Home is where Healing and Better Mental Health Begins through Community Collaborations
This is the vision of Washington County Mental Health Services (WCMHS). How does an agency, or a broader community, attain a goal based on a vision? Establish a starting point. That point is “at home”.
Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs is often represented as a pyramid, with shelter listed among the absolute most basic of those needs. While our mission of community outreach brings us to all settings in the community, it is more difficult to deliver vital services when a person does not have a safe place to lay their head.
That is why WCMHS often collaborates with community housing partners for brick and mortar while we provide services that best suit the needs of our community members. We work regularly with such agencies as Downstreet Community Housing and Development, Good Samaritan Haven and Capstone Community Action, as well as area landlords and more than one hundred individual homeowners who open their homes and hearts to people in need.
If You Have It, Or Can Develop It, You Can Fill It…
WCMHS has never wasted a good livable space! Over the past 56 years we have developed housing that assists people who may be having severe mental health challenges, perhaps transitioning from a hospital and needing support around the clock, in a safe, recovery-oriented setting.
Within our Community Support Program, we have a progression of care and treatment that is suited for the individual, with the goal of regaining health and independence. A person might begin their journey in a group home setting that addresses issues through a trauma-informed lens, assisting them in feeling safe and gaining confidence to take the steps toward independent living.
That is why we also have, within our array of housing, apartment buildings where supports are on sight, but not in one’s personal space.
A preferred option for some is to have people with lived experience, in recovery, occupying space nearby where a person living independently can reach out, as needed, for the support of a peer. As one individual in our tiny house collaboration with Downstreet Housing said, “I’m grateful to finally be living independently with easy access to wraparound support if I need it.”
In addition, we provide multiple housing options for people with developmental disabilities and autism. This is through our Community Developmental Services program where there are small staff wraparound settings and group homes, offering 24-hour staffing for residents with significant personal care requirements. Community integration opportunities and emotional supports from our devoted staff are woven into our residents’ daily lives.
Another essential form of housing support in this area is through the Shared Living Model. We have well over one hundred shared living providers under contract. This is an option for people who need 24-hour support but would like to live with a family or roommate. This model allows for greater flexibility in matching support needs with a “family”. It includes having choices around factors like wanting (or not) an active lifestyle, children or pets in the home, no smoking, location, and size of family. Many of our shared living providers consider the person who joins their household to be another family member, staying together for years to come.
Our Children, Youth, and Family Services programs provide intensive community-based services, within small residential settings, to children and youth from across the State. The primary goal in these settings is to provide stable, treatment-based homes for children and youth who have experienced multiple extended residential placements or who need stability following a hospitalization.
Children in our residential settings flourish as a result of having a home-like environment. WCMHS hires and trains behavioral interventionists who share similar sentiments regarding what they love about their work with the kids – “building relationships, helping them find coping mechanisms, reading bedtime stories, going to school with them, teaching them a routine in the house, — just doing it all!”
Over in our Outpatient and Intensive Care Services programs we have a re-entry home for people returning from a Corrections stay and needing support for substance use challenges. We not only provide housing. We incorporate case management services and access to co-occurring treatment or other peer recovery supports. Employment is a key element within our programming. If transportation is needed to help get a person on their feet in this program, we will get them to work until they establish their own means of transport.
For those people in Intensive Care Services, who have immediate transitional needs, there is also an array of crisis programming to help them stabilize before taking the next step. These range from a 24-hour sobriety program, mental health crisis beds for adults and children, a peer crisis program, Maplehouse – transitional housing spaces for people who have completely lost their housing, and a newly formed Access Hub walk-in center (at 34 Barre Street in Montpelier) where anyone can come in for supportive services, speak to a peer or a counselor, or relax in a sensory room just to name a few alternatives.
The gratitude expressed for this space and what it affords in helping people access their needs and find their way to a safe, supportive place is growing by leaps and bounds. Nearly 120 people have been served at this location in the last three months, often preventing emergency room utilization.
By providing this continuum of crisis beds, transitional housing, and permanent affordable housing options to people who receive the highest levels of care through WCMHS, we strive to meet our vision of securing a place where a person can be met, “where they’re at,” as we say.
By outreaching to those in need – whether they be in shelters, tents, hotels, or otherwise – and inviting them in, we strive to help them move toward that first building block of safety, shelter, and home, where a caring community can make all the difference.
This article is part of a series collaboratively produced by Vermont Care Partners and its members. Vermont Care Partners is a statewide network of sixteen non-profit, community-based agencies providing developmental disability, mental health, substance use services
