Jazmine Silva

B.A. Psychology and Human Development 2023, Graduate Student University of Connecticut Masters of Social Work Adelante Program

Links: https://www.childandfamilyagency.org/programs/urgent-crisis-center/

Can you share some details about yourself, background, education and relevant training you've received?

Was born and raised in New London, Connecticut. Undergraduate Degree Bachelor of the Arts majoring in Psychology and Human Development at Connecticut College. Took a gap year to decide between pursuing psychology or social work. Current role (at the time of interview) as a Community Navigator at the Child and Family Agency’s (CFA) Urgent Crisis Center (UCC) in New London with over a year of experience in this role. I originally did an internship at CFA which transitioned into employment. I work under a clinician to focus on social history documentation, gathers information on family environment, household, education, and abuse history. Also preparing data sheets for Department of Children and Families (DCF). As well as providing support for children through self-regulation activities (e.g., games, outdoor activities). I pursued this role due to passion about addressing the rise in adolescent mental health needs and motivated by the critical need for mental health services in the local community.

What initially attracted you to your current role or profession?

A big thing for me was staying within my community. I wanted to do something that was close to home and something related to mental health, especially because I graduated with that psychology degree and human development and was really driven to working with specifically kids. That was always a group that I liked working with, and I have a lot of experience working with. But mental health was more on the psychology side of understanding how people are feeling and how to help people when they're suffering from mental health issues.

Can you share a significant achievement or milestone in your career that you are particularly proud of?

It's always nice to see the difference of how families come into the Urgent Crisis Center versus how they leave coming in. for the most part, coming in it can be really, really emotional, really vulnerable because you're exposing yourself to people you don't really know. We try to be as kind and as open as we possibly can. And through the process kind of gaining their trust, specifically the kids trust, and kind of seeing their shift from being withdrawn but also understanding that we're there to help them and accepting the information or the advice that we have to say. We get a few who are really grateful for services and what we do, but specifically the small things, like asking if they want a cup of water or asking if they want to hug because they're going through a really tough time.

How do you collaborate with other community members or organizations to deliver mental health services -- within CFA?

We're really big on collaborating within the agency. For example, if we have a client who sees a clinician in CFA outpatient services, we usually try our best to either contact that clinician specifically or their supervisor that way when we collaborate in rounds with the psychiatrist. We're also collaborating with their individual providers, and it's not just the UCC team. I think working in mental health, there's so much that takes place in a child's mental health and including everyone, in the collaboration, is the best possible way to figure out what's going on and at the end of the day, give them the best recommendations that we can give.

What are the gaps between how clinical recommendations translate into community resources and interventions?

If it's first shift, it's usually easier for us to get in contact with providers. If it's second shift, it's a little harder, so it's delayed at that point. If not, we generally just go based off of what the client or their family has to say about their experience and what they've been working on with their providers. And the clinician will make their best judgment on, what's working, what may not be working. The clinician is always recommending more visits with the provider of the client. Usually  throughout the assessment, it's mentioned that they're experiencing so many things, there's just too many gaps in between when they're feeling how they're feeling, or whatever the case be from when they meet their providers. And sometimes it's just the case that maybe they need to see their providers more than just once a week, maybe that means implementing different types of therapy, or services. Maybe it's not just enough to have individual therapy, there needs to be effort to include the family in those therapy sessions, specific individuals of the family, or just different types of therapy and outlets. And we always give our families before they leave the paperwork that  just tells them what was discussed throughout their assessment and their time at the UCC. In that way they can give it to their providers, their school, or their primary care physicians, whoever they see for their point of contact, so that they can collaborate with them as well and discuss what we recommended at the UCC, but also talk with their own providers and see what they think is the best for them as well. We can put in referrals  and we try to make those steps a little easier for families, but it's also on their part to to reach out and collaborate on their end as well.

What resources do you find most valuable in supporting your work with mental health in the community?

For inside the UCC, when they're there throughout their assessment, simply just knowing that we're there to help. Sometimes I think kids are a little closed off in terms of, like, they think everything's fine or depending on the case, sometimes in terms of behavior, they can't really self-reflect and see from someone else's perspective, how things are looking or like how they're behaving may hurt themselves and hurt their families. 

