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Your Rural Health Connection
Your Rural Health Connection, a podcast presented by Rural Health, Inc. (RHI), is designed with you in mind as it focuses on healthcare conversations that heal Southern Illinois communities. In each episode, you'll learn about a new and exciting program, service, or upcoming event in the region to help you and your family stay healthy. You'll hear from healthcare professionals at RHI and throughout the region and nation on topics that concern you most; all in a fun, lighthearted way.
Your Rural Health Connection
Awareness, Balance, and Support: Talking Mental Health and Alcohol Overuse
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In this episode of Your Rural Health Connection, you’ll meet Dennis Gade, Licensed Clinical Social Worker at Rural Health, Inc. Since May is Mental Health Awareness Month, we’ll be talking about how to keep a check on your own mental health — specifically as it relates to alcohol consumption and its overuse. We’ll discuss awareness, balance, and recognizing when it may be time to seek support.
Welcome to Your Road Health Connection, the podcast that links you to healthier living in Southern Illinois. Whether you're tuning in from somewhere in Southern Illinois or around the globe, thanks for taking a little time out of your day to join us. We're so glad you're here. This podcast, presented by Rural Health Incorporated, is all about you, your health, your community, and the resources that can help you live your best rural life. Our goal is to not just share what we do at Rural Health Incorporated, but to connect you with healthcare providers, services programs, health events, and much more available to you in Southern Illinois. I'm your host, Shauna Ryan, Director of Public Relations at Rural Health Incorporated. I've spent over 30 years working in rural healthcare, and one thing I've seen time and time again is how easy it is to feel disconnected from the care and resources that are actually available to us here in Southern Illinois. Well, that's exactly why this podcast exists. To keep you informed, to bridge those gaps, and to make navigating your healthcare a whole lot easier. So let's get started. Because better health begins with connection. In this episode of your Rural Health Connection, you'll meet Dennis Gade, licensed clinical social worker here at Rural Health Incorporated. Since May is Mental Health Awareness Month, we'll be talking with Dennis about how to help you keep a check on your own mental health, specifically as it relates to alcohol consumption and its overuse. We'll discuss awareness, balance, and recognizing when it may be time to seek support. We'll be back in 60 seconds.
SPEAKER_01Rural Health Incorporated is a not-for-profit organization serving Johnson, Massac, and Union Counties in Illinois, designated by the federal government as a Federally Qualified Health Center, or FQHC, whose mission is to provide quality services to all patients in need of health care while being committed to the overall health and well-being of the underserved.
SPEAKER_00Hi, this is Cindy Flam, Chief Executive Officer of Rural Health Inc. For over 40 years, many across Southern Illinois have entrusted us with their health and well-being. Rural Health Inc. provides numerous exceptional services tailored to you and your family across five clinics in Union, Johnson, and Massac counties. We work with most insurance carriers, Medicare, Medicaid, and we even provide sliding fee discounts, quality services for all, and committed to the underserved. That's Rural Health Inc. We specialize in you. Give us a call at 618-833-4471.
SPEAKER_02Welcome back to your Real Health Connection podcast. I'm Shauna Rhine, and we're so happy to have you with us today, listener. We're going to be talking about a pretty in-depth topic today here at Rural Health, and that is Mental Health Awareness Month, as well as talking about alcohol use disorders. And we've got our um one of our regional experts here with us today, Dennis Gade. He is a licensed clinical social worker here at Rural Health, Inc. Dennis, thank you so much for taking time out of your very, very busy day to talk with me today. I appreciate it.
SPEAKER_03Thanks for having me.
SPEAKER_02And um, you know, I I kind of shortened your title quite a bit there. Tell tell us who you are here, what you do, and give us that nice long title that we talked about before.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, so uh I got a lot of uh letters here because uh we're all about acronyms and human services. But uh so I like you said, I'm a LCSW, a licensed clinical clinical social worker. Um I'm also what they call a CADC. It's a certified alcohol and drug counselor for that's just for the state of Illinois.
SPEAKER_02Okay.
SPEAKER_03Um, but yep, that's that's me in a nutshell.
SPEAKER_02Oh my goodness. So how long have you been with rural health?
