Philanthropy Today
Philanthropy Today
Pawnee Mental Health on the GMCF Community Hour Show Episode - 242
Mike Rezkalla, CEO of Pawnee Mental Health, shares how the organization serves 185,000 people across 10 Kansas counties with integrated mental health services. September marks both National Suicide Prevention Month and Recovery Awareness Month, highlighting the critical work being done to address the 49,000 annual lives lost to suicide - one every 11 minutes.
• Pawnee offers comprehensive services under one roof including recovery services, outpatient therapy, crisis services, psychiatry, and care management
• Manhattan community shows exceptional commitment to mental health through county proclamations and support
• "Inspiring Hope Dinner and Auction" fundraiser set for October 2nd at K-State Alumni Center with tickets at $75 per person
• Funds will support new primary care services at the Claflin clinic, integrating physical and mental healthcare
• Integrated care model has shown 19% reduction in hospital admission rates
• People with mental illness often die decades too soon due to lack of physical healthcare access
• Pawnee serves everyone regardless of ability to pay or established client status
Visit pawneeorg to learn more about the Inspiring Hope Dinner and Auction and Pawnee's services.
Philanthropy Today is brought to you by the Greater Manhattan Community Foundation. In this episode we feature a recently broadcast segment of the GMCF Community Hour, as heard on NewsRadio KMAN. The GMCF Community Hour continues here on this Monday. We do this every Monday morning at the 10 o'clock hour and we're always thrilled to have a lot of folks to come in and joining us and tell us the stories of what their nonprofit work is doing. Our next guest is relatively new to the Manhattan area. He came from the East Coast Not close, not right on the coast right.
Speaker 2:Yes, close enough. Yes and no Close enough.
Speaker 1:Mike Rescala is the chief executive officer for Pawnee Mental Health, and we were just doing some math 19 months into the gig, 19 months.
Speaker 2:How's it going? It's going great, wonderful community, great people. Services we provide are very much needed in the community and I have not seen a community that is as committed to mental health as this community. Really now it is very uplifting and very heartwarming.
Speaker 1:That's got to make you feel bubbly inside, doesn't it, to know that there is that kind of sentiment here. Did you expect that when you came here? I did not.
Speaker 2:I did not expect that level of dedication and commitment to mental health, of dedication and commitment to mental health, especially because this is a very diverse community and people are committed, so this is great.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, well, manhattan's treating you well.
Speaker 2:Manhattan is fantastic, okay.
Speaker 1:Yeah, Manhattan is fantastic. We love to hear those types of things You're enjoying every second of my time here and you're treating Manhattan well, absolutely, and your family is all here now. My family is here, okay, yeah, because last time I think that they were going to be joining you. Last time we had a chance to visit.
Speaker 2:They joined me last year and they have embedded themselves in the community and doing great. Do you have some purple in your closet? Oh yeah, oh yeah, I wear purple almost every Friday.
Speaker 1:Do you now? Yes, I do, okay, is that?
Speaker 2:mandatory at Pawnee? No, it is not.
Speaker 1:But it's being a proud Manhattan resident.
Speaker 1:Uh-huh, yeah, okay, but we talk a lot about things you know in the mental health environment because you know it's something that that you know my story is has been documented here. We've talked about my challenges and I think that, uh, one of the things you know like when Tyler was in here, you know we're in the business of telling stories and if, if the story is told enough times, then people understand. You know, the significance of what not necessarily what the story is, but what the message out of that story is and the message that we are hearing and it's becoming easier to talk about now, because it used to be something you just kind of swept under the rug. But mental health, you know, we talk about it being. It is health, it is health care, and there's a lot of awareness. I think that has shifted and I think that that's a lot. That says a lot about, you know, the response that you're seeing with here in Manhattan, that people are very supportive of the work that you're doing at Pawnee.
Speaker 2:They are. And let me tell you this, the month of September is a very special month in the mental health profession and the reason I'm saying that that we celebrate two big happenings in the month of September, one being the National Suicide Prevention Month September is, and also being the Recovery Awareness Month County, but by all the counties in our 10-county area, and the commitment of Clay Cloud, jewell, marshall, mitchell, pottawatomie, republic, riley and Washington counties by signing these proclamations tells you how committed people are.
Speaker 1:And creating that awareness carries you a long way. And creating that awareness carries you a long way. No-transcript. We all know someone or someone's family who has been directly affected by suicide and we realize that this is something that has to be addressed, and we're seeing that.
Speaker 2:Absolutely. When you look at the suicide statistics for, let's say, 2022, there has been 49,000 lives lost to suicide. That's a life lost to suicide every 11 minutes. When you think about mental health in general, us to suicide every 11 minutes. When you think about mental health in general, one out of four in some other statistics, one out of five people is struggling with mental health and that is one in every household, and we are here.
