A Bloomington mental health service provider is exploring an innovative and client-oriented approach to reduce stress on staff during the behavioral health workforce shortage and get people treated faster.
The Center for Youth and Family Solutions [CYFS] started offering standalone therapy sessions in May and is using interns to help with the program. These sessions are a one-off service to combat the client’s immediate and most pressing concerns.
“It's a way to intervene right there in the moment when they're reaching out for help,” said Jessica Wolf, the clinical director of CYFS’ counseling program. It’s also a method to circumvent long waitlists for ongoing counseling that have been the norm during a persistent workforce shortage.
That way, Clinical Supervisor Jennifer Woodrum said “it can help [a client] make progress even before official services start.”
This approach is known as Single Session Intervention, and it’s an evidence-based practice.
CYFS received a John M. Scott grant through the City of Bloomington for around $8,000 to run these sessions through the end of April. The goal between May — when the grant started — and April, is to serve 80 clients, said Woodrum.
Some of those clients will take the Single Session Intervention at face value and not pursue other services, but Woodrum said many will likely use it as a holdover and remain on the waitlist to get continuing therapy.
She added that she’s noticed CYFS moving through its waitlist more quickly, and the therapist will know more about the client when they are pulled off the waitlist for therapy.
“It just seems like it makes a smoother transition,” she explained.
So far, CYFS has held around 36 sessions, and the interns who’ve largely been conducting them say they have already seen clients start to benefit. Some of Lilla Kisvari’s clients told her they’ve preferred the methodology of single sessions to routine therapy.
“They wish they would just do this in regular therapy every six months, because they found it very beneficial to address their very current problems, rather than talking only about their history and background — which obviously impact where they're at right now — but they needed more immediate support,” Kisvari said.
Intern Gabby Kimm gave an example of how the single session might target a client’s anxiety. She said their solution could be talking to a family member daily on the phone. Then, it’s Kimm’s job to make sure they follow through.
“We actually like talk through, OK, ‘Where are you going to be when you do that? When are you going to do that?’” she said. “And then we follow up with them a week later and we say, ‘Hey, have you been doing it? How's that been going?”
But there’s no one answer for clients in a single session, Kimm added. Each person’s targeted concern is different, so services are adapted accordingly.
“So for a couple of them, the single session was just great for them to be able to see the office and feel what it feels like to talk to somebody,” she said. “Another client when I was calling to do their intake, they were looking mainly for resources. So I came to the single session prepared with a list of resources that I thought they may be interested in and may be helpful to them.”
In the case of court clients required to complete a Single Session Intervention, Wolf said it’s made some feel comfortable pursuing long-term therapy.
“Someone who originally was just mandated to do a service is then saying, ‘Actually, I'm interested in doing therapy. I really liked meeting with the person who came and talked to me, and I feel like this could be useful,’” she said.
Wolf said having interns run single sessions and other client services has proved useful in reducing wait times without hiring additional clinicians.
“When we have interns who come to us and we're implementing these types of projects, that they can be a part of something and really engaging and meaningful work where we're trying to meet the needs of our community, even though sometimes the demand does outpace it,” she explained.
Giving interns hands-on roles can also hopefully lead them to pursue the work as a full-time career post-graduation, Wolf said — and even better if it’s in the community.
Since CYFS is funding its Single Session Intervention through a grant, Wolf said whether or not the organization can continue the program beyond April is yet to be seen. However, she’s hopeful to continue offering the service, even if it’s at a reduced level.
