ASSOCIATES

LYNN ANNE PALMER, DIRECTOR

In the face of the pandemic and social, economic, and political issues, our community experienced a rise in mental health challenges. Riverbend Counseling

Associates (RCA) has continued to receive frequent calls for services, along with robust referrals from the community and from other organizations.

This year our Admissions Team underwent an intense training in assessment and identification of client levels of risk. They became increasingly proficient in recognizing risk and, led by a Senior Clinician, the Triage Team has helped those most at risk to receive treatment in a timely manner. RCA has also increased its collaboration with other programs within Riverbend to get clients the appropriate levels of care as quickly as possible.

RCA continues to respond to client and community requests for high-quality telehealth services. Many clients find that the convenience of telehealth is key to making their treatment possible. Utilizing telehealth has also allowed us to hire some of our workforce from outside of the immediate area. In so doing, we’ve been able to access a larger talent pool during this employment crisis. RCA has excellent part-time clinicians available now via Telehealth Services only. This is in addition to our larger community of full time staff who do a mix of telehealth and in-office work.

RCA’s energies also continue to support educational opportunities that improve our therapists’ expertise and the services we can offer to clients. Several of our staff were trained this year in EMDR, as well as other related trauma interventions. Staff regularly attended workshops on Suicide Prevention and Postvention, Polyvagal Theory, and much more.

RCA has supported the Pelvic Medicine Program at Concord Hospital for several years. We also continue to support UNH Law by providing two hours of drop-in time per week, during the school year. This is to support their students who can use help with coping skills. For those with greater mental health needs we have a clinician who provides onsite and telehealth counseling to UNH Law students.