Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: This podcast is brought to you by MHA of Dutchess county and produced by CMJW Entertainment.
This episode of the Vital Women of Washington Heights is proudly sponsored by Levia Med Spa.
[00:00:12] Speaker B: You're listening to the Vital Women of Washington Heights.
[00:00:19] Speaker C: Hello, everyone. My name is Iris Douglas and with me again is my co host, Ivet o'. Sullivan. We are in I. Hello, everybody.
[00:00:27] Speaker A: This podcast is brought to you by MHA of Dutchess County.
[00:00:30] Speaker C: Welcome back.
[00:00:30] Speaker A: And produced by MJW Entertainment.
[00:00:33] Speaker B: Thank you once again.
[00:00:34] Speaker C: In today's episode, we are joined by Brittany.
Hi, Brittany.
[00:00:37] Speaker B: Hi.
[00:00:38] Speaker C: Good to see you again. Thank you. Brittany is the program director of the Bulger House at the Mental Health America of Dutchess County. So we're very excited to have her here. And with that said, we are also grateful for Andrew o' Grady for being our sponsor.
Thank you so much, Andrew.
[00:00:54] Speaker D: Always grateful, Andrew. Thank you.
[00:00:55] Speaker C: Thank you.
[00:00:57] Speaker D: Well, Brittany, as I explained to you, I like to start the show with a bochinche.
[00:01:02] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:01:02] Speaker D: Which is a traditional grandmothers and other women sitting around the kitchen table or even in their back patio and just talking.
[00:01:12] Speaker B: Love it.
[00:01:13] Speaker D: So I like to do research to tie our Dominican culture with whatever show we're doing.
[00:01:19] Speaker B: Cool.
[00:01:20] Speaker D: So in my research, I discovered that in Dominican Republic, they are advocating for alcoholism and also suicide prevention. So within doing that research, I found that. And I was like, there should be more because There are about 20 clinics throughout the country of Dominican Republic that treat addiction.
And they're starting now to. To work with suicide prevention and talking to people, what that's all about. So I'm always excited to discover something new and what's happening in our country, Dominican Republic. And I just wanted to share that with you because you're such a big advocate for addiction and suicide prevention.
[00:02:02] Speaker B: I am. It's something that's really important and it's nice that I think a lot more countries are starting to pick up and recognize that, you know, varying. Different countries, varying cultures, it depends how things like that are viewed.
And it's really nice that it seems people are becoming more and more open and realizing, you know, that that's really important to treat because. Right. That's your family. And for so long, I think things like that were looked at as it was kind of, we don't want to talk about it, you know, or that doesn't happen to our family. But statistically, and I'll be honest, off the top of my head, I don't know what the statistic is. But statistically, every single one of us knows somebody directly or Indirectly, who's affected by substance use, suicide, overdose, anything in that kind of field, statistically, in some capacity, we. Everybody knows somebody. And I think finally recogniz that. And I think the more we take care of our community and our family and thinking of our community as family, the more cohesive and just everything just gets better. And that's where more clinics get open. That's where the conversation happens more. And that's where we really start to like, combat that stigma, because that's the biggest thing is the stigma that comes, comes with it. So I think it's really, really awesome that more and more places, countries, communities around the world, locally, are diving more into the treatment. And even just, even if they're trying to figure out treatment, just diving into the recognition of it and understanding this is our community, this is our family, and if we want to be better, this is what we do. So it's been.
[00:03:19] Speaker C: Why do you think is different now than it was a couple of years, 20, 30 years ago? What's the, what's the conversation?
[00:03:25] Speaker B: Anecdotally, just from what I've seen, I've been in this field in a professional capacity for about 18 years.
And even 18, 15, 10 years ago, it was still heavily stigmatized. And it was always that, oh, we don't know it, right? It's those people. And from there, I think, and I have to be honest, I think Covid, as much as it hurt a lot of the community, I think it helped with this part of the community, because prior to that, there was still them, us, them, us.
And Covid, shutting down the world really brought to light that, wow, a lot more people are struggling and a lot more people of all ages, little kids, children being born during pandemic through people being laid off from work addictions, and people who are in active addiction, those becoming significantly worse. Getting people getting into polysubstance use, where people maybe were previously social drinkers, what we would call social drinkers, you know, maybe once or twice a week, a glass of wine with dinner, you know, something like that became a coping mechanism. So that increased all those rates. The separation, that isolation was a really big thing. And I think that started to bring to light, like, wow, there's a lot more of this than we thought. And as much as Covid was terrible, and we still are dealing with a lot of the aftermath from it, I think that really brought to light how much more we can come together as a community to help each other. Because we saw how much more people needed help, not just from the physical, medical, Symptoms of COVID but from all the mental and other things that came from that. And I think that really was a really big positive shift.
And I'm always one of those people, like, I try, I call it flipping the script. I always try, if it's a negative situation, try and find a positive and it doesn't matter how small the positives, try and find it. So flip the script on it. So flipping the script on that was okay.
Wow, we really open the eyes onto this. That's where like opioids settlement funds started being used for more education, not just, you know, damages and things like that. So more education was coming from that, more clinics were opening, more staff. And of course we still are heavily understaffed and there's just not enough qualified professionals. But there's some really things, great things that came from it, including scholarships and sponsorships for master's degree level education.
Prior to that, you would never get things like that. You know, you could get maybe some education funding for associate degrees, maybe bachelor's degrees if you were lucky, but nothing for master's level and above. And a lot of these fundings now are covering things for masters of social work, nurse practitioners, psychiatric nurse practitioners. So these higher level education, the professionals we need, and you're able to go to school for free. So it's really bolstering that higher education. And in this field, especially in New York state, for the most part, if you are a clinical practitioner in some capacity, the minimum education you need is a master's degree, right? An associate's degree and a bachelor's degree really doesn't do you much. In this field you really need a minimum of a master's degree.
