Reply to posts from other students, answer questions, and continue the conversation. This is just a discussion post with two of my peers. You helped me with my post a few days ago. If you need me to repost the main discussion again let me know.
What are two research-informed recommendations that you have that would strengthen the services they are providing? Some examples may include vulnerable populations that need the service, but something is preventing the agency from including them, accessibility to services such as transportation, language assistance, etc.; duplication of services, lack of service coordination, etc.).
My agency is a smaller therapy agency that has about ten staff members as it is a private practice. There are only about 300 active clients. A barrier I have noticed is accessibility to services such as transportation. I have one client in mind as I am writing this week’s discussion. This client is school-aged still, he is 17 years old, and he does not have the best at-home life. This client was being taken to therapy sessions by a mentor who has taken this client under her wing. Recently she has had some medical concerns that have made it so she is bedridden for at least six weeks. Due to this client not having a reliable at-home life, he has already missed our first sessions since his mentor had her health concerns come up. When my task supervisor and I staffed this her solution was for the client to potentially walk to sessions. I feel as if this is not a good idea as we live in Arizona. With this said we did not get to staff it fully as she had back-to-back clients all day on Tuesday. I was thinking of looking into programs that offer bus passes or see if there is a way to refer out for transportation some way. This client has a unique situation as he does not have insurance, but we are offering him free sessions since I am an intern which I thought was very generous of them! Upon completing a little research, I found that 2-1-1 does have some services that offer clients free rides to and from appointments for “heat relief”. I think this program can be super beneficial for this particular client and others in the future as well.
Another recommendation I have is discussing the lack of service coordination within the agency. Since it is a private practice, they don’t complete referrals for clients, but I think this would benefit clients who have a lack of care. I am a case manager for my employment so I was thinking of talking to my supervisor at my internship about how we can connect with some agencies that offer a variety of services such as the agency I work for. I am a kids care manager for my job, and at my internship, I have only worked with the adolescent population so far during therapy sessions. There are a couple of times I have thought that some of my clients would benefit from behavior coaching, art therapy, and some other services. I want to look into making a connection between my internship and my job as well as other behavioral health agencies to see if they would work with us on referring our clients for additional treatment. At my job, we also have primary care doctors so I feel like this would be beneficial to refer some of the clients. Spectrum Healthcare, where I work takes Medicaid clients mostly, but they also work with people who have other insurance, as well as have self-pay on a sliding fee scale. When I am at the school down the road from my internship on half of my Mondays, I notice the population is in a lower SES and has a lot of gang affiliation. I feel like introducing a deeper level of coordination of care would benefit the people who are seen at my internship and provide them with additional services on top of therapy.
Include how you came to your recommendation and include the data and/or research to share currently what is happening and where the recommendations will take the program if implemented.
For my first recommendation, I looked up free transportation in Arizona and it came up with the 2-1-1 website which the number is a transportation hotline: https://211arizona.org/crisis/heat-relief/transportation/Links to an external site. . I also noticed there is something called dial-a-ride in Phoenix that charges people 4 dollars one way to commute from point A to Point B. Valley Metro, https://www.valleymetro.org/fares/reduced-fare-programLinks to an external site. also offers reduced bus passes for kids ages 6-18. If a Medicaid card holder or a student shows their student ID, identification card, or driver’s license, they can fill out an application to receive this in the mail or pick it up at one of their offices. I feel like bringing this information to my agency will allow them to give these resources to the clients we have to make their therapy sessions in order to meet their goals. Thinking about the client I was discussing; I am going to give him a call and see if I can do a home visit to help him look at transportation options with my task supervisor present during this visit. This will help him be able to make our sessions with the barriers he currently has surrounding this. I feel like this can be very beneficial for any client who expresses a transportation barrier.
For my second recommendation, I got my information from the Spectrum Healthcare website: https://www.spectrumhealthcare-group.com/Links to an external site. as well as the knowledge I already knew about their services. Their page discusses all the services that are offered as well as explains insurance versus self-pay on their site. Another program that offers extensive behavioral healthcare services is Southwest Behavioral Health: https://www.sbhservices.org/Links to an external site. . I feel like if my internship were to use this information, or if my task supervisor and I were to discuss this with the kids I see at the middle school; we could get them additional help and resources to get the proper help they need. The majority of the kids at this high school have not been given the proper tools to become successful as adults so I feel like by providing them with options to get resources such as behavioral health, and living skills, they will have a higher chance of being successful adults.
ACL post-
- What are two research informed recommendations that you have that would strengthen the services they are providing? Some examples may include vulnerable populations that need the service, but something is preventing the agency from including them, accessibility to services such as transportation, language assistance, etc.; duplication of services, lack of service coordination, etc.).
At my current practicum, the Family Counseling Service offers a variety of treatment options to both voluntary and mandated clients. That would include weekly individual therapy consisting of a Peer Support Trauma Group. One research-informed recommendation that I believe would strengthen the services that they are providing would be to focus on Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR), which would be an approach to identify a specific traumatic memory that will be a target of the EMDR session. This will encourage the patient to focus briefly on the trauma memory while simultaneously experiencing bilateral stimulation, which would reduce the vividness and emotion associated with the trauma memories.
Lately, my supervisor has allowed me to explore Trauma, Addiction, Mental Health, and Recovery (TAMAR) to collect data and determine if it has benefited the clients in the group at Step 2. The TAMAR program will aim to provide appropriate services to trauma victims and break the cycle of substance abuse, arrest, and incarceration. Many individuals within the community need a support group where that is specific to trauma. Allowing learning and growing about trauma, I believe, can make a difference.
- Include how you came to your recommendation and include the data and/or research to share currently what is happening and where the recommendations will take the program if implemented.
It takes two individuals to make things happen. The first time I met with my supervisor, Tiffany, she mentioned that she had considered introducing EMDR into the agency. I was intrigued by how it would look in a family counseling setting. As we collected thoughts and information, we had an opportunity to explore and research evidence-based strategies to prove the effectiveness of EMDR. As part of the agency as a practicum student, I can view how they conduct EMDR. It is not meant for everyone, and I have seen firsthand how clients can benefit from it or how it can affect them.