Mission Moment: School Based Interventions Lead to a Major Comeback
When a high school student was experiencing anxiety, depression, and trauma symptoms in January of 2023, Adult & Child’s School Based Services and Lola Mahner, LSW, were there to provide support. Lola quickly learned that despite the past trauma, current trauma was still ongoing. This client and their family were facing possible homelessness, along with a lack of access to healthcare and food. Considering all of these experiences, Lola’s first goal was to help the client regain a baseline and control over their emotions. This involved psychoeducation, providing their family with weekly case management and family sessions (which led to stable housing, healthcare, and food access), targeting peer and social functioning, and utilizing components of CBT and DBT to target thought monitoring and emotional control. This required the client to test their limits, to learn new coping skills and communication strategies, and to develop a different outlook on life. “This was no easy task and resulted in the client leaving the office due to intense emotions more than once, and them wanting to quit therapy on several occasions,” explained Lola. “I never gave up on them. Eventually, I was able to help the client learn that it is okay to have bad days, but these bad days did not define them. Through our therapeutic relationship, they learned how to cope, to communicate, to have more control over their thoughts and emotions, and this hard work paid off.” This client was nominated by their school for the “Comeback Kid” Award, given each year to a student who faced adversities and hardships that impacted their school functioning and abilities, and who demonstrated resilience in overcoming these obstacles by remaining successful in their academic career. Lola had the honor of being one of three individuals present at the award ceremony to support her client. “The smile on their face when they saw me there to support them is something I will never forget. When they gave their acceptance speech after receiving their award, my client introduced me proudly and stated, ‘My therapist is here for me today, and I just want to thank her for all the things she has helped me with over the past year. There were a lot of things I didn’t think I would make it through, and I did it with her help.’ This recognition is rarely something that mental health providers receive, and it will be a moment that I will remember forever,” said Lola. “This moment encompassed all the hard work that we did together. The validation and recognition that my client and I felt that day reminded me of my purpose in this job and was certainly a mission moment for both of us.”
Mission Moment: Reducing Anxiety to Help a Student Stay in the Classroom
Late in September of 2023, Dorian Villanueva, Skills Development Specialist, received a referral for a student experiencing severe separation anxiety that was impacting their ability to come to school and allow their parents to leave. The student eventually stopped attending school altogether. During this student’s intake, Dorian involved the student in coming up with a plan to attend school and spend a couple of hours with her for skills sessions. After a challenging first session, they worked out a schedule that utilized classroom visits where the student’s parents remained in the A&C office and Dorian attended class with the student. Over time, they were able to increase the student’s classroom time and school time, while decreasing Dorian’s classroom and session time and the parents’ presence in the building. “There really wasn’t anything we didn’t try with this student and their family,” Dorian said. She and the student worked together to build up coping skills and implement them into a morning routine to reduce anxiety before school. They modeled a classroom environment and completed activities to improve self-awareness, self-esteem, positive thinking, identifying triggers, self-calming ability, and problem-solving. Dorian was also able to coach the student’s parents on positive and negative reinforcement, extinguishing behaviors, psychoeducation on anxiety, and possible reasons for the student’s increase in anxiety. As of late January 2024, the student had been attending full school days without reporting any separation anxiety and even asked to go to bed earlier so school could come sooner. “This is really a testament to how much students across all backgrounds might benefit from our service,” said Dorian of the student’s success.
Mission Moment: Marion & Johnson County School Based Teams Celebrate Summer
While students enjoy their summer breaks, A&C staff are still collaborating and working hard to ensure that those students have access to fun and resources all year long. School based leaders Jaymee Cummings, Team Leader for Perry School Based 2, Aja Bridgewater, Director of School Based Services, Aby Wischmeier, Assistant Director of School Based Services, Liz Stern, Assistant Director of School Based Services, and the staff of Perry Township School Based 2 welcomed staff, clients, and families to A&C’s 8404 Siear Terrace location on June 21 to celebrate summer and enjoy a day of fun, resources, movement, food, and games. Preparation for this event started with the approval of summer funding through the Indy Summer Youth Programs/Summer Youth Program Fund, which aims to supplement existing programs in order to enrich, enhance, and expand summer offerings for children and youth. A&C received funds specifically through Lilly Endowment, Inc. Once the team received funding, they set to work brainstorming ideas that would be both creative and fun for clients, their families, and staff. Their goal this year was to utilize the funds differently from years past, and they landed on a proposal to provide youth and families with experiences and activities they might not otherwise get to experience during the summer weeks, including the inaugural Summer Celebration and multiple park days throughout Marion County. After 3-4 weeks of planning, the team was able to pull off an exciting and interactive event with not only participation from multiple other A&C teams, but outside vendors including Kona Ice, DJ Duane Curry, caricature artist Bob East, Good Moves yogi Monica Wearren, and Indianapolis Fire Department – Station 35. Taste of Grace food truck provided lunch for the event, donating their time, supplies, tables, canopies, and a team of seven to serve food and drinks. Approximately 150 guests were in attendance throughout the day. When asked about her favorite aspect of the Summer Celebration, what stood out for Jaymee was all of the family participation. “Some families attended the event with a provider as well as on their own. We saw many smiling faces as children and families won giveaways throughout the day, they were very excited to win activities that will keep them busy through the summer,” she said. “We also enjoyed all of the participants who engaged in the live motion and movement sessions with Monica Wearren.” Jaymee wants to extend a special thank you to all of the staff, students, clients and their families who made this day a success. “It was very awesome to see this all come together,” said Jaymee. “Definitely a mission moment.”
