Provide psychotherapeutic services to individuals and couples experiencing psychological stressors. Also engage in community outreach through presentation of CEUs on topics including First Episode Psychosis, ACT Therapy and others. In this role I have been able join with other practitioners in the implementation of a functional health model that is aimed and reducing psychological stress through the use of not only mental health but nutrition and chiropractic services as well.

Provide psychotherapeutic services to individuals and couples experiencing psychological stressors. Also engage in community outreach through presentation of CEUs on topics including First Episode Psychosis, ACT Therapy and others. In this role I have been able join with other practitioners in the implementation of a functional health model that is aimed and reducing psychological stress through the use of not only mental health but nutrition and chiropractic services as well.

At Parkland I work as part of the Psychiatric ED Team. This role allows me to utilize all aspects of my training and education. Our service line sees approximately 10% of the total volume for the Emergency Department which has the highest volume in the country. On average that equates to over 1600 patient contacts a month by the Psychiatric ED Team. My role as Clinical Social Worker provides me the opportunity to interact with our patient's and hopefully provide the services that will alleviate their psychiatry related symptoms. I am also a founding member of the Psych Complex Care Team. This team identifies those patients who are high utilizers of ED Psych Services and seeks to engage them in creating a plan where they can seek services in the community thus leading to better outcomes for their various needs.

The Magnolia Center was a partial hospitalization program that is funded through a federal grant to help those individuals who do not have adequate access to mental health care. The goal is to reduce 30 day readmission to psychiatric hospitals and there were 375 individuals served and among that population the readmission rate dropped 27%. Among all admissions at Timberlawn, during the time period the program was operating, the readmission rate dropped by 4%. The population was composed primarily of those who experience symptoms associated with psychotic disorders. My role as that of Program Manager was to facilitate groups geared towards the clients problems, perform case management activities and supervise any additional therapist who conducted skills groups. The duties I had in this position were added on to the majority of the duties I had in my previous position with in Timberlawn.

In my role as Program Therapist I primarily worked with patients on the Intensive Care Unit, those who are highest risk for harm to self or those in the community. The Program Manager and myself would jointly manage a caseload of 24 patients that would routinely turn over every 72 hours. I was given the opportunity to be Interim Program Director of the Dual Diagnosis Unit and that General Adult Psychiatric Unit at differing times for anywhere from 3 to 5 months. I was also routinely called upon to facilitate groups, family therapies and conduct case management activities on all the units in the hospital (inpatient and outpatient) including attending weekly treatment team meeting of the Collin A. Ross Institute for Psychological Trauma at Timberlawn, a highly specialized unit for treatment of psychological trauma.

In my role as Social Worker I was responsible for case management activities involving patients on the telemetry floor and Critical Care Unit (CCU). I primarily acted as a broker between the patients and the various service lines that provide post acute care including Durable Medical Equipment companies, Skilled Nursing Facilities, Hospice Organizations, and Home Health Care agencies. To complete this I routinely interacted with representatives from these various service lines in collaborative effort to continue the patients healing process upon discharge form the acute care setting and trouble shoot any barriers that might hinder the desired outcome.

During my internship at Timberlawn I was given the opportunity to do a great many things. I was located on the Adult Psychiatric Unit for the first half the internship and Child/Adolescent Unit for the second half of the internship. During he first half of the internship I was taught the basic forms of the facility and began facilitating groups on my third day at the facility. I was given the opportunity to learn from two excellent seasoned professionals who aided in helping me mold the kind of therapist I am today. During the second half I continued to receive feedback from another set of seasoned professionals and they helped refine my boundaries when dealing with families. During the second half the internship I was often called to other units to assist should the need arise. While on the Child and Adolescent Unit I was given the opportunity toward the middle of my time there to become the primary boys therapist while they were locating a replacement for the previous one, this experience lasted for approximately one month and then transitioned to help with another therapist position with both and male and female caseload. The Program Manager on the unit treated me as if I was an employee and held me to those standards of a fully licensed therapist at that facility.

During the first internship of my graduate program I was selected to intern at Baylor Institute for Rehabilitation. This was primarily a case management internship and was working with a population of patients with all manner of physical injury or medical condition that had recently discharged from a medical/surgical hospital. I was given the opportunity to assist in planning for discharges and connecting patients with community resources to aid their recovery goals. While at this internship I was able to apply theory to practice. Throughout the internship experience I was able expand my knowledge base of community resources and learn about he medical model of care.

In this position I was responsible for communicating with providers from the Southwest Service Region who wanted to appeal a denial made by the claims department. I informed them of the needed documents to have a physician review the case for reimbursement of inpatient days that had been denied, along with the guidelines for submitting an appeal as per the contract with the company and their particular state's Department of Insurance guidelines. Upon receipt of the required documents I composed a file for review by the Appeals RN and provided updates tot he provider. All conversations with providers were documented in accordance with company policy. I continued in my role as an Intake Coordinator during peak call hours.

As an Intake Coordinator I worked in a call center environment and was responsible for informing policy holders of their Mental Health and Substance Abuse benefits. The primary account I was assigned to was Harvard Pilgrim out of Boston, MA, and during peak call hours assisted other teams assigned to the PacifiCare Southwest Service Region. An average day in this position consisted of answering on average of 120 calls per 8 hour day and noting the call and its outcomes in the electronic database all with in the company guidelines of a few minutes. It was in this position that I came into contact with people in the midst of a crisis for which they were seeking help and I took great satisfaction in explaining their benefits and provider options which most often resulted in them informing that they were more at ease with their situation than when first calling. At any time during the call if the person made statements to the effect of harm to self or others that call was escalated to a licensed professional on staff to address.