WellStone’s Adult Outpatient Manager Alice Kindred spoke with WAAY 31 about how parents should speak to their children after mass tragedies occur.
Kindred says that it’s important to have and encourage open communication, even when conversations can be difficult. She suggests basing the amount and depth of information on the child’s age. She also advises to monitor their children’s social media intake to see what exactly they are seeing and learning.
[HUNTSVILLE, AL] – WellStone announces the launch of a Jail Diversion Program in collaboration with Madison County Jail. The Jail Diversion Program identifies detainees who are eligible for release, either under supervision or directly to the community, who have continuing mental health care needs. The goal of the program is to reduce the recidivism rate many mental health consumers experience due to the inability to access the continuum of care, post incarceration. Under this program, WellStone case managers are assigned to inmates based upon input from Community Corrections, the Madison County Jail, the Huntsville Police Chief, the Madison County Sheriff, the Huntsville Municipal Judge and the Madison County Circuit Judge.
WellStone’s Jail Diversion Program is a strategic initiative to bridge the gap between the corrections system and mental health services when both face extremely limited resources. The vast majority of mentally ill inmates are arrested for simple bizarre behavior or non-violent minor crimes, and yet they spend an average of 15 months longer in jail for the same charges as non-mentally ill prisoners. The Madison County jail population follows similar trends. Currently, mentally ill inmates compose 20-25% of the overall Madison County jail population.
WellStone Chief Clinical Officer Josaylon Wade describes the program as a practical program to address the challenges of deinstitutionalization, a process which sometimes left the mentally ill under the care of the criminal justice system. Wade shares, “It is far more cost-effective to provide the resources inmates need to rejoin the community in a safe and productive manner than it is to hold them within the corrections system. When an inmate is ready for release, we are here to give them additional support to ensure they thrive. Given the proper guidance and resources, their chances for success improve dramatically.”
WellStone Probate Court Liaison Tammy Leeth was promoted to Program Manager for the Jail Diversion Program. Leeth will oversee a staff of two full-time case managers. Leeth shares, “We have two important goals with this program. First, we want to help our clients build a foundation for healthy living in our community. Second, we want to lessen the long-term burden on the corrections system. We expect that this program will deliver significant cost savings to the corrections system within the first year.”
WellStone’s CEO Jeremy Blair adds, “The Jail Diversion Program is the result of a year-long planning process and collaboration with the North Alabama Mental Health Coalition. We applaud the Madison County Corrections System and Judicial System for their commitment to this process. We are also grateful for the willingness of Chairman Strong and the Madison County Commission as well as Mayor Battle and the Huntsville City Council to fund this innovative pilot program. By working together, we can provide greater continuity of care and services on the path towards rehabilitation.”
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About Wellstone Inc.: WellStone Inc. is a non-profit community organization that provides mental health and substance abuse services supporting the integrated health of the whole person. WellStone operates 12 facilities throughout North Alabama and Cullman. WellStone is certified through the Alabama Department of Mental Health. WellStone offers programs for children, adolescents, adults, substance abuse, school-based outreach, community services and more. For more information, visit www.wellstone.com. Additional media inquiries can be directed to Kallie Butler by emailing pr@wellstone.com or by calling (256)705-6301.
My Experience of Gratitude: By Rashmi Jadeja Chauhan
For the past three years in a row, I have been blessed with the opportunity of doing volunteer work in India. While working there, I have felt great levels of gratitude, met new people, and helped to spread happiness to the human beings who came to the Shri Vidhyaguru Foundation Hospital in Savarkundla, Gujarat, India. Today, I’d like to share my amazing experience with you by describing it.
The hospital is created by Mr. Haresh Mehta, who is the president of the hospital and was born in Savarkundla. He and his team are dedicated to bringing free service to anyone who needs it; the team takes their own money and accepts donations to keep the services free to the any human beings. The kind individuals at the hospital have allowed me the opportunity to serve for three years in a row with my counseling services. This hospital has many branches to help people with their fitness and health; they include branches dealing with gynecology, pediatrics, dialysis, dentistry, physiotherapy, pathology, homeopathy, surgery, and many more. The Shri Vidhyaguru Foundation Hospital is truly an amazing place.
I had a variety of opportunities in Gujarat; these include speaking at schools and holding consoling sessions. In the Hospital, I was able to conduct 292 counseling sessions (combining the amount of family and individual sessions); these sessions were held with people from as low as the age of 5 to the age of 82. We held a special team-building/motivational meeting with the staff of the hospital (43 staff members in total). I spoke at a total of 6 schools (4 high schools, 1 college, and 1 school with high school and college combined). At these schools, I spoke to about 2,700 students and staff at all of these schools; I spoke about motivation, self-esteem, goal setting and more positive messages. At one high school, we decided to get all 675 students ice cream in 100+ degrees temperatures; the nearest ice cream place from the high school was over 50 miles away, but we were able to enjoy ice cream in high school with all the students and staff. These were some of the highlights of my trips that filled enormous amount of joy.
It is true that positive energy evokes more energy, more initiative, and more happiness I experienced that!
Overall, I am humbled and grateful to have been able serve so many wonderful human beings. I love to make positive difference in individual’s life and I am excited to go back again. I am very grateful to my family, friends and all the well-wishers around the globe.
Attached photos describes what words can’t described……
WellStone is pleased to announce the promotion of Mrs. Josaylon Wade to Chief Clinical Officer.
Josaylon is a graduate of Alabama A & M University with a Master’s Degree in Rehab Counseling. She has over 19 years of experience in mental health and substance abuse services working with children, adolescents, families and adults. She is a certified Alcohol Drug Counselor as well as an Associate Licensed Counselor. She has been affiliated with WellStone since 1999 working in several capacities from her beginnings as a substance abuse therapist to her most recent positions as Nova Center for Youth and Family Director as well as Adult Services Director.
