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IN THIS ISSUE WE FOCUS ON "GIVING BACK"

GIVING BACKHow Someone Comes Full Circle and Wants to Help Others

A GCBHS Counselor now helps people who are in the same place she was just a little over six years ago.

"So what do you want to gain from treatment? What is a goal of yours?" Tricia Taylor asks her client during a therapy session. Tricia is a Substance Use Disorder (SUD) Counselor on the Greater Cincinnati Behavioral Health Services (GCBHS) TASC team. TASC stands for Treatment Alternatives for Safer Communities and has been a part of our Clermont County services since 2012. Funded by a yearly grant from the Ohio Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services, TASC serves an average of 225 clients at any given time. A majority of the clients are on felony probation or parole – most for drug offenses.

What makes Tricia special is that she can relate to her clients. Prior to 2016, Tricia was a GCBHS client. She completed her SUD treatment in the spring of 2016 and that led her to what she wanted to do with the rest of her life.

But before she got to that point, things were not so great. Tricia says the problems started in college. At first, it was typical teenage stuff like drinking on the weekends with friends. She enrolled at Northern Kentucky University but had to drop out her first semester because "partying became more important than showing up for class."

Soon after, she moved in with her boyfriend and his father because she didn’t want to live under her parent's rules. "I wanted to run my own life." Before long, drinking and smoking marijuana became her whole life. "Life had become too hard. I didn’t feel comfortable in my own skin. I was full of insecurities so the drugs and alcohol relieved the pain. On the weekends we drank excessively and did

cocaine. I used anything I could get my hands on to escape reality but underneath I was filled with guilt and shame. My family was so disappointed in me that I just couldn't handle it."

She began using Xanax and pain pills, but "the pills became too expensive because I was now physically and mentally dependent on them to function. So that led me to heroin because it was cheaper. It took over my life."

Tricia began to steal in order to pay for her drugs. She was caught several times and sent to treatment but she says, "I just ran away." Things changed after her 30 day stint in jail in April 2016. Why? "So there were a lot of things that happened. I was attempting suicide and suffering blackouts. I began cutting…I was homeless – I had lost the relationship with my mom, dad and brother. We hadn't spoken in over a year." She continues, "I didn’t want to live like that anymore. I was willing to do anything I needed to not be homeless. I wanted my family."

When the judge gave Tricia the option of starting treatment she knew it was now or never. She began going to GCBHS in Batavia. She says about her time in treatment, "My relationship with my counselor was amazing. She made it easier for me. We built a relationship mainly because I was willing to be open and honest. That’s the biggest thing –being honest about the things going on with you."

Tricia meets with a client at her office in Batavia.

But entering treatment for someone who is in a position like Tricia can be difficult. "I didn’t have transportation and had to rely on other people to get to treatment two times a week. I didn’t have a job but I needed to get one as part of my parole. So I was pretty overwhelmed."

That's where GCBHS can help people struggling with addiction."(My counselor)

helped me mentally and emotionally more than anything. She gave me the confidence I needed. I know it sounds cliché but she believed in me when I didn’t believe in myself."

Employment staff at GCBHS helped Tricia get her license back. "They even took me to take my test." They helped her get a job and over the course of seeing our SUD Psychiatrist Dr. Katie Schmidt, Tricia was able to rebuild her relationship with her parents and move back home.

Tricia was working locally as a server at a fast food chain but she knew she wanted to do something else – something that would allow her to use her experience to help others. After she was officially discharged from GCBHS services she began to work as a peer recovery coach. She also took online classes

Making the HOLIDAYS BRIGHT

Bev Moeggenberg knows the difficulties mental illness can have on a family. It's why she "Gives Back."

Bev Moeggenberg has been a supporter of Greater Cincinnati Behavioral Health Services (GCBHS) for many years. She knows firsthand how our services can impact someone's life because her son was diagnosed with Schizoaffective disorder in 2013.

Schizoaffective disorder is a severe mental illness that causes confusion in the brain and is usually characterized by delusions and hallucinations. People diagnosed with Schizoaffective disorder can believe in things that are not true and see and hear things that

do not exist. Mania and depression are also common symptoms of the condition.

When untreated, people with the disease often get into trouble; which is what happened to Bev's son. The Court placed him in our Transitions to Independence Process Program (TIP) which serves youth between the ages of 16 and 24. Within six months he did a complete turn-around with the support of his family, the courts, and the program staff.

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and obtained her Chemical Dependency Counselors License which allowed her to apply for the SUD Counselor position on the TASC team. She's now been with the team for the past two years.

What does Tricia love most about working at Greater Cincinnati Behavioral Health Services? "I love the people that I work with more than anything. Nick Melvin is my immediate supervisor now but he also did my last assessment for treatment that led to me obtaining sobriety. The fellowship and the leadership…I mean, Heather (Cokl – Associate VP of Addiction Services) is constantly empowering me to be the best that I can be. It's just very positive. Being on the other side of it now and working at the treatment facility that helped me get my life back…that's a true gift."

