07/10/2024
On Wednesday, February 21st, Governor Hochul held a press briefing highlighting the success of the Safe Options Support Teams (SOS). She told the audience that the SOS Teams are “Professionals with huge hearts of love with deep clinical knowledge, compassion that give dignity, listen, follow-up and develop rapport. “You are transforming lives”. In addition, she announced additional funding to advance the model statewide.
ACMH client, Alto Watts, was selected by the Governor’s office to share his story of his work with our SOS Team. Alto, told the audience that when he met the SOS group that his mental health was in a terrible place, he had just left the hospital after losing his housing. He was beyond sad and hopeless. He went on to say that his SOS workers had connected him to mental health professionals and services, took him to appointments. He is happy to say that he is now in his apartment and that his mental state is now exponentially better than it was before connecting with SOS. Alto is one of the first clients to move into our SAHA program and is now also being assisted by ACMH residential case management staff.
In addition to Alto, the Governor asked Erica Riley, Licensed Social Worker, to speak about her work as part of the SOS program. Erica introduced herself as a clinician for the ACMH SOS Team. She spoke about the caring and compassion of the SOS team and how the model allows her to build trust with clients and that it allows her to be in it for the long-haul with our clients. She said that it’s not about putting someone in a home for a night, it’s about building a long-term solution. SOS allows her to share the journey with the clients from first meeting them in street outreach to the ups and downs of the shelter system and to celebrate placement into permanent housing.