Empowering people with mental illnesses to thrive
An estimated 26.2 percent of Americans ages 18 and older suffer from a diagnosable mental disorder in a given year.
We help people with chronic or severe mental illnesses successfully manage their lives through crisis counseling and "hotline" programs, case management, day programs and drop-in centers, transportation, residential care and supported independent living.
"With the help of the staff from Volunteers of America, I am now in an independent living arrangement. I have also finally come to accept and respect my illnesses and have found that a healthier diet, exercise and recreational activities are important in everyone's life."
Gena, North Alabama
Volunteers of America provides services and supports to people with mental illness throughout our programs. For instance, we operate many programs for people who have spent long years in state hospital systems. Sometimes these individuals enter our services in nontraditional ways, maybe through homelessness, substance abuse or the corrections system. However a person comes to us, we focus on assisting those with significant and persistent mental illness to live lives of independence in their communities.
We provide long-term supportive services for people with severe and persistent mental illness. These services may include drop-in support or 24-hour residential supervision and assistance. Persons with severe and persistent mental illness receive a combination of training and social rehabilitation services to foster their capacity to live independently in stable, secure, and normalizing environments. Many of the individuals served in these programs have had long periods of hospitalizations and yet have experienced successful community living with the supports provided by Volunteers of America.
Each person has an individualized support plan and works towards becoming as independent as possible. Housing subsidies, on-site staff supervision, assistance with medication management, assistance with money management and shopping, transportation and assistance with personal care are all part of the continuum of supports offered. Clinical staff, nurses, direct support professional, case managers and others make up treatment teams that provide the level of support needed by each individual. Assistance with employment, work training programs and assistance with maintaining benefits are also options available to individuals in supportive living programs.
The philosophy of our mental health case management is to focus on each person’s strengths, interests and abilities rather than on their disabilities. Our professional staff views the client as the director of the process and concentrates on building a strong relationship between client and case manager. A major goal is to ensure that people with mental illnesses are receiving the full array of needed and appropriate services available in the community and enable them to attain their optimal level of functioning.
Our mental health case management also provides community coordination to assist people with the following services; housing, basic needs, entitlements, family functioning, education, special education, transportation, employment, money management, medical/dental, mental health, comprehensive assessment and services planning. Our case mangers provide long-term supports to assist an individual in living independently in the community because, in keeping with the tradition of our founders and our faith-based values, we believe that all individuals should be treated with respect and dignity and receive the individualized supports they need to live in their community.
