St. Margaret’s Center for Holistic Health & Wellness

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The mental health and wellness of our community is just as important to St. Margaret’s as physical health and wellness. As such, we are pleased to announce Spring Valley was the recipient of a Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) grant to support expanding behavioral health services to our area. This grant will provide two million dollars each year for two years to establish a Certified Community Behavioral Health Clinic, St. Margaret’s Center for Holistic Health & Wellness (CHHW), which will be in the adjacent space in our St. Margaret’s Center for Family Health (CFH) location in Princeton. Construction is underway. The center will work primarily with residents of LaSalle, Bureau, Putnam and Marshall Counties.

We have welcomed Mike Miroux, LCPC, as program director for CHHW. Mike is thrilled to return to his roots in the Illinois Valley and help our community on this exciting journey stating, “I think Center for Holistic Health & Wellness will be looked at as a leader and model for providing innovative and effective behavioral health services in rural communities. I am excited about working with a dedicated team to expand access to comprehensive behavioral health care in the Illinois Valley.”

Hiring is also underway for Licensed Clinical Social Workers (LCSW), Licensed Clinical Professional Counselors (LCPC) and Behavioral Health Care Coordinators. While the primary location will be in Princeton, the plan is to also embed counselors in some of our larger primary care clinics to improve timely access to these services and assist providers in attending to this patient population.

St. Margaret’s will not be doing this work alone. We’ve partnered with the Arukah Institute of Healing in Princeton. In addition to counseling, Arukah brings a strong wellness component through complementary therapies and other approaches, which are daily activities that all people can do to stay well. Arukah will relocate services to CHHW once renovation is completed. With Arukah on site, St. Margaret’s CHHW will be equipped to provide wellness, counseling, psychiatry, primary care and crisis or group/family therapies to whomever walks through the door.

Dr. Sarah B. Scruggs, CEO of Arukah and Lead Evaluator for CHHW remarks, “We see this as a powerful way to increase care options and provide on-demand care for people in our rural area. We value our partnerships with, for example, OSF and other medical/behavioral health providers in the area. Our goal is to be a safe landing spot for people that are struggling, find out what is best for each individual and help get him or her there.” St. Margaret’s CHHW is also looking forward to providing peer support services by partnering with Perfectly Flawed Foundation, Freedom House and other community partners.

Only half of the important work will occur in a clinic. The other half will take place in the community right when and where the need arises. To deliver a fast response in a crisis, CHHW will provide on-demand mobile services 24/7 to help individuals in mental health or substance abuse crisis in their homes, schools, places of work or other public spaces. A critical partner for this work is local law enforcement since the responsibility of around the clock care is often shouldered by officers alone.

However, this should not be the case. There is a need for support and we are taking important steps to help. This grant will allow social workers and counselors to work alongside law enforcement to provide proper and timely help to those needing mental healthcare and/or substance abuse interventions. Chief Tom Kammerer of the Princeton Police Department has been a driving force for this type of model in our area. At present, the Princeton, Spring Valley and Peru Police Departments, as well as the Bureau County Sheriff’s Office, have been early adopters of this model, which is key for reducing relapse and preventing hospital readmissions. “The provision of 24/7 crisis response will help the police and emergency rooms divert people in need of services to a more appropriate type of care. The Living Room [model] has been a proven method of addressing certain mental health crises, helping to deescalate potentially volatile encounters once they have been stabilized by police,” Chief Kammerer explains. “We intend to extend this service to those battling substance abuse, too. We believe this approach will save lives. We have already trained more than half of our officers in Crisis Intervention Training (CIT), and all our staff has some measure of mental health training. We are grateful to St. Margaret’s and Arukah for including us and our law enforcement partners in this groundbreaking effort.”

Having the means to help people in our community 24/7 is essential. However, mental health and substance abuse are only part of the work in impacting health and wellness. Individuals often struggle with other non-medical concerns as well, which are responsible for 85% of a person’s overall health. This includes things like reliable employment, food, education, housing, social support and family dynamic.

To meet these non-medical needs, CHHW will leverage collaborations of the C5-Rural Network. C5-Rural, which stands for Collaborative, Complementary, Conventional and Community-based Care for Rural Populations, was formed in 2019. C-5 Rural brings together medical providers, schools, churches, social services, industries, law enforcement and other community-based providers monthly to develop integrative care strategies that bridge gaps in rural mental health and substance use prevention, treatment and recovery in new and innovative ways. St. Margaret’s and Arukah were among the first five organizations to join. Now, the network has grown to 36 members. C5-Rural has been tremendously successful at bringing otherwise siloed entities together to learn how to work together. Dr. Scruggs comments, “Inter-organizational collaborative care is difficult to do well, but it’s vital in an area like ours where resources are limited and people are underserved. C5-Rural has shown that this is possible, but it requires good communication, trust and creativity to develop new workflows among otherwise separate organizations.”

Watch for more information on the development of these services by following St. Margaret’s Health on Facebook or visiting aboutsmh.org. For more information regarding Arukah Institute of Healing, and the C5-Rural network, please visit arukahinstitute.org.

Thementalhealthandwellnessofour communityisjustasimportanttousas physicalhealthandwell-being.At St.Margaret’s,westrivetohelppeople livetheirhealthiestlife.Thatsometimes meanshelpingpeopletohealand restoretheirheartsandminds–not justtheirbody. Tohelpmeettheneedsinour community,St.Margaret’s,in partnershipwithArukahInstitute ofHealing,willsoonbeexpanding behavioralhealthservicestoour area,includingLaSalle,Bureau, PutnamandMarshallCounties.

Todeliverafastresponseinacrisis,thenewcenterwillalsoprovideon-demandmobile services24/7tohelpindividualsinmentalhealthorsubstanceabusecrisisintheirhomes, schools,placesofworkorotherpublicspaces.

St.Margaret’sHealth-SpringValleyonFacebookorvisitingusonline.

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