Community Access

Mental Health Center – Melinda Hoag Smith Center for Healthy Living

Under Hoag’s Department of Community Health, the Mental Health Center is the only mental health center at a community benefit hospital that provides services free of charge — in English, Spanish and Farsi — to low income, uninsured or underinsured communities. Clinical social workers provide an array of care options that may include individual or family therapy, group counseling, educational workshops and referrals to other health providers, if needed. These comprehensive mental health services are offered with supplementary services such as rental assistance, legal aid, food distribution and more.

The Center provides care focused on areas including:

• Depression • Anxiety • Couple’s counseling • Relationship struggles • Grief and loss • Parenting support • Trauma • Child and adolescent struggles • Self esteem • Everyday stress and coping • Life transitions • Mental health conditions related to pregnancy and postpartum • Addiction • Resiliency for older adults in aging • Support for family and caregivers of people with mental health conditions

“Many families that we serve are experiencing challenging circumstances that often have major impacts on their mental health. Our goal is to not only help with needs like food and employment but also to strengthen their mental states and uplift their well-being.”

– Michaell Silva Rose, DrPH, LCSW

Director of the Community Health Department and

Community Benefit Program

Community Access (continued)

Expanding Care

As the demand for mental health services increases, so does the Center’s need for more personnel. Immediate personnel needs include:

Case Manager: Case managers are often the first point of contact for a person in need. Philanthropic support funded the first case manager at the Melinda Hoag Smith Center for Healthy Living. She immediately went to work connecting her clients to the resources they needed. But so many more are waiting for that same attention. There is an immediate need for bilingual case managers, who would help the center meet the rising demand. Bilingual case managers, speaking Spanish and/or Vietnamese, would facilitate greater inroads into vulnerable and underserved communities.

Licensed Clinical Social Worker: In addition to a case manager, adding a licensed clinical social worker who can communicate in Vietnamese would make a drastic impact on the ability to care for more people. Having staff that can communicate in multiple languages opens doors to more people in need.