First Step Home

Heather Hughes, Summer 2012

My experience as the UHP intern for First Step Home was nothing short of extraordinary. This is a very successful program for women overcoming drug that has very regulated and proven methods of group sessions and allows the clients to meet individually with councilors to further discuss any issue they might have. First Step Home is unique in that if the women have children living with them, they do not have to place them in someone else's care while receiving treatment but can have them enter the program as well. This method allows the women to have higher levels of success by having their children to remind them of why they are here. It also saves the children from the potential feeling of rejection when his or her mom must leave to enter therapy.

As an intern at First Step, I was able to do several different jobs simultaneously. I ran group sessions covering a wide range of topics covering everything from health issues specific to this population to how to write a resume in order to find work after treatment. I was also able to meet with the clients individually for confidential health discussions to give them additional information on any health issue or medication of interest as well as offer weight and blood pressure screenings. The individual sessions also gave me an opportunity to utilize motivational interviewing techniques to help women who were interested in making a change in their health to do so. Because there are so many topics that can be covered and the women live here round the clock, there is no limit to what an Urban Health Project intern could do by working here. The possibilities were endless and the work was truly rewarding.