Home Posts tagged River Valley Counseling Center

ServiceNet Clinics to Join River Valley Counseling Center Feb. 1

By
Daily News

HOLYOKE — Two of the leading non-profit community mental health care providers in Western Mass. will be taking the next step in making a good thing even better, when ServiceNet’s outpatient clinics become part of River Valley Counseling Center (RVCC) on Feb. 1. 

“Since July 1, 2025, RVCC has been operating under the ServiceNet umbrella of services,” explained Dr. Elaine Campbell, ServiceNet’s Senior Vice President of Clinical Services, who previously served as assistant executive director of RVCC.  “By combining ServiceNet’s clinical operations with RVCC’s, we can offer more services to more people living throughout our communities, build on each other’s strengths and expertise, share resources more effectively, and further develop our areas of clinical excellence.

“This is also a move that is good for the therapists who work in our outpatient clinics and schools,” she added. “It provides more flexibility and opportunities for growth, and more colleagues with whom to share our ideas and experience.”

RVCC’s outpatient clinics serve people across Western Mass., with a strong commitment to community-based care and access to bilingual services. With the addition of ServiceNet’s clinics to the mix, they now have a unified system of offices in Greenfield, Northampton, Amherst, and Pittsfield, as well as Springfield, Chicopee, Holyoke, Westfield, and Easthampton. Working with people of all ages to address concerns such as depression, anxiety, OCD, hoarding, substance use, gambling, relationship challenges, and major life changes, RVCC’s team of therapists, psychiatrists, nurses, and support staff recognize that the most meaningful progress happens when people are truly partners in their own treatment.

ServiceNet and RVCC chose to affiliate last year in response the growing mental health care needs of the populations each was serving and where they saw that trend going over time.

“We already knew each other well,” said ServiceNet President and CEO Bruno Calouro, who is now CEO of RVCC, as well. “And through our transition process over the past several months, we have learned even more about how we can best share our knowledge and support as well as our values. In bringing our clinics together, we will help to assure even greater stability for these vital services our communities rely on.”

River Valley Counseling Center Secures Grant to Expand Supervision Capacity

By
Daily News

HOLYOKE — River Valley Counseling Center (RVCC), now a member of ServiceNet, has received a $912,000 award through the Healey-Driscoll administration’s Behavioral Health Supervising Clinicians Incentive Program, the largest award to a behavioral health provider in Western Mass.

This funding, from the Executive Office of Health and Human Services’ Behavioral Health Trust, supports stipends for licensed clinicians who supervise interns and unlicensed staff, a crucial but time-intensive role that often goes uncompensated.

“This funding allows us to truly support and retain the experienced clinicians who take on the critical — and often overlooked — work of supervision,” said Elaine Campbell, vice president of Clinical Services at ServiceNet. “It’s a step toward valuing the full scope of what they contribute.”

RVCC employs nearly 200 unlicensed clinicians who can see clients under supervision. With this grant, senior clinicians can dedicate more time to mentoring, with financial recognition that fosters retention and stability.

“When supervision is strong, new clinicians get the guidance they need, clients get better care, and experienced staff are more likely to stay,” Campbell said. “This funding helps us build the kind of learning environment where everyone benefits.”

Awarded over a two-year period, the grant offsets the time supervisors invest in training and mentoring, allowing RVCC to further build and sustain a high-quality path to licensure.

This selection reflects the breadth of RVCC’s reach: five outpatient clinics in Holyoke, Chicopee, Easthampton, Springfield, and Westfield, plus services in dozens of schools across Hampshire and Hampden counties.

Alexa Mignano

By
Healthcare Heroes

Healthcare Administration

Director of School-Based Clinical Services, River Valley Counseling Center

As a Leader, She Makes Sure Team Members Are Heard — and Valued

Alexa Mignano

Alexa Mignano

Like many in healthcare who have traded direct interaction with patients for roles in which they manage others who provide that care, Alexa Mignano found the transition somewhat challenging; stepping away from direct care is never easy.

But to say she has managed and is flourishing in her current role would be a real understatement.