SPEAKER_03Um I'm hitting five years now with rural health. Uh actually it'll be December of this year. It'll be five years here. So okay.
SPEAKER_02So you've seen a lot over the last few years in terms of mental health in our region and and substance use and abuse in our region. So yeah, that's that's why we wanted to have you on today. Um now, before we dive into our topic for today, tell us a little bit about what you do here.
SPEAKER_03Um, so here primarily we're doing mental health, uh, basically outpatient counseling. Um, pretty much kind of a little bit of everything. Um, we see some drug addiction, we see lots of uh what I would call severe mental illness, um, also just kind of a lot of anxiety, depression, post-traumatic stress disorder, things of that nature. Um, so we kind of run the gambit here. We kind of cover a little bit of everything. Um so yeah, mostly on an outpatient individual counseling uh basis.
SPEAKER_02Okay. So so do patients have to have a referral for care here? They do.
SPEAKER_03They do, yep. Uh it they're not usually too difficult to get, they just establish with uh primary care or behavioral health, and then they can get a referral to pretty well anywhere within rural health. Um and that includes us.
SPEAKER_02So okay. And at what age do you start seeing patients?
SPEAKER_03We are 18 and up here. We we don't see anybody under the age of 18. We're just not licensed and set up for that. So we see 18 and above.
SPEAKER_02So for uh for those who are younger than, do you work closely with other providers throughout our region, other agencies and organizations to get them that care?
SPEAKER_03We do, yep. Uh Centerstone's a big partner. Arrowleaf, of course, is a is a big one too. Um, Shawnee Health, Gateway, all the different places in the region, depending on what the client's needs are. If it's more um addiction related, it might be Gateway or Center Stone. If it's more mental health, it might be Arrowleaf, something like that.
SPEAKER_02So Okay, okay, that's great. So you've got a lot of resources that folks can turn to for additional support. Um, even for those who might be over 18, you do have that additional support available to them. So that's exciting.
SPEAKER_03Also, other places offer, they may offer a little more than we like groups or or like group therapy, something like that. Stuff that we don't have a lot of here. There might be other options for that too. So we work, yeah, we work with the other providers to kind of get people where they want or need to go. So great.
SPEAKER_02So the starting point would just be with with the the individual's healthcare provider, and that could even be healthcare providers here at rural health, right?
SPEAKER_03Right. Yep, yep, definitely, definitely. Because we do have they just need to be seeing, kind of do a little, we do kind of a little evaluation, kind of see what the needs are, and then we kind of either we can refer in or refer out depending on what they need.
SPEAKER_02So oh, that's exciting. That is exciting. Well, a lot you do a lot here every day. I know that you're busy and and and going and talking with people and working with all these agencies. Um let's go ahead and talk about something that that we've been concerned about over the last couple of months, and that's alcohol use disorder. Um right now, it's uh listener, you're probably you may be listening to this in May. If not, if you're listening to it at another time, that's fine. May is mental health awareness month. So we are wanting to focus on uh this particular topic and make sure that we get that information now. So before we dive into it too much, exactly what is alcohol use disorder and does it is it does it go by other names? What might people recognize that as?
SPEAKER_03Yeah, you can you you'll probably hear it referred to a lot of different things, alcohol abuse, alcohol addiction, of course, you know, you'll kind of hear the less um flavorful terms for it, you know, addict or or drunk, things like that. But but typically in this, you know, we're we're talking about alcohol use disorder, or more vaguely, we could lump it in under substance use disorder, you know.
SPEAKER_02Okay, so how is it different from alcoholism, or is that the same thing?
SPEAKER_03Well, they're they're a little bit different. Um, abuse is really more kind of a pattern of unhealthy drinking, but it hasn't led to those serious consequences yet. Um really what we're looking at, and I I try to hammer this point home with pretty well everybody that comes in, is you do not have to drink every day to have an alcohol issue. I hear that quite a bit where they're like, Well, Dennis, I can't have an alcohol issue because I don't drink every day. Or a big one is I go to work every day, I pay my light bill, I do those things. Those people might be kind of more under the abuse category. When we get into addiction, it's when it starts to affect all those things that I just mentioned in a negative way. You might stop paying your bills, you might be struggling at work, you might be avoiding uh other obligations. Um, there's cravings, there's you know, trying to stop but can't, or cut down but can't. Um, so it's if I could sum it up, it's the the difference is abuse, we're still kind of in control a little bit, whereas addiction, we're really not at that point. So when we get to the addiction level is when we really want people to come in and start seeking that treatment, or you know, well, I would I would make the argument at the abuse, we we want to try to get people in as as much as possible because it's such a slippery slope, and and if we can um interrupt that cycle earlier, um we tend to see better outcomes that way. The the truth is once we get to an addiction stage, it's not that it's you know not possible to do, but it's much more difficult to do treatment at that point.
