COMMUNITY-BASED MENTAL HEALTH SERVICES

Vinfen offers a wide range of person-centered, innovative services designed to help people with mental health and substance use challenges regain their health and live and work successfully in the community. We build on each person’s strengths to improve his or her abilities to succeed and recover.

We know that with the right support, people with mental health challenges can and do attain emotional and physical wellness, achieve meaningful life goals, and are productive and valued members of their community.

We focus on meeting people “where they are at” and helping people develop skills and acquire the resources they need through rehabilitative, clinical, and recovery-oriented services. We partner with each person to identify and set goals that are important to him or her, while providing encouragement and instilling hope along the way.

We help people get back their lives by helping them make friends, strengthen family connections, find jobs, or pursue education, while learning to manage their conditions. We also partner with families to give them the resources they need to advocate and support their family member effectively throughout their recovery.

Our highly trained and dedicated staff work together with more than 3,500 people with mental health challenges in over 100 service settings located throughout Massachusetts. We also provide specialized services to adolescents and young adults, and people struggling with substance use challenges and/or homelessness.

SERVICES WE PROVIDE

Vinfen offers a wide range of short- and long-term residential support to people with mental health conditions. We work with people to attain housing in most of our services. Click here to learn more about Vinfen’s residential services.

Vinfen’s Clubhouses empower people by providing them with a community that is focused on respect and encourages individual choice and contribution. Clubhouses offer comprehensive supports and services to members by combining employment, housing, and education services with social activities, life skills, wellness initiatives, arts-based rehabilitation, and advocacy. Learn more here.

COVID-19 Update: please note that while the Clubhouses are open the process of full reopening is fluid and ongoing. Please refer to the latest updates for more information.

Employment services help people with mental health conditions set employment goals, prepare to begin working, and obtain jobs. Click here to learn more.

People who receive our ACCS services are eligible to get employment services through our Competitive Integrated Employment Services (CIES) program. This program works in partnership with the Massachusetts Rehabilitation Commission (MRC) to help people with mental health conditions set employment goals, prepare to begin working, obtain jobs, and keep competitive community-based employment.

Peer support services offer the chance for people to get support and guidance from people with lived experience who are in recovery. Peer support services are offered in many of our programs including Adult Community Clinical Services (ACCS) and Program for Assertive Community Treatment (PACT) via outreach services, the Enhanced Young Adult Program (EYAP), and Recovery Learning Centers (RLCs). For more information on Vinfen’s peer support services, click here.

COVID-19 Update: Peer support remains available by phone and videoconferencing as all RLC/RCC building facilities begin the process of reopening. Please contact your local RLC/RCC program by phone for the latest information on in-person program offerings.

Vinfen’s youth and young adult services give adolescents and young adults with mental health conditions the support they need to plan for their future and achieve their goals.

Young adult access centers, which include YouForward in Lawrence and Everett and YouthQuake in Lowell are available in the Northeast Area. Services are person-centered, flexible, comprehensive, and are designed to meet the changing needs of individuals in all stages of recovery. Click here to learn more.

COVID-19 Update: YouForward locations and YouthQuake are open but providing services by appointment and scheduled groups only.

Outreach staff work with people experiencing homelessness to secure housing and connect them with community resources and supports throughout the Northeast and on Cape Cod. Vinfen’s Homeless Outreach and Engagement Team (HOET) in Hyannis, Aggressive Treatment and Relapse Prevention program (ATRPP) in the Northeast, and four Safe Havens, located in Boston, provide a U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) best practice intervention that helps people transition out of long-term homelessness into permanent community housing. Click here to learn more.

COVID-19 Update: HOET’s Coffee House services are suspended until further notice. HOET continues to conduct outreach in the community using social distancing and personal protective equipment.

Adult Community Clinical Services (ACCS) is a comprehensive, clinically focused service anchored by a multi-disciplinary team that help people living with long-term mental health and substance use challenges recover.

Vinfen also offers the evidenced-based practice of Program for Assertive Community Treatment (PACT) to people living in surrounding areas including Metro Boston, Essex North, Quincy, Plymouth, and on Cape Cod and the Islands, which provides effective rehabilitative and clinical services to people with mental health conditions.

Vinfen also offers an intensive, short-term case management program through their Community Support Program (CSP) in the Merrimack Valley for adults with mental health conditions or substance use challenges. The goal of the CSP is to ensure that people can access essential clinical services that support improved health and promote mental health recovery.

ACCS and PACT teams and our Enhanced Young Adult Program (EYAP) provide clinical, outreach-oriented, rehabilitation services to people in Massachusetts communities from Amesbury to Hyannis. All staff provide evidence-based approaches and interventions specific to the age group they support. For more information on Vinfen’s outreach services, click here.

Vinfen offers care coordination connecting individuals with medical services through our Community Partners and One Care programs in which clinicians, nurses, and outreach workers help individuals arrange for and obtain the care they need. Learn more here.

Vinfen provides licensed, professional staff to support the state-operated Continuing Care outpatient services at the Massachusetts Mental Health Center in Boston. These services provide mental health treatment to over 1,200 people each year and include individual, group and family therapy, case coordination, crisis intervention, medication management, and day programming. For more information on MMHC, click here.

Note: If you are looking for more information on Vinfen’s Behavioral Health Outpatient Clinics, click here.

HOW TO ACCESS COMMUNITY-BASED MENTAL HEALTH SERVICES

At Vinfen, many of our Community-Based Mental Health Services are available only to people who are eligible to receive support through the Massachusetts Department of Mental Health (DMH). These services include residential services, employment services, youth and young adult services, housing and homeless services, and the behavioral health services currently offered through the Massachusetts Mental Health Center.

To be approved for services through DMH, a person must have a qualifying mental health condition as the primary disorder that requires on-going treatment and must meet functional impairment and illness duration criteria.

  • For more information on the criteria that is evaluated for DMH service authorization, please click here.
  • To access an application for DMH Service Authorization, please click here.

Once a person receives DMH service authorization, they will then refer the person to specific service(s), which may or may not be operated by Vinfen, based on the person’s assessed needs and location. For more about the DMH Service Authorization Process, call the DMH Information and Referral Line at 800-221-0053 or visit their website.

MORE INFORMATION

Some of Vinfen’s Mental Health services can be accessed by self-referral. These services include Clubhouses, Recovery Learning Centers (RLCs), young adult services provided at access centers including YouForward locations in Lawrence and Everett and at YouthQuake in Lowell as well as through Vinfen’s Behavioral Health Outpatient Clinics.

Clubhouses are available to anyone who is eligible to receive services through DMH. If a person is ineligible for DMH services, they may apply for Clubhouse services directly at the Clubhouse that they would like to attend.

All services, groups, classes, and activities at Vinfen’s RLCs are open to people who identify as having a mental health condition. Services are free of charge.

For more information about eligibility and services, contact Kelly Rizoli at 617-441-1894 or [email protected].

PRIMARY FUNDING SOURCES

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