[00:06:12] Speaker C: You need a master's degree in that. In that field.
[00:06:14] Speaker B: Correct. Okay. So yeah, so, you know, social work, mental health counselors, speech pathologists, things like that, that it's going to deal with like, you know, mental health intervention, addiction. So any of that helper field, it would really, the broad spectrum would be called like the helper field. So that includes nurses and doctors and recovery coaches and peers and things like that. There's so much funding now, especially post Covid. And it's just, it's been really beautiful to see all these people being able to get credentials and certifications and master' degrees and everything's just being covered because they've said like, wow, there's such like a big, big need for this. And it's. And it's really beautiful because where people, I mean, masters programs are not cheap, especially field stuff. You're looking at 60 to 80,000 for just your master's part. And realistically, that's a big understatement. Even if you have really good scholarships that you get, even if you're saying take half of that off, you're still looking at 30 to 30 to 40,000. And that's, that's really hard to most people in this, you're working full time, you have a family. We're adults in the field going into this. So being able to see that shift has been really nice. And I think in the next couple of years we're going to have so much better buy in for all of this and we're going to see all those professionals coming out of it with their licenses and all their stuff. So we're going to have, I think we're have a big boom in the next couple of years of all that finally catching up.
[00:07:23] Speaker D: It's good to see that after such a negative experience during the pandemic, that a lot of good things are coming out.
[00:07:29] Speaker B: Exactly.
[00:07:30] Speaker D: And a lot of the times that's.
[00:07:31] Speaker B: What it takes, right? Yeah, it's unfortunate.
[00:07:34] Speaker D: Yes.
[00:07:34] Speaker B: But flip the script and you find really good things that come out. I think we're really getting really good things of it. And like I said, I really think in the next three years, just personally, from what I've seen, a lot of those people are going to be finishing all that stuff and I think we're going to get that really good boom and more and more things are going to be open and more and more people are going to be able to be helped and it's really going to drop that barrier to treatment care across the fields. So.
[00:07:54] Speaker D: Well, you have a lot of passion for the work that you do.
[00:07:57] Speaker B: I do.
[00:07:58] Speaker D: And it sounds like you are amazing at it. Can you tell us a little bit what got you into that field?
[00:08:05] Speaker B: So I could talk on this point for hours and hours, but the short answer is I myself am in recovery.
I struggled very hard with an opioid addiction.
It started when I was a little kid. I got very sick. I wound up in a hospital, had to have tumor removals, bone marrow transplants, the whole line. My parents were going through, you know, a divorce and I had custody. And it was, you know, it was very messy growing up like that and being in a hospital having all these surgeries. I was introduced to pain management as you would when you can imagine going through that. I lived in hospital for over a year of my life.
I was young, between 10 and 12ish, and then kind of that stereotypical As I got a little bit older, I fell in with the wrong crowd.
I wound up going into an alternative high school. I think out here they call it like beta or there's some boast something through boces, but it was called Entrada, where I went to school and it was an alternative program and it was kind of for all like the bad kids. We were not, we were not in the greatest mindset, but we were small school and our teachers did really everything they could. We had more hands on curriculums. But unfortunately I was hanging out with my friends, older brothers, my friend's older sisters. I mean, I was 14 years old. Hanging out with 20 and 30 year olds, not great. Kind of a recipe for disaster. A lot of trauma came from that time. And I remember I had broken, you know, bones and you go to the emergency room to give you opiates. And I kind of linked that back to when I was younger and it was like, oh, wow, like everything just fell away, right? Like I just, I didn't have to worry about doing this and doing that. It was just, oh, I'm hurt. I have pain management pain medications, they give you opiates. I mean, that point in time they were giving you, you know, 90 pills at a time. There was no real restriction. Especially I was, I was living in Colorado. So very different as well. A lot of restrictions like that didn't come until years later and more recently and that just snowballed and it became worse and worse to where I was intentionally breaking my own bones to get opiates.
I have so much arthritis in my hands and my feet because I used to intentionally give myself boxers fractures because they're, for lack of a better term, they're an easy break to do. You know, once you've broken these couple of bones once or twice, very easy, you got to punch something really hard, shatters the bone. There's not much ers can do. So they just handed me pills as a young person.
[00:10:16] Speaker D: How do you come to that conclusion? If I induce a boxer fracture on myself and to get to the hospital to get that medical attention that I need and for them to prescribe strong pills like what, what kind of thinking helps you to uncover that?
[00:10:35] Speaker B: If nothing else about people in active addiction, no matter the age, we're very, very creative. We will find ways.
And if a way doesn't work, we'll find another way and you will find a way to make it work.
And what had happened was I've always been very athletic and my first thought was, well, anytime I've Ever gotten injured, you just go to the er, they do an X ray and it's like, yep, something's broken. Or yeah, you, you probably hurt your bone or. Yeah, yeah, but here's some pills. Right at that time, the big thing was Percocets, everybody, or lore tabs.
And it was just like, okay, great. Well, you know, there's not much we can do for this. Here's some pills. Have a great day, rest it.
And once you figure that kind of out, once you're like, I've got this. So then, you know, you doctor shop essentially you go to different ers and you do it and then you kind of figure out how to do it. Also during that time, they were paper prescriptions and unfortunately, once again, wrong. People knew how to alter these paper prescriptions. So I would get the paper prescription and you know, so and so's older brother, older sister had the right pens, had the right information and we would alter those. So now a 30 pill prescription became an 80 pill prescription. Get that altered real quick, run to the pharmacy, get it filled. And this was before anything like the ISTOP program they have now, which monitors controlled substances. Like I said, also grew up in Colorado. So you start getting creative with stuff like that.