SPEAKER_02Um, very good.
SPEAKER_03Okay, so earlier earlier intervention the better. I mean, most people, to be honest though, most people don't show up in treatment until it becomes an addiction issue. Um, but we like to try to get people in if we can in the abuse stage of things, okay, or misuse stage of things.
SPEAKER_02So and that's smart. Yeah, that that that makes a whole lot more sense than what I was thinking. You want to get them in there before it becomes too big of an issue, so it doesn't become too big of an issue.
SPEAKER_03In a perfect world, yes. But unfortunately, most people don't realize that it's an issue until it becomes an addiction, right? Because of those other, you know, I'm going to work, I'm I'm paying my mortgage, I'm, you know, doing the things, right? But but maybe abusing alcohol is part of that for them too.
SPEAKER_02Okay. So what are some other signs and symptoms then of alcohol abuse or addiction that that people need to be aware of?
SPEAKER_03Um, so lots of things that we kind of said, uh, cravings are a big one, um, failed attempts to stop or cut down. Um, you could be looking at, you know, neglecting obligations at home or at work, um, you know, continued consumption despite health issues, um, you know, legal issues, you know, people that get maybe multiple DUIs or things like that. We could be looking at a substance use issue at that point. Um, basically it's just continued use despite negative consequences, if we really kind of wanted to sum it up.
SPEAKER_02Okay. Um and that, and that can you know, I can I can see when somebody reaches that level, they may not even be aware that it's a big deal or they may just it reach a point where they don't care or what have you. So it's important for others around them to say, look, this is something we need to get taken care of because it's affecting this, this, and this.
SPEAKER_03Right, right. So and typically, like I said, people kind of judge it based on, well, I'm still doing A, B, and C, right? I'm still going to still got the the bills paid. I'm not, yeah, you know, sleeping under a bridge or something like that. And it's like, well, guys, we don't have to get to that point for it to be an issue, right?
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_03Um, yeah.
SPEAKER_02Have my good days and bad days. You know, good day, I'm able to do what I need to do. So you you you touched on health issues. What are some health issues associated with this?
SPEAKER_03Oh, alcohol has tons of health, um, heart issues, high blood pressure. Of course, you know, people are familiar with like cirrhosis, liver issues. Um, one that I think gets overlooked a lot, uh, you'll hear it referred to as wet brain Warnicke's disease. It's basically where your brain starts to, for lack of a better way to put it, kind of turn to mush because you've drinking too much alcohol.
SPEAKER_02Really?
SPEAKER_03Yeah, it's it's I wouldn't say it's super common, but it's not unheard of either. Um, that would be years of heavy drinking, you know, it wouldn't be somebody that's casually drinking, but um, that's one that gets overlooked a lot. Um, of course, diabetes, heart issues, uh kind of all of the above. Alcohol causes a lot of uh health problems, it's a big cause of health issues for sure.
SPEAKER_02Oh my goodness. So I mean, and and we know that we know that alcohol attributes to cancer and it and all the things that you've mentioned. We understand that. Um so when you're looking at at someone who's going through these types of things, um who who are we seeing in our region? I mean, what what typically are the demographics of those that misuse and use alcohol? What are we seeing?
SPEAKER_03So in our region, it and probably this is true mostly nationwide as well, it it tends to be higher in men. Um uh mostly kind of the younger crowd, maybe between about the ages of 18 to 30, somewhere in that 35, maybe somewhere in that realm of thing. Um, an interesting point though is while that's the highest demographic that uses alcohol, the highest demographic that has issues and potentially dies from alcohol use is people in the 40, 40 to 65-year-old range.