As the director of School-Based Clinical Services (SBS) for River Valley Counseling Center, she now leads a team of more than 85 people. Since taking the helm in 2019, she has expanded the SBS program in dramatic fashion, taking it from two school districts to 11, providing behavioral healthcare to more than 1,600 students in more than 70 schools.

And this growth comes at a critical time.

Indeed, COVID-19 had a significant impact on the behavioral health of society as a whole, and especially young people. It also comes at a time when many young people are experiencing trauma and its many side effects, and when there are simply not enough clinicians, especially in non-school settings, to meet this need.

But behind the numbers, and these sentiments on growing need for behavioral-health services among young people, are the traits that Mignano brings to her role — traits that make her a Healthcare Hero in the Administration category.

“There are really difficult things that we hear about in this work that happen to children. And to be able to create some change and help them heal, and help families heal, is a way to give back to my community.”

These include passion for her work, strong leadership skills, an ability to build teamwork and camaraderie, a willingness to listen and maintain an open mind, and the ability to inspire others to reach higher and deeper as they go about their work and serve this important constituency.

These are traits that come clearly into focus in the thoughts of team members and others who came together to nominate her for the Healthcare Heroes award.

“The SBS is a connected, warm, passionate, and energetic team, which has accomplished amazing things in our school system,” said Elaine Campbell, assistant executive director and clinical director at River Valley. “This team is spread out across Hampden, Hampshire, and Franklin counties, and Alexa brings them together and unifies them as a collaborative unit. Alexa engages the team and brings them together for various events and trainings throughout the year to build support and community amongst the team.”

Alexa Mignano says trained clinicians offering care right in the schools

Alexa Mignano says trained clinicians offering care right in the schools provides consistency for the kids, which translates into better care.

Emma Cohen, an SBS clinician, added that “Alexa is — and consistently has been — an amazing leader. She always manages to support our whole team, work hard to help each and every one of us, and make sure we’re providing the best care we can to our clients.

“Alexa truly makes our program great — she is always open to new ideas, makes sure everyone has space to feel heard, and helps us make a large and complex program run smoothly,” she went on. “Alexa is an incredible example of a leader, an advocate for both her employees and the people we serve, and an overall wonderful person to work for.”

If one looks up the definition of ‘leader,’ especially in a healthcare sector, these are the words and phrases that will come up. And that’s what Mignano has become — a true leader.

And while she misses providing direct care to clients, she said that, as a manager, she can actually have a bigger impact and touch the lives of more young people in need of critical help.

“What’s so cool about what we do, the schools that we’re in … the kids know us, therapy’s cool, and more kids want to come see us. They’re not afraid to get help.”

“This is the classic very rewarding job,” she told BusinessWest. “There are really difficult things that we hear about in this work that happen to children. And to be able to create some change and help them heal, and help families heal, is a way to give back to my community.”

Such sentiments explain not only why she loves what she does, but why she’s a Healthcare Hero.

 

Taking the Lead

Since the Healthcare Heroes recognition program was created in 2017, its Administration category has been perhaps the most competitive.

There are several nominations each year, and to stand out in these crowded fields, one must be more than a manager. He or she must also be a leader, someone who displays those skills and traits mentioned above.

In short, those that prevail in this category, often providers of care themselves at various points in their careers, are able to motivate and, for lack of a better phrase, get all the members of a team to row in the same direction. And their strongest trait might be an ability to not only listen, but make team members understand that they are being heard.

Mignano brings all this and more to a role she’s grown into after taking a somewhat winding road into healthcare and, more specifically, behavioral healthcare.

Indeed, this is a second career for her. She was working at UMass Amherst, doing academic advising and first-year-experience work. She enjoyed that role, but with a young daughter, she needed something that provided more flexibility.

“So I decided to go with what my degree was originally in, which was mental-health counseling,” she said. “And then I fell in love with it.”

That’s another understatement.

Eventually, she started providing therapy to children in schools, was hired by Holyoke-based River Valley Counseling Center, and worked at Holyoke High School and Kelly Elementary School. She ended up going back to school so she could get licensed.