And I think that's just kind of where, where it snowballed. And at that point in time, that kind of stuff really wasn't viewed as doctor shopping. It was just like, we're in a very athletic town. A lot of people do a lot of things. Injuries are common just as the common cold because, you know, big mountain town, so big mountain biking, snowboarding, skiing, boxing, hiking, backpacking, all the things. So it wasn't uncommon for people to be injured a lot. And those certain things, you know, once you, you listen to the doctors. Oh yeah. You know, once you've gotten one back to fractured, super easy to get another one. Be careful. But what we process that as is, oh wait, this is super easy.
Okay, cool. And then when you're intentionally not letting things heal all the way, well, they're going to break much easier. And you know, in retrospect, it's like, you think about it and somebody who hasn't been through that is like, oh my God, like you were intentionally breaking your own bones. Like, how could you? Why? But when you're in it, that's not your thought process. Your thought process is, how do I get the next amount? How do I get myself through? And then you just continue to become more and more creative. And then when you're having a hard time, that's when you start finding things to mix with, you know. And that's when I started getting into cocaine as well. And then I was mixing, you know, and it was called speedballing. That's when you mix an opiate and you know, an upper, basically an upper and a downer together.
So, you know, that's how it was making it last a little bit longer. And then, you know, you worked in kitchens and cocaine is, was very accessible working in kitchen. So then it was like, all right, well if I start hanging out with this person, he's a dealer, he's got a connection to a dealer and you know, then it's kind of just start snowballing and before you know it, whatever you're doing is completely out of control.
And so from that I eventually got myself together with the help of a family friend who basically her parents locked me in their basement and said, you're getting clean because if you don't, you're gonna die.
And I was basically locked in their basement apartment for over a week, just detoxing, which in retrospect, not great, not the way it should be done. There was no access to resources and my friend's family was doing what they could. It saved my life.
And they basically said, you need to get away from here. And they bought me a one way ticket back to New York because it's where I had family. And I packed up my little pug, I packed one suitcase and they sent me a one way ticket home and I got out here. It was a little bit of a struggle at first.
Very quickly I found like, wow. Like I went as getting more and more sober and more clear headed and your brain starts healing itself, your body's healing itself. You look back and it's like, wow. Like that was a roller coaster because I mean, I was in active addiction for well over five years where it was really, really bad. And from that came like the I need to help other people because nobody should have to go through this.
[00:14:26] Speaker D: How old were you at that point?
[00:14:28] Speaker B: When it started or when I got.
[00:14:30] Speaker D: When you started to work on being sober?
[00:14:32] Speaker B: Actively, about 19.
[00:14:35] Speaker D: You're young.
[00:14:35] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:14:36] Speaker C: But you understood that you didn't want to go back there, right?
[00:14:38] Speaker B: I did not. And a lot of the people are like, wow, that's really young. But like, I also like to put in perspective, I started very, very young. I mean, I was actively starting to do all the wrong things by about 12.
So I just, just the way life worked out, I had this exposure to it very young. So I mean the the very active part of it started around when I was 12. So for seven years I was living through all of this. So by the time I moved out here, moved back out here right before my 19th birthday, you know, kind of getting settled. And by the time I was like, really getting a little more clear headed, I'd separated myself from Colorado and everybody that was out there. And I was just like, what am I going to go to college for? Like, I have to do something. I come from a very long line of very educated family members, you know. And so to me, I was like, I have to go to college. So I enrolled in Duchess and I was like, I don't know what I'm gonna do.
You know, I wanted to be a cop. That was the whole thing. My stepdad, who raised me, my daddy was a New York state trooper, my aunt was cop. So that's really what I wanted to do. So I was taking all my police exams. But, like, there's something that just. I wasn't fully invested into that. And that's when I was like, well, what do I love? And then it was like, this person I met needed help. I really loved helping them. There's something so little is like, you know, they're trying to put cigarettes at first, and I was like, I'll help you.
And then that came, and I just found so much joy and love in helping other people struggling with mental health or addiction or anything like that. And it just kind of like feel like it's just like awakened this whole, like, oh, my God, this is like what I have to do. This is what, Like, I love it so much. So, so much. And I was like, all right, what is the next steps? Like, how do I do this? And then it just kind of.
All the bad stuff that snowballed to more worse, you know, worse stuff. I got to the flip side of that and it was like, now I had this little good thing that started to snowball into much bigger things. And I was like, this is my love and my passion and something. I'm gonna figure out how to help others. And that's kind of like how that all started. And then, you know, I was like, all right, I'm gon school. I want to be in the field. I want to do counseling. And then, you know, as time went on, it got more and more specific to what I'm doing now. But that was kind of how we started to go into the flip side. So it's really cool. And like, I just. I really, really love it.
[00:16:33] Speaker C: What is it that you do exactly. At the Vulture House. Talk to, to talk to us about that. Because I would love to hear about that.
[00:16:39] Speaker B: Yeah. So Bulger House is what used to be known as like a halfway house. That's usually commonly what people understand them as, halfway houses. Three quarter houses.
They're now called reintegration residentials.
And I think it's, it kind of really shows that language matters. Right. Halfway house had this really terrible connotation to, it's like, oh, halfway house. But now it's like reintegration residential. Right. So it's a residential setting, so it brings more of that home, you know, construct to it and reintegration. So now we're teaching people how to reintegrate into the community. So the whole point of us is clients come through and they've come from a detox or rehab prior to us, so they need to go through all the medical stabilities and all the other things coming to us. Basically, we're going to be their last stop before they're on their own. So our whole job at Bulger is to get people to really work on that long term recovery and reintegrate into the community independently. Their own housing, school, work, family, whatever it may be. And the ideal time frame is nine to 12 months. That's what our programs are designed for. So longer term. But when you think of the grand scheme of life, 9 to 12 months is not really that long.
