Alexandra Sternot

I've been working in the behavioral health field for about 15 years, with most of my experience in in-home behavioral health care. I started my career working with a couple of clients that most caregivers would decline to work with based on their history of violence, and I worked with them for multiple years and was able to get them stable, non-violent, and not have any other issues in that department. Today, my main area of expertise is definitely still the behavioral health field, and I do still work with the more violent tendencies, but more so with schizophrenic and severe depression clients. A typical day for me involves making sure that the clients are keeping themselves and the caregivers safe, redirecting them if they're starting to go into behaviors that we know can lead to some violence, making sure that they are staying on top of the cares that we know that they can do, as well as starting to teach them more independent skills like washing the dishes and picking up after themselves. I also make sure that they attend their therapy sessions, their group sessions, and we try and get them out in the community as well. My most notable professional achievement would be my first client - when I got her, she was one of them that caregivers would refuse to work with, and she had been turned down by almost every psychiatrist in the state. After working with her for 2 years, we were finally able to get her on a much more stable regimen. She didn't have any more outbursts, no more violence, and she was able to go back and see her doctors in person and able to get back out into the community without any problems. It was the biggest turnaround that I have witnessed.