Horizon serves patients with mental health and/or substance use disorders. In my role, I help patients in achieving the best health outcomes. My team provides care to address immediate and long-term social determinants of health needs, where different team members help to fill different gaps in their care so they can be focused during their counseling sessions. Specifically, I help patients with adhering to their medications, managing chronic conditions, linking with primary and specialty care providers, and helping with any other overall health goals the patients may have. It goes back to Maslow’s “Hierarchy of Needs,” where we help fill the gaps at the bottom of the pyramid so the needs at the top can be achieved.

It is never a dull day at my job. Being part of a grant-funded team we always have goals to meet and work to be done. My team is also placed at the most high-risk clinic of the organization, so there are always patients who need our help, and whom we are always ready to jump in and help the best we can. One thing that is super interesting to me is learning about all the different medications. Medication management is a big part of my job, so knowing a brief background on all the mental health and substance use medications is important. Learning about those has been very interesting to me as it was not something I was familiar with. But it was always an interest of mine.

A current UB student should seek this same kind of position because it is extremely fulfilling. I get to directly help people every day and see the impact that both me and my team have on the patients’ lives. Helping patients to improve their social determinants of health and seeing them through until they no longer need your help is an amazing feeling. Both the patients and the clinicians are grateful; the patients because their lives are improving, and the clinicians because the patients are more focused in session and not distracted by things like where they are going to sleep or how they are getting their next meal.

One specific part of my role is linking patients with a specialty pharmacy to improve their access to medication and their adherence to their medication. This specific pharmacy offers free delivery to patients, which is huge for patients who have barriers to transportation. Another service that this pharmacy offers is AdherePacs, a program where the pharmacy will sort a patient’s medications into packets based on the time of day they’re taken. They will give a month’s worth at a time in a box where each packet is individually wrapped and can be torn off and taken on the go. Patients have been so grateful for this service because it not only removes the barrier of going to the pharmacy, but also is super helpful for those struggling with remembering if they took their medication that day (they will see the pack is gone or not) and for patients who are on several or many different medications. Saving time and energy, and eliminating confusion are important for success.

First, flexibility and creative problem solving. Being able to pivot and modify plans on the spot is important in this role. You can be scheduled to work with a patient on one topic but when they show for the appointment, they might have a completely different need they want to work on. I am also a part of a team where we are cross trained to jump in various parts of other roles when needed. You can plan your day, but then someone can walk through the door needing help and it is important to be flexible to help the best you can. It is super helpful to have creative problem-solving skills so that you can find a solution on the spot.

Then, being quick to learn. In this role there is a lot to learn and little time to do it. Thankfully my supervisors and teammates are very understanding and helpful when it comes to learning the information and answering questions. But the quicker you pick it up the quicker you can start independently helping patients. As mentioned, there is also a bit of cross training as we are only a small, six-person team taking referrals from across all Horizon clinic locations. In addition, we use an electronic health record which can be tricky to learn at first if you have never used one before.

Last, good self-care. The mental health and substance use field has a high turnover rate due to burnout. We see a lot of high risk and high need patients which can be very emotionally draining. It is important to take care of yourselves so that you can take care of others.

I like to do activities like reading, exercise, watching sports, and spending time with my pets. Also learning to prioritize time to rest and relax is so important for self-care in general and not always be running around doing something.

My UB education helped to prepare me for my current position by laying an extremely solid foundation of the social determinants of health. My classes provided extensive focus on identifying, assessing, and addressing social determinants of health concerns. One specific course that I took during my MPH program was “Harm Reduction,” which gave me an extensive knowledge of what harm reduction is along with how it is implemented. This background has proven to be very helpful to have with the patient population I work with. In addition, taking the course has given me both the knowledge and confidence to educate others on harm reduction so they can spread that to their patients.

While I was a student, I got help with my resume content and formatting from UB’s career services (or career design center can’t remember what the new name is). They offer many different great services, but that specific one is the only one that I have used.