Meet AHP LCSW Robin McElligott
March 31st, 2016 | ArchiveThis is the seventh in a series of articles profiling AHP’s care management team.
A critical component of AHP’s mission is to partner with physicians and support their efforts to deliver care to patients. The network’s care management program was developed to do just that, and since its inception earlier this year, AHP has funded the placement of many care managers into community-based practices requesting such support.
Robin McElligott, LCSW-R joined AHP’s care management team in May 2015. A licensed clinical social worker with extensive behavioral health expertise, Robin currently works with the offices of Elmwood Pediatrics, Goodman Pediatrics, Richard Lewis, MD, Stony Brook Pediatrics, David Breen, MD, Twelve Corners Pediatrics and Westside Pediatrics. Robin earned her baccalaureate degree in sociology from Hartwick College and her Master’s degree in Social Work from the State University of New York at Albany. Prior to joining AHP, Robin was the program manager at Hillside Children’s Center, Creekside Day Treatment Program, Monroe #1 BOCES.
Robin reflects on her career in social work as follows:
I have always found social work to be my calling. Raised in a family where my mother was a nurse and a very strong role model, I was surrounded by stories of “helping,” of “loss,” of “healing,” and “hope.” I knew early on that I wanted to make a difference with those most in need.
My commitment to helping those most in need is accompanied by a desire to be genuine in my work with others. I start with being caring, compassionate, and an attentive listener. I find this important not only in my clinical work with patients and families, but also in working with interprofessional teams and colleagues. Having a good sense of humor, nurturing relationships with my family and friends, and finding time for hobbies nurtures my soul so that I may give to others.
My career started with intensive clinical training in my graduate program working with veterans in an outpatient mental health setting, and also with children in a rural elementary school outside of Albany. From there, I continued to gain valuable clinical experience providing individual and group therapies to adults in a rural county outpatient mental health setting. These settings provided me with opportunities to develop comprehensive assessment skills, manage acute crises, and implement therapeutic interventions for individuals with a variety of mental health diagnoses including mood and anxiety disorders, thought disorders, chemical dependency, and trauma.
Shortly thereafter, I began working with a large health system in Rochester that included providing school-based mental health care on site at two local Rochester city high schools. In this embedded role, I worked closely with nurse practitioners, school social workers, Eastman Dental professionals, and a consulting psychiatrist. I provided individual and group therapy for young mothers, and also worked with students who experienced traumatic loss. Each day I was given the opportunity to experience the resiliency of youth and of the human spirit.
Just prior to joining AHP, I worked for 12 years with a regional not-for-profit agency that provides psychiatric, residential, outpatient and day services for children and families. This agency had a collaborative partnership with a large school cooperative that provided special education for those students that were unable to remain in their home districts because of their level of need. In this special education setting, I worked in a Day Treatment program providing comprehensive psychiatric care for children ages 5-21 with intellectual disabilities and co-occurring psychiatric illnesses. In addition to intellectual disabilities, and major psychiatric illness, many children were also identified on the Autism spectrum and with other developmental disabilities. This milieu-based program provided treatment and intervention to some of the most vulnerable of youth across the region. My initial position was as a classroom-based clinician for several years where I provided individual, family, and group therapies. A key component also involved engaging families through outreach and visits in the home and community. I was soon recognized for a leadership position and became the Day Treatment program manager for 10 years. Those years were filled with program growth and expansion, and with it, the ongoing clinical supervision of a team that evolved into an area of clinical expertise with the dually diagnosed. In combination with the school administration, vocational and transition specialists, behavioral and crisis intervention specialists, and a comprehensive educational and mental health team, this work was the most challenging yet most rewarding of my career.
Shortly before leaving Day Treatment to come to AHP, a staff member came up to me and said, “Didn’t you work in a city high school years ago”? I replied yes, realizing that this young woman looked familiar to me (but it had been almost 15 years since I had seen her). She replied, “You were my therapist! I will never forget the day I told you that I was pregnant, you were so kind to me, that meant everything to me. I never forgot that.”
I feel that my diverse work experience has prepared me well for my current role as a clinical social worker in pediatrics. I bring a smile and enthusiasm to each day, realizing that I can have that type of an impact on someone. I am in a unique position to provide support and earlier intervention to assist children and families in the hopes of gaining appropriate and timely assessment, treatment and linkage to resources that support health. Many families I have worked with in the past have said how they wished they had had someone when their child was young to help them when problems began. I believe I can be in that place for many of the children and families across our pediatric practices.