“It was a perfect match for what I wanted,” she went on. “And I felt like I was good at it; I was very interested in how children’s brains change over time, especially when they’ve been exposed to trauma, and how you can heal that and shift that.”

Mignano worked as a counselor for eight years before transitioning into administration, first in a few school districts and, eventually, as director of School-Based Clinical Services.

This is a position with a broad job description that includes everything from overseeing partnerships with school districts and charter schools in the area to hiring, training, and, most importantly, supporting the clinicians that go into schools and provide outpatient therapy to young people coping with a wide array of issues and conditions.

“There’s a lot of trauma,” she noted. “I’d say about 25 to 30% of our cases are focused on trauma. There’s depression, anxiety, ADHD … there’s really a wide range.”

As they help students deal with these issues, the counselors become trusted and accepted, and at a time when students need help, they seem increasingly willing to embrace it.

“I have been in the field for more than 20 years, and Alexa is the most caring, supportive supervisor I have ever had.”

“What’s so cool about what we do, the schools that we’re in … the kids know us, therapy’s cool, and more kids want to come see us,” she told BusinessWest. “They’re not afraid to get help. The stigma is removed quite a bit, especially in the younger grades. When they get to high school, they want to feel a little bit more private, but even there, we’ve become part of the school, and part of what happens at school is that you also get help for your mental-health problems.”

And dissipation of this stigma is an important step forward, she went on.

“Kids are not afraid to say they need support,” she noted. “I mean, I think there’s a lot of emphasis on that in social media — that it’s OK to speak out and say what’s going on and ask for help. But they also get to see it in their school environment, and it gets normalized. It’s not some random place they go to get services and to get support. They do it in a place they’re really familiar with, and I think that helps with breaking down some of the shame or embarrassment that they might feel about getting support; their friends are getting help.”

 

School of Thought

In short, school-based services are enjoying large levels of success. And thanks to Mignano’s leadership and drive, they are enjoying success in many more ZIP codes.

“I wanted more people to focus in on treating children, so I started supervising and providing support to other clinicians doing the work,” she said, adding that she initiated efforts to coordinate a contract with the Easthampton School District and oversaw the program there before becoming director of all school-based services, with a commitment to continue adding more districts.

“We started with a few, and then I was like … no, we can do more,” she went on. “And the word started to spread, so I started meeting with different superintendents and principals and talking about what we do. And then, a real focus of mine became cultivating a group of therapists that really wanted to be child-focused or adolescent-focused, supporting them in that work. And it’s just a win-win for everybody in terms of how it’s set up.”

As noted earlier, there are now 11 districts in the fold, and Mignano believes there is room for more expansion, especially since the hiring challenges brought on the pandemic are mostly in the rearview mirror.

“I always say we’re done, and then a principal calls,” she said. “I’ve always wanted to expand responsibly; whenever we add a new school district, we add the infrastructure to support the consistency, the supervision, the communication … that’s critical in making these programs work.”

Beyond these expansion efforts, her leadership has brought consistency and steady improvement to existing programs, with the school setting becoming an increasingly effective place for young people to receive therapy because it removes barriers to care.

“I know I’m biased, but I’ve seen it work,” she said. “As a clinician, I’ve seen it work incredibly well, and now I see it at this end. It works for the kids, it works for the schools because they have some added support, and it works for the clinicians who want to focus on kids, but they don’t want to necessarily work every single evening to do that. They get to have a normal schedule too, so it works for everybody.”

And Mignano is committed to making sure it works for everybody.

“As an administrator, I’ve really been focused on how to create a work environment for mental-health professionals that feels really supportive, so they feel challenged, they feel valued, because ultimately that is the foundation of retaining clinicians,” she explained. “Because we get to train them, they get to grow clinically with us, and that translates into consistency for the kids, which translates into better care for the kids. As an administrator, I focus a lot on that — what type of environment are we creating? And people stay with us.”

Which brings us back to some of the team members who nominated her — and why.

“Alexa is an incredible leader, clinician, advocate, and supervisor,” said Catherine Vaughan, assistant director of School-Based Services. “She is truly passionate about the work we do and gives her all in everything that she does. She also encourages her co-workers to go outside their comfort zones with their work, and she is always there supporting and guiding them along the way. I am so grateful to be a part of her team.”

