Hope Pointe Crisis Care: Transforming Mental Health Care with Dr. Jaime Garza

When you think about a beacon of hope, what comes to mind? Hope Pointe Crisis Care Center is just that for West Alabama, thanks to the visionary leadership of Dr. Jaime Garza. Throughout our heartfelt discussion, Dr. Garza unveils the ins and outs of a crisis care center that's breaking the mold. At Hope Point, empathy reigns supreme with a peer support model that allows those who've braved their own mental health battles to stand alongside others in crisis. These specialists aren't just there for the immediate turmoil; they're companions on the journey to recovery, up to three months post-discharge. Dr. Garza's own narrative of overcoming adversity lends a poignant authenticity to the center's mission and method.

Then there are the misconceptions about mental health care that we eagerly dismantle. Mental well-being doesn't discriminate; it's a universal pursuit, cutting across every demographic. In our conversation, we unravel the threads of misplaced judgment and highlight the necessity of holistic mental health care. Sharing my own revelations about the transformative power of self-care and community service, I underscore how such practices are essential in weathering personal storms. It's a discussion that promises to reshape your understanding of mental health, the significance of community support, and the enduring strength found in hope. #GNPNorthport #IndianRivers #HopePointe #IRBH #StopTheStigma #MentalHealth #PeerSupport #AdvocateForChange #MentalHealthMatters

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

This is the Good Neighbor podcast, the place where local businesses and neighbors come together. Here's your host, Patricia Blondheim.

Speaker 2: 0:15

Welcome to the Good Neighbor podcast. I'm your host, Patricia Blondheim, and today we have Good Neighbor Dr Jaime Garza, and Dr Garza is the director of Hope Point, which is the newly established crisis care center here in West Alabama. Dr Garza, how are you this morning?

Speaker 3: 0:35

Very well, patricia, how are you?

Speaker 2: 0:37

I'm great. I'm great. I'm really excited about telling our listeners about this new crisis care center and what that means for West Alabama. Can you tell me a little bit about that?

Speaker 3: 0:50

So yeah, so Hope Point is one of six crisis centers that are being developed here in the state of Alabama through the Department of Mental Health.

Speaker 3: 1:00

It is designed to divert people from the hospitals and the jails, Currently the number one resource for our law enforcement first responders. When it comes to our citizens with mental health issues, you either take them to jail or you take them to the hospital, and our healthcare system is overloaded. We are lacking a lot of manpower when it comes to nursing staff and all those other kind of good things. So when someone is in need of physical attention at the hospitals, some of those beds are being occupied by people with behavioral health issues and those staff members. They do a pretty good job of caring for those clients, but they don't really have the skill set of dealing with mental health crisis. They know how to repair a broken arm. They know how to deal with heart attacks, brain aneurysms, those kinds of things. So when it comes to like someone who is having a panic attack or is having contemplations of self-harm or suicide, they really don't have the tools to help with those folks. So they are either being diverted or they are being sent to some kind of institution like jails.

Speaker 2: 2:07

Yeah, so that happens really, really quickly inside of the hospital system, and it is not because they don't care. It is because there has been no other facility to send people to who are in a mental health crisis, which causes people in need of mental health care to spiral and creates a situation that, in many cases, it is very, very difficult to come back from. I see this as something that has been needed for a very long time, but I don't think, because it has not been in our area, that we understand exactly how a crisis care center is used. What exactly does a crisis care center do that we can know about so that we can make use of it?

Speaker 3: 3:05

Absolutely. Currently we have, like I said, the option of going to DCH in Northport or the regional center and what they are going to do is they are going to assess a client for what their needs are. We have an institution called North Harbor. It is located in that DCH in Northport area and they have limited space as well, so they are constantly full and overrun with trying to help as many folks as they can. They try to do as best they can, but sometimes they have to turn people away because they just don't have the space. They also are allowed to take what they call committed folks. So if a family member is having a hard time with a loved one and they need that person to be contained during that moment of crisis, they can go and ask for a petition through the probate office to get this person committed to North Harbor. If they have the beds and that has been the problem, they don't have the best we can't commit folks, so the other option is to take them to jail. So what the crisis center is, we will not take committed folks, but we will start to help alleviate some of that pressure by bringing people who are in a volunteer capacity that want to come to Hope Point. They know that there is a problem going on. They want to help.