So that's what we do. So when I took over a little over two and a half years ago, I was very, very thankful.
Andrew has always been really supportive of my wild ideas.
And Andrew's always just good at that.
[00:18:01] Speaker D: He really is.
[00:18:02] Speaker B: I love it. Anytime I bring like wild ideas, Andrew's like, try it. You know, he's like, you know, I, I'm kind of the person like, I'll come in with like points like, I think this is, this is why it's gonna work. I want to try this, I want to try this much. It's really great. To be fair, the entire, like my entire supervision supervisor supports are all fantastic, every single one of them. But obviously, you know, being a director, kind of middle management, next level above me is Andrew. So I do have a lot of communication with Andrew and he's always been great. So I started saying, like, well, what can I do? What can I try different? And basically the only confines to it was I just need to make sure I was complying with New York State OASIS licensure. So there's, who license our facilities to let us operate and obviously those Come with rules.
But at the end of the day, as long as we're meeting those, I can be as creative as I want to. And the biggest thing I saw in the first couple of months I was there is these clients have treatment fatigue. They've been through this 110 times before. They've been told the same thing, they've done the same thing. A lot of people, this is not their first time in treatment. I, I think in almost, you know, going two and a half, three years, I think I've maybe had two clients the entire time that was ever their first time in treatment. Every other person has been through this in some capacity. They've done the outpatient, They've done detox and rehab 12 times. They've done outpatient five times. They've done mental health treatment this many times. They've reached, but they return to use and it's like, okay, well.
And I would just see them, we would do these groups. And it was the same old, same old groups, right? Anger management. And let's talk about your triggers, let's talk about your anxiety. And that's great, fantastic. Those are things we do want to cover still. But at the end of the day, it's like, but they've already done this a hundred times. So I felt like a lot of the answers we were getting were scripted answers from clients because they knew what they had to say in the past to be just be done with treatment. Right?
So for me, I was like, we need to have buy in from these clients that they want to be here. I mean, at the end of the day, nobody really wants to be in treatment, but, like, what can we do to make them want to be here more? What's the engagement factor? And slowly but surely, I started trying different things. I said, okay, let's try crafts. And everybody was like, you're gonna do crafts with grown men?
Most of them have an incarceration history, extended homelessness, previous gang relations. I mean, what people would pretty consider a hard crowd? And I said, yeah, let's try it. Let me tell you, they just opened up so much. And part of it was because we were giving them an interactive factor where groups here are interactive, but it's a lot of like, imagine like, you know, college. Like, we talk at you, you talk back at us. We're going to lecture you on how this works. Maybe some interaction. And then like, they're looking at their clocks, like, all right, it's been 56 minutes. Group. Group is an hour. Like, I want out. So it's like, how do I keep their attention? So we did things like that. So I did like thank you cards. I just bought blank white cards. And I said, here's a whole bunch of different prompts. Write a thank you card. Write a thank you card to yourself for this last time you get yourself into treatment, right? Yeah. Write a thank you to somebody who helped you write little things like that. We've done make your own sobriety coins. So I got like shrinky dink stuff. And instead of, you know, so then they got to design, I throw them in the oven, put a little key ring on them. Now they have their own sobriety coin that they got to make what's important to them.
So I started doing things like that. I was like, okay, great, we have buy in. What can I try next? And I was like, but the craft.
[00:21:11] Speaker D: Brings out their inner child, right?
[00:21:13] Speaker B: It does.
[00:21:13] Speaker D: And that's so important, begins when you start healing that child that is hurting.
[00:21:18] Speaker B: Right. And I mean the biggest thing is when. And to get a little bit more on the clinical side, a lot of factors that lead to substance use and mental health diagnoses and co occurring disorders is adverse childhood experiences. All so much stuff is linked to that, things that happened to you in childhood. So when you're an adult, you never got to heal through that and you have these really terrible experiences. So how can we work to help that? And the next big thing I always hear is I don't deserve this. This is what I always hear. I don't, I don't, I don't deserve to be happy. I've done terrible things. I don't deserve my recovery. I've hurt people. I don't deserve, I don't deserve. And I said, yeah, you deserve. You deserve everything.
And just really bringing that out in them that you deserve it. And you know why you deserve it? Because you're putting the work in and everybody deserves to be treated well.
So we did little things like that. Then I started integrating groups, nursing groups, very basic things, basic hygiene. Do you know how to wash your hands the right way? Do you know how to brush your teeth? Do you know how often you should be washing your bed linens? Do you know how to properly clean the house? And I hate to say it, but it's very true. I cannot tell you how many people I've had to tell. Do you understand you actually need to use soap when you shower? Water is not enough. And I think it's things we take for granted. But when you're in survival mode, you do what you can so now we have to kind of backtrack it. So even just little things like that, teaching them how to cook, basic kitchen safety. Don't mix raw chicken with your vegetables in your salad that you're gonna eat raw. The little things like that thing is things we take a lot for granted. But these are not things they're doing in outpatient. They're not doing an inpatient, they're not doing right. Because that's the stuff they're really saying to what are your coping skills? So they've done that 100 times. And don't get me wrong, we still do some of that, but I really try and focus on the other aspect. And that's where I also bring in animal assisted therapy. We've done everything from mini horses to dogs to cats. I brought my rat in one time. The boys loved her. I know it sounds weird, but great little things like that, humanizing experiences, because that's the biggest thing is when you start doing the lecturing at them, it's dehumanizing.
[00:23:09] Speaker C: Absolutely. I totally agree with that.