The Flying Pig Marathon raffle or the "Piggest Raffle Ever" benefits local Cincinnati non-profits.

The Flying Pig Marathon raffle or the "Piggest Raffle Ever" benefits local Cincinnati non-profits. Adopt a pig online until May 6th (the drawing is May 7th). For every $5 ticket you purchase, GCBHS receives the entire $5 as a donation from the Flying Pig Marathon!

One lucky winner will receive $5,000 and the organization they select will also receive $5,000! Purchase entries at: piggestraffleever.com and choose Greater Cincinnati Behavioral Health Services as your charity of choice.

Bev

Outreach Coordinator Chris Miles .

PATH Outreach Worker knows firsthand the struggles of mental illness

It's a Tuesday afternoon and Tommy Russell is talking to a homeless man downtown near Central Parkway. You will find Tommy out and about most days, helping people who do not have housing and may be literally living on the streets of Cincinnati. That’s because Tommy is on the PATH team at Greater Cincinnati Behavioral Health Services (GCBHS). PATH stands for Projects for Assistance in Transition from Homelessness. The team builds relationships with homeless individuals and connects them to mental health and other services (such as housing). PATH uses a unique staffing model which includes Peer Workers - someone who has a diagnosis of mental illness but has recovered. This is because research has found that the lived experience of a peer allows them to connect more easily to people with severe trust issues who sometimes feel there is no hope for them.

Tommy is a peer worker - one of those special people who know what it's like because he too needed help at one time.

According to Tommy, his mental health crisis came out of nowhere. His parents thought it was just a phase that he'd grow out of but his symptoms grew worse. He graduated high school in 2002 and was first hospitalized around Labor Day of 2003. About that period in his life Tommy recalls, "I kind of ignored my illness and didn’t ask questions. I initially took medications but I wasn't great about it because they didn’t seem to work. When I think back, those early years were really bumpy. I was trying to live a normal life and work but things were never really right."

In his early 20's, Tommy was hospitalized multiple times. He started to receive some counseling and care management and when he felt that things were a little more stable, he decided to move out of state with a friend. But those three years away from Cincinnati without a support system and no mental health treatment caused things to be pretty bleak by the time he moved back to Cincinnati in 2019. That's when he enrolled in services from GCBHS.

He was put on an Assertive Community Treatment (ACT) team that focused on getting him stabilized. He needed help managing his Schizoaffective, bipolar disorder which can create sweeping mood cycles from manic episodes to deep depression. Due to his difficulty with medication, the team "was willing to work with me to make sure that I was a part of the process," says Tommy.

Tommy had other issues to contend with. His parents had moved during his absence so he had no place to live and no job. On top of that, this was during the early part of the pandemic. Using GCBHS protocols intended

to keep staff and clients safe, the ACT team was able to get Tommy to job interviews, helped him obtain a copy of his birth certificate, and get his license. Says Tommy, "When I was being a pain in the butt, they were really understanding. They bent over backwards to help me get on my feet."

By 2022, Tommy was doing great and ready to be discharged from services at GCBHS. He was working in retail but it wasn't something he wanted to do long-term. It was then that his care manager suggested he apply for a peer support position on the PATH team. Tommy was hired as a GCBHS employee last October. "I think the big thing so far, says Tommy, "is the need to be compassionate and understanding with everyone I come into contact with. It brings me a lot of joy to see the change in people over the smallest glimmer of hope. They can improve so quickly when they are able to latch onto that."

Tommy is thinking about going to school and becoming a care manager (GCBHS helps staff with tuition reimbursement if they want to further their education in behavioral health). "The support from my coworkers and supervisors here at GCBHS has been great. They have made my training and other processes seamless which is what helps me out the most in my day to day job functions."

When he looks back, Tommy says, "With where I was in 2019…without GCBHS, there's no way I would be able to be where I am and fully functioning. People wouldn’t even recognize the person that I have become."

Tommy talks to a client in Over-The-Rhine.

www.gcbhs.com

Continued from pg. 2 Making the Holidays Bright

Says Bev, "They (GCBHS) did so much for us as a family that I wanted to reach out and do something for them. We have always donated but I wanted to get more involved. And I LOVE to cook so..."

What began as a kind gesture to the residents of Madison House, a GCBHS mental health group home, has now become somewhat of a tradition. "I started at Madison House in 2018. We did 2019, and then COVID-19 happened. Before that I was actually coming in and doing crafts as well as cooking for the residents. In 2020 I had to drop off a big meal for them at the holidays."

Fast forward to 2022 where Bev delivered meals to all seven of our mental health and recovery houses in the spring and she recently ended the year by bringing holidays meals, bags of treats and gifts to the 42 residents who reside at those houses. According to Bev what she would love to have happen is, "Getting more people involved and doing these monthly. It's such a joy to know you are making a difference. Making a meal is just a nice, easy way to bring some joy to someone. I would like to see more people be able to do that."

If you are interested in donating meals please contact us at info@gcbhs.com.