Early Intervention
Psychiatric Day Treatment Services
At Center House Day Treatment, clients with a broad range of serious psychiatric conditions, including mood, anxiety, dissociative, personality and psychotic disorders, are helped with a combination of highly structured treatment modalities.
PACT (Program for Assertive Community Treatment) is the most extensively researched program model available, and is commonly regarded as the most evidence-based approach for community support of people with severe psychiatric disabilities. The PACT team provides state-of-the-art treatment for men and women with mental illness who are unable to participate in traditional services, often because of severe cognitive challenges, discomfort in social situations, significant addiction to drugs and alcohol, homelessness, and court involvement. The PACT model is very empowering in its implementation because it offers clients only what they need, when they need it, usually at the setting where they live and in a manner that is most acceptable to them. In addition to more conventional mental health treatment, assistance is also provided in areas of housing, careers, meaningful relationships, symptom alleviation and accessing medical care.
Employment Services
Career Advancement Resources (CAR) provides services that are based upon the philosophy that education and employment, guided by individual choice, lead to self-reliance and meaningful roles in ones community. The program is dedicated to providing opportunities, resources, and support through partnerships with people who are living with mental illness. Career Advancement Resources works in partnership with managers and supervisors of companies to fill key positions and to keep these positions filled. The experienced placement specialists at CAR meet with employers and learn about their workforce needs in detail. Visit CAR on the web at www.carboston.com
The Center House Skills Training Program, a component of Center House Employment Supports (CHES), provides the agencys highest level of support to individuals who have been unable to participate successfully in traditional community-based day treatment and rehabilitation programs. It is designed to accept persons who are not comfortable participating in cognitive group processes and/or who require a secure but flexible environment that can accommodate their individual behaviors. The program site uses a series of small settings where individuals can assimilate into larger group experiences at their own pace. This allows each persons treatment program to be effectively customized.
Center House Enterprises (CHE), a component of Center House Employment Supports (CHES), is a collection of business enterprises designed to provide supported employment to people with mental retardation and people with mental illness. Individuals referred to CHE are funded through either the Department of Mental Retardation (DMR) or the Massachusetts Rehabilitation Commission (MRC). The program provides skill evaluation, job training and job placement. The program also provides support for individuals who already have their own jobs in the community, at work crews located at community businesses, and at a mailing and packaging business located at the program site in Boston.
The Computer Learning Center (CLC) is a training center where individuals who are mentally ill or learning disabled can learn about computers and practice their computer skills.
Comprehensive Rehabilitation Services
The Gill Rehabilitation Center is a comprehensive rehabilitation center (Gill Rehab plus Mass Bay Employment Service) located in a newly renovated building on Amory Street in Jamaica Plain. The mission of the Gill Rehabilitation Center is to assist individuals living with mental illness to live and work independently in the community.
Clubhouse Model Services
Center Club is the oldest and largest Clubhouse in New England for people with psychiatric disabilities. The five-day-a-week program combines employment, housing and education services with social activities and advocacy using a holistic approach that is highly empowering. Club members attend on a voluntary basis, participating in Club management, policy development and the day-to-day operation of the program. The Club is a membership program, the activities of which evolve around the interests of its members. The program makes use of self-help principles and operates on the peer and partner model. Club and staff members work side by side in all Club activities and functions.
Casa Primavera is a unique clubhouse specifically designed for Latino men and women living with mental illness. Some members have a dual diagnosis, challenged with a combination of both mental illness and substance abuse. Casa Primavera is the only psychosocial rehabilitation program of its kind in Boston. The clubhouse has bilingual and bicultural staff, activities, and groups that respond to the specific cultural needs of its members. The clubhouse also has an environment that strives to enhance each members feeling of safety and comfort, a vital need for individuals who are experiencing the confusion and distress caused not only by their mental illness, but also by living in a country where most others speak a different language.
The Ruby Rogers Center was created as a cooperative center separate from existing mental health services where people could come and offer each other support. The center was also conceived as a base for a variety of advocacy activities. The center offers a food pantry and open kitchen where members can prepare meals, personal support and advocacy assistance, social and recreational activities, such as parties and outings, and an active group program, with groups chosen by members.