[00:23:10] Speaker B: Because you're not even talking to them by their name anymore. It's like, oh, yeah, you got a question? Oh, okay. Oh, no, you're wrong.
[00:23:15] Speaker C: They feel like you're talking at them, not to them.
[00:23:17] Speaker B: And so when. And so same thing. Like our group room is not set up in a lecture setting. It's set up in a comfortable. We all chat sometimes we do movies and like blockbuster movies. Not like recovery based, but it's like things we can find within it. Okay, how did that make you feel when you saw. So I really tried to make it as humanizing as possible. And I found so much, so much success with that.
And to the point where people are like, thank you. Like, thank you. Like, these are things I never would have thought. Budgeting skills, grocery shopping. I mean, there's so many, I mean, go on for days about all the different things that we do, but changing that and also building the camaraderie among the clients. And a lot of them will come in and say, well, I have nothing in common with anybody here. The fact that you are here together, there's at least one thing you have in common. You are in a recovery and you were trying to work on your own long term recovery. And so is everybody else in this house. And I always explain to everybody, language matters.
[00:24:07] Speaker D: Yes, it does.
[00:24:08] Speaker B: So if you need to be using the language yourself.
So when you're telling me the last I need to return to you, don't say, I relapsed. You say, I had a return to use or something like that. Trying to even teach them that their own language they're using and that humanizes them more because they just keep being told, told, oh, you're an addict. No, you're not an addict. You're a person in recovery. I have not a single addict in Boulder House. Every single client there is in recovery. And that is something I just like, real. And they're like, oh, well. Well, I'm in it. No, you're not an addict. You're an active recovery and you're working hard. So just those little teeny tiny things. Open door policy. Yes. I'm the director, so I'm not really doing a lot of clinical stuff anymore. It's really the functionality and the running of the house and structuring. But I'm always open door for them. If my. If my door is closed, I have a whiteboard in front, tells them what I'm doing when I will be free next. Always in a meeting till 12 o'.
[00:24:54] Speaker D: Clock.
[00:24:54] Speaker B: Ran out to a meeting, we'll be back at one. So the guys always know you're very.
[00:24:58] Speaker C: Mindful of them and they're mine. You're teaching them how to be aware and mindful of themselves.
[00:25:02] Speaker B: Right. And so we do that. So that's like such a big, big thing. Yeah. I wanted to ask you about Zoraya, my beautiful baby. So Zariah, she passed on June 25th.
She's just shy of her fourth birthday. She was Beautiful view. She was my second service dog. I had a service dog, Lola, as my first one and Zerai was my second. And unfortunately she passed suddenly in June.
But she was my sweet little angel. She's my service dog.
So I have chronic health conditions, including some neurological stuff, cardiac things, you know, obviously mental health stuff. I have anxiety, you know, depression, bipolar, ocd and all my service dogs have always been trained for that. And unfortunately, I lost my beautiful girl in June.
And I just. I was like. Like, I wasn't prepared for it. It wasn't old age. It wasn't. She was slowing down. It was very sudden. And I was like, I don't. I don't know what I'm gonna do. I really don't. I was like, you know, I talked to the breeder I got her from and she was like, you know, if you want another shepherd, she was a Eastern DVR import German shepherd. She was beautiful.
And my breeder was like, if you want another one, I have a litter. Come. I said, I just, I don't. I don't think I can do it.
And I just, there was something missing. And I just, I. I just, I love my dogs and they're such a big part of me, part of healing. I started looking at a bunch of different litters and this breeder I didn't like, for that reason, this one. And I finally found this giant schnauzer breeder.
And I'd been going back and forth, texting back and forth, and he said, I'll give you a call this weekend. We can chat. Because he was all the way in Ohio, so it wasn't like a breeder I could get too quickly.
And long story short, Saturday, the vet's office called and said, zariah's ashes are back. You can come pick them up whenever you're ready. Literally three minutes later, the breeder called me and said, hey, do you got time to chat? And I said, absolutely, so start talking. Everything I could want in a breeder. And obviously I'm a big proponent of or a big supporter of rescue and all that service. Dogs are a whole nother world. There's certain temperaments and things like that. You need health testing. You know, this is a dog that's gonna be working.
So that's the reason I went with a breeder, because I know. So a lot of big questions, why breeder? Why didn't you go with rescue for this capacity? Typically, there's things you look for. So, long story short, I talked to him. I was like, this sounds great. I said, can I ask you a question? When was the puppies or when were they born? And he said, June 25th.
[00:27:17] Speaker D: Oh, wow.
[00:27:18] Speaker B: And I said, excuse me. He goes, yeah, June 25th. Around 9, 9pm Miserah passed at 8:15pm on the 25th. The puppies were born 45 minutes later. Wow.
And it's amazing. I wound up putting the deposit down. I said, I'll be by to pick her up. Weeks went by. I was getting ready to pick her up because now, you know, I had to wait for the puppy to be ready. And I were getting in the car to drive. Eight hour drive to Ohio to go pick her up. And I look at my phone, I open up Facebook. So we're getting in the car and it says, four years ago today. And it's a picture of me going to pick up Zariah. Exactly. Four years.
[00:27:46] Speaker C: That's too much of a coincidence.
[00:27:47] Speaker D: I get goosebumps.
[00:27:48] Speaker B: Yeah.
So the, the new puppy, her name is Corax.
It's ancient Greek for raven.
[00:27:55] Speaker C: Oh, nice.
[00:27:56] Speaker B: She's a beautiful little Giant schnauzer girl. She's about 35 pounds already though. And I just see so much in Zoraya with her. And I'm a very spiritual person and like universal energy. And every time she does things, I said, you're sister. Your sisters did a good job. I said, they told you you're. You got to go take care of mom now. And I've never had a more mellow puppy. She's so smart. She's picking up things so quickly and she's, she's really going to be an amazing, amazing service dog. So she's actively in training right now. But I, I don't know what I would do without my dogs. I mean, they've. Even in my worst days, I always had a dog. And that was my, that was my, my safe. You know.
