Click a Program Link Below to see details of the program.
First Jobs | ACTS Peer Support | Peer Support at the Hospital of Saint Raphael | Safe Harbor Warmline | Yale-New Haven Hospital and Connecticut Mental Health Center Peer Support Team | Treatment Access Program (TAP) | South Central Crisis Program | Urban Initiative
First Jobs: an opportunity for employment growth
First Jobs offers an opportunity to people who have no or little successful employment experience due to psychiatric, substance abuse and criminal histories. People in the First Jobs program work at the Community Soup Kitchen in New Haven. Most of our workers have never had a steady job. The big difference between First Jobs and a regular job is that we support our workers in learning workplace expectations, roles, responsibilities, relationships, and benefits. We hope that after a while, they will be ready for a regular job.
ACTS Peer Support
The ACTS Peer Support Team (Accessible Companions Peer Support Team) is a peer program at the Columbus House Emergency Shelter. Our goal is to work with shelter guests who are in immediate danger of being evicted from the shelter because of their behavior. Our workers are consumers of the mental health and substance abuse system who are in recovery for at least one year prior to hiring. They have received training from other peer support programs plus 8 weeks with us.
Peer Support At The Hospital of Saint Raphael
The Hospital of Saint Raphael's Department of Psychiatry hosts a peer support team from SCBHN. Our peer support workers provide one-on-one support to psychiatric patients in the Emergency Department. They sit with patients, calm their fears, and offer hope, comfort and information about the system. Peers often share their individual experiences with the patients who find their presence reassuring; peers represent wellness and healing. They also provide to the patients information about community services and resources that they otherwise would be unlikely to have access to in the E.D. setting.
In 2007, the Peer Support Team began to provide services at the hospital's outpatient psychiatric clinic by running support groups and recreational activities for outpatient, psychiatric clients.
Our peer team is a positive model showing that people in recovery can provide services with skill and compassion; people do recover from disabling psychiatric and substance abuse illnesses and in this unique program go on to support others who are facing very similar challenges.
The Safe Harbor Warmline Is Here to Keep You Company
The peers at the Safe Harbor Warm-line talk to people who have psychiatric or substance abuse problems in the New Haven area. Our line is open every night of the year from 5:00 until 10:00 p.m. We are there at our phone even on holidays. People can call us and talk about almost anything. We are a "warm-line†and not a "crisis lineâ€. A warm-line is just for company and to help off-set the most lonesome time of the evening. All phone calls are confidential. You can give us your name or choose not to.
All of our operators are in recovery and have been so for several years and have had special training. They know what it is like to be diagnosed with a psychiatric illness or substance abuse. They "have been there and done that," so they have an idea of what people are feeling and living with. Because they are peers they bring a special understanding and perspective to a conversation.
Each operator has a regular night on duty. Every caller can talk for 15 minutes and can call back again after 8:30 and talk for an additional 10 minutes. We know that this is not a long conversation but it does help to break up those long empty evenings. Also it is often a good way to get feedback on something that you might have on your mind. Our number is (800) 258-1528.
Yale-New Haven Hospital and Connecticut Mental Health Center Peer Support Team
The Peer Support Program (PSP) is based in Acute Services, located in the lobby of the Connecticut Mental Health Center (CMHC). It is staffed by peers who are successfully managing their own recovery from mental illness, substance abuse, or both. They try to relate to the clients' experiences and to provide them with information about various psychiatric illnesses, programs at CMHC, and a multitude of community resources. The Peers also engage in conversations with the clients at CMHC, where they listen to and support people on their path to recovery. The PSP also provides the Yale-New Haven Hospital's Crisis Intervention Unit (CIU) with Peer Support services each weekday; like Peers located at CMHC, these Peers also provide information, support, and encouragement to people hospitalized in the CIU.
A current Peer in this program states: "It feels so good to be able to help people and to be a walking example that, if I can do it, they can too.â€
Treatment Access Program (TAP)
TAP is a multi-agency program coordinated and funded by SCBHN. It provides opportunities for homeless people living in shelters to move into sober houses, where A.A. meetings, employment counseling, and the help of other people in recovery are available. Case management is provided by Columbus House, the Outreach and Engagement Team of CMHC, and other participating agencies. SCBHN coordinates weekly rounds and makes payments to the sober houses.
South Central Crisis Program
The crisis program takes over answering the phones of the 15 participating agencies in the New Haven area at 5pm each night as well as on weekends and holidays. People who call those agencies and state that they are patients in crisis are passed through to master's level social workers who help them figure out what makes sense for them. Most people can talk through their issue with the clinician, but for those who can't an ambulance can be dispatched or they can be told to go to the Emergency Room. A mobile crisis clinician is also available to go to people's homes from 5pm-10pm during the week and 9am-10pm on the weekends.
Urban Initiative
The Urban Initiative is a multi-agency program to reach out to people who abuse substances, but are not yet ready to admit to needing treatment. SCBHN serves as the program's coordinator. It operates a homeless drop-in center called the Taking Initiative Center.(TIC) as well as a case management program that seeks out clients in New Haven's most drug infested neighborhoods.
Grants Program
SCBHN makes grants to both mental health and substance abuse consumers for projects they want to do. Grants can be for paying for school, taking a trip, starting a new business. a community service project or for most worthwhile projects. An application can be downloaded from this site and should be mailed to SCBHN or faxed
