My name is Krista (she/her), and I graduated with a Bachelor's degree in Psychology and then completed a Master's Degree in Occupational Therapy at St. Ambrose University. Krista's interest in community-based mental health began during a three-month internship in Memphis, TN providing individual and group services to veterans living in permanent and transitional housing and women in children living in a shelter setting.

 

My career began working in long-term care with adults and children with developmental and intellectual disabilities. I provided assessments and individual and group treatment to improve quality of life by addressing daily living skills, cognition, and emotional and psychological needs.

 

In 2013 I was the first Occupational Therapist at Trilogy Behavioral Healthcare in Chicago hired to work with individuals within the William's Consent Decree. The William's Consent Decree supported the individual's rights to transition from nursing homes to productive and meaningful lives in the community by providing each member with mental health and integrated healthcare services to support their needs. While at Trilogy for nearly seven years, Krista worked with interdisciplinary teams completing standardized and non-standardized assessments and developing individualized treatment plans to support the self-determination and recovery goals of individuals with mental illness and co-morbid medical conditions like diabetes, hypertension, obesity, etc.