This year, we’re celebrating 30 years of our Support, Advocacy, Growth + Employment (SAGE) team — a program that recognizes that to view a client clinically, you must view them holistically. From therapy to medication management to peer counseling, SAGE considers every client’s physical, emotional, medical, social, and spiritual needs.
Over the past three decades, we’ve been able to connect thousands of people to stable homes, fulfilling jobs, long-term care, and a meaningful community.
How SAGE Works
SAGE is the largest outpatient behavioral health (OPBH) program at DESC, and one of the largest in King County. The team currently serves approximately 1,200 active clients and is made up of both clinic- and housing-based case managers, psychotherapists, intake specialists, clinical supervisors, project managers and one program coordinator — as well as nurses, psychiatric nurse practitioners, and psychiatrists from DESC’s medical department.
The goal of SAGE is to help clients navigate their own path to success by providing low-barrier continuous clinical care and wraparound services.
“Our clients are the experts in their experiences,” said Sheila Smith, Senior Program Manager at SAGE. “We are all simply here to support them through their journey towards stability and recovery.”
Sheila was drawn to SAGE for the way the program puts systemic solutions into action:
“It is the responsibility of the clinician to identify and understand how social determinants and structural barriers — like racism, inadequate healthcare, financial barriers, food insecurities, housing discrimination and other examples of oppression — have adverse impacts to a client’s situation,” Sheila said. “This all provides perspective and humanizes the work.”
Growing with SAGE
Memphis, a Tennessee-born “people person” who made his way to Seattle eight years ago, found his specialized path to success through DESC programming, including SAGE.
After years of living in tents in the International District of Seattle, Memphis connected with DESC’s SAGE team via the former Navigation Center. From nights at the Union Gospel Mission, to sleeping on the street and finally getting his own tent, Memphis has now lived in his own apartment for four years.
“It’s a blessing to have an apartment,” Memphis said, and he motivates his community to find the same. “I still go outside and talk to people about housing, telling them to keep their phone on them and stay in touch [with their counselors],” he said.
Vincent Davis, one of SAGE’s psychotherapists, mentioned that SAGE works with clients who may struggle with traditional therapy and therapists, and DESC gets to see the difference that specialized care makes.
Providing therapy at both DESC’s Downtown Clinic and Hobson Clinic locations, Vincent sees a variety of clients both in and out of DESC supportive housing. Many have substance use disorders and persistent behavioral health challenges that make showing up for traditional therapy models difficult. DESC’s services, paired with outreach teams, make it easier for them to get the help they need.
“I help clients work through their past traumas and assist [them] in working through their everyday issues,” Vincent said. Both Sheila and Vincent agree that, ultimately, success is unique to the client and their treatment plan.
Working on the SAGE Team
While each day looks a little different, SAGE staff members work with a focus on mental health, collaboration, and client-driven principles. Sheila calls this, “The key to client success.” From management meetings and support groups to reviewing client treatment plans, the core of SAGE work is providing unbiased services, proactive care, advocacy, and partnership.
Seeing four to five clients a day, Vincent brings a unique perspective to his psychotherapy work. Not only did he start at DESC as a case manager — working with clients in a more administrative capacity — but he is also in recovery himself and has experienced being homeless. His goal is to help clients function better in the present and experience more joy in their lives.
“I have a good connection with people [because] I relate to that, I know what it’s like,” he said. “It looks different for every client.”
Like any job, working on the SAGE team has its challenges. However, the hardest part for Sheila is knowing that not every DESC client is housed while navigating the systemic barriers that prevent people’s basic human needs from being met.
Whether it’s finally gaining access to housing at the age of 60 or joining an art program and being able to walk their dog every day, clients are finding success however it looks to them with SAGE.
“It’s very rewarding to see someone develop more self-efficacy, especially when they keep coming back,” Vincent said. “You know they’re benefiting from these interactions.”
Finding Stability
Through SAGE counseling with Vincent and the support of DESC’s Keys to Home program, Memphis has been able to figure out what stability looks like to him. This includes a job at Safeway, where he’s worked for nearly a year. “It’s like family down there,” he said.
Of his time working with SAGE — and his “little brother Vince” — Memphis said all the counselors he worked with were “so helpful,” and inspired him to let his community know about the services they offer.
“I enjoy helping out with bringing people to the program and guiding them,” Memphis said, mentioning he tells folks to make sure they stay in touch with their counselors. “I motivate a lot of people that don’t believe in the system to not give up on the system, and follow their dreams,” he said.
Memphis’ goals for the next year include recovering from surgery, continuing to work at Safeway, and returning to Tennessee to visit family he hasn’t seen in 15 years.
“Seattle has done a lot for me,” he said. “If I can do it, anyone can do it.”