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Change Comes From the Center

St. Mary's Center's Clinical Department and Internship Program

Improving Behavioral Health Outcomes for Those Most Vulnerable

Nationally, it is reported that 1 in 20 Americans faces mental illness each year. For those experiencing homelessness, that rate is 1 in 5.


St. Mary’s Center recognizes that holistic behavioral health services are catalysts to self-sufficiency and economic stability for women and families experiencing homelessness, severe poverty, and trauma. At St. Mary’s Center, 100% of the women, children and families served have histories of trauma, including mental health challenges and domestic violence.



The families arriving at St. Mary’s Center have histories of living in communities without equitable access to Social Determinants of Health, and the environment where people are born, live, and work have a considerable effect on their physical and mental health and overall quality-of-life. These circumstances are further impacted by factors such as gender and race. The vast majority (93%) of St. Mary’s Center residents are women and children of color, many of whom are immigrants, and the effects of trauma and homelessness are often compounded for this population due to racial disparities within the mental health system. Studies show that BIPOC communities are less likely to have access to behavioral health services, with a typical waitlist of six to nine months in Boston.

Acutely aware that shelter is not enough to break the devastation of cyclical poverty and homelessness, St. Mary’s Center knows the critical importance of providing residents with consistent access to holistic supportive services. As part of the organization’s strategic plan, St. Mary’s Center has embedded high-quality, culturally competent, and trauma-informed clinical services within its residential programs, enabling individuals and families to receive the critical behavioral health support that they need on their journeys toward long-term self-sufficiency and economic stability. Despite the overwhelming impact, these services are not funded through state contracts for three out of four of St. Mary’s Center’s residential programs, and the organization actively fundraises each year to ensure access for families.

Meeting families where they are, St. Mary’s Center’s dedicated team of case managers, clinicians, and healthcare partners guide residents to identify the barriers to progress and develop individual roadmaps to achieve greater economic and emotional stability and meet educational goals while on their journey to permanent housing. Family-centered, wraparound behavioral health services focus on breaking down barriers to achieve rapid rehousing and decrease the length of stay in shelter for families. A decrease in length of stay represents a family’s ability to return to a place of mental, emotional, and economic stability more rapidly, and combats the jarring statistic that Massachusetts currently has the third highest rate of family homelessness in the United States.

St. Mary’s Center’s Clinical Department collaborates with program directors and case managers in every residential program to ensure all individuals and families have access to the highest level of clinical care. The Clinical Department also partners with Children’s Behavioral Health Initiative (CBHI), Boston Healthcare for the Homeless Program (BHCHP), and UMass Boston’s College of Nursing. Clinically, all mothers in St. Mary’s Center’s residential programs can access individual and group therapy with an in-house clinician, or outside of the program with collaborative partners.

St. Mary’s Center’s clinical team has found that group work is one of the most effective treatment types for parents living in congregate shelter, and St. Mary’s Center provides group sessions focused on developing parenting skills, parenting

and relationship groups, and clinically-oriented groups, including self-esteem, anger management, emotional-regulations and/or trauma recovery, facilitated by a Clinical Director, a Clinical Program Manager, two full-time clinicians, and a cohort of graduate-level interns.

St. Mary’s Center works in partnership with local colleges and universities, including Boston College, Boston University, and Simmons University, to offer graduate-level clinical internship opportunities to students studying for their master’s degree in social work or clinical psychology.

Clinical interns spend one year working alongside the Director of Behavioral Health and Clinical Services, the Clinical Program Manager, in-house clinicians, program staff, and external partners. Students are provided hands-on field training, applying lessons from the classroom to support women, children, and families through individual and group sessions, collaboration with our on-site childcare center, The Carolyn Lynch Children’s Center, for a continuum of care for families, and implementation of resources and events across residential programs. Interns work directly in St. Mary’s Center’s three residential programs for approximately 16-24 hours per week for the school year, implementing clinical interventions to support families on their caseloads with maintaining mental health, processing relationships, managing stress levels, improving self-esteem, and other supports as needed. They also participate in group supervision meetings with the full-time clinical staff at St. Mary’s Center, providing the interns with invaluable lessons in navigating how to best support residents, as each family’s circumstances vary widely.

St. Mary’s Center’s strong relationships with local colleges and universities’ graduate-level social work programs enable the Clinical Department to provide a multi-pronged approach to serving the unique cultural, racial, ethnic, and linguistic needs of each resident, forming lasting relationships with families that help to empower and support each family’s individual journey, while providing the next generation of licensed clinical social workers with the tools needed to embark on the next phase of their educational and career journeys.

 

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