Jessalynne Marie Antilus - Johnson & Wales University

Biography and Expertise

I am currently an Adjunct instructor for Johnson and Wales since 2021, and have also been teaching at Southern New Hampshire University for 14-years now. I have also been in the field of Mental Health and Psychiatric Services since 2001 and have worked as a Crisis/Emergency Services Clinician for over a decade. I currently work full-time as a contracted Substance Use Counselor for the Department of Children and Families in Nashua, NH, where I work as a LADC Consultant for a private agency called Foundations Counseling. We do various services for DCYF, including level of care evaluations, short-term and long-term counseling, and we run a DCYF drug testing program in which we work with both Assessment and Family Service DCYF cases in which a parent with substance use issues is indicated. I work Monday through Thursday from 8:00am to 6:00pm EST and teach two online course for SNHU as well. I was born in Lowell, Massachusetts and lived there with my older sister and parents for a very short time before moving to Merrimack, NH when I was four-years old where I have lived for most of my life. I have moved to Manchester and Bedford, NH and Massachusetts for periods, but seem to always find myself back in Merrimack. I returned to Merrimack last year to care for my dad who suffered two strokes in late 2023 and now has vascular dementia, so I am caring for he and my mom by moving in the home to provide more financial security and general oversight for them. I definitely have a lot on my plate, but my two adult daughter also live in the home with me and help a ton too.
My professional career began in 2001, when I began working on an impatient psychiatric/detox unit at Southern New Hampshire Medical Center in Nashua, NH, as an Impatient Mental Health Counselor where I worked with acute psychiatric/detox patients on a secure, short term unit. I lead and co-lead groups, completed intakes and discharges carried a patient caseload of 3-5 patients per shift, as well as documentation, and crisis intervention. I was very lucky to obtain this position very early into my college career and I greatly enjoyed the work and remained at SNHMC for nearly ten years. Also, while working at SNHMC, I worked as a per diem Milieu Therapist II on the Adolescent Assessment unit at Somerville Hospital in Somerville, Massachusetts, as part of the Cambridge Health Alliance, where I remained per diem for three years. The Adolescent Assessment unit is a locked 20 bed acute-care Adolescent psychiatric unit, I functioned essentially in the same role as I did at SNHMC.
When I left SNHMC, I began working at Southbay Mental Health in Lowell, Massachusetts, where I functioned as an Outreach Outpatient Therapist conducting individual and Intensive Family Therapy, as well as held a Forensic caseload. My role in this position was to collaborate with other agencies, such as, Department of Children and Families, Department of Youth Services, Lowell US District Court, Department of Elder Services, Parole and Probation, schools, public guardians, correctional facilities, Department of Transitional Living, and Immigration an managed a caseload of approximately 35-45 clients at any given time. The majority of my clients were involved with the legal system to a degree, such as individuals on probation or parole, adolescent sex offenders, children and adolescents in foster care and in placement, such as residential facilities, and a great deal of individuals involved with the legal system due to their substance use disorders. I left Southbay Mental Health in 2012 and began working for Easter Seals NH, as Clinical Director of Community Based and Preventative Services. At Easter Seals, I oversaw three behavioral clinicians, three day programs statewide, and ten residential homes that housed and provided treatment to adults with Intellectual or Developmental disabilities with co-morbid mental illnesses, substance abuse and addiction issues, trauma, forensic issues, and behavioral issues. When I left Easter Seals NH in 2013, I began working for Benchmark Senior Living in Bedford, NH, I became the Director of Dementia/Alzheimer’s Operations. At Benchmark, I supervised a staff of about 40-45 LNA’s, providing care to seniors living within our assisted living facilities. My department was a secure 35 bed Dementia unit, I greatly enjoyed the work with the residents, their families, and an amazing fleet of great staff, however, I resigned only three months after beginning, due to my concerns about ethical behavior of those in administration and not getting the support I needed from my superiors, this was a pivotal moment in my career where everything I learned about ethics was applied and implemented. I also learned that working for Profit companies and agencies was not for me and I have been working exclusively for Non-Profit agencies ever since.
