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Better Health D
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| SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 20, 2020
“With isolation often comes
depression,
and on top of that there is a
fear factor.
People are scared, even now. So we have definitely seen more people reaching out.” - Lois Nesci, CEO of Gándara Center
right before the pandemic hit a peak in March and April. She said even though much of the staff is now working virtually or in the office for limited periods, the shared mission remains the same. “The focus and the goals of Gándara are really based on providing good quality behavioral health services, substance use services, and children’s behavioral health services to Latinos and all people in the communities we serve in Western and Central Massachusetts,” she said. “We work with individuals with limited resources who often find themselves homeless, unemployed and with poor access to health care. My personal goal is to strengthen that array of service delivery to those who need it most.” Nesci credits the hardworking staff at Gándara Center, who immediately transitioned to providing telehealth By Elizabeth Román services whenever possible Special to The Republican and ensured that every client “We immediately tried to was getting the services and understand the impact as the medication they needed. CDC and Gov. Charlie Baker Yeika Serrano, program were both sharing informasupervisor for the agency’s tion with us,” said Lois Nesci, Adult Community Clinic CEO of Gándara Center. Services, said her staff of cli“There were directives and nicians, outreach workers and guidelines we had to interpret peer specialists doubled their and implement. We had to contact with clients once they hit the pause button so that went virtual. we could regroup to really “Many of them don’t have address how to best tackle the option for the telehealth what COVID-19 was present- video conferencing, but our ing to us.” clinicians have been calling Gándara Center is based in them multiple times a week West Springfield but offering just to check in on them and services across the state. ensure that their mental Nesci has held executive health is stable,” she said. leadership positions at several The program serves clients nonprofit human services with serious to severe menagencies in Massachusetts tal health illnesses ranging and Connecticut, including from social anxiety to panic the title of CEO at the Center disorders and hallucinations. of Human Development in There are also some clients Springfield. She began her with severe physical disabilities. Most of them live alone, role at Gándara on Feb. 3,
When the coronavirus pandemic led to a statewide shutdown in March and a switch to virtual services for education, employers and health care providers, Gándara Center staff had to quickly figure out how to keep in touch with their clients, many of whom are dealing with mental health conditions.
Serrano said. “One of the reasons my staff increased the phone contact with clients is that many of them are completely isolated outside of maybe a community event or gathering. With those events being limited or canceled they can develop depression or increased anxiety from the isolation,” she said.
“That’s why I have been so impressed with our staff. They care about their clients and want to make sure that they are making it through this pandemic.” While Serrano’s team deals with adults, Kritzia Garcia has the added challenge of working with teenagers and young adults. Garcia is a
Lois Nesci, Chief Executive Officer of Gándara Center. (HOANG ‘LEON’ NGUYEN / THE REPUBLICAN)
housing specialist with the Shine Young Adult Housing Program. Gándara Center works with homeless youth between the ages of 18-24 providing them with housing and helping them secure employment. During the height of the pandemic, many of them lost jobs or could not go to school and were confined to the small shelter nearly 24 hours a day. “Normally we are just an overnight shelter with five rooms for youth who are currently homeless, but in March we had to transition to being open 24/7 because these youths really had nowhere else to go,” Garcia said. “Normally during the day they were working or going to school or participating in some of Gándara’s outreach programs.” The program also provides housing for about 30 young people across Greater Springfield. “We pay for their rent for a year and provide them with case management services that help them with finding steady employment or getting them onto school,” Garcia said. “We also teach them about financial literacy and saving money so that after the year they are financially stable enough to continue paying for their apartment and hopefully keep them from facing homelessness again.” While youth are resilient, Garcia said the challenges have ranged from those who did not take the social distancing guidelines seriously at the beginning to dealing with anxiety, depression and even boredom. “It’s hard for them to not be able to be out and about,”she said. “They also are in close quarters so there is bickering and little arguments, but
eventually they realized that this is a serious thing, that this wasn’t something that was going away anytime soon.” While counseling services and at-home visits have gone virtual, Nesci said many of the services including the bilingual pharmacy on Main Street have remained operational throughout the pandemic. “We certainly had to adapt to how we were delivering services, and that included the use of telehealth, which allows for clinicians and staff to meet with people virtually to address their mental health needs, their substance use needs, including youth who have be behavioral health needs,” she said. “We have a variety of congregate care settings for individuals who have needs around substance use and recovery and those programs have operated on site because those are considered essential services.” Nesci said the agency has also seen an increase in clients seeking mental health and behavioral health services in the past few months. “The reality is all of our lives changed almost overnight,” she said. “The biggest thing that happened was the physical distancing and isolation and the lack of contact with people because that’s what we were asked to do. But everything we do as humans is relational, so when you say to folks not to be around other people, that often times means they can’t go to work or go to church or go to the store. With isolation often comes depression, and on top of that there is a fear factor. People are scared, even now. So we have definitely seen more people reaching out.”