Jewish Family Services months-long waitlist has been cleared
Jewish Family Services has sharply expanded its clinical staff, effectively eliminating what had been a months-long wait to see a therapist or psychiatric prescriber, according to agency leaders.
“In the last fiscal year, we formerly had a lengthy waitlist to see our clinicians and psychiatric nurse practitioner. This is no longer the case,” said Dan Fleischman, president and CEO of Jewish Family Services in Milwaukee. “We addressed this issue by adding more capacity in our clinic.”
Fleischman told the Chronicle that, as recently as last year, people who called JFS for mental health services were often told they could be waiting months for an opening.
That situation has changed after a hiring push that brought four additional clinical staff into the agency during the latter half of last year and the beginning of this year.
In addition to more therapists and psychiatric capacity, JFS has created a dedicated intake position.
“It’s been really helpful having one person dedicated to following up with people if they leave a voicemail to make sure that we can get them in and seen as soon as possible,” said Lyndsey Schneider, director of development and communications. “It’s great to go downstairs and see the clinic busy and hustling and bustling every day.”
Fleischman said one key to expanding capacity has been JFS’s longstanding training and internship pipeline, which allows the agency to recruit from people who have already spent years learning its systems and culture.
“We have a very robust training and internship program here,” he said. “We have people who are doing their internships at JFS while they’re earning their degrees. What that has meant is that two of the four new people that we hired were actually JFS trainees, so it’s like the world’s longest job interview because they’re with us for like two years before we offer them a job, so we vet them really well”
Another recent hire focuses on clients who have experienced crime, through an ongoing partnership with Sojourner Family Peace Center.
Schneider said JFS is now turning its attention to spreading the word that the once-long waitlist has been cleared and that new clients can be seen.
JFS offers counseling and psychiatric services at a downtown Milwaukee office, a Brown Deer clinic and via telehealth.
