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March 29, 2024

CMHS’s WeCARE Staff—Providing Support and Hope for the Most Vulnerable New Yorkers

June 4, 2020

For extremely vulnerable New Yorkers struggling with mental and physical health challenges, trust is often the first barrier to getting needed care. Case managers with the WeCARE Wellness program run by VNSNY’s Community Mental Health Services (CMHS) work hard to build and maintain that trust with their clients—a skill that’s especially important now, with all the uncertainty and upheaval from the coronavirus pandemic.

When a young mother living in a homeless shelter experienced COVID-like symptoms, for example, her first reaction was to keep the symptoms to herself out of fear that she’d be asked to leave the shelter. But she had enough trust to confide in Angela Corre, her WeCARE Wellness Case Manager. Angela immediately connected the young woman with a primary care physician. It turned out that the client didn’t have the virus but was just experiencing a flare-up of her allergies. She was prescribed new medications and her symptoms quickly improved.

“We’ve told this young mom that if she ever feels she can’t speak up to anyone, she can reach out to us and we’ll advocate for her,” says Marisol Orea-Williams, Associate Director of WeCARE Wellness Management for VNSNY. “Our goal with all of our clients is to help them address barriers to care—and there are a lot of increased barriers now.”

WeCARE is New York City’s Wellness, Comprehensive Assessment, Rehabilitation and Employment initiative, which is funded by the city’s Human Resources Administration (HRA). The WeCARE teams work with people receiving cash assistance, helping them become more self-sufficient despite their physical and mental health challenges.

For the past year, VNSNY’s WeCARE program has been providing the “wellness” component for WeCARE in Manhattan and Staten Island. Using a short-term intensive case management model, committed CMHS case managers and health coaches connect clients to healthcare providers and community resources, educate them about their health conditions, and help them stay on track with their medications and plans of care.

Connections to care are especially fragile during this COVID-19 pandemic, so the WeCARE Wellness case managers have to be highly adaptable, compassionate and knowledgeable. Medical facilities are closed, community resources are strained, and homeless shelters are understaffed and overburdened. At the same time, clients may be on the move, seeking safer places to quarantine.

“Providing care in this pandemic requires more phone calls, more research, and more reaching out to make sure folks are continuing to do well with everything that’s going on,” says Marisol. “And that’s all in addition to helping with the conditions they were already experiencing, that brought them to our program.” The CMHS teams use every type of outreach to connect with hard-to-reach clients, she explains, including secure texting through RingCentral. “If there’s a way to reach them, we will find it.”

When one client was struggling to get follow-up care for his cancer because of the COVID-19 lockdown, WeCARE Wellness Case Manager Christopher Diaz provided what is sometimes the most valuable support of all—a sympathetic ear. “He mostly just wanted to vent, and I allowed him to do that,” said Christopher. “Then he did something that really touched me: He sent me an email, thanking me for being in his life and being part of his care team. That made it all worthwhile, especially with everything we’re all going through.”

While the city currently isn’t accepting new clients into the program because of the pandemic, the WeCARE Wellness staff have been stepping up services for their existing 800 clients, connecting them with food sources during the current shortages and educating them on the coronavirus. “VNSNY does a great job updating us on how to prevent the spread of the virus and where people can go to get tested,” says Christopher. “It’s incumbent on us to share that information with our clients, and they are very appreciative. This crisis may be affecting everyone differently, but essentially we are all the same. We’re all in this together.”

To read more VNSNY Heroes of 2020 stories, please click here.