psychology or related field.
• Two years post-grad experience in a mental health setting or one year supervised internship at graduate level.
• Ability to work a flexible schedule including weekends.

Responsibilities

The following responsibilities are not meant to be all inclusive and may be adjusted to meet the agency’s needs.

• Complete intake data form by telephone or in person either on site or at outreach locations.
• Confirm health care coverage.
• Conduct comprehensive mental health status exam utilizing an admissions/screening instrument which includes providing a diagnosis in accordance with the DSM IV.
• Telephone screening and consultations.
• Have an understanding of different treatment modalities that can be applied to stabilize clients in their home and prevent hospitalization.
• Consult with clinic director/administrator on call and or consulting psychiatrist prior to disposition plan to include outpatient services, hospitalization or hospital diversion.
• Participate in regularly scheduled clinical supervision, staff meetings, staff development and training curriculum.

View Available Benefits

Job Code: MHWCU1

Qualifications

• Minimum Associates Degree
• Bachelor’s Degree preferred (Degree may be waived depending on experience)

Summary

Works as a member of a multidisciplinary team, to provide immediate short-term relief to individuals suffering from an acute psychiatric episode.

Responsibilities

The following responsibilities are not meant to be all inclusive and may be adjusted to meet the agency’s needs.

• Participates in treatment planning under the direction of nursing.
• Maintains client confidentiality at all times
• Assist in assessment of client behavior.
• Run both activity and therapeutic groups during their shift.
• Assist in both the admission and discharge process.
• Records progress notes in client’s charts every shift.
• Assist clients in activities of daily living, as necessary.
• Assist in meal preparation.
• Provide assistance to client in filling out MBY/Disability forms.
• Provide daily upkeep to the unit.

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FALL RIVER – In the mid 1800s, local children who’d lost their parents begged on the streets and stole from shops to eat.

Some of the children were left homeless by mothers who passed away and fathers who died at sea during the whaling era. Others came from “mixed marriages” between Catholic and Protestant parents.

These children, left to their own devices at a young age, were hard to place with adoptive families as were “children of color” and those with “dark skin.”

Those days are in the past. But the organization that helped those children, and thousands of other kids throughout the decades, is still advocating for a better life for children and their families.

Child & Family Services is celebrating its 170th anniversary.

“It started as an orphanage,” said Barbara Beckman, site director of the Fall River location at 66 Troy St.

The organization was founded by three Quaker women as the New Bedford Orphans’ Home in 1843. The original charter, photographs and records that date back to those early days are all on file at its New Bedford headquarters.

Adoptions were at the top of the organization’s list in those early days, as well as today. Workers back then went out to homes and took extremely descriptive handwritten notes about the prospective family. The documentation was then typed on parchment paper.

Some of the notes contain details about the look of the home, like its “well-maintained cobblestone sidewalk,” as well as how the people were dressed, their manners, their facial expressions and even how they set their table.

By 1878, it was reported that 90 percent of the children who left the orphan’s home were living “useful and industrious lives,” said Sharon Silvia, director of contractual services.

In 1910, the orphanage became the New Bedford Children’s Aid Society. It employed two women and cared for 33 children. By 1919, it employed 12 women and cared for 178 kids.

During World War I, the organization offered free care to the children of soldiers. It created the Milk and Food Fund for undernourished children during the Great Depression and World War II.

The organization merged with the New Bedford Welfare Society in 1945 and became New Bedford Child & Family Service from 1948-99, ending its orphanage roots around the 1940s or so.

The agency expanded into Fall River in 1982.

Today, Child & Family Services, one of the largest nonprofits in the state, has 11 locations in Fall River, New Bedford, Cape Cod, Lawrence, and throughout the state of Massachusetts.

It is also the oldest and largest adoption agency in Massachusetts.

It employs more than 400 people — about 100 in Fall River — and serves 20,000 individuals and families each year in a variety of ways.

The organization has a contract with the state to adopt out hard-to-place children, such as large groups of siblings. Its largest adoption was a family of eight children to one home.

Beyond adoption, Child & Family Services works in all aspects of making families stronger in an ever-changing society.

“The focus is on trying to involve parents,” Beckman said.

It offers programs for young parents, parent mentoring, mental health services, trauma and abuse assessment, school-based programs, support groups for people with mental illness, Big Brothers and Big Sisters and other services.

“CFS has a long history of helping clients,” Beckman said. “The agency is committed.”

To learn more about Child & Family Services, call the Fall River office at 508-676-5708.

http://www.heraldnews.com/news/x633475114/Child-Family-Services-celebrates-170-years-of-serving-city-state#ixzz2QFgAscGE

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