Mission Moment: Valle Vista RTC PULSE Program Provides Gifts For The Holidays
An integral part of the mission and vision at Adult & Child Health is to “strive for caring communities.” Often, that means that our staff have their boots on the ground in clinics and in communities, actively working with clients and the public to cultivate healthy, meaningful lives. At other times, our staff have the pleasure of empowering others to be changemakers, standing beside them as they, too, carry out our mission. This fall, Adult & Child staff had the opportunity to work with local youth as they made a difference in their community through the PULSE program at Valle Vista. PULSE stands for Patients United to Listen, Speak, and Encourage. It functions similarly to a student council for the Valle Vista residential treatment center (RTC), which is made up of youth from 12 to 18 years of age. There are typically between 20 to 24 individuals in the RTC program at any given time. PULSE, led by Holly Smith, A&C Staff Therapist at Valle Vista, welcomes a new cohort of participants roughly every quarter. Residents who are interested in participating can submit an application, then interview with staff for the opportunity to be one of three or four PULSE members. Once selected, each PULSE cohort is responsible for completing a group project, which they typically collaborate on with the rest of the Valle residents. Cohort members discuss areas of need with the residents in order to determine a current pain point that could be resolved. “It could be as simple as ‘we want a digital clock,’ creating a hygiene drive, or any other type of student council things,” explained Sarah Shields, A&C Team Leader in Valle Vista RTC. Instead of opting to benefit their own program; however, this particular group decided that they wanted to give back to the community. After reaching a consensus, their project idea was taken to the Valle Vista staff. Holly connected with Stephanie Hunter, A&C Staff Therapist at Wheeler Mission. Stephanie indicated that the Christmas Shop at the shelter—which provides no-cost Christmas gifts to the individuals they serve— is usually not adequately stocked with items for teens, since donors tend to favor gifts for babies and smaller children. This led to an intuitive match for PULSE. “It was perfect for our youth because they’re teenagers and they know what teenagers like,” Sarah said. To raise money for the Christmas Shop, the PULSE team decided to organize an arts and crafts sale. In the weeks leading up to the sale, they created art projects, canvases, garden gnomes, bracelets, bath scrubs, and other items to sell to the Valle Vista staff and community. They were also responsible for creating flyers and promoting their event. In just one day of sales, they earned $400. Creating the artwork provided a good outlet for the team, and “to see people pick out and buy the artwork they made was super cool for them,” said Sarah. Using the proceeds from the sale, the PULSE teens carefully selected items to stock the Wheeler Mission Christmas Shop for their peers. “I was very honored to be able to help people wake up with Christmas presents this year. It was also very fun making the stuff to sell so we could get the money to buy the Wheeler Mission Christmas presents!” said one PULSE participant. Another PULSE team member shared that this project was a perfect match for their passions, noting that “doing art and helping people and providing for others are my favorite things.” Stephanie, along with A&C’s Vice President of Community and Specialty Services, Jennifer Disbro, visited Valle Vista in late October to collect the Christmas Shop donations. While there, they were able to hear from the residents the impact this project had on them. Some even noted that they had experienced homelessness or been in a shelter before. “I can relate to being in the situation that some individuals are in [at the Wheeler Mission] and I feel bad. I wanted to be able to help out others because I’m grateful for having a family that loves and cares about me and I have a home,” said a PULSE participant. “I should be grateful for those things, and I just really wanted to help the community and encourage people that are struggling.” To learn more about A&C’s services and our work in the community, please visit our services.