Lisa Smith O’Connor, an SBS clinician, agreed. “I have been in the field for more than 20 years, and Alexa is the most caring, supportive supervisor I have ever had,” she said. “She is an expert in our field, but also an amazing supervisor. I agreed to become a supervisor and commit to this agency long-term due to her caring and thoughtful support and guidance.”

All that certainly helps explain why Mignano has earned another title: Healthcare Hero.

River Valley Counseling Center Welcomes New Board Members

By
Daily News

HOLYOKE — River Valley Counseling Center (RVCC) recently welcomed Daniel Coyne and Barbara Fontaine to its board of directors.

“We are excited to welcome Daniel and Barbara to the RVCC board,” said Rosemarie Ansel, RVCC executive director. “Their collective knowledge and expertise will add additional diverse perspectives to help best direct and guide our agency to continue meeting the needs of our clients.”

Coyne is a certified addictions registered nurse with more than 10 years of experience in behavioral-health treatment. He served as director of Nursing at Swift River addiction campuses, and more recently as the director of Utilization Review on the quality team of Vertava Health. He holds a bachelor’s degree in nursing from UMass, a bachelor of arts degree from Middlebury College, and a master of fine arts degree from the University of Florida.

Fontaine is a certified alcohol/drug-abuse counselor with more than 15 years of counseling experience. She holds a bachelor’s degree in English and creative writing from San Francisco State University and completed the Alcohol and Chemical Dependency Treatment Services Program at Boston University in 2007. She started her career in substance-abuse treatment at Gosnold on Cape Cod and also worked at Habit OpCo in South Yarmouth. She has worked at Swift River in Cummington since 2016.

RVCC Golf Tournament to Benefit Supportive Mental-health Services for Children and Teens

By
Daily News

HOLYOKE — River Valley Counseling Center (RVCC), a multi-faceted mental-health agency, will hold its sixth annual golf tournament fundraiser on Friday, Sept. 10 at 10:30 a.m. at East Mountain Country Club in Westfield. The event is presented by Action Ambulance Service Inc.

“Funds raised will support the programs that we provide to children and teens in the community, in schools, and through local partnerships,” said Rosemarie Ansel, RVCC’s executive director. “The event is a great time for participants, both on and off the course.”

The cost per golfer is $100 and includes greens fees, a golf cart, a gift bag, lunch, and dinner. Golfers will also be able to participate in course contests and a raffle. Registration will begin at 9 a.m. with a 10:30 a.m. shotgun start. Sponsorship opportunities are available. Visit rvccinc.org/golf for more information and to register or sponsor online.

The Journal of American Medical Association Pediatrics indicated that as many as one in six U.S. children between the ages of 6 and 17 have a treatable mental-health disorder such as depression, anxiety, or attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. Over the past year, RVCC has provided uninterrupted essential services to the most vulnerable children and teens throughout the Pioneer Valley. RVCC has kept offices open safely for those requesting in-person appointments, successfully introduced virtual care and telehealth services, and provided counseling programs and activities to students in RVCC-partnering school districts throughout Hampden and Hampshire counties.

With the addition of Westfield Public Schools this past fall, RVCC now provides 11 school districts with mental-health counseling to students during the school day. RVCC expanded further into the Greater Westfield area with a new outpatient clinic, which opened in April. Recently, RVCC also partnered with the Boys & Girls Club of Greater Holyoke to provide counseling services to children who are club members.

Support of RVCC’s sixth annual golf tournament, the organization’s premier fundraising event, will directly impact the children, teens, and families who receive RVCC’s compassionate, innovative, and life-changing services.

River Valley Counseling Center Wins $50,000 Technology Makeover from Insight, Intel

By
Daily News

HOLYOKE — River Valley Counseling Center (RVCC) announced it has been awarded a $50,000 technology makeover from Insight Enterprises and Intel. RVCC is one of three winners in the Connected Workplace Makeover Contest, which was created to help businesses address the effects of aging technology. As a winner, RVCC will receive IT consultation from Insight and $50,000 worth of new 11th Gen Intel Core Processor devices, including Intel vPro Platform PCs built for business.

