Temple’s Collaborative on Community Inclusion of Individuals with Psychiatric Disabilities, a program focused on mental health inclusion, could be affected by cuts to the Administration on Community Living in the federal Health and Human Services department.
The Collaborative works on research projects to promote community living and participation for people with serious mental illnesses, like chronic depression, schizophrenia, anxiety and other debilitating conditions. It also hosts a staff of researchers, interventionists and peer specialists.
Members of the department work with clients and other agencies to increase support to Philadelphians who struggle with mental health.
“Some of our core beliefs are that community participation is a medical necessity, meaning it’s not a byproduct of primary treatment, it should be the goal of treatment,” said Gretchen Snethen, associate director of the Collaborative. “We think that getting people out and involved in the things that they want to do, whether it’s playing pick-up basketball, or going to engage with a religious community, getting a job, going to school, you should receive the support to do those things.”
With departmental cuts across the board to multiple different federal agencies, the Collaborative is keeping an eye out for potential funding issues. They’re directly funded by the National Institute on Disability, Independent Living and Rehabilitation Research, under the Administration for Community Living in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
The HHS gave layoff notices to at least 40% of the staff at the ACL, and many staffers were turned away at the door of their workplace on April 1, NPR reported. The ACL will be reorganized and integrated into other HHS agencies, HHS announced in a press release March 27.
“The Department of Justice has come in as an oversight to make sure that these communities are coming up with a plan to deliver services in a way that are more ethical, community based, more in line with keeping people as active members of their community,” Snethen said. “With all of these changes, a lot of that goes away. These community mental health centers that we’ve always partnered with, what happens to them?”
The Collaborative recently finished a project that helped parents with mental health conditions engage in activities with their family to build better relationships with their children and family members. They also continually work on projects that help people use public transit or ride bicycles independently instead of relying on friends, families or third party agencies.
In some projects, researchers at the Collaborative can use Ecological Momentary Assessment tools to track and check in with the clients about their actions and mental status, and feed that information into their research. Some of their main focuses since the COVID-19 pandemic are projects on loneliness and social isolation.
“We have an epidemic of loneliness happening, and if you have a psychiatric disability those levels are just higher,” said Brandon Snead, a recreational therapy instructor and former Collaborative employee. “You’ll see this in a lot of underserved communities. We might all be experiencing things like issues with our health because of being too sedentary, but when you look at pretty much any underserved community, that just gets bigger.”
The Collaborative partners with the Copeland Center, a peer-run training organization that trains peer support specialists. Having personal experience with mental health illnesses and disabilities is important to the Collaborative, Snethen said.
“Instead of targeting just behavioral health organizations, or just the people who have a diagnosis, [we’re] thinking about, well, ‘Where are people going?’” Snethen said. “‘Where do they want to engage, and are these spaces welcoming and inclusive where people can be successful?’ It’s kind of a complementary approach to not just ‘fixing’ the person, but directly supporting them.”
The Collaborative’s day-to-day work varies greatly between each staff member. Snethen and the team of researchers develop protocol and research tools to begin different projects, while other members, like peer specialist Maggie Kane, work directly with the community to improve quality of life.
“[A client] has been afraid to cross the street, so we’ve been working slowly towards getting across the street to wherever we go,” Kane said. “I’ve been working with him, slowly showing him, walking in front of him, following the flashing light, keeping an eye out for cars. Lately he’s been able to do it, so that’s been really my favorite part, seeing him being able to do that. It just opened so many doors for him.”
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