When I left Benchmark, I began work at Lahey Health Behavioral Services in their Emergency Services Division in Lowell, Massachusetts; I began there in early June 2014. At Lahey, I functioned as an Emergency Services Clinician and I would be dispatched to various locations, including, Lowell General and Saints Memorial emergency rooms to assess patients in psychiatric or substance abuse/addiction crisis for level of care disposition. We will also go to schools, homes, police stations, prisons/jails to assess individuals and then find placement for those requiring a higher level of care. I would conduct thorough risk assessments and make clinical decisions as part of a multidisciplinary team regarding a clients disposition amid their psychiatric and/or substance use crisis.
From Lahey Health Behavioral Services, I begin working per diem at Riverbend Community Mental Health Center in Concord, NH as a Psychiatric Consultant in the Emergency Department at Concord Hospital. I began as per diem, and then became full-time, which at that time, I made the decision to leave Lahey, as I was also teaching in the day program Psychology department here at SNHU, and it was difficult to manage all three positions and my personal life. In May of 2016, I was promoted to Care Manager of Yellow Pod which is the locked psychiatric pod in the Emergency Department at Concord Hospital in Concord, NH, where we maintain the safety of those on psychiatric hold or Involuntary status, meaning they are waiting for a bed at a Designated Receiving Facility somewhere in the state and are not safe for return to the community. In this position, I managed the placement, care coordination, and communication of these cases and functioned as a member of a multidisciplinary team. In this position, I was on the front line in dealing with and understanding the mass shortage of mental health and substance abuse treatment beds in this state and nationwide, which makes me that much more passionate about my role in changing the system. I left Riverbend Mental Health/Concord Hospital in 2017 after two years and took a position on the Mobile Response Crisis Team at The Mental Health Center of Greater Manchester, working as a crisis clinician. At MHCGM I responded to psychiatric and substance abuse crises in the community in efforts to diffuse and offer psychoeducation, keeping individuals in the community, as well as, getting individuals to treatment when and if they needed or required it. In early 2020, pre-COVID, I left The Mental Health Center of Greater Manchester and returned to Riverbend Community Health in Concord, where I functioned as a Crisis Clinician and Interim Therapist at The Crisis Treatment Center (CTC) as an intake/emergency services clinician linking those without psychiatric services to services. I worked through the entire pandemic as a frontline worker and I must say, it has been a journey! In October of 2021, we were informed that the CTC would be closing due to the state of NH not renewing our grant that we functioned on and that the CTC would close as of 12/31/2021. I made the decision at that point to leave Riverbend Community Mental Health Center, as although I was offered a position on their Mobile Crisis Team, there are major things happening in New Hampshire pertaining to the structure of the Mobile Crisis Teams and it was just not a role I wanted to take on, especially in the infancy of the state taking over. I began working at Greater Nashua Community Mental Health Center in November 2021 and worked here as an Acute Care Services Clinician and was promoted to Clinical Coordinator, however, utilimately left my full-time position to pursue work as a LADC Consultant through DCYF/Foundations Counseling in November 2023.
On a more personal note, I am mother to one son, Malik and two beautiful daughters, Jayde and Soraya. Malik is now 28-years-old and who made me a grandmother to the most beautiful boy on earth, my grandson, Prince who will turned four-years-old on February 12th! Jayde is 25-years-old and attended SNHU and finished her Bachelor of Arts degree in December 2022 in, you guessed it…PSYCHOLOGY!! Jayde began graduate school in September 2024 working towards a Master of Social Work, she will finish up in May of 2026 and will enter into the field doing marriage and family therapy. My youngest daughter, Soraya will be 20-years-old on September 19th; we were actually born the same day. Soraya completed aesthetician School in April 2024 and is now a licensed aesthetician. Soraya recently started working on her prerequisites towards Nursing School which she plans to enter into in the fall of 2026, as she wants to work in and eventually run her own med spa. Malik was born my freshman year of high school and Jayde was born my senior year, they both inspired me to work exceptionally hard at a young age, not only did I complete my High School Diploma on time, I went straight to college and kept going until I completed my graduate degree. I definitely could not have been able to complete my goals without the help of my family being a teenage mother to two children before the age of 18-years-old. I hope to return to school to complete a doctorate in Education someday in the near future, as my passion is definitely teaching, as I have had the privilege of teaching students for 14 years! In any free time that I have, I spend a great deal of it with my kids and grandson, I love to run, paint, read, and write. I am easy-going, down to earth and approachable; I have a great sense of humor, and love to teach!

Education

MA
Argosy University

BA
Southern New Hampshire University