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: 0:21

Jerry Gretzinger here, your host for Addiction: The Next Step. We are coming to you, as we always are, from the New York State Offices of Addiction Services and Supports. Today we're going to introduce you a little bit to an organization that's been working with OASAS very closely and is also doing a lot to help get scholarship funds out there to people who want to go into the addiction field. We talk so much about supporting the workforce and this is such a critical piece of that, so I'm joined by Nathan Rauscher.

Nathan Rauscher: 0:50

I appreciate you having me.

Jerry Gretzinger: 0:51

Let's start with HelioHealth. Give people a quick overview of what the organization is what it does.

Nathan Rauscher: 1:06

Heliohealth has been around since 1920. Started off with being a halfway house in his transition over the 100 years now to support individuals throughout the entire continuum of services. So we have different withdrawal and stabilization services, residential 820 services, outpatient pretty much everything. Inpatient services throughout New York State. We're primarily in Syracuse but we have different services in Gloversville, Utica, Binghamton and Rochester as well.

Jerry Gretzinger: 1:28

I know we see the Helio name quite often doing a lot of good work, which is like I said. It's such a great partnership with OASAS because we want to support the kind of work that Helio is doing. So we thank you for that and the continuation in this episode at least the conversation going into scholarship funds. We know there's been a crisis in the addiction workforce and we want to continue to build that up and make sure that it's got a future and we're having people who have the skills to go forward with this important work, and Helio has been one of our partners. We've actually done a few different episodes on the people, such as Helio, who are coming together to help get those funds out, because it's not something one agency or person can do alone. So let me ask you this we chatted a bit before we started our episode here about one of the issues you'd seen historically with people who wanted to go into the addiction workforce and you said one of the major hurdles was..

Nathan Rauscher: 2:27

We've received emails and voicemails for years saying you know, I'm really interested in becoming a CASAC or I'm really interested in becoming a certified peer, but I don't have the funds to pay for the course and over the years we've never had scholarship money available or any way of getting someone into it and this has definitely helped get people who have, you know, necessarily never had the opportunity or probably never would have gotten the opportunity to get into this field, have the opportunity to do so now.

Jerry Gretzinger: 2:55

So, you know, when you've gotten the outreach from people who may have eventually, you know, said well, my one holdup is the finances. Who are these people, like, where are they coming from? Are they people with lived experience? Are they people who've had family members? Or people in the medical community who just want to be able to, you know, add this to their, their, their skillset?

Nathan Rauscher: 3:15

It's really been.

Nathan Rauscher: 3:16

It's across the board.

Nathan Rauscher: 3:17

It's we've had individuals who've been in, you know, maybe in the really entry level positions in the medical field, who, it's you know, not necessarily minimum wage but pretty close to it, who don't have the extra income to be able to support going back to school

Nathan Rauscher: 3:32

A this time and not being an accredited college or university, we can't get financial aid, so that's been a barrier as well. We can't offer that to individuals. We've had other people who have lived experience themselves or who have had lived experience with family members, loved ones, who've experienced substance use in the past, really wanting to now give back and being able to share their story and again not being able to do so, and I think that's again it's been, I think, over the last two years, year and a half or so since we've been able to offer this. We have, I think, the last two years, year and a half or so since we've been able to offer this, we have, I think, over 70 people at this point currently in courses that are accessing this funding.

Jerry Gretzinger: 4:16

A nd so, what is traditionally the cost to participate in this?

Nathan Rauscher: 4:20

It's around. It depends on the course. The CASAC course in full is just under $6,000. It's a 14-month course for the 350 hours. For CRPA, it's about $850 because it's a 50-hour course.

Jerry Gretzinger: 4:34

And so, as we said, people who are coming into this, maybe it's people who are making just barely above minimum. Some people may be like, oh, when you're talking about continuing education, these numbers don't sound that high. But it can be the difference of I can do it or I can't do it and that's.

