Isabel Byon: 0:00

The New York State Office of Addiction Services and Supports, or OASAS, provides this podcast as a public service. Opinions expressed do not necessarily reflect those of the agency or state. This is Addiction: The Next Step.

Jerry Gretzinger: 0:19

Hello there, I'm Jerry Gretzinger, your host for Addiction: The Next Step brought to you by the New York State Offices of Addiction Services and Supports. Today. We're very fortunate. A lot of times we do some of these episodes and we have to talk to people over Zoom or whatever the other video conferencing service might be, and that's wonderful. But today we actually have guests joining us in the studio and it's for a great topic. We're very fortunate to have them here. It's Shayne Richardson and Stacie Robbins.

Jerry Gretzinger: 0:50

You're from Healing Springs, so thanks for joining us in person here in our little studio.

Jerry Gretzinger: 0:52

Thank you for having us. And so the reason I was saying it's great to be able to talk to you about this here it's an important topic is because we're talking about youth and Healing Springs. You guys are based in Saratoga, correct?

Stacie Robbins: 1:02

Correct

Jerry Gretzinger: 1:02

And it's Healing Springs, and you do something called a youth recovery meeting and you know young people are obviously an important part of the population that we like to make sure we communicate to. So we love what's happening with your youth recovery meeting and I want us to be able to talk about.

Jerry Gretzinger: 1:17

You know what you do, how you do it and the value it is to the young people who go to your program. So let me just first say what each of you does. Shayne, you are a peer, right, so you help with the peer services. And Stacey, you're a family support navigator

Stacie Robbins: 1:32

Correct

Jerry Gretzinger: 1:32

And all of this happens through the Prevention Council, correct,

Stacie Robbins: 1:35

Correct.

Jerry Gretzinger: 1:35

Yeah, so we want to make sure we give them a little bit of love, too, for making this happen. But, Shayne, let me start with you, all, right. So we have young people, and when we say young people, like what's the age range that we typically look at here?

Shayne Richardson: 1:46

So our youth recovery meeting. We have people from the age of 14 to 17.

Jerry Gretzinger: 1:54

And so if, like, let's say, you hear somebody who's like 13 or 18 or 19, who wants information, they're they're allowed to come, but that's the average age, or how does it work?

Shayne Richardson: 2:02

Yeah, I mean we're not IDing at the door, um. But yeah, I mean, if they're 13 and they're really struggling with their addiction and substances or alcohol, then they're more than welcome to come. Um. If they're 19, we do um have services at our center for people 18 and older Um we have a host of meetings at the center and they can do one-on-one counseling with me.

Jerry Gretzinger: 2:26

Okay, but yeah, basically anybody in those ages they come. They're not going to be turned away if they're outside of that typical age range, they're still going to be able to receive services or information Right.

Shayne Richardson: 2:37

If they need help and they need referrals or they need services, then we will provide that for them, absolutely.

Jerry Gretzinger: 2:44

That's right. So let's talk about some of those services. I said that you work as a peer, which means that you have some lived experience, and that is such a critical and crucial thing to be able to share with, especially young people coming to say hey, you know what I'm dealing with this. What can I do? Talk about the type of services and type of help that you can provide that way.

Shayne Richardson: 3:02

So what we like to do is I basically will educate through my lived experiences as a person living with addiction and now living in recovery. Whether that looks like you know talking about what I've gone through or what I'm doing to cope with my triggers or my emotions and how I'm dealing with those at the time and basically to relate with these young youth and see where I can help them and meet them where they're at.

Jerry Gretzinger: 3:30

That's why we say lived experience, because you lived exactly what they are living now,

Shayne Richardson: 3:35

Absolutely yeah.

Jerry Gretzinger: 3:36

And so for anybody who may be listening out there and wondering okay, well, so what sort of lived experience are you? Are you willing to say, hey, this is what I was, I was working through.

Shayne Richardson: 3:44

Yeah, so I mean I started using marijuana, cocaine at a very young age, um, and that just progressed, you know, into alcohol use. That progressed into, um, heroin use, um, crack cocaine use, I mean, and then all that brought me to incarceration and trouble with probation and just so. Those types of lived experiences, right, is where my drug use and my alcohol use brought me later in my life, from being a teenager who was just going to school and having fun with my friends, turned into something more severe.

Jerry Gretzinger: 4:24

Yeah, it's a little bit outside of someone's control at a certain point.

Shayne Richardson: 4:27

Oh, yeah, absolutely.

