Introduction
The Hampton-Newport Community Services Board (HNNCSB) offers a broad range of mental well-being and drug abuse services and care for people with mental and developmental disorders (Hampton-Newport News Community Services Board, 2013).
These services are available to people of all ages in Hampton and Newport News. The agency’s vision is to create a community in which individuals can find their own purpose and be self-determining (Hampton-Newport News Community Services Board, 2013).
The HNNCSB’s mission is to offer an inclusive range of services and supports by encouraging avoidance, recovery, and independence for people impacted by mental disorder, drug use, and intellectual and developmental disabilities, and encouraging health of societies it serves (Hampton-Newport News Community Services Board, 2013).
In order to achieve these goals, the agency has adopted critical core values, which include collaboration, continuous improvement, cultural competency, development, dignity and respect, professionalism, quality, and stewardship and accountability. The agency believes that these core values have enabled it to offer effective services.
Services provided by the agency and any associated costs
The agency offers a number of services to its clients. These services are mainly case management and supports. Case management involves the provision of services to people with serious mental disabilities to allow them to live productively in society. The agency has divided its services into several different areas in order to provide critical care by monitoring individual’s specific needs and engaging the required agency in the provision of care.
The agency has case managers, who are mainly “mental health therapists, nurses, or social workers” (Hampton-Newport News Community Services Board, 2013). Case managers work with clients or their families in order to develop personalized plans, which are based on strengthens and preferences of clients in order to manage their disabilities effectively.
Case management for adults
Intellectual development disability services (IDDS) is a case management service for adults with mental problems and developmental challenges (Hampton-Newport News Community Services Board, 2013). The agency offers services to allow such adults to live independently. Case managers work with the client and the family of the client to develop interventions for specific needs.
Case managers also ensure that clients get other services, arrange for these services and transportation. They also support clients from hospitals and home care facilities to start new life in society, as well as counseling and psychosocial support to overcome normal challenges in life.
There is also IDDS for day services. This service allows adults with mental retardation to be independent and find meaning in life. These services involve support, training, and other initiatives, which can facilitate improved life at homes, workplaces, and in societies.
The final service for adults is IDDS, which entails diagnosis, evaluation, and psychological assessment. The agency conducts a thorough evaluation of all individuals who require its services with the aim of determining the most effective services for such persons.
Evaluations involve psychological assessment in situations where clients require them. The agency works together with certified psychoanalysts and psychologists (Hampton-Newport News Community Services Board, 2013) in the provision of these services to its clients.
Case management for Children and Adolescents
The HNNCSB offers services for children and adolescents. The IDDS focuses on providing service after school and summer holidays. Children who suffer from mental disorders and other disabilities get effective services from HNNCSB after school. They get high quality services and school bus transportation to the program.
The agency provides services for children and adolescents with hearing problems, deaf, blind, and deafblind or deaf children.
The HNNCSB offers gender-related substance abuse interventions. These services are available through other clinics in the vicinity such as, “Hampton Roads Clinic, Partners in Recovery, Project LINK, Men’s Substance Abuse Case Management, and South-Eastern Family Project” (Hampton-Newport News Community Services Board, 2013).
Common characteristics of clients served
The Hampton-Newport Community Services Board serves children, adolescents, and adults, i.e., it caters for people of all ages. The agency’s clients are mainly people with the following disorders or challenges:
- Mental retardation problems.
- Drug and substance abuse.
- Blindness.
- Deaf.
- Deafblind.
- Hearing problems.
The presence of a social worker in the agency, if any
The agency has social workers, who it refers to as case managers. However, case managers could be any specialist in the agency.
Article Summary
Gwinner, Knox, and Brough (2013) observed that there were developing interests in research evidence in mental illnesses in order to provide evidence-based practices in providing care in health facilities and social work fields (Gwinner, Knox & Brough, 2013).
The article explored recovery and illness among eight people. Researchers used a Participatory Action Research approach to conduct the study. The researchers acted subjectively as clients with mental illness, who were also artists.
The study noted a specific issue of concern during recovery by using a clinical term in order to achieve prior standards set by health workers for their clients in recovery.
The researchers concluded that individualized interventions and values for mental illness and recovery patients were related to several dynamics and complicated perceptions, which patients acquired from their life experiences and objects in their environments.
References
Gwinner, K., Knox, M., and Brough, M. (2013). Making Sense of Mental Illness as a Full Human Experience: Perspective of Illness and Recovery Held by People With a Mental Illness Living in the Community. Social Work in Mental Health, 11(2), 99- 117. Web.
Hampton-Newport News Community Services Board. (2013). Who We Are. Web.