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Meet Robine Padberg Hill from Pathways Transition Programs, Inc

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Today we introduce you to Robine Padberg Hill from Pathways Transition Programs, Inc.

Robine, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
My name is Robine Padberg Hill and I am a Licensed Clinical Social Worker. I was born and raised in Amsterdam, the Netherlands and moved to the US in 2013 to pursue a career in Social Work. I have an undergraduate degree in Sociology from the University of Amsterdam and a graduate degree in Social Work from Wheelock College, which has recently merged with Boston University (Boston, MA). Before starting my higher education I lived in Mexico from 2007-2008 and attended Universidad Internacional, in Cuernavaca, Morelos to learn Spanish. I have worked with the Latinx community from 2013 until now, and it has been a privilege to serve this community for so many years. My passion for Latinx culture started when I lived in Mexico. I had such a beautiful experience living there, the culture and hospitality of the people made such a significant impact on me. Because of the way I was treated when I lived in Mexico, I am very passionate about serving the Latinx community and providing them with the services they need, especially due to the challenges they face in regards to being Latinx in the United States. I feel privileged to be able to speak Spanish, English and Dutch and be culturally competent enough to help Spanish speaking children and their families.

Before Pathways Transition Programs Inc., I worked as a dual diagnosis clinician in Boston, MA serving the Latinx community for 3 years. I worked at a bilingual and bicultural behavioral health center that specializes in substance abuse and mental health treatment. My mission is to empower individuals and families to recover from addiction, (immigration) trauma, and mental illness; and achieve health and wellness through comprehensive, integrated care, which is what the Spanish speaking program at Pathways will offer them.

Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
I started at Pathways Transition Programs in February of 2017 as the only bilingual community based clinician. I covered several areas from North Fulton to Gwinnett County to DeKalb county. In 2018 I noticed that the demand for bilingual clinicians was too much for me to handle alone and I struggled to keep up with the referrals. To be able to serve this community with the quality services they deserve, I knew there needed to be a major change. In January 2019 I pitched the idea of a Spanish speaking program to senior management and they were on board and supportive from the beginning. With their support, I have been able to build this program logistically via outreach, hire staff, and most importantly take on a significant amount of referrals to provide therapeutic services.

The biggest struggle for me since starting the program was finding the right staff to serve this community. We must provide consistent, quality services. The clinicians in the field and supervisor need to be on the same page in terms of being culturally competent and knowledgeable on the challenges the community faces, that affect their overall social functioning. It took me about 4 months to find my first bilingual clinician and I was lucky enough to hire 3 more later on in the year.

Pathways Transition Programs – what should we know? What do you guys do best? What sets you apart from the competition?
Pathways Transition Programs clinical staff provides a comprehensive array of assessment and therapy services for children, adolescents, adults, and families. Our services are both therapeutic and psycho-educational, fostering and supporting change and growth through healing the wounds of trauma and life challenges, as well as training and skill development for enhancing coping and resilience.

In Gwinnett County alone the Latinx population counts almost 180.000 people but is highly under served. Through this program, Pathways can take on all of the Spanish speaking referrals and give children and their families equal access to care. Pathways is a CORE agency that provides consistent and quality bilingual therapeutic services in Metro Atlanta through their Spanish speaking program, focusing on implementing fundamental change for the Latinx community in the city.

The importance of being a community based agency is supported by the barriers to caregivers/parents not being able to engage their children/families in office based agencies. Transportation causes a barrier or if they do have access to that, the increased fear to even leave the house due to today’s political/social/economic climate causes a major barrier. The fact that we provide in home services is rare and highly valued.

A few of the services we provide:
COUNSELING & PSYCHOTHERAPY
Our licensed counselors offer both in home and office-based settings for children and their families, adults, and group counseling services. We make every effort to understand and address the context within which each client lives and operates. Counseling helps clients expand their worldview and their options for dealing with recurring patterns of distress.

PSYCHIATRIC SERVICES
BEHAVIORAL AIDES
SCHOOL-BASED SUPPORT
DIAGNOSTIC & ASSESSMENT SERVICES
DFCS & DJJ STATE CONTRACTED PROVIDER

Pathways Transition Programs is a Department of Children and Family Services Wraparound Service Provider. These services include Homestead, Behavioral Aide, Early Intervention, Prevention of Unnecessary Placement, and Comprehensive Child and Family Assessment.

Pathways Transition Programs is also an approved Department of Juvenile Justice Provider for Wraparound Service, Expedited Service, and The Seven Challenges Program.

What moment in your career do you look back most fondly on?
There are many confidential moments with individual clients that we are privileged to be a part of as clients grow and respond well to our services, but I am most proud of the overall growth and success of the program and the amazing team I get to work with every day.

We started the program with about 15 Spanish speaking families at the beginning of 2019 and now reflecting at the beginning of 2020 we are serving over 72 Spanish speaking families. A growth that I only dreamed of when I first started the program. We are currently fully staffed in North Fulton, Gwinnett County, Dekalb County and Clarke County and will continue to grow to other counties in 2020.

Pathways already provide quality services to English speaking families in many counties in Georgia and the goal is to build a name for ourselves to provide the same quality services in Spanish.

The bilingual team currently consists of 4 community based clinicians and myself as the clinical supervisor. The community based clinicians can take on a caseload of about 25 families.

The bilingual clinicians are either fully licensed or intermediate licensed counselors or social workers (LMSW/LCSW, LAPC/LPC, LMFT). The best part about working with them is seeing them as excited as I am to serve the community, provide quality services and help the program grow. I feel very honored and blessed to lead such a talented team of clinicians that share my passion.

Pricing:

  • Services are covered by – Medicaid
  • Services are covered by – Private Insurance
  • Services are covered by – Out of pocket pay

Contact Info:


Image Credit:
Trei Hill

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