Speaker 2:When you think about the scope of services that Pawnee provides, when you think about us being a safety net provider we serve a 10-county region of about 185,000 people with some unique services that are integrated, like recovery services, like mental health, outpatient, like crisis services. When you also think about medical psychiatry and when you look at the care management and care coordination under our community services, these are very unique and you can't find them under one roof, but Pawnee actually. One parent I was having a conversation with someone last week and that person said for my child, I can't find a place that would provide them this, this, this and that under one roof. Where do you think I should go? I said Pawnee, because that's where all these services, of these services, uh, uh exist.
Speaker 1:That's a great story to tell, yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Let's talk a bit about, uh, some things that are coming up here, because Pawnee is got several funding mechanisms that are involved. You, you do uh have some government funding. You have a lot of private funding. There's grants that come through that help support the mission at Pawnee. But you have a special event that's coming up here on October 2nd and we want to talk a little bit about this because that's going to be the main thrust here for the next few minutes. It's called Inspiring Hope Dinner and Auction. So tell us what this is all about.
Speaker 2:Sure, and thank you, Dave. On October 2nd at 5.30 pm at K-State Alumni Center, Pawnee will be celebrating the Inspiring Hope and Help event. Some folks might remember this being called Driving the Dream. We've changed the name a couple of years ago, but this is an inspirational and fun-filled evening. It includes dinner, live auction. It is Pawnee's largest annual fundraiser. The event raises thousands to benefit the communities we serve.
Speaker 2:This is an intimate evening that will include dinner. That will include the opportunity to learn about the uplifting work we do in our community, raffle opportunities and a special live auction featuring unique and highly sought-after items donated by Pawnee supporters. Some of these items the majority, if not all actually are fancy and well sought after. Our live auction is also included in the event. We have an online auction starts sunday, september 21st to friday, october 3rd. The auction will feature a variety of items from both inside and outside Pawnee service area. Seating is limited, so if folks want to participate and we encourage everyone who would like to to come and join us Tickets cost $75 per person and $600 per table and we are very, very grateful for the support of our sponsors.
Speaker 1:And who are some of those watches? You want to give them a plug real quick, or do you absolutely?
Speaker 2:yeah, we are grateful for the support of uh, bhs, bhs, construction um charleston, wilson stacy and lowell, cole, uhohlmeyer C, clyde Jones, carpet One, howie Recycling, wtc, blake and Tamara Bowers, sps Companies, enterprise Mobility, stormont, bale Health and Thermo Comfort Air. I hope I didn't forget. I'm sure I forgot some folks, but as we get more sponsors we will definitely make sure to feature them and they will be featured at the event as well. But we're very grateful for their generosity.
Speaker 1:What do you use the proceeds for? Inspiring hope and help?
Speaker 2:The money raised will benefit our newly established primary care services, benefit our newly established primary care services and it is underway in our Claflin clinic. And here's why this is important. Why primary care services?
Speaker 1:are important. Yeah, cause this is something that's new for you.
Speaker 2:Yeah, there is a big picture behind this, dave, and so integrated primary care is important because it increases the patient access to care and improves physical and mental health outcomes, and it also reduces the overall health care costs through better coordination and reduced emergency department visits and hospital stays. There are some very interesting statistics that for organizations that have implemented integrated care meaning primary care blended with behavioral health in the same place, that has led to 19% reduction in hospital admission rates. So this is a very unique service being provided. Oftentimes, when you ask folks if they have access to primary care services, some folks wouldn't know what primary care is or might confuse it with something else.
Speaker 2:But this is physical care, it's preventative, something else, but this is physical care, it's preventative, it blends well with behavioral health, meaning recovery services, meaning outpatient therapy. This is a big milestone for us at Pawnee and our clients, because people with mental illness often die decades too soon, die decades too soon, and not because of their diagnosis alone, but also because they can't get the physical health care they need. And at Pawnee, we believe that mental and physical health should go hand in hand and, with the help of our community, we are committed to to providing this, this care primary care provides already, and this was actually an interesting statistic that I came across a couple of days ago. Primary care provides already 45% of visits to patients with depression and or an anxiety, of which about half are co-managed with a non-physician behavioral health clinician. So when you think about bringing both under one roof, you can prevent further complication.
Speaker 1:So it is very important further complication. So it is very important. Pawneeorg is the website where you can find out more about all the work that is being done here and you have connection on the website where you can find out more about getting registered, getting signed up to attend your Living the Dream event there are links to, or Inspiring Hope.
Speaker 2:Excuse me, it is both. It's inspiring hope and help and also driving the dream of many to find a place where they can receive care, regardless of anything, whether they're an established client or not, whether they are able to pay or not. We take everyone, regardless of anything, and we value the patients, the clients we serve and, like you said, there are links on our website. If people go to Pawneeorg, they will find more information.
Speaker 1:Well, we're proud to have Pawnee in our community and doing the work that you do. Mike Rezcala, thank you for joining us here today. Thank you for having me Up next we're going to be. We got a room full. I've got a new studio. Every chair is going to be full with folks from Be Able. They have an event coming up next week and we'll talk about that when we return from the break here on the GMCF Community Hour on NewsRadio KMAN.