“I can’t see myself doing anything else,” said Jasmine Jones about the field of social work. Jones, a clinician at our Pine Street Outpatient Behavioral Health Clinic in Springfield, earned her MSW at Springfield College and has been at CHD for two years.

“It’s an amazing career,” she said. “When you go through the courses, you learn so much, and then when you finally get to apply what you know, it provides a great sense of satisfaction to help people.”

Jones, who is from Springfield, has worked with children as young as seven and with adults in their sixties, but the majority of her caseload consists of children, teens, and young adults. Many of the children she treats have suffered trauma and neglect, and some are recovering from the effects of parentification—where a child takes on parental roles and responsibilities, which can have significant effects on their development and wellbeing.

She definitely sees the effects that the COVID pandemic had on children’s mental health, starting with their socialization skills. “Their behaviors needed improvement—they had to learn how to express themselves without negatively impacting others,” she said. Virtual learning also impacted their academic development.

Her favorite part of her job is when she sees meaningful transformations in a relatively short period of time. “Some of my clients were in a high state of need when they began working with me, and then, within a year, they’ve turned around, and their behaviors and mental health have changed significantly in a positive way,” she said.

Jones mentioned one client in particular: a boy who had severe behavioral issues and couldn’t focus in the classroom. “He would throw tantrums in school, and they would have to call crisis multiple times a week,” she said. “They would have to call his parents a lot. Once I started seeing him, they got him on the right medication, and there was less crisis intervention, and his mom didn’t have to be called as much.” He just graduated from elementary school to middle school, where he is doing much better. “Over time, he started to reframe his thought patterns through the work we did in therapy together,” she said. “After a while, it almost became a habit for him. He’d say to himself, ‘Oh, I feel a certain way, but I can’t throw a tantrum. Let me think about it and communicate what I need.’ And he does.”

Those are the kind of victories that make her career fulfilling. “When they tell me about the improvements and the changes that they’ve made, it tugs on the heartstrings,” said Jones. “When you love your job, it’s not just a job—it becomes part of you. It’s an extension of yourself.”