Jerry Gretzinger: 4:29

So let me ask you this too, and both of you can chime in on this one. So if people are out there listening to this and you know it could be it could be a young person who's using some substances and is wondering, oh, maybe I should go talk to somebody. It could be a parent who maybe is wondering if they're seeing signs of substance use and what they should do. So, both from a peer's perspective and from a family support navigator, what are some of those things that say a loved one, a parent or you know other role model type person might look for in a young person where they say this might be a time to kind of intervene or talk to them?

Shayne Richardson: 5:08

Okay, Stacey, do you want to start?

Stacie Robbins: 5:10

Sure.

Stacie Robbins: 5:11

So one of the things that I speak to parents about is there is some experimentation that happens with your teens obviously most of them anyway. The difference is when your teen is the one that is using more or using more of ten. It's extending beyond what the rest of the group is doing. That's when there typically tends to be an issue where it's gone beyond that teenage experimentation into something that could be a budding substance use disorder.

Jerry Gretzinger: 5:45

And we know people, certainly in this age group, they're not always the most sharing with parents as far as information or what their activities are. So parents have to really tune themselves in, I think. I would think.

Stacie Robbins: 5:58

Yes, definitely. Definitely, and open lines of communication is key.

Jerry Gretzinger: 6:03

Yeah, and as a peer, I mean from your own experiences I mean any other suggestions of what loved ones or friends might look for.

Shayne Richardson: 6:09

Yeah, I know for me. At a young age I started hanging out with the wrong crowd, right, always look at those friend groups, see, if I mean, if your kid was always into sports and into going and being active, if he kind of starts falling off from that, obviously look at the grades. If he starts missing school time, if he starts getting in trouble, sit him down and ask him hey, what's going on? Right, I know for me. I isolated, I stopped spending time with my family, I stopped going to family events. A lot of the shame and guilt really ate at me. So I know for myself, those were the signs that really pointed out. And you know family members, they see that stuff right, it's just I mean hopefully Stacy can sit down and speak with them about. You know what to do when this happens.

Jerry Gretzinger: 6:58

And you know, I just I want to point out again too how important I think it is that there are peers available, such as yourself, who can speak to young people, because I think a lot of times you know I'm a parent and you try to talk to kids sometimes and they're like, yeah, well, you don't know, you haven't gone through this. Times were different when, when, when you were my age, and to have someone who kind of literally walked the walk they're walking right now, I think it makes such a huge difference.

Shayne Richardson: 7:23

Yeah, and I mean I hope I can be that, that sign of hope for them, that okay, yeah, this, this guy, he does know what's going on and he has lived it before and he got from under it and he's now talking to us and trying to help us out. So I hope I can be a sign of hope for these young kids.

Jerry Gretzinger: 7:42

So I just want to say again we are talking with the folks from Healing Springs. They do a youth recovery meeting and, Stacey, let's talk about a family support navigator, because we've talked a little bit about family loved ones who may have a young person in their lives who may be using substances and wondering, okay, what do we do now? And I would imagine the what do we do now question is something that you handle and work with them through.

Stacie Robbins: 8:06

Absolutely. Everybody that works at Healing Springs has some lived experience. We're all peers. I happen to have the family as well because I fit that criteria, so my lived experience is that of a family member. I've had people in my life that have had substance use disorder. I've lost some people to their substances. I have people that still struggle and I was a caregiver for children that struggled as well when they were youth and I've seen the beauty of recovery. So we use an invitation to change model in working with people and we teach them why the behaviors of their loved ones make sense. We teach about how their language matters, how their speaking to their children makes a difference, and that can sometimes be pretty tricky when you're talking about a youth, because you're their parent and typically you're in that position of power over them and those are not the kinds of communication skills that are going to get them to open up and to listen. So we use that invitation to change model and we teach them better communication skills understanding, compassion and empathy.

Jerry Gretzinger: 9:18

And you know, I think it's. I'm glad you mentioned that about everybody has some kind of lived experience because, again, for parents or other relatives out there who might be hearing this, it's probably helpful for them to know that they're going to talk with someone who has experienced what they're dealing with right now.

Jerry Gretzinger: 9:33

So, you can read, you know, connect with them on a whole other level, as opposed to someone who maybe, you know, wasn't, wasn't in that position themselves, correct, so? So walk me through. So, how, how does this typically work? It's Thursdays where we have the meetings, right, and so do you typically find that you know families come out with the young person. Do the young people come out by themselves? Is it a mixture of both? What's the way most people get involved?

