We believe that the Individuals we serve are people first. ColumbiaCare looks at the person first, then how development, circumstances, and mental disorders affect the person. It is our dream to have just the right combination of housing and supports available in every community so that the Individuals we serve have a pathway to achieving the same things all humans need: to not only feel safe and well taken care of, but to contribute and thrive.
 
ColumbiaCare’s treatment philosophy is guided by the research and insights of Abraham Maslow, Victor Frankl, and the emerging world of neuroscience:

Maslow described the hierarchy of needs that humans have, building from simply staying alive, to feeling safe, to being social, to contributing to society, to personal growth and fulfillment (self-actualization). This provides the structure for our treatment: help meet basic needs as a pathway to achieving higher goals.
 
Frankl convincingly demonstrated that persons survive, and ultimately thrive, only when they have meaning in their lives. This provides the fuel for our treatment: if we can help Individuals find meaning, they will be motivated to take the steps necessary to achieve it.

Neuroscience seeks to use objective, reliable, and valid measurements to help us go beyond diagnosis and psychological constructs to observing how our experiences shape who we are as a person. We appreciate how adverse childhood experiences, trauma, and institutionalization can create, mimic, or exacerbate mental health conditions. This provides the context for our treatment: we work to reduce the impact of adverse experiences on those we serve.

The “Recovery” journey is nonlinear, and is defined by each Individual. It includes concepts such as strengths, hope, insight, self-efficacy, motivation, social skills, support systems, and many more. It is further defined by faith, culture, and community. ColumbiaCare supports the Individual through collaborative treatment planning. We jointly figure out what is meaningful to each Individual and then mobilize just the right amount of housing, health, peer and family involvement, and treatment supports to promote their Recovery vision.
 
This Recovery journey is made up of progressive steps. Housing supports may include licensed residential treatment, Supportive Housing, rental assistance programs, and help in one’s own home. Health supports may come in the form of coordination with primary care providers, medication management, and specialized mental health programs for people with complicated medical or developmental issues. Treatment supports can vary from crisis response, hospital diversion and step-down services, brief assessment and therapy, and longer-term evidence-based psychotherapeutic approaches.

ColumbiaCare as an organization has Guiding Principles that focus on serving the unmet needs of people with behavioral health issues with quality, and ColumbiaCare staff practice defined Core Competencies as fundamentals of treatment.

We believe people get better.