Speaker 3: 4:27

What's beautiful about Hope Point is that we are based on a peer support model.

Speaker 3: 4:33

What that means is that the people who are there to take care of them you have your psychiatrist, your nurse practitioner, your art ends, your master's level therapist. But there is a very critical piece of our agency. That is what we call the peer support specialist. This is someone with lived experience of the client. When they walk in the door, this peer support specialist says hey, welcome to Hope Point, I've been where you've been and I have had the ability to recover and make a good life for myself.

Speaker 3: 5:03

And so that instantaneously creates a bond with that client that this is a safe place. These people get me, they understand me, I don't feel stigmatized, I don't feel like I'm a bother to society. And that care continues throughout the facility and upon discharge. And then that peer support specialist follows the client for up to 90 days post discharge to making sure that they're making their appointments, that they're continuing to take their medication, that they're continuing to get support through self-self-help groups or going to one of our facilities for outpatient services. So it's not just come in, let's give you a bandaid and wish you the best. It's really a long-term recovery plan and that our peers are kind of taking the lead on all that.

Speaker 2: 5:51

That's a really powerful care system that you just outlined. Obviously, you have some vision. Tell me about your journey. How did you end up here, dr Garza?

Speaker 3: 6:02

Well, just like our peer support specialist, I'm also a person in long-term recovery. So back in 2004, I had my own personal journey with behavior health and I've been to a few facilities myself, and the first time I really didn't catch on is because I wasn't ready for the help and I really didn't get that motivation. It was just like, hey, I got in trouble, my family's upset with me. There's these little semi-consequences that are happening in my life, nothing so tragic that saying I've got a problem, until finally I had a true mental break where I needed the support of facilities in my family, and so I was able to finally find recovery in 2004. And from that point on my trajectory of life was kind of really guided by my faith system. God has really put me in these different situations. So I'm originally from Southern California, so what am I doing in Tuscaloosa, alabama? That can only be explained that God put me here for some reason.

Speaker 3: 7:07

So I started off working in drug and alcohol treatment centers.

Speaker 3: 7:10

I went back to school to get my degree and to become a drug and alcohol counselor, and slowly I've navigated through Nashville, tennessee, worked at treatment centers there, and then what got me to Tuscaloosa was the University of Alabama wanted me to come help them build a program for their students that are suffering with substance use disorders, and so we created a campus drug court program for the University of Alabama, so that students that were getting in trouble were oftentimes just getting kicked out of school instead of giving them opportunities to learn from their life experiences.

Speaker 3: 7:42

So this drug court program was a diversion from being suspended, so it was very successful. And during that time I was also serving as a board member for Indian Rivers Behavioral Health, which is our parent agency, and so we were kind of in the works of trying to develop what they call a research proposal to get the funding for a crisis center to be brought here to Tuscaloosa. So all the other community health centers were all jockeying for the funding to get a crisis center in their city, and part of my job was to help make that happen. And then, once we actually got the funding for it, I was fortunate enough to get the opportunity to step down for my role as a board member and take on this position of creating and becoming the director of Hope Point.

Speaker 2: 8:33

Well, I'm gonna open a can of worms here and I'm gonna ask about misconceptions, of which there are. Probably we don't have enough time to talk about all of them, but can you pick out maybe a major misconception about the mental care industry, the mental health industry?

Speaker 3: 8:53

I think and I've been guilty of this too. So, again, the worst stigma just continues to pop through my mind is that when people think of people with behavioral health or mental health issues or substance use disorders, the first thing they picture is what the media tells us. It's like it's the homeless person living under the bridge with a paper bag. Those are the people. And, again, those people do exist, but that is like to the far end of the spectrum of what this place goes to. What I have encountered in my 20 years of working in this industry is that the disease of addiction whether it's mental health, behavior, health, suicide it does not discriminate to anyone. It is available to all. Everyone that I have encountered has had some kind of experience with mental health or substance use disorder. But they are rich, poor, black, white.

