Mental Health Skill Building

Mental Health Skill Building

MENDING FENCES II Mental Health Skill Building Service targets behavioral, environmental and community challenges that are faced by clients and their families throughout the course of the day. Our program provides community supportive services to develop necessary skills needed to function in the home and community environments. Clients are identified as individuals having significant behavioral and emotional challenges.

Program Goals

MENDING FENCES II overall goal is to stabilize the client and increase their ability to maintain independence in the least restrictive living environment and within the community. Our program strengthens the client and avoids more restrictive interventions such as, hospitalization, residential group home settings or institutionalized settings. Our program focuses on:

• Improving emotional and behavioral stability
• Increasing positive behavior at home and community
• Improving compliance with community and society rules
• Increasing independent living skills
• Accessing community resources to maintain stability
• Increasing social skills and develop daily living skills

Mental Health Skill Building Services are a unique approach to incorporating training and support services to individuals with significant functional limitations due to mental, behavioral or emotional illnesses. Training and supportive services are necessary to encourage individuals to maintain community stability and to encourage independence in the least restrictive environment.

Services may include:

1. Psycho-educational groups to address behavioral modification techniques, anger management, functional skills development, self-esteem issues, parenting groups
2. Supportive Services: medication management, mental illness management, depression, anxiety, grief
3. Daily Living Skills- social skills, personal hygiene, food preparation, managing nutrition and safety needs, budgeting (financial planning and money management fundamentals), job training, vocational assessment and accessing community resources
4. Behavior Modification- cognitive behavior therapy, suicide assessment, character building

Population Served

The population we serve will be males and females who are age 18 and up. They may display any of the following characteristics:

• Must have a clinical need for services from a condition due to mental, behavioral or emotional illness that impairs major life functioning
• May have a dual-diagnosis
• Emotional or behavioral difficulties
• At risk of more restrictive interventions (including residential institutionalization, hospital, court involvement)
• Client returning to living environment or is transitioning from a more restrictive living environment or institutionalized placement
• A client who is at risk of being placed in a more restrictive living environment
• Client who has difficulties with interpersonal relationships
• A client who has repeated inappropriate behaviors, where repeated interventions by mental health, social services or judicial systems are necessary
• Clients who require assistance with basic living skills

Admission and Exclusion Criteria

MENDING FENCES II Mental Health Skill Building Services will accept adult clients and emancipated individuals who display the characteristics listed above. Those who may be excluded will be determined on a case-by-case basis. For example, mental health skill building services may not be suitable for clients who are in need of more restrictive interventions, including hospitalization, residential placement, or in need of other institutionalized placements. They may be excluded from mental health skill building services, or additional services; community resources may be added, if more specialized services are necessary such as hospitalization or residential placement, substance abuse treatment, intellectual disability services, or medical/rehab services.