Sitting down to interview Melissa Santos, a peer specialist on the CASES Bronx Nathaniel Assertive Community Treatment (NACT) team, it became clear to me why she was nominated for a staff highlight. Melissa immediately exuded the kindness, care and expertise that characterizes her work with NACT. As team member Lexi Montalvo said in their nomination, “Melissa instills hope in our clients, motivates them to be better, respects their strengths and limitations, and seeks continued personal/professional growth to better serve them.”
Nathaniel ACT is an alternative to incarceration (ATI) program that supports people who are released from court to receive mental health treatment services. Program services are available 24 hours, 7 days a week and include crisis intervention, medication management, connections to community resources, and ongoing communication with court stakeholders. It’s run by a multidisciplinary team—including clinicians, psychiatrists, nurses, and peer specialists—who work together each day to meet each participant’s needs. In addition to providing treatment 24/7, NACT meets clients where they are, whether at their homes, in the hospital, or on the streets—no matter the circumstances. Although her team’s program office is located in the Bronx, Melissa and her colleagues serve participants citywide. “I even have a client in Staten Island,” Melissa remarks with a smile.
When Melissa began her journey to serve others with mental health challenges, she didn’t know where she wanted to work. But she did know one thing for sure—she was going to be a peer specialist. To achieve this goal, Melissa enrolled at the Howie the Harp Training Program, an award-winning initiative that trains individuals with lived experience in the mental health system for direct service, supervisor, and management roles in the human services field. As someone who’s had to navigate the mental health system herself, Melissa understood the value of connecting with those who can relate to your experiences and who are also trained to help you succeed. Ultimately, this knowledge guided her to pursue peer support work.
After completing the program at Howie the Harp, Melissa had to figure out where she’d lend her expertise. “I started interviewing different teams at CASES, and I quickly got the impression that this was a cool organization to work for,” Melissa recalls. “And so in my mind, I was like, I want to work with this organization because not only do I get a good work culture feel from them, but I also wanted a challenge.”
Melissa’s first impression of CASES did not disappoint. Since initially joining the organization as an intern and eventually becoming a peer with Bronx NACT, Melissa has been welcomed with open arms and supported wholly in her work. “My team, they’re my rock,” Melissa says. “Everything that I’m passionate about, they really support me and back me up every single time… this organization has really supported me in finding my voice professionally.”
A supportive work environment is crucial to carrying out the kind of work Melissa does. As a peer, it’s Melissa’s job to make sure that her participants are using the resources available to them and learning how to navigate their mental health treatment. This includes, for example, keeping their Medicaid active, accessing SNAP benefits, and learning about their entitlements overall. Melissa is serving a critical role in helping her participants secure material resources and build autonomy. Many clients enter the program with negative experiences of restrictive requirements in the mental health and criminal legal systems–they often enter CASES thinking they have to sacrifice their autonomy in order to participate: “Some people think that just because you come into a court-mandated program that they don’t have any say and we just take over,” Melissa says. But she works with them to turn this thinking around. “I want them to feel comfortable taking control of their treatment.” As much as she can connect her lived experiences to that of her participants, she also recognizes that their challenges are unique and that they have their own hopes and needs to express. “Just like how CASES helped me find my voice, I want to help them do the same thing.”
Trust is the guiding principle for Melissa’s work. Many participants are understandably slow to trust, especially when they are entering a program that is court mandated as opposed to voluntary. But it’s extremely rewarding when Melissa can get through to someone and directly see the results of their hard work. One participant, for example, Jacob,* came to NACT at a really low point in his life. But now, after Melissa slowly built a relationship with him and got him the treatment he needed, Jacob won his court case and decided to stay with NACT to receive treatment on a voluntary basis. For Melissa, moments like that capture what the work is really about. Change rarely happens overnight, but when someone begins to see new possibilities for their life, it’s powerful to witness. Those are the moments that stay with her long after the workday ends.
*Pseudonym