I remember there was a time and it wasn't even anything particular we did throughout the visit, besides provide the space. There was one client who we had who had and was just going through a rough patch, having a lot of explosive-like behaviors and outbursts, and wasn't really understanding how that affected her personally, mentally, and physically, or how it affected her parents until we got someone at the same time. The second kiddo came in, was being pretty loud, screaming, was getting a little violent, but it kind of made them realize, like, that's how I sound like when I'm yelling and screaming at my parents too. It kind of just made themself reflect and be like 'Oh, wow. If what my parents are saying, other people are saying as well, I have to work on myself too'. Just creating space for relationship repair, I think is something so important because when it comes to mental health, there's so many people that can be hurt or impacted by whatever the situation may be. To have them leave feeling stronger and more bonded.

In terms of references for outside of the UCC, I think there's so much benefit to family therapy. We for the most part, try to recommend and refer that as much as possible because again, environment is a big thing in mental health and the adjustment of someone's mental health, especially within the family. 

How do you handle cases where cultural beliefs may conflict with mental health interventions? How do you incorporate cultural sensivity?

For the most part, is to come at it from a non-judgmental focus. Every person is different. Every culture is different. Everyone was brought up differently, whether that's the parent or the child, even ourselves as workers in this field. We all have different perspectives on different things, culturally, we come from different places, and we have to understand that every time we go in to work with a family or a client. It's also kind of pinpointing what cultural differences are causing greater impacts. 

For example, we did have a family who the father of the patient who came in, wasn't really understanding the mental health aspect of what was going on with them. He didn't really understand it culturally. He didn't find any importance in understanding the diagnoses, the importance of medication and therapy, and continuing therapy. And that one appointment isn't going to fix all of the problems. It's a process that you have to continue for honestly, as long as it works for the person or as long as they need it for. At that point, we try and educate that parent as much as we can. It becomes difficult because you're not trying not to disrespect them and offend them in any way. We incorporate the parents as much as we can. I feel like the big thing is educating ourselves, trying to educate parents in a way to make them understand what's best for their kid decided on collaboratively. 

What challenges does your organization face in delivering mental health services?

We're really working on that collaboration factor of the whole process collaborating with providers whether that's therapists, doctors, teachers, babysitters, or DCF workers, trying to collaborate and get everyone as a whole on the same basis for a continuation of care. 

What are some of the ways you have strategized to reach out to diverse communities?

We've been doing a lot more marketing work in terms of trying to get our name out there, whether it's posters, posts on social media, and actually my supervisor --- promoting our services with flyers conferences, and informationals. But I think a lot of it the majority of our kids come from schools. So whether that be maybe going to those schools setting up a table when parents are picking up their kids or when they're coming in for school events.

What aspirations do you have for improving mental health care in minority communities?

It kind of comes down to getting the word out that we have this service (UCC). It's recently new. Not a lot of people know about it or are even open to the idea of coming in somewhere. Again, it can be very vulnerable and scary at the same time, expressing yourself and telling your whole life story to strangers. But I'd hope to get the word out more about the Urgent Crisis Center, but also just mental health services as a whole and working towards making them more accessible to certain communities. Mental health is in a rise and there's just not enough therapists or clinicians to service everyone. And then I know a big issue may be insurance, where clients don't have insurance or the type of insurance that they have narrows down who they can see and what services they can receive, which is really unfortunate, but I think that's something that we can work towards. I'm not sure how, but something I would like to see improve.

What role do you think technology can play in improving mental health care in the community?

I definitely think there's a positive role to using technology like when reaching out to other providers, we do that a lot through our computers on Zoom. But there's also general flaws to technology when it comes to kids specifically.  There's just so much negative exposure that can be absorbed. But there's also positive that can come out of that. I think it's just how you distribute it and how you use it in the process. We, for the most part, use technology as an aide to either help translate, help communicate, or input data.

What are you most excited about in your work right now?

For my work specifically at UCC, I'm excited to see our services improve and develop.

What are your future career goals or aspirations?

To start my graduate program and hopefully work towards my MSW. I've always wanted to work with the immigration population. So something in that would be awesome. Getting more experience, putting myself out there, and helping my community as much as I can. I'm excited to work with different groups and different people.

Can you share any advice or tips for someone aspiring to enter your field?

I think something someone told me that really stuck with me when it comes to certain clients or just people you work with. Everyone behaves and acts a certain way for a reason, and I think that's something that really can be unpacked so much.  For the most part, we get our toughest kids, they are the ones who need the most love, and it's just because they haven't experienced that. 

And not taking everything personally. But just understanding that every behavior, every action has a reason and understanding that reason. Figuring out what it is, is the real job towards helping improve those actions or behaviors in a positive way.