SPEAKER_02Okay.
SPEAKER_03Um because usually by that point you've been drinking for 20 years and the health problems start to show up at that point, you know. So um, and uh one other thing to mention, like Native Americans tend to have a higher um alcohol use disorder and uh veterans as well. We we see a lot of that too. Um alcohol abuse and drug abuse is high amongst veterans as well. So goodness.
SPEAKER_02Well, and we know that in our region we see a high level because of you know, maybe have an inability to have a job or whatever the case may be. So do you see our part of the country as being kind of like a hot spot for this? Because we tend to have more going on with us through here.
SPEAKER_03Yes, actually. And it interesting factoid, the DEA has actually listed our reach, our entire region, basically from St. Louis South, and it covers kind of the three or four state area there, like Missouri Boot Heel, Kentucky, Indiana, stuff like that, as a as a hot spot or a high-risk area, right? Um, it it tends to be linked to a several things. It's it's poverty is a big one, um, you know, lower incomes, lower educations, um, higher points of like jobs that are physically demanding, construction work, tree trimming, farming is a big one, you know, things like that. Um, and in rural areas, it tends to be more of a cultural thing. Um, if you've ever listened to any country song, it'll tell beer, drinking beer and farming go hand in hand, right? So um it's just kind of a cult, you know, you you work hard all day, and what do you do? You go to the bar with some friends and and tie a few on, you know. So um it's very much a cultural thing as well. Not that it's not in rural areas, but it seems to be a little more of a cultural thing in rural areas for sure.
SPEAKER_02Right. Yeah, alcohol tends to go along with celebrations and that yeah, baseball games and whatever, whatever, right? Right. If you got somebody that's got an issue already, that just makes it even worse. So and and yeah, it's something to consider there. Um now as far as um you know, we've talked about how common it is. We've talked about the how you know the causes. What are some of the treatments available to to someone who is going through alcohol abuse, addiction, what have you? What are what are some things we offer here at rural health?
SPEAKER_03Well, rural health, we we do mostly outpatient stuff. Um so it'd be individual counseling. Um, we can focus on uh kind of more mental health, what we call CBT, cognitive behavioral, meaning we're looking at thoughts and feelings and how they kind of contribute to the choices that you make, right? Um, but for overall the area, we could look at a residential treatment if it's a really serious case. Um, there's also medications that we can prescribe, like an antibuce or something like that, that makes you very, very sick if you drink alcohol. So it's kind of a deterrent there, right? Um, so there's a few options for that, but here at Rural Health, we do we do some medication, but mostly outpatient individual therapy for that.
SPEAKER_02Okay. Now, what would you say? Sorry about that, trying to turn down my phone. Uh hey, that's part of working in the environment, right? Right, right. Um what would you say to to someone who's who's concerned about someone else and and and and helping them to get the care they need? What are your what are your suggestions for that? What what do you say? As far as that mom calls you and says, Hey, I've got a concern about my kid. How do you go about that?
SPEAKER_03Well, just to get them into treatment, you mean? Is that yeah. I get I get those calls a lot. Um, unfortunately, there there's unless it really is the patient that really wants to seek treatment, our options kind of get limited if they if they don't see it as an issue, if they don't see it as a problem. Um, one of the things I would say is is you know, don't confront them and be aggressive, like you're doing this, you're doing that, you know, that that's gonna turn them off, right? It's it's uh the best thing I can tell people is try to take a supportive approach. Um, you know, try not to be confrontational, even though that can be hard, because usually by the time you get to that point, it's causing issues, right? And it's caused a lot of issues within families and things like that too. So um kind of a you know, trying to kind of point out to them, hey, these are our concerns, you know, this is what we're seeing. It it's really hard with with substance abuse and especially alcohol, because most people they don't see it as an issue because of those other factors, right? I I'm working, I'm I'm doing my thing, and so I just like to have beers after work or whatever, and that's a really hard sell sometimes for people, unless it's causing major issues there. So um, I would say maybe take a more supportive approach, not so much, you know. Have you ever watched that show intervention? I I don't know that I would do things like that necessarily because that can turn a lot of people away.