[00:28:30] Speaker D: I have two questions. So do you bring your service dogs to the program, to the Boulder house to do any work with the guys that you serve, or do you have separate service dogs for the program?
[00:28:43] Speaker B: That's a whole nother conversation and whole thing I could get into. There's a difference between therapy dogs, service animals, and emotional support animals. So the animals that you see going to facilities, those are therapy dogs or facility dogs. If the facility owns their own, that is for that place. Service dogs are for individuals with disabilities and those dogs are task trained to mitigate the disabilities of that person. Specifically, they are not there to offer therapy or emotional support to others. That dog is individually task trained for a person with a disability.
However, my dogs have always been just amazing dogs. I've been something I work very hard on. So although she is my service dog, my dog's always been my service dogs. They have the perfect temperament to do therapy work.
So in that capacity, yes, the, the clients get to experience the therapeutic value. And that's where we do some of the animal assisted therapy. Sometimes it's with my own dogs because my dogs are great for that.
And sometimes I bring in other people who have proper therapy dogs or other therapy animals like mini horses, cats, bunnies. Basically anything can be a therapy animal. So I brought those in. But with being a service dog, in the eyes of the laws, a service dog is medical equipment.
So as far as that goes, that basically the animal can go anywhere with you, you know, as long as they're fully trained. The whole nine. So they, yes, they do go with me to work, but they're also kind of my office dogs. And you know, the puppy's little. She's still doing a lot of training, but my fully trained Dogs, they've always been very good with. Even if we're interacting with other people. Those dogs are so in tune with me. If something starts, they'll disconnect right from that to come to me to do what needs to be done.
But yeah, the, and the puppy, the boys love her and I call them the boys in the most loving, loving term just because, you know, they're, they're my vulture boys and it's a term of endearment. And I, you know, some people are like, they're mad. I said, I understand they're very fortunate. The guys always, you know, tell me and they're like, ah, we don't mind, but just to see, just getting to see the puppy. And I've turned that into something to make them see how compassion and training and time and I kind of use that like, hey, do you see that little bit of time you spent with her and how much more calm she came because she knows she can love and trust you. And I start taking it little teachable moments with them. So it's been, it's been really beautiful. And you know, everybody loves Zariah. When I had her, she even had her own work id. I was very thankful that our hr, she had her own little work id, you know, said Zariah, you know, Bolger resident dog. And you know, so she had her own ID and you know that we have the puppy, she's little. So it's a lot more interaction because that, so it's been really beautiful and it's just, I think it's something that's, that's, that's needed. I think animals are such like an underused resource.
[00:31:20] Speaker D: Yes, yes. But we're sorry for your loss and thank you for the clarification.
[00:31:25] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:31:26] Speaker D: So in, in Dutchess county do we have a program for females where they can go and receive similar services as provided a Boulder house.
[00:31:35] Speaker B: So actually through MHA of Dutchess county, we have three reintegration residential houses. So Ivan Bolger House, which is our all men's. Then we have Florence Manor, which is ran by our director Jody, which is all women's. And then we have Downing House, which is run by Curtis and that's a co ed house. So actually through MHA we have three houses. We have an all men, all women's and a co ed. So we do have those. There are other smaller houses and other residentials in our area. To be fair, there's, there's really not a lot programs like ours. I think there's under 200 nationwide and we happen to be very lucky in Dutchess county that MHA has three of them.
And we would be considered. Florence and Bolger would be considered bigger houses because we're 24 residents at a time where a lot of places, you know, there's a couple other programs and their residential capacity is like four or five people. So we would be considered bigger ones there. Yeah. So there's. There's all different demographics. And I think total. I think maybe there's like six or seven, maybe eight in all of Dutchess county in varying capacities. Three are with mha. So it's really, it's. Our addiction division is an amazing, amazing division. I'm. When I joined the team, it was just. It was life changing. It really was. It was just so cool to end. To see, like, how great our entire division is. And our addiction division is more than just our three residential houses. Like, we have a whole team and a whole division that we. That's. That's what we focus on, is addiction treatment. Yeah.
[00:32:54] Speaker C: The guys live there and everything. Because I'm not sure about the.
[00:32:57] Speaker B: What.
[00:32:58] Speaker C: What the setting is.
[00:32:59] Speaker B: Yes, fully. They fully live there. Yep. So we have nine months.
[00:33:02] Speaker C: I'm sorry, from nine to 12.
[00:33:04] Speaker B: Nine to 12 months is about the.
Is the average treatment. Sometimes I have guys who graduate and are done in about six months. I've had people who are a little bit longer. It really depends. Everything is case by case. Nobody gets a cookie cutter.
[00:33:15] Speaker C: What's the average age?
[00:33:16] Speaker B: Average age? Yeah, I probably say mid-30s to mid-40s, I think. I would say is average.
I've had people as young as 22, 21.
Typically the much younger. There are some specialty programs in, like, downstate area that typically if you're under like 21, you kind of wind up going to those programs because they need a little bit more structure, being very young.
But I've had people, I think one of my previous clients, I think 76, 77, something like that.
And so it's. It's a very, very broad spectrum. But I would say the big chunk is that mid-30s to mid-40s.
[00:33:53] Speaker D: We have a few minutes left to the show, and we haven't had an opportunity to cover suicide prevention. And being that September was Suicide Prevention Month, I want to touch a little bit about what do you do within your program to incorporate some suicide prevention tips or the kind of work that Bulger House does for Mental Health America regarding suicide prevention.
