Amaya Dressler '25: research at a mental health clinic in RI

Welcome to Summer Spotlight: where HPA explores the summer experiences of our students.

Amaya Dressler ’25 spent her junior summer conducting senior thesis research at a community mental health clinic in Rhode Island.

amaya dressler rhode island scenery
amaya dressler rhode island scenery

I am an Anthropology major on the medical track pursuing minors in Humanistic Studies and European Cultural Studies. Working within Thrive Behavioral Health’s Housing First program, I was able to combine my love of community care and anthropological research to explore the complex entanglements between mental health, homelessness, and the provision of care.

Through ethnographic research, I documented the lived experience of clinicians, case managers, and their clients experiencing homelessness. I first learned about Thrive through a Princeternship she completed during winter break. During this Princeternship, I was able to shadow one of Thrive’s adolescent psychiatrists, visit several of its various locations offering mental health services, and volunteer with Thrive’s Housing First program. It was this last experience that inspired my senior thesis research. Due to West Warwick’s small geographical area, Thrive’s Housing First staff are able to attend to each client with striking regularity. Regardless of whether individuals are currently receiving services from Thrive, it is routine to check-in on documented members of the West Warwick homeless community as often as five times per week. Thrive’s commitment to providing extensive health services inspired me to return to Thrive and explore it as a site for anthropological inquiry into the medical, legal, and bureaucratic entanglements underlying mental health services. 

While exploring the scholarship on the role of community mental health clinics among homeless populations, most of my working days were spent participating in homeless outreach services. In particular, I was fascinated by the emergence of the Housing First Model as a paradigm for homeless assistance. Often, housing programs in the US first require that an individual be “housing ready” before they can gain access to subsidized housing. This means that individuals often have to undergo mandated rehabilitation, mental health treatment, or educational courses before they can qualify for housing. The Housing First Model flips this method, prioritizing the provision of housing as a prerequisite for physical and psychological stability. As Thrive’s Housing First website describes, the goal of the program has remained unchanged from its inception: to house people as quickly as possible, with as few requirements as possible, while educating them on the resources they can access when they are ready to do so. 

Through these experiences, I developed an immense passion for community care. Having primarily shadowed state hospitals and medical centers, I sometimes felt disillusioned with the limitations clinicians faced in their interactions with patients. Working in outreach, however, showed I just how deeply clinicians could engage when they worked in patient-centered facilities. Working for Thrive affirmed my interest in pursuing both research and community care. While my summer research may not resemble the lab work we often associate with the pre-med track, my experiences have prepared her for the client-driven, community-based model of medicine I hope to see expand.