On October 20th I attended a meeting of representatives from Region 1 agencies in Montpelier. During this meeting discussion focused on services already available in the communities, identifying barriers to services as well as gaps in them and developing objectives for the rest of the year. Included with the agenda were descriptions of the services provided by agencies that had been identified by the group.
Fascinating for me was to see how the state of Vermont has had the courage to change from an Acute System of Care to the Recovery Oriented System of Care. I asked Jeckie Corbile , Chief of Treatment at the state, what had precipitated this change. “It came about because we felt we had lost focus on what recovery was about.”
I then visited “Mickey” Stuart Wiles, Director of Turning Point Centre of Chittenden County in Burlington. Mickey’s centre is part of the Vermont Network of Recovery Centres, but the funding level prohibits his ability to maintain staffing 100% of the time. The Centre, during many hours, is left in the hands of volunteers. The Centre’s ability to offer consistent and adequate recovery support services is only possible with full staffing. Volunteers are great but they need adequate supervision and the ability to refer individuals they cannot assist to a qualified staff person. State funding is $50k per year, while an adequate operating budget is $200k. The gap is too significant to close it with private donations and fund raising, especially with limited staff.
Cuts and money being removed from budgets and how it affected the disadvantaged most also dominated the discussion in the workshop that I attended yesterday, October 21st. This was a Vermont Association for Mental Health (VAMH) workshop on the Challenge of “Challenge for Change” held at the Capitol, Plaza hotel in Montpelier as part of their 72nd Annual Educational Conference.
This initiative, an outgrowth of an intense debate in the Legislature, seemingly focused on the need to reduce state services with a new focus on outcome measures, new efficiencies, and the re-design of priorities (sic). Given the breadth and size of the Agency of Human Services, much of the focus of this proposal related to the Department of Mental Health and many aspects of Vermont’s Community Mental Health System which, of course, includes the Substance Misuse budget.
Does this ring a bell with what’s happening back in the U.K.? All the attendees yesterday were certainly only too aware of one thing: they had to prepare themselves for some very tough times ahead.
If I heard the phrase “We’ve got to think outside the box” once I heard it a hundred times. What it means in essence is “We’re in a right old mess here, folks. And we haven’t got the slightest idea on how to sort it out. You wouldn’t by any chance have any suggestions or ideas, would you?”
Much of yesterday’s event, however, centred on the retirement of Ken Libertoff, outgoing Director of VAMH, and was a celebration of the life and work of this most inspired and extraordinary of leaders. Apparently, he had transformed attitudes in Vermont towards Mental Health issues and had established a department that was the envy of other states. Deservedly, therefore, yesterday’s get-together was a love fest!
This was his final comment to his host of admirers, “For much of the past thirty years, I didn’t know what I didn’t know. More recently, I discovered some of what I didn’t know. What I learned is, it is not about me….
But about ALL OF YOU!
Maybe that’s what Jackie Corbile meant when she said that providers had lost focus on what recovery was!
If Californian voters approve a ballot initiative that would legalize recreational marijuana use in the state, then the Federal government will take action to overturn the proposition. Proposition 19, a state constitutional amendment, would allow adults at least 21 years old to possess up to 1 ounce of marijuana and grow 25-square-foot pot gardens. Obama’s drug tsar and 9 former Drug Enforcement Agency chiefs vehemently oppose this proposal. The drug war continues!
And scientists are still looking for the easier, softer option! A gene that has a “big, big effect” on how people respond to alcohol has been identified. About 10% to 20% of the population carries a version of the gene – which carries the blueprint for an enzyme called CYP2E1 - that makes their brains especially sensitive to alcohol, claims Kirk Wilhelmsen, senior author of a paper by the journal, Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research. “While the finding doesn’t yet have any treatment application” he says, “my expectation is this is actually going to lead somewhere.”
This afternnon I travel to Burlington again to see Barbara Cimaglio, Director of Vermont state’s Addiction Agency . I then drive down south t o East Dorset to chair a meeting in the Wilson House, Bill W’s old home.
And tomorrow, I leave for Boston where I’ll meet up with, Meira, my wife, Bethan, my eldest daughter and my two granddaughters, Begw Non and Efa Grug. Next week, therefore, will be a break for me and an opportunity to recharge my batteries before I continue with my Churchill Scholarship by visiting Philadelphia, where I will look at the provision and quality of Service Elements – 1) Life-skill education; 2) recovery coaching; 3) recovery plan development; 4) educational/employment coaching; 5) family support and relationship enhancement; 6) parenting training; 7) special interest support groups; 8) sober leisure; and 9) community service projects.
There are some extraordinary Service Outcomes in Philadelphia – 100% reporting no crime or involvement with the criminal justice system within the past 30 days; at 6-month follow ups there was a 41.7% increase in employment and/or school attendance; and those reporting stable living environments increased from 23.1% at intake to 46.2% (reporting a permanent place to live) at 6-month follow up. (Source: monograph on Peer-based Addiction Recovery Support, William L. White).
After Philadelphia, it’ll be on to Washington D.C. and then to Virginia. But all that’s to come.
Today, I need to thank Mark Ames for his extraordinary kindness towards me, He has been my guide throughout my stay in Vermont and he had provided me with the widest possible scope of experiences. I didn’t get to thank him properly yesterday as he left the ‘love fest’ early to fly off for an out-of-state appointment. So, thanks Mark for all you’ve given me and for allowing me to experience how a consummate ‘mover & shaker’ and politically-astute network Coordinator operates. I’m full of admiration!
And finally, a poem from a book of poetry, Sentence or Pardon, by Mark Helijas, who I met the other day at the Turning Point Centre in White River Junction.
Here’s a taster:
Get Out of the Way
let attack pass by unhindered
offer no resistance
nullify its force
offer no self to defend
and sparring will
have no partner
offer no self to engage
and venom pools
harmlessly on the ground
offer only love
and rage finds
no life support
offer only peace
and you are peaceful
M. A. Helijas
The music I’m listening to at the moment is, Debussey: Claire de Lune (for all you out there contemplating marriage!)
“I’m done!” as they say in the states.
I hope you all have an enjoyable time next week. And remember, no matter how dark, how bleak, how hopeless a situation is, there is always something positive lurking somewhere underneath. So look for that positive and when you’ve found it (and you ALWAYS will), then you’ll be living in the solution.
God bless you and thank you for reading my blog. Diolch am ddarllen fy sylwadau. Cysgwch yn dawel.
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