Keeping My Head to the Sky

I am passionate about the healing and restorative powers of the arts in social work education, practice, engaged-community research, and public health. My positionality and intersectional identities locate me within being a professional artist, Adelphi IDEATE Integrated & Behavioral Health Fellow, graduate research assistant, research consultant, BIPOC MSW practitioner, and mid-life career evolver continuing the call to service. In designing, curating, and installing the “Café Photovoice Permanent Participant Exhibition” at the Bowen Center and designing and building the “Café Photovoice Virtual Exhibition” website (cafephotovoice.org), I experienced a dynamic social work professional identity integration across the micro/mezzo/macro continuum. Through the Photovoice methodology, I engaged with core social work values and ethics by co-knowledge building through emergent arts-based research and utilizing technology as an immersive advocacy tool to amplify the voices of vulnerable community members amongst us.

As an artist, I understand aesthetics, and as an MSW student practitioner, I engaged with symbolic interaction theory within community member interviews and object presentations. These concepts merged as participants were given community leadership awards and experienced seeing their photographed lived experiences presented as gallery art objects.

Through Photovoice participatory action research, I can address the urgent need for social work practitioners to bridge the gap in patient-centered care needed for underserved, seriously mentally ill (SMI) and substance use disorder (SUD) populations. In working with individuals suffering from SMI and substance use disorders, I've become acutely aware of the family system impacts, high comorbidity risks, and linkages between childhood trauma, addiction, PTSD, depression, and anxiety. I am grateful for the opportunity to work on meaningful arts-based social work action research as part of a community partnership between the Bowen Center and Adelphi that challenges racial and ethnic disparities with the Drs. Newransky and Rozario, and the Photovoice participatory action research team.

The Emma L. Bowen Community Service Center wanted a permanent installation to showcase the Café Photovoice participants’ artworks and stories from their experiences throughout the second floor. The group of thirty-six matted and framed digital photographs, photomontages, photographic banners, graphic quotes, and wall lettering captures aspects of the health narratives and lived experiences of community members who volunteered to participate in this Photovoice Participatory Action Research Study. The participants’ artworks are now part of the Bowen Center legacy art collection. The gallery below features photos from our first visit to measure the exhibition layout on June 29, 2021. You are welcome to visit the Cafe Photovoice permanent exhibition at the Bowen Center; it is free and open to the public.

New York State Social Work Education Association MSW Student of the Year 2021

MSW AND GRADUATE RESEARCH ASSISTANT BIOGRAPHY

Ms. Shelita Birchett Benash's laser focus aims to bring integrated and whole-person healthcare to underserved populations. In addition to excelling academically within the online MSW program at Adelphi University School of Social Work (AUSSW), Ms. Benash is a research assistant, a fellow, and a social work intern. Since March 2021, Ms. Benash has supported evaluating a SAMHSA-funded intervention, the Certified Community Behavioral Health Clinic Expansion Program at Upper Manhattan Mental Health Center (UMMHC).  This program integrates primary care services in the community mental health setting for uninsured people with serious mental illness, severe emotional disturbances, and co-occurring mental health/substance use disorders. Ms. Benash is an integral part of the research team, serving as session facilitator, data analyst, and exhibit manager for the Café Photovoice Research Project, which utilizes photo-elicitation to understand participant experiences related to mental health and/or substance use treatment.  Utilizing her creative arts background, Ms. Benash has installed an English-Spanish bilingual, permanent photo exhibit in UMMHC.  In August 2021, Ms. Benash was selected as a fellow for the Health Research and Services Administration (HRSA) funded IDEATE Fellowship Program within AUSSW. This provides specialized interprofessional training to advanced-year MSW and psychiatric nurse practitioner students in integrated behavioral healthcare for children, adolescents, and transitional youth. As part of this fellowship, Ms. Benash is interning at Concert Health, a virtual behavioral health provider that partners with primary care sites in underserved areas.  Ms. Benash is a vital AUSSW community member, actively participating in the School’s peer mentoring program, MSW student orientation, Student Experience Committee, and Practice Committee. 

Slide show below includes photos with Dr. Mohan Vinjamuri, MSW, PhD, Associate Professor Lehman College, President of New York State Social Work Education (NYSSWEA).

IDEATE Integrated & Behavioral Health Fellowship: Winner of the prestigious 2023 National John L. Blackburn Award from the American Association of University Administrators

Congratulations, Drs. Newransky and Abram for creating an outstanding 21st Century interdisciplinary social work and nursing fellowship. Being part of the inaugural Cohort One winning year was an honor.

Deepest Gratitude

Thank you, Dr. Vinjamuri and the New York State Social Work Education Association, for the MSW Student of the Year Award. I had no idea I was nominated, so I feel very encouraged. I am tremendously honored to be among the long history of spirited and dedicated New York State social work student nominees and celebrants.

As an MSW student at the Adelphi University School of Social Work, I experience a profound sense of connection and community driven by passionate, dedicated, generous, authentic, and engaged faculty and administrators who model what embodiment, mentorship, and social justice mean in social work practice. I want to thank Dr. Araujo and the OMSW Program, especially Assistant Dean Dr. Oni-Eseleh, Assistant Dean Ms. Pickens, Dr. Zodikoff, and the Student Experience Committee,  Dr. Newransky and Interim Dean Dr. Rozario and the Photovoice Participatory Action Research Team, Dr. Paul, Dr. Quiros, and the Practice Committee, Cohort 7, my mother, family, and friends. You teach, inspire, and uplift me. 

