The Hospital Services Division offers an array of services to meet the needs of individuals, 18 years of age and older with prolonged psychiatric and co-occurring illnesses, who require hospitalization due to acute exacerbation of their symptoms and for those requiring continued rehabilitation before returning to the community.  Patients are served in the following locations: The admissions unit (PICU I), the extended care unit (PICU II), and the Co-Occurring Treatment Unit (CTU).

Psychiatric Intensive Care Units (PICU) 42 beds:  The PICU 1 and PICU 2 each provide 21 beds for residents of Connecticut. Admissions to the psychiatric units are coordinated through a statewide Utilization Management process coordinated by the Office of the Commissioner. Both locked units are responsible for providing treatment for severely and acutely ill psychiatric patients who require a safe, supportive, highly structured hospital level of care. The treatment goals are developed in which the individual can be: stabilized, evaluated, rehabilitated, helped to accept the need for ongoing treatment, and assisted in regaining a level of functioning that will allow the person to be treated in a less restrictive environment or to return to community-based living.  PICU treatment staff work closely with community providers to ensure that a smooth transition to the community exists. PICU 1 provides assessment and stabilization, with the emphasis on community reentry. PICU 2, the extended care unit, focuses on rehabilitation with an emphasis on intense skills building needed for community reintegration.

Co-Occurring Treatment Unit (CTU) 20 beds: The Co-Occurring Treatment Unit is a 20 bed, locked inpatient psychiatric unit that provides treatment to individuals with co-occurring illness.  The criteria for admission are major mental illness and substance use within six months of admission. The mission of CTU is to provide assessment and psychiatric stabilization as well as education around the clients co-occurring illness. The program model focuses on the inpatient Integrated Dual Disorders Treatment (IDDT) evidence-based practice, focusing concurrently on both psychiatric and substance abuse diagnoses.  The treatment goals are similar to the PICU’s.

Community Outreach and Engagement Service (COES): The COES is the “front door” for community-based services in Bridgeport. The Unit coordinates streamlined access to the most appropriate and effective services within the Southwest Connecticut Mental Health System (SWCMHS).  COES provides community outreach, triage, diagnostic and evaluation services, homeless outreach services, short-term treatment services, employment services, peer support, and referrals to community providers.  COES is the initial point of entry into the SWCMHS, manages admission to all SWCMHS programs and is designed to quickly identify an individual’s needs and refer them to the appropriate level of care either within SWCMHS or in the community.  Services within COES include: 

Diagnostic and Evaluation Center (DEC) and Triage Services: The DEC provides a full range of assessments to determine an individual’s needs and makes recommendations for appropriate follow-up care.  The DEC provides short-term treatment services while a referral is processed to either a treatment team within the Southwest Connecticut Mental Health System or to a community provider.  The DEC has extended hours Monday through Friday from 8:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. as well as a crisis line available after hours and on weekends.  The Center’s primary functions include: clinical evaluation, psychiatric evaluation, psychological evaluation, health evaluation, TBI/ABI screening, employment/education screening, psychosocial assessment, brief treatment services, referral to clinical and primary health services.  

Triage Services: Triage services within the DEC provide intake services including initial screenings for COES services, entitlement and financial reviews, and referrals to community-based providers.  The goal is to compile knowledge regarding clinical needs, entitlements, medication programs, and community-based services to help promote rapid accessibility to recovery services both within SWCMHS and in the community. 

Crisis Intervention Team (CIT): The Crisis Intervention Team is a partnership program between the local police and the community provider network that offers training to law enforcement personnel and provides for a joint response to crisis in the community involving persons with behavioral health disorders.  The goal of CIT is to reduce the need for arrest in favor of referrals to appropriate treatment resources.  CIT has trained clinicians that work collaboratively with CIT trained officers to provide mental health evaluations and recommendations when responding to crisis calls. Download SWCMHS Mobile Crisis Brochure.  

Homeless Outreach Team (HOT): The Homeless Outreach Team (HOT) is a program designed to offer mental health and substance abuse services to individuals in Bridgeport and the surrounding towns who are homeless.  Everyday, staff from HOT go to local shelters, bus stations, train stations, parks, soup kitchens, and other locations to provide assistance and support to homeless individuals.  Services that HOT provides includes: A “Drop-In” center where people can come have a cup of coffee or some food, staff who can help with medication management, an Employment Specialist who can help individuals find and keep a job, staff who can help clients get insurance, outreach workers who provide services in the community and can help with filling out housing applications or make referrals to shelters.