[00:34:18] Speaker B: Yeah, suicide prevention is a really big part of the addiction field and any mental health field, you know, a lot of risk factors that can lead to suicide are substance use, polysubstance use, mental health disorders, co occurring things.
So most of our population is what would be considered high risk for suicide.
So part of what we do is we do suicide education. That's one of our big groups. We do all the time. We educate about, you know, 988 stabilization center, we teach how to make safety plans, recommending and researching like coping skills. What brings anxiety, what to do if you're having thoughts and feelings about that. A big thing is, is also educating about recognizing it in others.
So kind of that whole thing is, you know, like recognize, respond and refer. Right? The big three are for suicide intervention. And that's something we really focus on is that education point. Because a lot of people, I think they feel very intimidated when we talk to them about like have you ever had thoughts about wanting to hurt yourself? Have you ever made a plan to end your own life? It's a very hard conversation. And as you build rapport clients it's much easier. But sometimes just educating them on the other side of it, like if you know somebody, what are some signs to look for? And you know, some of those big signs to look for. I think a lot of people see what's glamorized in movies or what you see in news, right? People giving away all their prized possessions, people writing end of life notes. You know, I'm sorry for this, I'm sorry for that. I didn't, you know, this wasn't right. So you start seeing those people really disconnected and isolating. People stop taking their medications. People stop engaging in ways they used to engage, right? And those are always like the really, really big like red light flash signs. But on the flip side of that, and something I think that isn't talked about enough is the complete opposite is when people are all of a sudden overly engaged, Very, very overly inflatedly happy. Hey, can I see you? Can we go to coffee? Like, oh, I haven't, I haven't seen you in like six months. We have to have to meet. Like we have to have to meet. And it's very inflated. And you're like, it's very uncharacteristically overly happy, overly involved. This is not this person's normal personality.
And anecdotally, I don't know enough of the research to be honest in, in that. But personal experience with people I know who have taken their own lives in various different capacities, more often than not, many of them were the happy side.
And the, it's like you're like wow. Like, yeah, I'll grab coffee with you. Like everything. But yeah, I just really wanted to see you. And like, so have and what it is. And people who either changed their mind for whatever reason or weren't able to complete because they were intervening. We talked about it afterwards.
[00:36:51] Speaker D: It's.
[00:36:52] Speaker B: It was the. I don't want my family and friends to have any sad last memories of me. They want the best memories possible left. They want to leave everybody with something good. Because when they, you know, decide and have the plan and everything else, they. So they go to the other extreme. They want to give everybody who means something to them a really last good, beautiful, beautiful, happy memory, which is totally, you know, uncuritous. So I think that's always something to think about and too is just look out for those super changes in behavior, you know, people disconnecting or people being overly happy and all the in betweens. And there's some really great trainings out there that MHA has done before and the other, you know, counties have done before. There's a training called ASSIST.
I'm terrible with acronyms because there's about 8 million of them in this field, but it's a. It's a suicide intervention training. There's also E talk. I think that was another one of them. There's qpr, red watch band, green dot. All of these really amazing trainings that are out there. And they're about how to respond, recognize, refer, qprs, questioning, something in referral as well. But these are all these trainings that you can go to, and most of the time they're free.
I don't think I've actually ever seen any of them here to pay for, but MHA does them. Dutchess county government has done them in the past.
And I think those trainings are super, super important because I think it teaches you a lot. And the more we talk about it, the more it gets understood. And, you know, and that's where I tell people, like, random acts of kindness are the most beautiful thing and a gift you can give people. And I always say, like, it doesn't have to be somebody, you know, you never know what your kind words can change somebody's day. If you see somebody out shopping and you like their shirt, hey, I really like your shirt. Yes, it's cool, you know, have a great day.
[00:38:32] Speaker D: You don't have to hold much to pay a compliment.
[00:38:35] Speaker B: It really doesn't. What does it cost you? Nothing. And what does it take out of your day? Nothing. You're already there, you know, something, anything Just. Or how, hey, hair looks nice, your shoes, whatever. Find something, right? I'm not saying be disingenuous, but like, if you find something, see some, don't be afraid to tell a stranger, like something nice. Hold a door for somebody, make a difference. Like hold the door for somebody that makes a difference instead of slamming somebody's face. You know, little things like that. And I've, I've been out before and I can firsthand say there, I mean, one sticks out that. But there was a lady and she just looked really, really down and I had no idea who this lady was, and she'd really pretty shirt on. And I just left her and says, hey, I'm sorry, I don't know you, but just want to tell you the shirt's really pretty on you. And she just started bawling and I said, are you okay? I'm saying I'm really sorry because, you know, obviously I wanted to go to make sure she was okay. And she goes, I just want to let you know I was planning to take my own life tonight.
[00:39:26] Speaker D: Wow.
[00:39:26] Speaker B: She goes, because I felt like nobody cared about me anymore. She goes, and I told myself that I wouldn't do it if something happened that changed my mind and that I knew the universe would give me something if it was meant. And she goes, literally, she goes, I have everything planned. It was going to happen in a couple of hours. And she wound up telling me the whole story. But just opening that, just giving her a compliment changed her whole energy. And it was funny because a couple years later I. She had found where I was working and she just left me a thank you note and wrote down like, all the things she had done since. And she's actually now an advocate for suicide awareness and a suicide survivor.
[00:40:02] Speaker D: It's important to be seen and heard. People need to know that they matter.
[00:40:05] Speaker B: Yeah, absolutely. It's, it's, it's super important. I always tell everybody there's a lot of things in my life that I regret or that I'm not proud of. But being nice to somebody and advocating for those who don't have a voice has never been one of them.