“We are absolutely thrilled and incredibly appreciative to Insight Enterprises and Intel for selecting River Valley Counseling Center as a winner of this contest,” said Rosemarie Ansel, executive director of RVCC. “With the new Intel PCs, our team will be able to better service the over 9,000 children and adult clients we provide care for each year in the Pioneer Valley.”

The contest targeted small and mid-sized companies of fewer than 1,000 employees that have been particularly strapped for resources or may be struggling to adapt IT systems and processes to the shifting marketplace amid the COVID-19 pandemic. The contest focused on three areas of critical IT needs: productivity; updating tools, particularly for remote work; security; and total cost of ownership. More than 1,200 U.S. organizations submitted contest entries sharing why they needed a workplace makeover. RVCC was named the winner in the productivity category.

RVCC IT Support Manager Leonard Smith, who submitted RVCC into the contest, looks forward to the makeover. “We are thrilled and excited to be able to receive this makeover at our largest and oldest clinic, giving it the love and care it deserves just as our staff does for our clients. These machines will vastly help support our community that means so much to us.”

Intel Evo vPro PCs will allow RVCC to service clients in a timelier manner, roll out better telehealth options, stay secure, and be HIPAA-compliant. Over the next month, Insight and Intel will be conducting on-site consultations with RVCC to help the team identify the best technology upgrades for their clinic located at 303 Beech St. in Holyoke. It is expected that productivity based at this location could improve by up to 25% by replacing poorly running computers, including some still running on Windows Vista.

“Business needs and demands have changed dramatically in the last year alone, when keeping pace with new technology already was challenging enough for independent businesses in ordinary times” said Brenda Hudson, senior vice president, Commercial Business Solutions at Insight. “Each of the winners of the Connected Workplace Makeover Contest has experienced significant disruption or financial hardship during the pandemic, from having to abruptly switch to more telehealth options and shoring up the security of patient data to bringing greater stability to a widely distributed workforce. A technology makeover will put them on the fast track to more reliable performance and stronger connections with their customers and workforce however and wherever they need to engage with them.”

River Valley Counseling Center Holds Training on Suicidal Behavior, Prevention

By
Daily News HCN News & Notes

HOLYOKE — River Valley Counseling Center (RVCC) held a training titled “Understanding, Assessing, Managing, and Preventing Suicidal Behavior” at Holyoke High School’s North Campus on March 2.

RVCC therapists attended the event, along with school counselors, psychologists, and nurses from 14 local school districts. The training reviewed the spectrum of self-destructive behavior, differentiated suicide from non-suicidal self-injurious behavior, reviewed suicide assessment and intervention, and discussed sitting with misery and self-care. 

The presenter, Barent Walsh, has written extensively and presented internationally on the topic of self-destructive behavior. According to Walsh, “the field of suicide prevention is evolving with important new empirically supported theories and interventions.” The author of Treating Self-Injury: A Practical Guide, Walsh is the executive director emeritus of Open Sky Community Services, a human-service agency headquartered in Worcester. He is also a lecturer on Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School at Cambridge Health Alliance.

Alexa Mignano, director of School-Based Clinical Services at RVCC, brought forth the idea of the training in response to an increase in self-harming and suicidal behavior among students in the Pioneer Valley.

“As the premier provider of school-based therapy services, it was imperative for RVCC to offer this training in response to the school districts’ concern of increased self-harming behavior and suicidality amongst students,” she said. “Besides providing school districts with clinicians in the schools, we also try to support school administrators and their staff with tools they can utilize to support their school community.”

RVCC partners with local school districts to offer comprehensive clinical services during the school day, providing families with access to therapy by removing barriers such as long waitlists, transportation, insurance-coverage problems, and scheduling conflicts. RVCC currently partners with school districts in Holyoke, Chicopee, Easthampton, Hadley, Hatfield, Amherst, Granby, Springfield, and East Longmeadow. It also has an office on the campus of Springfield Technical Community College, providing counseling services to students.