Caitie entered the CRT program in August of 2013. At entry she complained of a number of mental health symptoms, was battling a serious meth addiction and had recently lost her section 8 housing as a result. At entry she didn’t have any access to medical care, had no income and no place to live as she was staying at the Barrett House – a local homeless shelter for women. She was later diagnosed with PSTD and assigned a case worker in CRT.
Over the next few months, things began to slowly change for Caitie. She obtained Shelter Plus Care in Feb 2014 and was finally able to move out of the shelter. She obtained Medicaid, saw a psychiatrist to get back on her medications and enrolled in therapy at St. Martin’s. She also enrolled in PSR services and within a couple months, she was awarded the Participant of the Month award.
Over the next 10 months, she continued to work on her recovery. She met with her case worker weekly, attended PSR and therapy services. While she had high participation, her goal of going back to work one day continued to linger. Both her therapist and case worker encouraged her to look for work if that was her goal. In Dec, she graduated from shelter plus care and obtained section 8 housing. She had elected to have the PSR client Christmas party at her house. That day she announced she had obtained a job starting out at 20 hours per week and hoped to obtain full time employment in the next couple months.
Since then, not much has changed for Caitie. While she wasn’t able to work full time and has struggled with her goal of employment she never misses a chance to attend PSR. Not only does she attend to listen, she also goes to pay it forward. Over the last 3 months or so Caitie has become somewhat a leader of the group. She educates, motivates and even assists other clients in the program. When clients are having trouble keeping their apartments clean for inspections, it’s been Caitie who has taken to the time to go to those clients homes to help them prepare.
While Caitie came into the program with a drive to improve her situation, it is hard to see how she might be if it were not for the help of the CRT, PSR and Therapy working together to see her succeed. Would she be sober, working or volunteering her time to assist those less fortunate then her? I honestly don’t know, but I can say that she benefited from the services provided by St. Martin’s and is now paying it forward.