The beauty of lifelong learning is I’m always in the Beginner’s mind. I’m always learning something new. The weekend I received the news of this MSW student recognition, I investigated racial trauma to assist patients at my Concert Health internship better. Through researching racial trauma, I was introduced to Dr. Lillian Comas-Diaz’s lecture “A Race-Informed Approach to Racial Wounds From a Clinical Perspective and Social Justice Integrated Framework.” And by reading further, I read about Dr. Comas-Diaz’s perspectives on mentoring as a sacred act and lifeline as she experienced her mentors, teachers, relatives, and friends as allies in achieving goals while overcoming adversities with empowerment and resilience. What an incredible discovery. At Adelphi, I experience mentorship as a lifeline, a sacred act, and a social justice action. I see the connections. I am having a transformational experience. I am full of gratitude. And I thank you. 

What has been your experience thus far in the field of social work?

I worked a full-time (1000hr) foundational year internship with the Alternative to Incarceration (ATI) workers at the Dutchess County Public Defender's Office. I served a diverse population of individuals and families struggling with poverty, mental illness, addiction, complex trauma, and justice involvement. As part of holistic public defense, social work is client-centered and ecological. In serving vulnerable and marginalized clients, I observed firsthand the bias, stigma, and barriers they faced in accessing mental health care, primary care services, and resources. In addition, I was acutely aware of the family system impacts, high comorbidity risks, and linkages between childhood trauma, addiction, PTSD, depression, and anxiety in working with individuals with severe mental illness.

As part of the mezzo/macro level of social work practice, I was a mental health advocate for a client with serious mental illness, cognitive impairment, and alcohol use disorder during their two-week psychiatric hospitalization. The experience of vigorous advocacy on behalf of a vulnerable client's access to the critical mental health assessment, diagnoses, and neuropsychological testing they needed, exposed me to the crucial roles social workers play as part of integrated healthcare teams. I am also a graduate research assistant on the Adelphi University School of Social Work's Photovoice Participatory Action Research Team. My responsibilities include planning, concept, designing, and installation of the Cafe Photovoice permanent exhibition of community members' works regarding their lived experiences around access to mental health and substance use treatment at the Emma L. Bowen Community Service Center in Harlem, NY. I am passionate about the opportunity to work on meaningful arts-based action research that challenges racial and ethnic health disparities. I will present at the 2022 Adelphi University Scholarship and Creative Works Conference. I am a student mentor in the OMSW program. I am tremendously honored to be recognized as the 2021 MSW Student of the Year by the New York State Social Work Education Association.

What have you learned from the IDEATE experience and integrated health?

The IDEATE Fellowship introduced me to 21st-century cutting-edge social work practice by providing transdisciplinary professional seminars where social work and nursing students construct new knowledge and understanding through an integrated curriculum. In learning side-by-side with nursing students, the boundaries between disciplines recede as real-world collaborative problem-solving promotes mutual respect between disciplines and shared ethics in serving the needs of patients in integrated care.

My advanced year MSW internship is at Concert Health, where I work as a remote social work therapist behavioral care manager (BCM). I provide behavioral health care to patient populations who are primarily Black, Indigenous, people of color (BIPOC), intersectional, transitional-aged youth, and patients across the lifespan. I work with a collaborative care team that includes a psychiatrist and a psychiatric nurse practitioner. During my internship, I received clinical training in the AIMS Center Collaborative Care Model (CoCM) regarding evidence-based behavioral health care and treatment planning for anxiety, depression, OCD, PTSD, and ADHD within primary care. At Concert Health, I have learned to utilize clinical interventions and diagnostic tools. My BCM role requires trauma-informed clinical skills in interviewing, evaluation, DSM-V assessment & diagnosis, psychoeducation, crisis intervention, psychopharmacology, medication monitoring, Suicide Safer Care screening, suicide ideation assessment, suicide intervention, suicide monitoring, and social determinants of health. Concert Health requires high levels of digital literacy. I have gained the ability to navigate multiple digital platforms successfully. Practicing digital clinical social work, I utilize important soft skills daily, including written and verbal communication, active listening, and time management. I benefit from social work practice within a culturally diverse, innovative, and expansive knowledge culture geared toward evidence-based practice, research, patient-centered collaborative care, ethics, and Suicide Safer Care. I am grateful for being chosen as a part of the inaugural IDEATE Fellowship cohort. I enter the social work profession as a competent, prepared, qualified, empowered, and effective leader for advocacy and change within my community and beyond.

What attributes do you see in yourself that add value to this experience?

My positionality locates me within a culturally diverse life, so I bring to this experience curiosity, the ability to meet people where they are, acceptance, self-awareness, cultural humility, intercultural understanding, and compassion. As an interdisciplinary artist, I bring creativity, comfortability with not-knowing, patience, lifelong learning, resilience, and hope to this work. I experience beauty in the healing power of connection through personal narrative. This experience has shed new light on my gift for holding space for others to feel seen, heard, valued, and empowered.