Mental Health Care Management for Adults and Families

Why this is at the heart of what we do

Many care management practices focus only on aging. Ours grew out of mental health. Lisa Kolton has spent more than 30 years working with people with mental illness and their families in outpatient mental health clinics, psychiatric and medical hospitals and residential treatment. Kim Hamilton has spent more than 30 years in hospitals and community agencies with a focus on mental health and addiction, and she served as Clinical Director of a large New Jersey care management agency. This is not a specialty we added later. It is where we come from.

That background shapes how we work with every client, but it matters most for families whose loved one has a psychiatric diagnosis.

A relationship that lasts beyond the crisis

When a crisis hits, we help get things under control. Then we stay involved, connecting the person with the community resources that help them stay steady, from treatment and day programs to housing and benefits. But most importantly, we build a strong rapport with our clients, based on respect and on valuing them as human beings. The relationship continues over time, so they can turn to us as their advocate, a trusted person in their life and somebody they can count on.

Who we help

• Adults with schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, major depression, anxiety disorders or other serious mental illness.
• People living with both mental illness and substance use.
• Older adults with a lifelong psychiatric history who now also have medical or memory problems.
• Older adults experiencing depression, anxiety or late-life psychiatric symptoms for the first time.
• Adult children whose aging parents have cared for them for decades and are worried about what happens when they no longer can.

Signs it may be time to get help

• Your loved one has stopped taking medication or keeps missing appointments.
• There have been repeated psychiatric hospitalizations or emergency room visits.
• Housing is unstable, or the current living situation is no longer working.
• Bills, benefits or paperwork are falling apart.
• Family members are exhausted, frightened or no longer on speaking terms.

What we do

1. Assess the whole person. Psychiatric history, current symptoms, physical health, substance use, daily functioning, housing, money and relationships.
2. Connect and coordinate treatment. Finding the right psychiatrist, therapist or program, helping your loved one get there, and making sure providers communicate.
3. Support medication management. Tracking prescriptions, side effects and refills, and raising concerns with the prescriber.
4. Stabilize housing. Exploring supportive housing, group homes, residential programs or more support in the current home.
5. Handle benefits and paperwork. Applications, renewals and bills, through our benefits and paperwork service.
6. Respond in a crisis. When symptoms escalate, we help with crisis intervention, including psychiatric hospitalization when needed, and we plan carefully for discharge.
7. Work with the family. Counseling, education and mediation, so relatives can support their loved one without burning out or losing the relationship.

How it works with us

We begin with a free conversation with the family, the client or both. Many adults with mental illness are understandably wary of yet another professional. We take time to build trust, respect the person's autonomy and look for goals they actually care about, like keeping an apartment, reconnecting with a sibling or getting back to work or a day program. The plan grows from there.

Engagement can be ongoing or focused on a specific need, such as a transition after a hospital stay. Because we know the psychiatric system from the inside, we know how to work with inpatient units, outpatient clinics and community programs, and when to push for a different approach.

Planning for the future

We hear this question often from aging parents: "Who will look after my son or daughter when I am gone?" It is one of the hardest worries a family can carry. We help parents put a plan in place while they are still able to guide it: housing, benefits, legal documents, a trusted network of providers, and a professional who already knows their adult child. Our disability care management work follows the same approach.

What families tell us they value

Families tell us they value working with people who are not intimidated by psychiatric symptoms and who treat their loved one with dignity rather than as a problem. They appreciate that we understand both the mental health system and aging services, which are often separate worlds. And many say it is a relief to stop being the only person holding everything together.

Serving North Jersey and Rockland County

We provide mental health care management throughout Essex, Bergen, Passaic, Morris, Union, Hudson and northern Middlesex counties and in Rockland County, NY, meeting clients at home, in the hospital or in their residential program.