Podemos: Psico-Educacion Comunitaria

Language equity in healthcare services is a big challenge in the state of Kansas. In Sedgwick county, less than 2% of mental health practitioners are bilingual. This creates an abysmal service gap for mental health services in our Hispanic community. Our community is under represented and with no access to medical insurance. Our program seeks to lower the service gap by providing services free of cost and in Spanish. The program also offers psychoeducational courses, and peer support group interventions in the community. We are the only program in the region aspiring to cover this service gap.

Podemos seeks to extend mental health services to Spanish speaking clients in Sedgwick County, Kansas. The program offers three different tiers of services. The first tier is a psychoeducational program that offers free courses in the Hispanic community through the local community centers and high schools where Hispanic enrollment is significant. The second tier offers support group interventions in the same spaces where the psychoeducational courses are offered. The third tier adds individual therapy services free of cost to the Hispanic community. The program has six 1099 contracted licensed clinicians who will process referrals and provide therapy services to eligible clients. The program is funded through grants, funds from the local county and city, and donations.

Our program serves the local hispanic community, ages 15 and up. The service gap in the Hispanic community is significant since only less than 2% of the licensed practitioners in the state are able to provide services in Spanish.

Our program started providing services during the summer of 2023. We operate at the Evergreen Community Library. This center is the main hub for social services in the Historic Hispanic community of the North End in Wichita, Kansas. Our program stays connected to other community based programs that operate from the same facility.

Our program is offering the first two tiers of services from our intervention model. It is for the moment limited to one location, but we are establishing support agreements with Wichita State University to start the first Latinx mental health support group on campus. With additional funding our program will be able to start offering services from our third tier, and expand services to other locations.

Mental health services for the Hispanic community in Kansas are very limited due to the lack of bilingual licensed providers. Our program was bale to gather six licensed bilingual clinicians who are committed to start servicing the Hispanic community. Our program seeks funding to cover the cost of services. In addition to funding, Solve is the perfect platform to connect with other solutions or programs that might be facing the same challenges. Our program is also interested in offering guidance and sharing our solution with other Solve participants.

Bilingual Hispanic licensed mental health practitioners constitute less than 2% of mental health therapists in the state of Kansas. Our program is the only program in the region that is bringing together the few local bilingual practitioners who are willing to see clients and provide free services in Spanish. Our program could become a template to follow in other states in the region. With Hispanics becoming the fastest growing demographic in Kansas, the need for bilingual mental health practitioners will continue to grow. Our program is also partnering with local organizations to promote mental health careers among the local Hispanic community. We are also starting support group interventions on local high schools and colleges.

Logic Model

Our program aligns with the sustainable development goals of good health and wellbeing, and reduced inequalities. Our impact is measured through post intervention assessments and self reporting. We look at the decrease of mental health indicators as our main tool to establish the depth of our impact. An increase in access to services, mental health literacy and awareness, and a decrease in the intensity of symptoms and in mental health stigma among our local Hispanic community are the indicators that we are looking for.

Podemos uses Therapy Notes as the main platform for assessments, diagnosis, and documentation. The diagnosis function that is built into the software helps the therapist by reducing the time spent in diagnosing the client. Podemos also uses social media platforms to connect with the community and promote the availability of services.

Samuel Paunetto MDiv, LMSW - Part time - Founder & Executive Director

Contractors/Clinicians:

- Ignacio Ayala, LCMSW

- Yordano Ochoa, Ed.S., LMLP

- Vanessa Guevara, LPC

- Kelly Guzman, LMSW

- Daisy Soto, LMSW, LMAC

Board members:

- Dr. Sara Mata, Wichita State University

- Dr. Mythili Menon, Wichita State University

- Monique Garcia, Garcia Group LLC

- Enid Ortiz, International Rescue Committee

Podemos started offering services in the summer of 2023, operating from the Evergreen Library Branch located in the Historic North End Hispanic community of Wichita, KS.

Our mission is rooted on the principles of anti-oppressive practice that are central to the praxis of social work. Our board members and contracted clinicians are all bilingual. Representing the countries and cultures of Puerto Rico, India, and Mexico. We are committed to intervention models and frameworks that prioritize decolonial, gender affirming, and anti-racist practice.

Podemos is a community based non-profit that operates from a Hispanic community center that has become a central hub for the local ecosystem of social services available in our city. We offer three tiers of services:

• Psychoeducational Courses
• Support Group Interventions
• Individual Therapy Sessions

At the moment, we are offering the first two tiers, and we are requesting funds through grants and partnerships with the city and the county to start offering individual therapy free of cost to Hispanic clients.We also have a partnership with Wichita State University to start a Hispanic support group on campus. This intervention will be lead by bilingual practicum students from the MSW program. Podemos will provide the learning contract supervision for this students, for free.

Sustainability Plan

  Strategic Approach

• Grant Writing
Grant writing is an important piece for human service organization. Podemos will continue to submit grants while simultaneously seeking fiscal independence. Block grants like those offered through SAMHSA, and grants offered by local foundations will play a central role in increasing the capacity and the space we need to implement a sustainability plan.

• County & City Level Funding
Local government agencies have a percentage of discretionary spending that can be used to help finance social service programs. Podemos is actively working through local representatives to access these funds and establish long term partnerships.

• Organizational Partnerships
Since its inception, Podemos has been working hard to establish strong organizational partnerships. The city of Wichita was our first partnership that allowed us to find a facility to start offering our services in the Hispanic community. Now we are in the planning stages to start offering psychoeducational, and peer support group interventions with the following organizations:

• Wichita State University
• KU School of Medicine
• USD 259
• Friends University
• Episcopal Social Services

• Critical Presence
Critical presence is a core aspect of fundraising. It gives our organization the visibility and credibility it needs to establish our agenda. In addition to creating behavioral support groups in local colleges and school districts, Podemos also acknowledges the need to create a strong online presence through the creation of online media content. Social mediums are an essential part of our sustainability strategy. Video podcasts and visual stories shared through platforms like Tik Tok and Instagram are very powerful outreach tools for our program.

Critical presence through networking is also a central strategy. Maintaining local memberships with commerce chambers, and the local CHIP group is essential to achieving our goals and establishing our name and brand. We also plan to establish a presence with local news outlets and their community connection programming.

• Fundraising Events
Podemos is already planning a series of fundraising events, such as galas, auctions, and fundraising campaigns with local food chains, retailers, and other partnerships. Podemos also acknowledges the central role played by community-based organizations like faith based, and social advocacy groups. Joint efforts with these partners have proven to be very effective in sustainability plans.

• Structural Capacity
Podemos started with a small group of stakeholders. This year we added two doctoral professors from WSU to our board. They bring a wealth of expertise in mental health, education, and linguistics. We also added bilingual licensed clinicians, and community organizers. We are doing the first expansion of the behavioral support group intervention with the support of the School of Social Work at WSU. This year, we will establish the first behavioral support group for Spanish speaking students at WSU. This group will be led by Spanish speaking practicum students from the graduate school. Our program will provide clinical knowledge and the curriculum, while certifying the hours for practicums. We expect to see a significant increase in capacity as funding starts to flow into our organization.