Our Programs

The Power Lies Within

Bridgehaven has programming that provides individual and group skill building activities designed to improve the ability to interact and function in the community. Recovery is a process in which individuals with severe mental illness are encouraged to take control of their lives, set goals, take advantage of opportunities and return to living, learning, working and socializing activities of their choosing.

Program Schedule

Program Schedule

Take The First Step To Recovery

Psychiatric Rehabilitation

Bridgehaven’s Psychiatric Rehab program uses evidenced based interventions to help individuals with severe and persistent mental health problems find successful roles in their community. We help members develop the insights and skills they need to have successful roles in their schools, with employers, in their living environment, or socially with others in the community.  Licensed therapists meet with each individual member at Bridgehaven to help them design a plan of care. They create a schedule of therapeutic groups and activities where the member is encouraged to think, examine and change behaviors to overcome their own personal barriers to recovery.

A Peer Specialist, licensed therapist, nurse, or Psychiatric Rehab Practitioner leads our activities and interventions to help members develop important skills such as attention and focus, memory, problem solving and organization skills. Members are provided education about their illnesses and strategies to overcome their barriers and move towards wellness. Therapists work with members helping them gain new insights to their emotions and patterns of behavior so that the member can make informed and knowledgeable choices. Peer Support Specialists provide an empathetic partner who understand the energy and effort needed to remain engaged in the recovery process.

Cognitive Enhancement Therapy (CET)

Bridgehaven is the first in Kentucky to offer a newly developed intervention that addresses the negative symptoms of mental illness. CET is an evidence based practice developed in a study funded by the National Institute of Mental Health in 1997. The remarkable results were first published in the Archives of General Psychiatry. Up until now significant advances in treatment have only been made in the development of medications that address the “positive” symptoms of mental illness such as hallucinations and delusions. However, they have little effect on disabling problems such as poor working memory, slowness in processing information and concrete and inflexible thinking with the accompanying lack of motivation and flat affect. CET is also effective in addressing the social and communication problems associated with Asperger’s Syndrome and the cognitive deficits of Acquired Brain Injuries.

Supported Employment Services

Bridgehaven utilizes Individual Placement and Support as the preferred model for supported Employment.  Supported Employment is a service that assists individuals in finding and maintaining meaningful jobs in the community.  The jobs are competitive (paying at least minimum wage) and are based on a member’s preferences and abilities. Meaningful employment promotes recovery and provides members with a sense of pride and belonging

  • Bridgehaven Supported Employment Facilitators provide businesses with recruitment assistance and retention.
  • SE occurs in regular workplaces in the community.
  • Every member is eligible for services, regardless of symptoms, substance use disorders, or other issues.
  • Employment services are integrated with mental health treatment.
  • Facilitator develops relationships with employers by learning about their business needs.
  • Facilitators assesses the employer’s needs and matches them with the talents and skills of the job seeker.
  • Supported Employment Services will be available for as long as a member requests them.

Additional Services

Achieving Wellness
Advocacy Training
Anxiety Management/DBT Group
Art Therapy
Bridges To Health Clinic
Communications Group
Anxiety Management/DBT Group
Focus/Purpose

  • To assist persons with anxiety related issues in learning techniques for modulating emotions
  • To develop strategies for addressing irrational thought patterns that can lead to increased anxiety and frustration
  • To help participants increase level of proficiency in dealing with problems or anxiety producing situations

Activities/Interventions

  • Introduction to Marsha Linehan’s fundamental principles of Dialectical Behavioral Therapy
  • Provide strategies for improved emotional regulation and distress tolerance
  • Develop specific assignments designed to utilize DBT skills
  • Teach participants concepts of mindfulness and provide time to practice these skills in group setting
  • Assist participants in understanding the series of events which eventually lead to breakdown in emotional functioning and assist participants by providing replacement thoughts and behaviors for use in future situations
Art Therapy
Focus/purpose

  • To introduce members to a range of creative and meaningful leisure activities
  • To increase members’ sense of productivity
  • To improve self esteem as a result of completing projects or art work
  • To provide a forum where members can express themselves in a non-verbal modality
  • To improve ability to follow instructions and increase attention span

Activities/interventions

  • Plan projects and provide needed materials
  • Offer an array of mediums by which members may express themselves
  • Encourage social interaction to improve skills regarding relating to others in a social setting
Bridges To Health Clinic
Focus/purpose

  • To make quality health care more easily available to our members
  • To improve the health and quality of life of our members
  • To help teach that you need to take care of the whole person
  • To make the Peer Specialist Health Advocate available to assist our members when needed