SPEAKER_02Um well, and the thing that you know, we talked earlier about what are some of the the the primary causes that we see of someone who has an alcohol issue. We want people to know that this can happen to anybody. You don't have to be just of assertion, certain socioeconomic status or you know, education level or what have you. It can happen to anybody at any time, right?
SPEAKER_03Anybody. I tell everybody if you have a if you have a functioning brain in your head, you are susceptible to addiction. And it and that's substances across the board, right? Alcohol is probably one of the easier ones because there's less stigma attached to it, because it's so available, you know. I can walk into any gas station in the area and buy pretty well whatever I want, right? Um, so yeah, definitely that that would be something to look out for too is there's just not the stigma attached to alcohol use that there is to other drugs. And so it's just easier to to fall into that, right?
SPEAKER_02Right.
SPEAKER_03Plus the legality of it, right? Even people where if you work for the government, let's say, and all the other drugs are illegal, but you can drink alcohol, well, there you go.
SPEAKER_02Right, exactly. Yeah. And and listener, we we want you to understand as you're listening to this and you're you're thinking, well, I I drink a beer on occasion. What's wrong with that? We're not judging you for making the decisions that you're you're making. What we want you to understand is that we are here to help you if it reaches a point to where there's no turning back for you, or if it's impacting your life in a serious, serious way. We want you to know that Dennis and others who are here are available to help you through that if you're needing to do it. And and there's no judgment in it. Like you said, you know, there's there's usually stigma attached to uh having an alcohol abuse or an addiction issue. We don't show that here. We we treat everybody equal and level, and and as we like to say here, meet you where you are. So, Dennis, I think that was important, you know, just we want people to realize this can happen to anybody.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, that's the big thing, is is there's no, you know, we we have populations that might be a little higher risk, sure, but I I have worked with people across the spectrum, you know, economically, uh regionally, it it crosses racial lines, you know, gender, all that. It does not matter. I have seen across the board. I I've seen people that made seven figures a year, I've seen people that had nothing, you know, it's it's it's and everybody in between, right?
SPEAKER_02So exactly.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, it really, it really does not discriminate. It really does not. So right.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. So so listener, if you're if you're reaching that point of no return, we're here. We can help you with that, and uh, we'll get you through that if you're not able to make it through on your own. Um, Dennis, is there anything else you would like to talk about on that particular topic?
SPEAKER_03Yeah, I think to touch on something that you said, you know, the like the listener that might be like, Well, I I drink a cake, you know, I might go out to the bars on the weekends, I might have a few beers at home. Yeah, keep one thing in mind 90% of people roughly can can drink socially or casually, and it's not an issue for them. Most the vast majority of people that do drink alcohol don't have an issue with it. Right. Um, it we don't have an exact number for that, but it's probably right around 10% of people that actually develop an alcohol or substance use disorder. So there is definitely a difference between social and casual drinking and abuse or addiction, right? And so most people are not abusing alcohol. And even like your college kids, they might be abusing alcohol, but the vast majority of them don't become addicted to alcohol, right? So it's it's a risk, don't get me wrong, it's a risky thing, but it's not it's not a guarantee if you're like drinking a couple of beers, you'd be like, Oh, I'm I'm gonna turn into you know get an alcohol disorder. Like, no, it's not quite like that. There's a lot of other factors that go into that too.
SPEAKER_02So in my mind, and you can correct me if if I'm wrong on this, in my mind, I see it. If you're just a social drinker, you can walk away, you can make that personal decision and physical decision to stop, and it doesn't impact you for somebody who's reached that level to where it's become abuse, addiction, what have you, stopping is not an option. Not not the bet, not you know, an easy option, I guess.
SPEAKER_03Exactly. It's it's typically characterized by loss of control, right? It's loss of control. I I told myself I was gonna cut down or stop, and every time I tried to, I find myself doing the exact same thing, right? Um, I break all the rules that I set. For myself, and I might start, you know, like I said, missing obligations or or or you know, work performance suffers. I'm spending all my money on it, you know, something like that. Right. Um, so like I said, those are usually maybe about 10% of the cases.
SPEAKER_02So yeah. Okay, good. Um, let's kind of switch gears for just a minute if we can, Dennis. And if we need to come back to this topic, we will. Um, but like we said, we are heading into May. Actually, this it is May. When this comes out, this will be a good one.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, I was gonna say tomorrow, tomorrow's May 1st, weirdly enough.
