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This Month, Mental Health Is On Everyone’s Mind.
May is Mental Health Awareness Month, but MHA is here to help all year long. If you or a loved one are in need of assistance, please contact us today.
MHAINC.ORG | 844-MHA-WELL
MAY/JUNE 2022 WWW.HEALTHCARENEWS.COM 29
BEHAVIORAL HEALTH CONT’D
Marking a Milestone
MHA’s Yale Street GRIT Program Celebrates First-year Anniversary
HOLYOKE — The Mental Health Association, aware that there was no residential recovery program in the state exclusively for those who identify LGBTQ+, opened its GRIT — Yale Street program in Holyoke
in the spring of 2021, and both staff and residents say
“They absolutely love having their own bedroom. This is very unusual for most residential programs. Most of them list the fact that it’s solely an LGBTQ+ residence that means the most to them. We have had residents who have cycled through different pronoun use, try out
biological sex, and sexual orientation is what makes the program welcoming for residents and a model for others, said O’Donnell.
“Being in recovery is hard, especially in the begin- ning,” she noted. “There are typically many barri-
ers each person faces when they start their recovery process. Those who identify as LGBTQ+ have an additional barrier in their recovery process, especially if they are transgender, but even if they are not, and are simply non-binary or gay or lesbian.”
She said the fact that “most programs of recovery are diverse” means someone who is transgender can be “in the same program as someone who may be diametri- cally opposed to the transgender population.”
“The transgender person spends a lot of energy just trying to fit in, not making waves perhaps, or just fo- cusing on staying clean,” O’Donnell said. “But it’s dis- tracting to always have to justify their existence, their choices, and their very being. So, at Yale Street we have effectively eliminated one huge barrier to recovery. This allows our people to focus on other things, which may include how their sexuality or gender identity
Please see GRIT, page 32
“To know that they are learning how to be their best selves and are willingly and openly sharing the most difficult things in their lives with us is truly the life- changing for us as a staff.”
different names, as well as have the freedom to dress in any style or gender that they wish.”
She added, “Our residents are so brave, so strong and so inspiring.”
“To know that they are learning how to be their best selves and are willingly and openly sharing the most difficult things in their lives with us is truly the life-changing for us as a staff,” O’Donnell said.
The Yale Street program is one of two other GRIT programs that MHA has for different populations in recovery with substance use disorders and-or mental health diagnosis, and all made possible by
the program has lived up to its acronym that stands for “Growing, Re-imaging, Inspired, Transformed.”
“The feedback we get is that the residents like the staff, and feel that they are being supported in the program,” said Bonnie O’Donnell, program director.
contracts with the Massachusetts Department of Public Health. It is in a spacious, renovated Tudor-style home that sits on nearly an acre of land.
Feeling accepted, supported and safe no matter where they are on the spectrum of gender identity,