The Massachusetts Department of Mental Health (DMH), is a state organization that provides support services to those with severe mental health problems. Services include caseworkers, community centers, and inpatient care, among others. I worked in the Fitchburg office which was responsible for the North County catchment area which covered North central Massachusetts. This catchment area presented many challenges to our clients and our work as an office. Large portions were rural with little access to supportive services without a personal car, to which many of our clients did not have access. Most medical appointments were conducted in the nearest major city, Worcester, which was outside of the catchment area and as far as a one-hour drive from some North County towns. 

At DMH I assisted with needs and means assessments, matching clients to services, checking in on respite and group home services, and level-of-care meetings, as well as working in the internship data science track. Needs and means assessments were interviews conducted with potential clients in the process of assessing if the person needs services. Importantly, all of these individuals needed to have been diagnosed with a severe mental illness before applying. The actual assessment was to review mental health history and determine from what services the person could benefit from. The service team, a group of employees at the local DMH office, would meet and place individuals on waitlists for appropriate services such as case management, group homes, and respite homes, among others. During these meetings, existing clients were also moved around services based on their needs and other changes. In my time checking in on respite and group home services, I–along with another North County DMH supervisor–would check in on the residents of the group home and assess their needs and experiences, as well as take time to see if the home was in proper condition and if the contracting agency was performing to state standards. Level-of-care meetings are conducted yearly to assess if current clients need to be moved into different programs and if their current care team is working for them. The data science track was conducted via Zoom with other interns across the state DMH offices. We learned the data science tools such as Access and Tableau, used to evaluate DMH performance as well as statewide incidents at facilities. In addition to these responsibilities, I updated the county’s resources on homeless shelters, food pantries, and other community mental health services along with their ability to service those who speak another language besides English.