PSYCHOLOGY |
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| I graduated from Texas
A&M University-Kingsville (formerly known as Texas A&I
University) in Dec 1991. I earned as Master's Degree in Psychology
with a minor in Geriatric Social Work. My graduate thesis was on
Organic Brain Disorder and Abnormal Behavior. Upon graduation, I
continued enrollment at the university to learn as much as I could
concerning psychology and sociology.
I started working immediately upon graduation with Kingsville Community Service which was a community center for Rio Grande State Center, in Harlingen, TX. My first duties was a clinical social worker, in which I provided casework services for about 45 mental ill patients. I provided case management, counseling (individual and group), family education, crisis intervention and served as a clinical advisor to junior staff. In addition, I served on many committees and assisted the clinic with quality assurance issues and help prepare for SQA Standards for Quality Assurance and JCAHO Joint Commission Accreditation Hospital Organization audits. Furthermore, I assisted the clinic with developing policies and procedure when necessary and assisted senior management with aggregating data and preparing fiduciary reports. In 1994, I transferred to Austin State Hospital in Austin, TX to focus on my crisis intervention skills. While at Austin State Hospital, I provided crisis resolution to the surrounding counties. I performed crisis screenings at the hospital emergency room after a citizen would attempt suicide or at the police station after someone was in custody with a psychotic episode. My job was to perform assessments to see if a patient could be release on their own recognizance or needed to be place in a more restrictive environment. I began collecting data on patients to help provide a better service. The information I gathered helped streamline the "crisis respite" program. During this time, I also assisted Austin State Hospital with their child and adolescent unit. I performed intakes, case management, counseling and family support services. In 1996, I transferred to Dallas Metrocare Services to focus on management skills. I began my career with Dallas Metrocare Services as a Team Leader for the Pathways Clinic. I worked along side another team leader and together we supervised a staff of 30, which served over 1,000 consumers each month. I was responsible for the intake unit and authorizing services. My duties included the clinic budget, monitoring efficiency, productivity, billing and the delivery of services. I utilized many softwares to achieve this monitoring, including MSAccess, Excel and FACTS. After approximately 1 year as team leader, I was promoted to Operational Support. Operational Support Services, under the Director of Mental Health Services, monitored the entire mental health clinic system which included 650 staff members providing services to over 20,000 patients yearly. Duties included aggregating data, generating management reports and provide instruction to new staff members on writing treatment plans, progress noting and completing the Uniform Assessment. I used MSAccess, Focus, Crystal Reports and PL/SQL to monitor efficiency and productivity. I wrote several hundred reports which were used to see where areas needed improvement or where patterns were seen in our patient population to start a new service. In Oct 1996, I was promoted to Program Administrator of In-Home & Family Support (IHFS). As program administrator, I was responsible for managing and administering the IHFS and the mental retardation respite program. In addition, I was responsible for identifying staff needs, hire personnel as needed, provide support and training to staff as required, maintaining documentation and reports on status of consumers and funding dollars. The IHFS program is a multi-million dollar program which assisted families purchase items or services that are needed because a family member has mental retardation. IHFS receives it's funding from the TX State Legislature. The state required several reports to monitor the spending. As program administrator, I was responsible for aggregating data, and generating reports using Crystal Reports, Focus, MSAccess and Excel. I am currently still in this position. |
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