Shayne Richardson: 9:59

Yeah, so what I've noticed is that the parents they will bring the child or the youth and that's when Stacie is there to have. So I run the group with the youth. The family they can either, if they want, they can sit in with the group that Stacie's running with the family, or they can sit in their cars, or sometimes the kids they'll drive themselves there. But we offer that kind of separation right so that the youth can have it and it's for them, it's their time to kind of talk about whatever it is that they have going on and we work through that and the parents can do the same with Stacie.

Stacie Robbins: 10:42

Yes, and we utilize the act. There's a lot of different activities within that invitation to change and we utilize those activities to give better perspective. We also work sort of as a support group as well. A lot of the parents also have their own substance use disorder and they're in recovery themselves. So along with that comes a lot of guilt and they're wondering if this is their fault and so on and so forth. So we talk about real life things that they can do to work through that guilt and get to that place of healing with their children. One of the exercises we do is acknowledging that your substance use disorder has impacted your child in a negative way and talking about it being open, sharing your struggles as developmentally appropriate, obviously, and apologizing and then moving forward.

Jerry Gretzinger: 11:37

I was going to say we call it a youth recovery meeting, but it sounds like there's so much benefit too for the family, the parents, the loved ones who go in with them.

Stacie Robbins: 11:43

Absolutely.

Jerry Gretzinger: 11:44

So really it reaches so many more touch points, if you will. And I think too, it's good for people to hear that if they come in, let's say, with parents, they don't need to sit down and try to have these conversations with their parents listening, because we know that young people like, hey, listen, I'll talk about it, but I don't need them here and everything.

Jerry Gretzinger: 12:00

I say they'll be very closed off sometimes.

Shayne Richardson: 12:02

No, it definitely. Um, if the parents were there would definitely shut off that line of communication between me and the youth. We do it in separate rooms. Everything I mean I do offer if the child I mean sometimes they're not comfortable speaking amongst other youth, right, you know there's that they feel embarrassed or they're not feeling as comfortable as talking in groups. So there is that one-on-one connection that I can also have with them as well to kind of help them further along, you know.

Shayne Richardson: 12:36

So that they can speak freely and speak what they want to say, you know.

Jerry Gretzinger: 12:40

So lots of options, it sounds like, for whatever situation someone is in, whether they're comfortable talking in a group or need to talk individually, if they're parents or loved ones who aren't sure or feeling guilt. All of these things can be worked through and discussed at these meetings, and beyond the meetings too, I imagine.

Shayne Richardson: 12:58

Absolutely yeah.

Jerry Gretzinger: 12:59

All right. So we said Thursday nights, tell me times, places, where and when does it happen?

Shayne Richardson: 13:04

So Thursday nights at 5:30 pm it's not in the Healing Springs Center, it's in the Prevention Side Center. So that's at 125 High Rock Ave, Saratoga Springs, New York.

Jerry Gretzinger: 13:17

Okay

Shayne Richardson: 13:19

That's it.

Jerry Gretzinger: 13:20

And every Thursday.

Shayne Richardson: 13:21

Every Thursday. Yes.

Jerry Gretzinger: 13:22

People can just show up.

Jerry Gretzinger: 13:23

There's no need to, like you know, go online and check in first.

Shayne Richardson: 13:26

There's no sign up. There's nothing like that.

Shayne Richardson: 13:29

Just show up and be ready to talk.

Jerry Gretzinger: 13:33

All right, and do you guys have a website or a web presence or a Facebook or social media?

Stacie Robbins: 13:38

We do. We actually have for each of our social medias. We have two pages. We have the Prevention Council page and then we have the Healing Springs. So we have for Facebook it's the Prevention Council of Saratoga County and Healing Springs Recovery Community and Outreach Center. We also have Instagram and that would be the Prevention Council or Healing Springs Recovery. And then we're also on LinkedIn, which is the Prevention Council of Saratoga County or Healing Springs Recovery Community and Outreach Center.

Jerry Gretzinger: 14:10

That's great. So I want to thank you guys for a couple of things, one for coming on and talking to us, but two for doing this because obviously it's something that means a lot to you and it means a lot to those of us here at OASAS that you know there's people like yourselves out there doing this for the young people who can certainly benefit from this sort of help. So thank you so much.

Shayne Richardson: 14:28

Thank you.

Stacie Robbins: 14:29

Thank you for having us

Jerry Gretzinger: 14:30

Our pleasure.

Jerry Gretzinger: 14:31

Seriously, we love telling these types of stories because we know the help it can do. Shayne Richardson and Stacie Robbins from Healing Springs. Thank you again, and thank you for joining us for this episode of Addiction: The Next Step. I'm Jerry Gretzinger. Until we talk to you again, be well.