Please read the below post and respondthis discussion in one or more of the following ways:

• Explain another situation in which it might be appropriate for a clinical psychologist to refer a client to one of the organizations or programs your colleague identified.
• Identify a similar organization or program that serves the community in which you live or intend to practice. Explain how this organization or program compares to the one your colleague identified
• Follow APA standards

Socioeconomic Status Factors & Class

Socioeconomic status (SES) is determined by a combination of factors including income, education, occupation, wealth, housing, and area in which you live. It often reflects an individual's position within a social ladder, and it is used to classify individuals into low, middle, or high SES. One big collective understanding about the United States is "The American Dream, work hard and you will get ahead" mentality (Hughs et al., 2025). For those at the top of the SES, this might appear possible for everyone, however, for individuals with lower SES, there can be significant barriers and challenges in achieving "The American Dream", such as limited financial and social resources, limited access to education, limited access to opportunities, and SES-based biases that also impact the perceptions of lower SES's, leading to possible differential treatment (Hughs et al., 2025).

According to Papandrea et al. (2023), people of color represent 27% of all U.S. residents but represent 52% of under resourced community residents. Approximately 15% of U.S. children are living in poverty with Black children representing 31% of these children (Papandrea et al., 2023). A fundamental conceptualization of SES is access to resources such as housing, education, health care and throughout history, Black Americans have had a history of less access to resources.

Organizations or Programs Serving the Community

In the state of Wisconsin, in Marathon County, there are many services available to the community. There are health and wellbeing services along with food and nutrition services. North Central Health Care is a healthcare organization that provides services for crisis intervention, substance use, adult protection, mental health, transportation, developmental disabilities, partner guide to acute care services, provider directory, and nursing care (NCHC, 2025). Other services include short -term and long-term care, stabilization. Clients are responsible to pay for services however, there are ability to pay considerations that assist clients with payment amounts (NCHC, 2025). This organization also has a list of other resources available to the community. Another resource in the community is Haven. Haven provides safety, shelter, and assistance to victims and survivors of interpersonal abuse and violence including domestic and dating abuse, child abuse, elder abuse, sexual abuse and assault, and human trafficking with a 24-hour phone line, advocacy, peer counseling, information and referrals, temporary shelter when needed, support groups, and prevention education (Haven, 2025).

Situation for Referral

As a psychologist, if a client discloses that they do not feel safe at home due to physical abuse, I would refer them to Haven as a safe place for them to go along with resources to help them navigate the next steps of how they want to move forward. If I had a client that discloses they are having suicidal thoughts and have an active plan to commit suicide I would want to make sure they were able to get crisis intervention services or stabilization and would refer my client to North Central Health Care.

References

Haven (2025). Household Abuse Victims Emergency Network. https://www.haveninc.org/

Hughes, B. T., Jacobson, R., Rule, N. O., & Srivastava, S. (2025). Stereotypes and social decisions: The interpersonal consequences of socioeconomic status.Journal of Personality and Social Psychology,128(5), 1226-1242.https://doi.org/10.1037/pspp0000541Links to an external site.

North Central Health Care (2025). https://www.norcen.org/

Papandrea, M. T., Namazi, M., Ghanim, I., & Patten, S. (2023). Identifying racial and socioeconomic biases in New Jersey special education eligibility.Language, Speech, and Hearing Services in Schools,54(2), 600-617. https://doi.org/10.1044/2022_LSHSS-22-00138