Public Safety Through Treatment: A New Direction for County Corrections

Franklin County Sheriff's Office, Greenfield, MA Public Safety Through Treatment: A New Direction for County Corrections Publication Social Work Voice November 2018Download Levin Schwartz, LICSW SOCIAL WORK VOICE | NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2018 11 Amid a national opioid epidemic, the political context continues to lean toward the over incarceration of people struggling with addiction and mental health. Typically, people are…

Webinar: Music and Acceptance and Commitment Therapy

https://contextualscience.org/video/music_and_defusion Presented February 2021 as a Social Work SIG sponsored webinar Overview: Life is hard, even when we aren’t living through a pandemic. We all struggle; we all at times strive for something different. At times, I am certainly guilty of overlooking the magic that is happening right in front of me because my mind…

Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) and Case Work

Hi all, I have been thinking a lot about how ACT can be applied in various aspects of social work. It is very clear to me that ACT can be a powerful tool to affect behavioral change in multiple contexts. The most obvious is in individual and group psychotherapy. There has been a tremendous amount…

Comprehensive Case Planning for clients in correctional environments

This webinar was completed for the Council of State Governments and the National Reentry Resource Center.  Scaffolded by the functions and modes of DBT, and an overarching paradigm of contextual behavioral therapies, the Franklin County Sheriff's Office in Greenfield MA has implemented an evidence based clinical reentry program.

Treating Opioid Addiction in Smalltown America

Check out this article featuring Dr. Ruth Potee.  She is an incredibly kind, intelligent and driven person whom I have the pleasure to work with at the Franklin County Sheriff's Office. Go Public Radio! One Remarkable Doctor Who's Fighting Opioid Addiction in Smalltown Massachusetts By RICH FISHER • JUL 2, 2018  

Franklin County Jail Helps Inmates Recover From Drug Addictions

Happy to have our local news center picking up the story.  I would like to encourage all people covering stories like this to consider language that does not disenfranchise people stuck in the cycle of addiction and incarceration. Thanks News Center 22! https://www.wwlp.com/news/local-news/franklin-county/franklin-county-jail-helps-inmates-recover-from-drug-addictions/1265713304  

Franklin County Sheriff’s Office – DBT & ACT – Mindfulness based treatment for addiction

This is a piece that Chris James, CNN Producer (Beme News), completed after visiting our facility. Published on Jun 21, 2018 https://youtu.be/xXN42gxbghE

Reflections on clinical reentry programs behind the walls

DBT and ACT in a Correctional Facility My team has taken great strides in the past five years and I am continuously impressed and motivated by both my colleagues and the complexity of our pursuit; reducing recidivism by enhancing our client’s capacities to attain, make stronger, and generalize the skills they need in-order to pursue…

Can This Small Town Lead America in Fighting the Opioid Crisis

By Mattea Kramer Downtown Greenfield, Massachusetts Chris Sheperd lost 14 friends to heroin overdoses, including a girlfriend who was pregnant with his child. But what made him stop using heroin was an organic gardening class he took while incarcerated in Greenfield, Massachusetts. Ninety minutes west of Boston, Greenfield has a population of 17,000, and like…

Welcome

Levin Schwartz, LICSW is a licensed independent clinical social worker, whose primary training occurred at Smith College’s MSW program and at the Veterans Administration on the Specialized Inpatient PTSD Unit. Levin currently holds multiple positions in the greater community of Western Massachusetts.  Levin is the Assistant Deputy Superintendent of Clinical & Reentry Services at the…