As Chief Clinical Officer and a member of the Executive Leadership, Josaylon will be responsible for the quality and appropriateness of clinical services provided to all clients of the organization. She will provide leadership and partner with others to ensure WellStone remains the leader in mental health and substance abuse services in Northern Alabama.
The Nova Center for Youth & Family, the child and adolescent division of WellStone Behavioral Health, was announced as a 2017-2018 recipient of a Community Health Initiative grant through the Jean Wessel Templeton Community Health Initiative (CHI), a part of Huntsville Hospital. The most recent CHI award is for $90,000 and will enable the Nova Center to provide school-based mental health services to an additional 6 schools in the 2017-2018 academic year. The funds will be used to further the partnership between the Nova Center and the Huntsville City, Madison City, and Madison County School Systems.
Through the school-based mental health program, the Nova Center will deploy 28 counselors to work as integrated team members of 53 local elementary, middle, and high schools for the 2017-2018 school year. The program now serves over 1,400 children with on-site school-based mental health services. Initially funded in 1996, the Nova Center has now received funding for 15 years from the Community Health Initiative for a combined total of $917,000. It is with deep gratitude that all supporters of the Nova Center and WellStone Behavioral Health say thank you to the Huntsville Hospital and the Community Health Initiative committee.
Partnering with the local chapter of the National Alliance on Mental Illness and Auburn University at Montgomery, WellStone Behavioral Health helped sponsor Crisis Intervention Training for area law enforcement April 25-28 at Calhoun Community College in Huntsville. The CIT training is a nationally recognized best-practice designed to help law enforcement identify mental illness and substance abuse issues and de-escalate crisis situations when they are encountered. The Madison County Sheriff’s Department took a leadership role in bringing this training to our community and officers from the Huntsville Police Department and several other communities also participated. After the training, WellStone continues working with a local coalition of mental health advocates to identify funding for a crisis assessment center that law enforcement can utilize as an alternative resource to inappropriate incarcerations or emergency department visits. To learn more about this initiative, click on the following link:
In recognition of May as Mental Health Awareness Month, WellStone Behavioral Health is offering two highly respected courses that will be open to the public:
Adult Mental Health First Aid: Friday / May 5, 2017 / 8 am – 5 pm / WellStone Community Room / $25 per participant / Class size limited to 21.
Youth Mental Health First Aid: Friday / May 12, 2017 / 8 am – 5 pm / WellStone Community Room / $25 per participant / Class size limited to 21.
WellStone Behavioral Health Community Room is Suite E @ 4040 South Memorial Parkway, Huntsville, Alabama, 35802.
Just as CPR helps you assist an individual having a heart attack, Mental Health First Aid helps you assist someone experiencing a mental health or substance use-related crisis. In the Mental Health First Aid course, you learn risk factors and warning signs for mental health and addiction concerns, strategies for how to help someone in both crisis and non-crisis situations, and where to turn for help. Mental Health First Aid teaches about recovery and resiliency – the belief that individuals experiencing these challenges can and do get better, and use their strengths to stay well.
Topics Covered:
Depression and mood disorders
Anxiety disorders
Trauma
Psychosis
Substance Use disorders
To register for one or both of these courses at WellStone please contact Rita Limbaugh at (256) 750-6379 or email her at rita.limbaugh@wellstone.com.
Leslie Christ, Chief Resource Officer at WellStone Behavioral Health, provided expert witness testimony to Congress in Washington DC on April 5, 2017. Addressing the Subcommittee on Workforce Protections, Ms. Christ provided support for HR 1180, the Working Families Flexibility Act of 2017. This subcommittee of the House of Representatives Committee on Education and the Workforce, is chaired by Mr. Bradley Byrne, Alabama 1st District, and invited Ms. Christ to provide testimony on the impact of this proposed legislation introduced by Ms. Martha Roby, US House of Representatives, Alabama 2nd District. HR 1180 proposes the option for employees of private entities to have the choice between receiving overtime pay for extra hours worked or receiving comp time that can be used at their discretion. This benefit has long been enjoyed by public-sector employees and Ms. Christ gave several excellent examples in her testimony of how this proposed legislation would positively impact the employees of WellStone Behavioral Health.
As part of the ongoing celebration of May as Mental Health Awareness month, WellStone partnered with the Huntsville Association of Pastoral Care to host a seminar on Saturday May 21 entitled “Mental Health: A Guide for Serving Persons of Faith”.Frederick Woods, a local Clinical Chaplain, Professional Pastoral Counselor, and Certified Addictions Counselor, facilitated the event that brought 30 people to the WellStone campus from several different church congregations located across the Tennessee Valley. Chaplain Woods reminded those in attendance how important an accepting faith community is to the recovery journey of those with mental health disorders and he provided excellent guidance to anyone who is trying to help someone through a difficult time. Jared Roe, LCSW, Director of Behavioral Health Services at Crestwood Hospital, shared information about the hospital’s exciting new outpatient and intensive outpatient programs. Rita Limbaugh, Training Director with WellStone Behavioral Health, led a group discussion on the challenges associated with merging faith and mental illness and also gave an overview of the local course she leads called Mental Health First Aid.
Julie Langford was on hand to represent the Huntsville chapter of the National Alliance on Mental Illness and provided valuable information about local support and resources available to families impacted by mental illness. Several people shared powerful stories of how churches had helped their loved ones with mental illness and/or addictions. Thanks to Chaplain Woods and all participants for making this a meaningful event and thanks to our local communities of faith for reaching out to the “least of these”.
