Client-Centered, Team-Guided Spotlight: Ali

In this installment of our Client-Centered, Team-Guided series, we’re bringing you a special spotlight on one of our ISS clients, Ali.

These in-depth features introduce you to our amazing clients and allow us to share in more detail how they’ve courageously partnered with our team alongside their loved ones. Our goal in sharing their story is to remind our readers that joy CAN and WILL be found in the midst of an illness. 

Without further ado, here is Ali’s story.

Ali and more of her story…

Ali is an extremely charismatic woman with a kind heart and a sense of humor like no other! She was diagnosed with schizoaffective disorder and Bipolar II in 2002 and struggled throughout her life with learning differences and ADD. Prior to working with Help in the Home, Ali had experienced many hospitalizations and several self-harm or cutting episodes due to her underlying symptoms. 

Ali began working with the Help in the Home team in 2016 and has been consistently working with our support for over 6 years. She began receiving support through our ISS services when her mom reached out to us with an immediate request to provide support in getting Ali’s home organized into a safe and healthy living environment. We also collaborated in her treatment support to help her maintain stability, stay out of the hospital, and add enjoyable activities to her life so she could engage and thrive with others. Ali’s overarching goal with Help in the Home was to help organize her life because as she joked “wherever I go, clutter follows me!”

Ali enjoys celebrating holidays and summer picnics at the SLC community where she can spend time with other Help in the Home community members. When Ali started with us, she had been seeing her therapist weekly for many years with a very supportive family, including parents and siblings who are now involved in her care.

Strengths and Struggles

Ali has a great support system in her family, friends, and significant other who she has been living with since 2009. In the beginning, an area of challenge was finding the right resources for social support groups that she enjoyed. Now, Ali is outgoing and enjoys socializing with new people and thrives in groups.

One major concern addressed was her living situation, which was full of clutter and in an apartment building that was not well maintained. The immediate goal for Ali was to address her living situation and get her into an apartment with a nice livable space for herself, her boyfriend and cat Misty. The long-term plan was to find a better permanent living situation and a system on how to maintain cleanliness and organization on a weekly basis. This goal was evaluated monthly and by April 2017, Ali was packed up and moved into her new condo where she still resides today. Her family and Care Coordinator worked together to ensure she was moved, unpacked, and organized in her new space.

Ali was also concerned about her aging parents and being able to have the support she needs long term. Now she feels that Help in the Home is an extension of her family and knows that she can reach out for help via text or phone call whenever needed.

Goals

Ali’s current goals continue to be the weekly maintenance of her space, along with regular daily activities, positive social interaction and medication management.

Wins!

Ali continues to work on getting more organized on her own with the encouragement of her Care Coordinator. Ali recognizes Kim Johnson, her current Care Coordinator, as her cheerleader and consistent motivator. Ali says that the time with Kim truly makes her day, and she is so grateful to Kim for being there, being honest, caring, and especially making Ali feel not judged. 

Ali engages in tracking her own mood through a weekly mood chart, which she shares with her Care Coordinator and her psychiatrist. This has helped her own insight of her illness and helped encourage her ability to reach out to someone when needed.

Ali’s support team

Over the several years with Help in the Home, Ali has engaged in weekly therapy, and consistent medication management with Dr. David Pickar. We have collaborated closely with Dr. Pickar to support medication monitoring. Ali meets weekly with her Care Coordinator, who maintains monthly communication with her treatment team and her family with updates, successes, and challenges. 

Ali’s current support system who are in her corner are Margot (her mom), Stephanie (her sister), Dr. David Pickar, Maura Beehler (Help in the Home Program Director) and Kim Johnson (her Care Coordinator). Ali is also not shy about reaching out to co-founders, Stacy and Rayetta, who she has known now for many years.

Where is Ali now…

Ali’s biggest benefit is that she had the support and the confidence to do more things on her own, such as when she recently had a dental emergency and was able to call her providers directly to get herself the appointment she needed. She was so proud of herself for being able to manage this all on her own. Ali recently took it upon herself to make sure she was signed up for swim classes and was able to get there with the help of her significant other.

Through social engagement and positive encouragement from her team, Ali has fostered her own motivation to make these positive changes in her life that make her feel good. Ali attributes consistent communication with her support team, social engagement, and medication monitoring in helping her remain out of the hospital. She had one successfully planned hospitalization in 2019, with the help of her treatment team, rather than the emergency hospitalizations she had dealt with years prior.

Ali’s last piece of advice…

That Help in the Home continues to find incredible people like Kim, her Care Coordinator, to help her and other individuals in similar situations.

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We love you Ali and are honored to walk alongside you!

Start living life to the fullest with the help of our caring and dedicated team. To schedule your free consultation, fill out this short form or give us a call at (866) 967-9994.