Southwestern Mental Health Center - Services

Adult Residential Mental Health Services

Unity House Intensive Residential Treatment Services
Unity House is a 10-bed residential facility located in Worthington, Minnesota. Unity House is licensed to treat adults with serious and persistent mental illness experiencing significant functional deterioration that need residential care to prevent hospitalization or to transition back into the community after hospitalization. Unity House services develop and enhance psychiatric stability, personal and emotional adjustment, self-sufficiency, and skills to live in a more independent setting.

Adult Community Support Services

Southwinds Assertive Community Treatment Team (ACT)
ACT is treatment for adults who experience the most severe and persistent symptoms of mental illness. They often have difficulty meeting their basic needs, protecting themselves, keeping safe and adequate housing, or staying employed.

The Assertive Community Treatment is made up of practitioners who work as a team. The team consists of psychiatrists, nurses, mental health professionals, practitioners, employment specialists and substance abuse specialists. This team is able to provide continuous, personalized and flexible care.

Adult Rehabilitative Mental Health Services (ARMHS)
ARMHS is defined as mental health services which are rehabilitative and enable the recipient to develop and enhance psychiatric stability, social competencies, personal and emotional adjustment, and independent living skills, which are affected by mental illness. Eligible clients must be adults, with a diagnosis of a serious mental illness and a beneficiary of Medicaid.

Community Support Program (CSP)
Community Support Program provides services for people who have experienced a major mental illness and have recurring life adjustment problems. Designed to enhance reintegration into the community by offering support, friendship and educational opportunities. A rotating schedule of staff home visits and meetings in the community that instruct, assist and support clients in multiple areas such as functional assessment, client outreach, medication monitoring, crisis interventions, vocational support, consultation and family support.

Dialectical Behavior Therapy Program (DBT)
Dialectical Behavior Therapy has been designed specifically to meet the needs
of individuals who have a history of intense and rapidly shifting moods, difficulty controlling anger, intense and unstable relationships, suicide ideation and attempts. Eligible individuals often have extensive past histories of crises and hospitalization. A skills teaching group is offered to male and female clientele.

Domestic Violence and Abuse Intervention Program for Male Offenders
Domestic Violence and Abuse Intervention Program (DVAIP) is patterned after the "Duluth Model" from the Domestic Abuse Intervention Program. The primary goal of this group is to make male offenders accountable for their actions of abuse and violence, and to provide safety for victims.

Permanent Supportive Housing Project

Minnesota Long-Term Homeless Permanent Supportive Housing Project
A grant was obtained in 2006 from the Minnesota Department of Human Services Governors Fund to end Long-Term Homelessness to start a Permanent Supportive Housing Project. Up to 70% of homeless individuals and families report problems with mental illness and this falls under the mission guidelines of Southwestern Mental Health Center (SWMHC). SWMHC is partnering with the Southwest Minnesota Housing Partnership, Lloyd Property Management, Viking Terrace Apartments and the Worthington Housing and Redevelopment Authority to house homeless individuals and families.

Community Support Services for Children

School-Based Mental Health Services
Services are offered as part of a 3-year grant awarded initiative through the Department of Human Services Children's Mental Health Division to provide school-based mental health services to students in the school setting regardless of their ability to pay. This grant provides for closely coordinated, accessible mental health services, onsite, at each participating school. Program goals are to assist students with one or more identified mental health needs and to aid them in successfully engaging in social, academic and daily activities.

Home Based Family Treatment Program
Southwestern Mental Health Center's Children's Therapeutic Supports and Services Home-based Family Treatment Program goal is creating partnerships with families to resolve issues, promote family preservation, reduce risk of out-of-home placements or reunify children into the home. Staff provides family therapy; education on parenting skills and conflict resolution; evaluations; support and advocacy within the families' home.

Family Community Support Program (FCSP)
The Family Community Support Program provides services to children and their families in their homes and in the community. The staff serve as mentors and role models by assisting children and teens with interpersonal skills, socialization skills, budgeting and shopping skills, stress management skills, coping skills, positive leisure and recreational skills, personal care and hygiene.

Intensive Family Based Services (IFB)
Family-Based Services is an intensive home-based program designed to reduce risk factors in severely and emotionally disturbed children and their families. The Program is designed for the at-risk families who are referred by community agencies. The populated that is served includes children age 5 to 18. The major goal of family-based services is to prevent or reduce the amount of out-of-home placements for the child. This goal is reached by using a holistic or ecosystem approach. IFB is designed to provide the necessary services to assist the family with their needs in order to maintain and strengthen the caregiver. Intensive Family-Based Therapy is based on the philosophy that the most effective avenue to help children and youth is through family support in the natural environment (Bass 2009).

The Intensive Family-Based Therapist is non-traditional. They have flexible scheduling, carry cell phones, and design interventions within communities. Each therapist has additional training in crisis intervention, family therapy, parenting tough adolescents, and creating interventions