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Karen Lee, M.A.
Executive Director
Community Support Team (CST)
The Community Support Network is an assertive case management and
support program for people with severe and persistent psychiatric
disabilities. The CSN mission is to meet the needs of individuals with
chronic and severe mental illness residing in the Springfield area. ACT
is a very specialized evidence-based model of treatment/service delivery
in which a multi-disciplinary team assumes ultimate accountability for a
small, defined caseload of seriously mentally ill adults and becomes the
single point of responsibility for that caseload. While encompassing a
full range of case management activities, ACT is not just an intensive
form of case management. It is a unique treatment model in which the
majority of direct services are provided internally by the CSN faculty
in the client's community environment. The ACT model combines clinical
and case management services, providing direct assistance with symptom
management as well as facilitating a more supportive environment by
direct assistance in meeting basic needs and improving social, family,
and environmental functioning.
Services Include:
- Advocating on behalf of patients
- Crisis intervention
- Medication training and monitoring
- Training in daily living skills
- Educating regarding symptom management
- Representative payee services and assisting with money management
- Facilitating access to health care
- Helping with transportation needs
- Help finding and keeping safe, affordable housing
- Home visits
- Vocational rehabilitation
- Group family psychoeducation
Population Served
Our services are available to patients who have a diagnosis of a severe
and
persistent mental illness, difficulty functioning independently in the
community,
and have had multiple psychiatric hospitalizations. The goal of the CSN
Program is to help patients remain out of the hospital and improve their
quality
of life in the community. Services are limited to 75 individuals.
Karen Lee, M.A., Executive Director,
directs the program. Services are provided by a clinical coordinator,
five case
managers, one financial case manager, one vocational specialist, and two
nurses.
CSN also provides training to psychiatric residents, medical students,
psychiatry
nursing students and graduate level counseling students.
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