Speaker 3: 9:47

All over the world People are suffering with mental health issues and it has been very easy for us to just kind of add a sight, add a mind. So as long as they're in jail, they're out of our sight, out of our mind. That's how we've been dealing with it. But now that it's in the limelight, especially with a lot of the gun control conversations, is it the gun or is it the mental health? You know I'm not here to argue that point, but what I do know is that we have an ability to see that mental health care is as equally important as physical health care. And no one argues or gets upset with someone that they're when they're having a heart attack, even though that they've had years of poor nutrition.

Speaker 3: 10:30

But when someone's having a mental health problem, they're like what's wrong with you, you're crazy, you're all these things, and so that that's the misconception is that you have to have had a certain type of lifestyle or you've had to have terrible parents that created this problem.

Speaker 3: 10:46

And working in the school system as you have, you know that kids from all ranges of life have are suffering from anxiety, from depression, and currently in Western medicine we like to just throw medication at everything. As long as you can take this pill, that will solve the the symptom, but not the root cause. And a lot of the root causes are, you know this, a sense of disconnection from your peers, a sense of overwhelmingness that what am I going to do with the rest of my life? I just lost my job, I don't know how to be intimate with my spouse and I started getting internalized because we don't have this mechanism in place of how to deal with life without a quick fix, which is like medication or, like I said, just throwing a bandaid on something. So if it would be the one misconception, that do not believe for a minute that mental health is not affecting you in some way.

Speaker 2: 11:43

Yeah, I like to think of mental health as a condition akin to any chronic disease, for instance and I think it's overused of diabetes. There is a whole world of treatment that you have to make yourself available for in order to in order to live with or possibly get yourself to the point where you no longer need treatment for that disease. It is a matter of individual and family and societal commitment to it. Our brain dictates everything that we do and everything that we think and how we function on a day-to-day basis. I'm a big champion for a new vision for mental health care, as are many of our listeners, and this is a very serious stuff in my opinion. But I'm going to change the subject, because it's going to get real heavy here in a second and just ask you what you do for fun.

Speaker 3: 12:53

What do I do for fun? Well, I definitely love taking care of myself. So through my recovery journey we always have learned that first things first you've got to take care of you. Many of you and the listeners have always. If you've been on an airplane, you always know that if you have a child with you, they always tell you if the oxygen comes down from above, make sure you put the oxygen mask on yourself first, because we know that if we pass out, our children cannot carry us out of the plane but we can for our children. Again, always take care of yourself first.

Speaker 3: 13:26

So things I do for fun I love to exercise, I love to smoke cigars over here at R&R cigars, I love just fellow shipping with my neighbors, my good neighbors. But again, I really love just connecting with our community. I love being a part of service work and serving our community because that's kind of the baseline of my spirituality, that I'm blessed so that my life can't really have too much stress, that I have so I'm an abundance that I can give away. That kind of really keeps me humble and it also keeps me, you know, excited for the next part of this journey.

Speaker 2: 14:04

That's marvelous. Well, dr Garza, can you describe a hardship, a challenge that you've had in your life that has brought you to this place as a stronger and better person?

Speaker 3: 14:18

Absolutely so. 2012 was probably the hardest year of my life. It was the year that I lost my father. It was the year that I was having to make a major transition from leaving Nashville, tennessee, to move to Tuscaloosa, alabama, and change careers. Practically, I was at the tail end of my master's degree, so I was having to finish up that degree and there was just so much going on in my life that I just started to crumble. I ended up in the hospital with high blood pressure. I think it was like 212, over 130, something like that. It was just it was a ridiculous number.

Speaker 3: 15:03

And my mother, when I was young, had a brain aneurysm where she actually ended up in the hospital because of a burst in her vest on her brain, and so that's what I thought was happening to me, but it just ended up being a lot of stress and a lot of blood pressure issues, and so that was a moment where it really had me stop and reflect like why are you adding so much stress to your life when life is so precious and delicate? And the passing of my father allowed me to really kind of put things into perspective. What is important? Chasing a career, chasing a degree so that I can elevate my status. In the grand scheme, that's not a big deal. It's like am I being a good father to my children? Am I being a good husband to my wife? Am I being a worker amongst workers? Am I being a friend amongst friends? Or am I just constantly complaining about how miserable this life is?

