Bridge Over Troubled Waters DBT Update

Many of you know about our support for Bridge Over Troubled Waters, a Boston-based agency devoted to providing life-changing services for homeless, runaway and at-risk youth. We’d like to provide an update on the group’s effort to bring Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) to its clients – teens without regular access to healthcare. It’s a program we’ve been proud to support over the past year. Read more about DBT and our involvement with Bridge.

Speaking recently to Peter Ducharme, Bridge’s Clinical Director, and Melissa Z. Cording, Bridge’s Director of Development, we learned that Bridge has been able to train more personnel on DBT, and has expanded the therapy across a spectrum of Bridge services. At any given time, you’ll find 50 or so teens receiving treatment at Bridge, with half of them enrolled in DBT. Is it working? Peter says, yes, client satisfaction is very good and there is excitement for the program. “We see teens doing their DBT homework, completing practice assignments,” he says. The fact that teens are proactively working on DBT shows how much they value the program, learning how to develop mindfulness, self-regulate emotions, increase distress tolerance and build interpersonal effectiveness. 

Another sign of the program’s success – Bridge is developing a DBT model for similar organizations, showing them how they can cost efficiently bring this impactful therapy to homeless youth and other disenfranchised people. As human resource professionals know, mental health services are needed now more than ever. And we know that all those who need these services don’t have timely or affordable access. We are thrilled to have had this opportunity to support the launch of Bridge’s DBT practice.

This is proof that organizations like ours can have an appreciable effect. So we encourage you to support groups like Bridge Over Troubled Waters in your community.