Our Social Workers Uplift, Defend & Transform

March is Social Work Month, a time to celebrate the dedicated professionals who show up every day for some of the most vulnerable members of our communities. This year’s theme, Uplift, Defend, and Transform, are more than words on a page.

We sat down with three members of Hudson’s clinical team, spanning inpatient care, housing, and outpatient services, to hear how these themes come to life in their programs.

Uplift

To uplift someone in recovery means seeing them fully; not just the challenges they carry, but the strength and potential within them. Across all three of Hudson’s programs, uplifting patients begins with creating the conditions for them to believe in themselves.

In the inpatient program, Rebecca Kimmons, CAC-AD, LMSW, LCDP, Clinical Director of Residential Services, emphasizes a strengths-based approach that helps patients rediscover their own worth:

“We focus on the patient’s strengths and bring those out to help them build confidence and believe in themselves. This helps them to recognize they are worth it.”

In Hudson’s housing program, Joe Seminara, CAC-AD, MSW, Assistant Director of Housing, extends this work into daily life skills and emotional growth. His team runs groups focused on gratitude, self-esteem, and interpersonal communication, not just as therapeutic exercises, but as tools patients can carry with them.

“These are skills that can be used going forward… to improve their self-worth but also to assist with problem-solving skills that can be used to foster healthier relationships.”

Susan Forrest, CAC-AD, LMSW, Clinical Director of Outpatient Services, describes it as a kind of proactive advocacy:

“Mental health is central to recovery. We uplift our patients by anticipating the barriers that could stand in the way of their fullest potential — and then working to remove them. Our outpatient program helps break that cycle and gives people a real path forward.”

Defend

Social workers are advocates. They stand between their patients and the forces: systemic, legal and social, that can threaten their access to care and their dignity. At Hudson, defending patients happens in therapy rooms, in community meetings, and even in data dashboards.

For Rebecca Kimmons, defending patients in residential care means connecting them to a continuum of support beyond their time at Hudson:

“We advocate for their needs and dignity and connect them to resources to continue their treatment beyond our program.”

Joe Seminara sees defense as something that extends into the community — and something patients can learn to do for themselves. His team’s work on relapse prevention is as much about building inner resilience as it is about external support:

“All of the counselors advocate for their patients and try to bolster their dignity and self-worth. We also have group counseling sessions on relapse prevention skills, which allows patients to better defend themselves while in the program, but also after they complete treatment.”

Susan Forrest brings a data-driven lens to advocacy, using outcomes reporting to make the case for the recovery community at a policy level:

“Through rigorous data collection and monthly outcomes reporting, we are able to advocate for our patients at a systemic level — defending the recovery population against budget cuts and legislation that could limit their access to care. The data makes the case: our services work.”

Transform

Perhaps the most profound of the three themes, transformation is what every program at Hudson is ultimately working toward. It emerges from within each patient, supported by the trust, structure, and care that social workers help to build.

Rebecca Kimmons describes transformation as a daily, relational process rooted in trust:

“Transformation happens in the day-to-day:  in the relationships patients build with staff, in the moments they engage with the therapeutic process, and in the quiet work of learning to trust themselves again. We help them rebuild those connections and find their way back to the goals that matter most to them.”

For Joe Seminara, the housing program is where long-held dreams finally get room to grow. He remembers hearing patients in inpatient settings talk about what they’d do when they got out, and now he gets to see them do it:

“Housing is where transformation takes root in real life. Patients step out of a clinical setting and into the community, and with stays of up to one year, they have the time and space to truly become the person in recovery they set out to be.”

Susan Forrest witnesses transformation in the numbers and in the lives behind them. For her team, medication-assisted treatment (MAT) is a cornerstone of that change:

“Medication-assisted treatment is one of the most powerful drivers of transformation we have. Our clients understand what they need to heal, and it is our role as social workers to trust that knowledge and support them through it. MAT allows us to create the structure and safety that make lasting change possible.” 

This Social Work Month, we are proud to honor every clinician, counselor, and case manager who shows up to do this work. Your commitment makes transformation possible — one patient, one day at a time.