Activities/interventions

  • Nurse is available four days a week
  • Address the most common issues associated with mental illness, which include high blood pressure, diabetes with elevated blood sugars and weight gain
Communications Group
Focus/Purpose

  • To provide information on communicating effectively in social situations
  • To increase member abilities to communicate in social situations
  • To increase member social involvement by increasing their willingness to participate in activities involving social communication

Activities/Interventions

  • Provide information on verbal and non-verbal communication skills and recognizing clues received from others in social situations
  • Demonstrate and practice active and passive listening
  • Provide information and demonstrate appropriate levels of self-disclosure in social situations
  • Provide literature on communication skills
  • Demonstrate and practice (starting & finishing) friendly conversation in various settings
  • Demonstrate and practice assertiveness and effective communication skills in conducting personal business and obtaining services
  • Provide information on developing relationships through conversations
  • Use role playing to aid members in learning and strengthening communication skills when possible, provide members with the opportunity to practice skills outside of group setting
Dual Diagnosis
Expressive Communications Group
Dual Diagnosis
Objectives

To empower patients, increasing personal responsibility for their recovery, specifically recovery from significant drug/alcohol use and recovery from mental illness.

Interventions

  • Motivational Interviewing
  • Cognitive Behavioral Therapy
  • Psychoeducation
  • Problem-solving techniques

Response from participants/Progress towards goals

  • Develop an understanding of addiction being a brain disease
  • Normalization and peer support of illness.
  • Hope that recovery is possible.
  • Increase understanding regarding the different effects of different substances on the body
  • Knowledge of the different kinds of cravings/triggers and identify coping strategies to maintain recovery and prevent relapse.
  • Understanding of the concept anhedonia and the role it plays in substance abuse and addiction
  • Enhanced insight into the impact of substance abuse on mental health and one’s responsibility for recovery
  • Voice availability of resources/support in the community and awareness of hope in recovery
  • Voice awareness of the benefits of maintaining sobriety
Expressive Communications Group
Focus/Purpose

  • To explore self-expression in all forms
  • To learn how to express feelings, ideas, concerns and directives to others
  • To increase awareness of environment, feelings and others

Activities/Interventions

  • Provides interventions which encourage interpersonal expression
  • Aids in increasing awareness with role play, art therapy, cognitive and behavioral therapy and experiential interventions
  • Interventions focus on increasing internal and external awareness as well as increasing communication skills

Resources

  • Various music
  • Video camera and television
Goal Setting
Illness Management Group
Illness Management Group
Focus/Purpose:

To improve ability to recognize and cope with interpersonal and intrapersonal impact of mental illness;

  • To promote recovery and reclaiming of personal power.

Activities/Interventions:

  • Identify and discuss ways in which mental illness affects relationships with others;
  • Identify and discuss impact of mental illness on sense of personal power;
  • Identify and discuss issues that decrease one’s ability to successfully manage illness symptoms;
  • Share experiences with stigma and its impact on recovery from mental illness;
  • Explore ways in which fear, denial, anger and shame impact successful management of illness.
  • Explore attitudes, opinions and options related to creating an Advance Mental Health Directive.
Independent Living Skills
Independent Living Skills
Focus/Purpose:

  • To acquire skills needed to gain and/or maintain independent living situation;
  • To choose and/or carry out role in family setting;
  • To develop and maintain skills that would otherwise be allowed to deteriorate because of restrictive and/or dependent life style;
  • To empower members to choose living environment and acquire new skills.

Activities/Interventions:

  • Teach/practice skills, such as cleaning, laundry, meal planning, shopping, nutrition, budgeting, etc.;
  • Provide guidance, instruction on how to perform independent living skills;
  • Provide opportunity for interaction during group time;
  • Discuss members’ roles in family setting;
  • Identify skills required by family role/environment;
  • Model role appropriate behavior.
Integrated Recovery
Pet Therapy
Recovery Awareness
Recovery Awareness
Focus/Purpose:

  • To increase participants’ understanding of some of the encouraging information about mental illness;
  • To promote hope that persons with mental illnesses can recover satisfying community roles;
  • To increase member commitment to the recovery process;
  • To clarify personal implications of recovery for each participant.

Activities/Interventions:

  • Discuss encouraging information about recovery;
  • Share personal experiences with recovery;
  • Discuss and share reactions to articles, videotapes and internet information about recovery;
  • Interview other consumers about recovery via guest speakers, visiting peer support meeting, etc.

Encourage members to take action steps toward recovery via recording personal recovery experiences, beginning Recovery group, joining a consumer group to beginning a wellness program.

Relationship Skills
Self-Determination
Stress Management
Using Community Resources

Our Programs