Like, I'll advocate for somebody, I will go out of my way. I will do it. I don't. I'm just not in Monday through Friday, eight to four hours when I'm doing this doesn't matter. And I always just tell everybody, like, you never know who you can help and change, and if you're not qualified to do, that's where you get to that refer. But sometimes you just being nice is going to open that door for somebody else, you know, and. And really just. Just be nice.
I know it sounds like such. Like this, but like, just being nice.
[00:40:42] Speaker C: Just be nice. A smile. Hello.
[00:40:44] Speaker B: Honestly, even that too. You don't even have to say anything to somebody, but like, yeah, take the time just to smile. Just a smile. Yes. You know, as you walk through. And I think it really does make a difference, you know, because you don't know what that person's going through, so.
[00:40:55] Speaker D: Well, in conclusion, Iris, do you want to say anything else to Brittany that perhaps we haven't brought up?
[00:41:00] Speaker C: Well, I'm just very grateful to have met Brittany because, Brittany, you know, you inspire me. You know, there was a lot of things in my history and my family with suicide that, you know, a lot of triggers and stuff. So thank you for caring for people that really matter right now.
[00:41:16] Speaker B: And I appreciate. Really thank. And I know we kind of got a little off track from all of ourselves, but it's okay.
[00:41:21] Speaker C: That's the way we.
[00:41:22] Speaker D: Information that you share heard and. And this is, you know, an honest conversation. So we appreciate everything that you pointed out. So thank you so much for being here with us.
[00:41:32] Speaker B: And I'm glad there's somebody out there and two women. It makes it even, you know, cooler. And, you know, I just.
That people care to even start talking about it.
[00:41:42] Speaker C: Absolutely.
[00:41:42] Speaker B: And I think that's the biggest, biggest thing. And like, you know, obviously we could all talk about things for hours and hours and all the different things, but I think just even starting a conversation as publicly as something like this.
[00:41:52] Speaker C: Absolutely.
[00:41:52] Speaker B: Or that that's what we need. People need to. Somebody has to start the movement and make it because there's always somebody who's like, I would love to do it, but I'm too afraid to say it first. So I think the more people we can get to just be okay with sharing, that's going to open up so more and it's just going to become more. The more we can talk about, the more we can recognize, the more we can help people because that's how we start destigmatizing everything. And like, it's so important. Suicide is such a huge, horrible, horrible thing. And I don't want to say it's 100 preventable, but there's so much things we can do to prevent and intervene and help.
We just need to get more people talking.
[00:42:30] Speaker C: Should we be checking in more with our folks? Should we just be calling them? Especially if we feel that there's.
[00:42:34] Speaker B: You know, I always Tell everybody, you know, modern society, we all have cell phones.
[00:42:38] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:42:39] Speaker B: How hard is it to send a quick text? I mean, if you're out at the bakery and you see a, some kind of cookie they, they loved. Hey, I was at the bakery and it saw this cookie, maybe think of you in this one time or hey, how you doing? That's all you know. And, and you know, and if you notice somebody's really struggling, don't say, is there something I can help you with? Because that's a very close ended question. Especially when people are in that mindset, it's closed ended and nobody wants to be a bother. So everyone's, most of the time will say, no, I don't, I don't need anything. But if you say, what can I help you with? What can I do for you?
Now, you've already taken out that guilt you're already offering for them and be genuine in what you're offering. Right. And if you can't help, that's where you find somebody who can. But just taking that time to show you're invested. So really leaning into the what can I do for you? What can I help you with? What can we do to work together? And instead of that, do you need anything? Because most of the people are gonna.
[00:43:32] Speaker C: Say, no, no, don't give them a choice. Let them hear, what do you need me to do now?
[00:43:35] Speaker B: And then, and then, if you notice somebody struggling like that, follow up with them.
Give them a day. Hey, you know, I notice you were a little off yesterday. You know, are you feeling, you know, find a way something, something in with them. You know, I know you were this or I know you were that. You know, just wanted to check on you, letting you know I'm always here if you need anything.
[00:43:51] Speaker C: Brittany.
[00:43:52] Speaker B: Oh, sorry.
[00:43:53] Speaker D: Well, thank you so much, Brittany, for that last tip. And we want to take a few minutes to thank Andrew for making this possible once again. Andrew o', Brady, CEO of Mental Health of America.
[00:44:04] Speaker C: Absolutely. And I just wanted to say that, I wanted to quote him and I wanted to see if you agree with Andrew where he says that there's no health without mental health.
[00:44:13] Speaker B: Absolutely.
[00:44:13] Speaker C: 110 can physically be okay.
You can spiritually be okay if your mental health is not okay.
[00:44:21] Speaker B: So mental health is health.
[00:44:23] Speaker C: And there we go.
[00:44:24] Speaker B: It's everything should be about whole body, whole person care, holistic and holistic, like whole everything. So if you're neglecting one part, then you're not taking care of the whole. So mental health is part of health care. Is and, and not just your own health, but health care, that needs to be access to, you know, we can have all the doctors we want for physical, but we need health care for mental health. So. And it's just, it's about whole health care and it's absolutely, there is no health without mental health. Absolutely.
[00:44:50] Speaker D: Thank you. Thank you. And last but not least, thank you so much to our fantastic producer, Connor Walsh.
[00:44:59] Speaker B: Thank you.
[00:45:02] Speaker C: And thank you, MHA of Dutchess County. Again, Andrew o'.
[00:45:04] Speaker B: Grady.
[00:45:05] Speaker C: We really appreciate you. Without you, we wouldn't be here. So thank you so much.
[00:45:10] Speaker A: This podcast is brought to you by MHA of Dutchess county and produced by CMJW Entertainment. Thank you once again to this episode's sponsor, Levia medspa.
