On The Wire with Fred Finch: Recent Episodes
Fred Finch Youth & Family Services
Welcome to On the Wire with Fred Finch Youth & Family Services. We started this podcast as a way to share stories, experience and knowledge gained from more than a century of helping disadvantaged young people and their families. Our staff of clinicians and mental health professionals offers unconditional care, support and opportunity to youth and their families who face complex challenges.
And while the challenges are many, the goal is the same: support the individual and family on their journey to a healthy, satisfying, productive life in the community. In our ongoing series, we will speak with our experts, clinicians in the field and youth in our programs about the challenges and successes of our organization.
For more information on the program or how to obtain a referral, please visit https://www.fredfinch.org/alameda-school-based-services
In honor of Autism Awareness Month, On The Wire is featuring stories from Fred Finch’s CARES program.
Based in San Diego County, CARES offers treatment and support services for kids with autism and their families. Providing the behavioral therapy that creates dramatic change to improve the lives of kids and their families is at the heart of what CARES does, but unlike most other autism programs, CARES can provide psychiatric support and mental health counseling for kids and their caregivers. In this show, two families speak to their personal journeys, from their children’s diagnosis – and their initial disbelief – to the care they received from Fred Finch, sharing their struggles and triumphs.
We also dig into how the CARES team works with families to provide parents and kids with the tools to reach their goals. To learn more about the services Fred Finch CARES provides, please visit www.fredfinch.org/cares.
In Episode 3 of On the Wire, we meet Jordan, a past participant in one of Fred Finch’s residential treatment programs. We also meet Mar Smith and Bruce Wexler, who lead the residential treatment programs in Almeda County and San Diego county respectively. While some of our staff were able to pivot to a telehealth model, Mar and Bruce, and their dedicated staff, have had to show up to work daily to care for the most vulnerable population at Fred Finch.
As we kick off 2021 still in the grips of a pandemic, the impact on disadvantaged children and teens of color is outsized, with the potential for lasting consequences. To understand how children have been affected, and the role that sustained mental health care during this time can have in helping them cope, we delve into Fred Finch’s school-based therapy with the director of Alameda County School-Based Services, a therapist working with students at a continuation school in Hayward and an Oakland family who are getting therapy through the program. We also offer parents suggestions on what to look for if they are concerned their child may be struggling with mental health and how to get help.
In honor of Hispanic Heritage Month, we are starting our program by speaking with Dr. Teresa Chapa, Fred Finch Vice President of Southern California Operations, to discuss the state of mental health in the Latinx community. Approximately 30% of the young people and families Fred Finch serves annually are Latinx. Dr. Chapa grew up in Venice Beach, Los Angeles before the modest bungalows were multi-million-dollar real estate sought-after by Hollywood stars and tech moguls. Her neighborhood was mostly Mexican American. Some had immigrated recently from Mexico, but many more were the children, grand-children or great-grandchildren of immigrants. Her neighborhood was a microcosm of much of the Latinx community across the country.