Jerry Gretzinger: 4:47

it's just comes to that point. If people are hearing this and I know it's like you know, the the scholarship funds become available, like you know, annually and we see how much is available. But I would imagine people hear this and go, wow, this is terrific because, again, as we've said so many people, the financial part of it is what is the barrier? What do they need to do? I mean, I know, sometimes I ask this question they say, well, the first thing they need to do is just have the passion to do it. Right, but if they want to be able to access the scholarships and apply for that, what do they do?

Nathan Rauscher: 5:16

Sure, there's two different things they can do. All of our information is right on our website it's www. heliohealth. But if they want to reach out to us directly, they can email us at training at heliohealth and we can provide all the information that way as well. We'll send applications or links to the material and start the conversation, start that process of potentially accessing the funds and getting signed up for one of the courses.

Jerry Gretzinger: 5:42

And how does it work once that's been approved and the courses start? Are these in-person classes? Are there remote options? How does that go forward?

Nathan Rauscher: 5:50

Little of both. So most of, like I said, most of our services are out of Syracuse. So we do have one in-person course that happens two nights a week in Syracuse. All of our, all of our evening courses are basically five to eight, five to eight or five, 30 to eight, 30. So we try to make it a little bit manageable for individuals who may be working full-time, may be working up until 4 or 4.30 and be able to access a course. So we have one that's in-person in Syracuse and we have six offerings that are completely virtual. So it's all through Zoom. It's the same thing as being in an in-person class. There's an instructor, they're doing a PowerPoint or presentation. They're live, the students are all live so they can ask questions, do breakout sessions. We try to make it exactly. We try to mimic in live course in in-person courses best. We can.

Nathan Rauscher: 6:43

So that definitely helps our individuals, not just outside of the Syracuse area, because we do have some in Syracuse that prefer it that way but it's open to pretty much anyone throughout the state.

Jerry Gretzinger: 6:51

That was my next question. Do you want the people in the areas where Helio operates, or is it just open?

Nathan Rauscher: 6:54

It's open to anyone.

Jerry Gretzinger: 6:58

All right, and I guess I would say too as we always wait every year to see what kind of funds are available If somebody has an interest, you know, don't hesitate. You know, we know, we know this is out there in an option right now. So you know, jump at it.

Nathan Rauscher: 7:10

We go right in order of application, so who first come, first serve. We go right down the list, and who gets us all the information first is we're able to offer them a seat.

Jerry Gretzinger: 7:18

When do the courses start?

Nathan Rauscher: 7:20

It's it's recurring, so I think I was looking at the schedule yesterday. I think we have one, at least one class starting every month up till April. I think we were not doing a new one in April and started right up in May. So of all, six of the virtual and the one in-person class, open enrollment is pretty consistent.

Jerry Gretzinger: 7:40

And let's say somebody reaches out one month, how far from then might they conceivably be starting like a month later, weeks later?

Nathan Rauscher: 7:48

Yeah, it could be a couple weeks later. It could be the next week. It depends on, if you know, there's definitely um, there's some required material that they have to submit for the grant itself. Yeah, if they're able to get everything in, we will slot them in this the next, you know, seat we have available and when they're available.

Jerry Gretzinger: 8:04

All right, that's great.

Jerry Gretzinger: 8:05

So, in other words, don't hesitate.

Nathan Rauscher: 8:06

Absolutely.

Nathan Rauscher: 8:07

Do it now.

Jerry Gretzinger: 8:07

You have the passion, you have the interest, it can happen. Nathan, thanks so much for sitting down with us. We appreciate it. I know you gave out the information for Helio. I also wanted to share the information for OASAS. If you want to learn more about services, supports and certainly scholarship information, we have it on there as well. It's O-A-S-A-S, dot N-Y, dot, g-o-v, and always if you're looking for any type of assistance or someone to talk to, 877-8-hope-n-y. That's our HOPE line. Again, Nathan, thank you so much and thank you for checking out this episode of Addiction: The Next Step. I'm your host, Jerry Gretzinger. Until next time, be well.