Speaker 3: 15:56

And again, so that really was a great perspective for me, that when everything is at its breaking point is when that miracle happens. And I tell that to our clients all the time, like, don't stop before the miracle happens, because that's where you're going to learn what you're made of and who you have in your corner. And that's where I really love about Hope Point is that it is a place where you're going to find that. I just spoke with one of our clients yes, you guys, how are things going for you? He goes, man, I love it here, I feel wanted, I feel appreciated, and that's something I haven't felt in a very, very long time. And so, again, just a little bit of a nudge in that direction can really change the entire trajectory of a person's life.

Speaker 2: 16:43

Don't stop before the miracle happens. I wrote that down. That is. That is a powerful statement right there. That is, that is something I might. I might have that tattooed on my body.

Speaker 3: 16:57

Well, just to give it credit where credit is due, that comes specifically from our program of recovery and that is, and so those in recovery know that that is a staple in our discussions.

Speaker 2: 17:09

Well, what's the one thing you wish our listeners knew or you want to leave us with about Hope Point Crisis Center Crisis Care Center.

Speaker 3: 17:21

The one thing I want the listeners to know is that Hope Point and Indian Rivers Behavioral Health as a whole. You know one of the one of the gifts that I got from stepping down off the board Because again you're at the board level and you really have to see everything from a 50,000 foot angle. When I got down into the weeds with, you know the actual caregivers, we have some of the most compassionate and caring employees that they give everything they have to help folks and sometimes it's very it's, it's unrewarding work because a lot of a lot of it doesn't stick. You don't really get to see the fruits of your labor because it takes years before people start to recover. So what I really want our listeners to know is that you know there are people who come in day in and day out and they're available to help you in your moments of crisis when you don't know where to turn to. You know Indian Rivers and Hope Point are going to be there for your loved ones and so know that in the back of your mind, that we are in our. We are here in the community, but we also need your support. You know we need you to support us because Now sometimes we start to feel weary, we start to feel alone, where we don't feel like any of our community members support what we're doing, that it's not something that's important.

Speaker 3: 18:47

So if our community members have had experiences with mental health or have seen a loved one suffer with addiction or have lost a loved one to suicide, please join us in this mission work of helping others who are suffering. And the most powerful part of our ability to help folks is our story. And when I tell people all the time is don't, don't harbor that gift that can save someone else's life because you're ashamed of your past. That's why I can speak so freely about what happened in my past, because I'm no longer ashamed of it, because it's part of my story. Everybody has one. We only put the best parts of ourselves into the social media world. We only show it when we're on vacation. But we're all suffering and you don't have to suffer in silence. Indian Rivers, hope Point we're all here to help you, the sooner the better. Don't, don't wait till it's too late, but we're here to help any way that we can.

Speaker 2: 19:46

How can our listeners get ahold of you? How can they get ahold of Hope Point? Crisis care.

Speaker 3: 19:51

Absolutely so. There's two ways out. So we have our phone number is a Eryko 205 391 4000 and that will connect it directly to the front desk of Hope Point. But there is a national hotline number. It used to be the crisis suicide hotline number, which was a 10 digit number and no one can ever remember, especially when you're in crisis, so it is now a very reduced number. It's called 988. So if you're having a mental health crisis or you just need someone to talk, to dial 988 and you'll be connected to a behavior health professional and they'll be on the phone with you as long as you need them to kind of get you through the crisis and help coordinate some services that can help get you out of the situation that you're in.

Speaker 2: 20:41

Wonderful Dr Garza. It's been a real pleasure meeting you. Thank you for talking to me today.

Speaker 3: 20:47

Thank you for having me.

Speaker 1: 20:49

Thank you for listening to the Good Neighbor podcast Northport. To nominate your favorite local businesses to be featured on the show, go to gnpnorthportcom. That's gnpnorthportcom, or call 205-809-4910. Thank you.