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The single most common theme in all of Positive Impact's activities is mental health therapy. The agency was founded on the notion that individuals are better able to cope with stressful life-changing situations when they have access to affordable therapy services. While this is definitely not the only type of service we provide, the principles of psychology and psychotherapy are frequently applied to every aspect of the agency's direct services. it is our belief that the counseling programs provided at Positive Impact are some of the best in the Atlanta area.
- Ryan White Care Act – The Ryan White Care Act is a federal funding act reauthorized on an annual basis and is intended to fund and provide primary care services to HIV-positive individuals. For its purposes, mental health is considered part of primary care. Categorizing mental health in the same category as doctor visits and dental care represents a huge shift in how the federal government views mental health. Positive Impact is one of the grantees within the Atlanta Eligible Metropolitan Area (EMA) and is funded to provide mental health services in order to promote the regular and sustained objective of keeping clients in primary care (e.g. getting blood work done, seeing their physician, and maintaining other appointments).
- HOPWA (Housing Opportunities for People With AIDS) – HOPWA is a Department of Housing and Urban Development Act that provides individuals affected by HIV with free or subsidized housing. Positive Impact's role as a HOPWA grantee is to assist clients who are experiencing barriers with housing as a result of mental health challenges. Conversely, individuals who are dealing with mental health challenges are not able to effectively benefit from mental health therapy if they are not properly housed, fed, and clothed. The HOPWA coordinator, therefore, serves two purposes: to seek out housing opportunities for individuals who are homeless or potentially homeless and to utilize mental health therapy to enable those clients to stay housed.
- Sliding-scale, paying clients – Any clients participating in the above two programs must make less than 300% of the federal poverty threshold, be HIV-positive, and have no insurance to pay for services. Positive Impact is, in effect, a “payer of last resort.” However, Positive Impact is exploring the possibilities of seeing clients who have some resources on a sliding-scale-fee basis. This means that clients who have some resources, but no insurance, would be able to receive services and only pay a nominal fee. This type of program will not be available until late 2007.
- Pro-bono clients – it would be ethically wrong to stop seeing an HIV-affected (negative) client just because his or her partner dies or stops receiving services. These clients become clients of the agency and are seen as “pro-bono,” or for free. The Agency makes a point to keep a very low number of such clients and, instead, refer them to other providers or resources.
One-on-one counseling - involves one person. The therapist is creating the intervention for the second person, the client. It is clearly the second most common form of mental health intervention and tends to be one of the most effective forms.
Couples counseling - involves one person, the therapist, initiating an intervention between two other people, the couple. In this mode of counseling, the therapist is not specifically focused on one individual or the other, but on the couple, as one. Frequently, couples will engage in therapy individually, in a one-on-one relationship, while concurrently participating in couples counseling. This allows each individual to address his/her own specific issues while working together on issues that are specific to the couple.
Family counseling - again, involves one person, the therapist, initiating and guiding an intervention between an entire group of related individuals, the family. This mode has the look and feel of a group counseling environment, yet it is very different. It is, in fact, simply a larger version of couples counseling, in which the therapist is focused on the family, as one integrated body, as opposed to any one particular individual within the family.
Group counseling - is a mental health intervention that differs from the previous three, in that the therapist is merely acting as a facilitator. The purpose of group counseling is to enable all members of the group to create and initiate interventions for other group members. In other words, group members get to play therapist for each other while the therapist asked merely as the gatekeeper. A schedule of support groups offered through Positive Impact is available by clicking here.
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