Ongoing community-based services at SWCMHS are provided by a number of multi-disciplinary treatment teams. Core clinical services, offered by all of these teams, include: psychopharmacology, assessment, case management, individual, group and family psychotherapy, and psychoeducation. Also available to all teams are evidence based groups such as Illness Management and Recovery (IMR), Dialectical Behavioral Therapy (DBT) and Integrated Dual Disorder Treatment (IDDT). Each team includes an RN who assists consumers with wellness activities and to connect to primary care in the community. SWCMHS Rehabilitation Services are fully integrated into the clinical programs.

Services in Bridgeport are organized around three levels of care:

• Community Support Program
• Clinical Services with Recovery Pathways
• Medication Clinic

Community Support Program (CSP): CSP is targeted to individuals who need the most intense level of community-based care. The program utilizes a team approach to provide intensive, rehabilitative community support, crisis intervention, individual and group skill-building, also known as recovery education.  The majority of the interventions are community-based, delivered in the individual’s home, neighborhood or community, which enables the team to become intimately familiar with the individual’s surroundings, strengths and challenges, within the context of their environment.  The desired outcome is to assist individuals toward an independent, enriched life based on their own choices and preferences.

Clinical Services (CS) with Recovery Pathways (RP): Bridgeport Clinical Services are designed for individuals who have a range of clinical needs but tend to require less intensive case management and community-based skills building. Consumers served by Clinical Services work with a licensed clinician who assists them to develop and implement a person-centered, coordinated recovery plan. These clinicians also provide a full range of individual, group and family therapies.

CS consumers have access to Recovery Pathways (RP) workers. RP staff offer traditional case management, as well as skills training (e.g. money management). RP support tends to be more intermittent and generally ranges from 1-3 hours per month. The function of this level of support is to assist individuals in cultivating greater independence in community living by use of problem solving skills, building towards improved self sufficiency and improving social networks within their own environment. Life skills seminars will be offered to assist individuals toward goals and objectives of independent living in accordance with the consumer’s specific recovery goals and objectives.

SWCMHS Clinical Services have additional capacities:

Hispanic Services: For monolingual Spanish-speaking clients. CS is able to offer services delivered by a team of Spanish speaking providers.  Hispanic Services have active linkages to culturally sensitive agencies in the Bridgeport area.

Deaf or Hard of Hearing Services:  Deaf of Hard of Hearing Service is a specialty service that is available within the Clinical Services Division of SWCMHS and is available at both the Bridgeport and Stamford locations.  This service provides culturally and linguistically accessible mental health treatment for persons who are Deaf or Hard of Hearing.  All psychiatric services, case management, group and individual therapy are provided within the Clinical Services. Direct staff include; a clinician who is deaf and uses American Sign Language along with an Interpreter on site. Both can assist individuals to access sign language interpreters for treatment related services. 

Medication Clinic Service (MCS): The Medication Clinic is available for individuals who have achieved significant stability and are interested primarily in psychopharmacology services. Consumers in MCS require only periodic appointments with their psychiatrist and/or clinician.  The MCS primarily provides psychiatric medication, nursing services, supportive counseling provided by a clinician, supported employment, and peer services.  Case management services such as assistance with housing, entitlements or money management are available as needed. Individuals in the MCS typically come in for services less frequently and may be provided with assistance and referrals to access community mental health providers.

In addition to the community-based programs described above, SWCMHS offers three specialty programs in Bridgeport:

• Young Adult Services
• Forensic Services
• Care Management

• Intensive Community Supports
• Clinical Services
• Residential Supports
• Community Support Program
• Educational Services
• Vocational Services
• Psychiatric/Medication Services
• Social Rehabilitation

Forensic Services: The Forensic Team evaluates individuals who have been arrested (and who have mental health issues) usually for minor crimes, and assists the court in diverting them from purposeless incarceration.  The Team links persons in prison to appropriate mental health services, provides regular training to police, and assists other outpatient staff when consumers they serve are arrested.  The Forensic team is made up of several components:

• Forensic case management that is oriented towards collaboration with criminal justice agencies (including concrete services, nursing, psychiatric, supported employment and other Evidence-Based Practices),
• Connecticut Offender Reentry Project (CORP) which assists offenders who are transitioning from prison to the community
• Court Diversion which advocates for alternatives to incarceration,
• Liaison services to DOC, Whiting Forensics, and CVH
• ASIST programwhich provides skill building and advocacy for people referred by the courts to the Bridgeport AIC office
• Outpatient restorations to competency
• PSRB community supervision and clinical services.

Care Management Team (CMT): The Care Management Team provides services to individuals who are receiving residential support and case management services from contracted community residential providers.  For example, people living in group homes, supervised housing and supported housing from agencies such as Mental Health Association (MHA), Recovery Network of Programs (RNP), Homestead, etc.  The CMT provides psychiatric medication, psychotherapy, and crisis intervention services.

RESIDENTIAL SERVICES

REHABILITATION SERVICES (ALL LOCATIONS)