SPEAKER_02Tomorrow's May 1st. So we're heading into mental health awareness month. Um, what is on your mind? What is on the mind of uh the behavioral providers here at Rural Health as we head into May? As far as just like overall mental health meaning, or yeah, what what are you what are some of your concerns that you're seeing for our region? What are some what are some ways that you deal with mental health in our region? Some some uh um some you know, what are some things that you see? How can people get in touch with you? Just kind of the whole gamut there.
SPEAKER_03Okay, okay. Well, the biggest thing I would say to anybody is is mental health, as you have probably heard in the news or other things. It it's it's on the rise across the board, right? Our our area is not unique to that. It's it's we we're seeing an increase in mental health and substance use disorders across the board. Um, COVID was really a uh a hard one for that. That addiction and and mental health issues really took off during COVID. And and I think we've come down from that some, but uh we are not back to where we were pre-COVID, I can tell you that much. Um, there's still a little bit of a uh holdover from that. Um, the biggest things we're seeing is probably anxiety, of course, is probably number one. Depression's not too far behind that. Um, of course, we're looking at like post-traumatic stress disorder is a big one. Um and then you know, kind of get into the more severe, you know, you're bipolar and stuff like that. But the biggest ones I would say is anxiety, depression, and post-traumatic stress are probably the top three for me.
SPEAKER_02Are you seeing that as an increase from what we saw pre-COVID?
SPEAKER_03Um, depression and anxiety for sure. Really? Depression and anxiety for sure. It really spiked during COVID. And it's like I said, it's probably come down some, but I don't think we're back to baseline with that. I think it's kind of elevated still with that. Um yeah, that's probably the biggest ones that we're seeing right now.
SPEAKER_02My concern right now is with that generation of teenagers that went through COVID and all that they dealt with. Are are you seeing an increase in in that following age group there?
SPEAKER_03Yeah, yeah, it's kind of the defining, you know, like my generation was 9-11, right? And and the kids after me, their generate COVID. You know, COVID was kind of the defining moment of for their generation, I feel like. So yeah, we're we're still seeing quite a bit of that. Um, and we're we're seeing kids that uh, for lack of a better way to put it, don't don't have the social abilities that they once had. Um, they sat at home on a computer for two years, and when they went back to school, socializing was and and interacting appropriately in social situations became a pretty big struggle for a lot of for a lot of kids after being at home for a year and a half, two years, you know.
SPEAKER_02So um yeah, because they didn't have that outlet, they didn't have those people and resources that they were normally talking to and having those interconnections. Yeah, I can see that.
SPEAKER_03And it relates to mental health because that, you know, social situation, you know, struggling socially can also lead to anxiety and depression, especially in the younger crowd. That tends to be, you know, your your teenagers and and young adults, that tends to be a really, really big one or social anxiety.
SPEAKER_02Uh exactly. Now, I you know, we do things like the podcasts and we we we reach out with our media and stuff.
SPEAKER_03Um, but is rural health doing anything uh in a extra, maybe in schools and in in community settings to get people to get that age group and to help them or or just um I know we've reached out to several schools in the area, kind of doing like a little, I would call it like an awareness thing, you know, kind of hey, you know, kind of like what we're doing here, but more for high school kids or whatever, you know, hey, here's the dangers of this stuff, you know. This is what happens if you, you know, drink too much alcohol, smoking marijuana is a big thing now in the state of Illinois, like since it's legal, you know, like those types, you know, we kind of try to do some educational stuff, I would say. Um, but probably maybe we could do a little more outreach, maybe, because that's that's a big demographic of people to kind of target is the you know, high school kids and early college age kids, you know.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. I mean, we and that is something we need to look at. I've made a little note. We're gonna we're gonna try to work on that a little bit more because you know you mentioned we've got other agencies throughout our region that that work well with the kids and do things with the kids. So we do have partners that we can reach out, and I'm sure they're all doing the same thing. They're all trying to get into those school districts, they're trying to get into the the colleges and and and work it. I know it because I'm seeing them doing it, and I know we do it too. But like you said, there's just so much that we're still trying to navigate through and those kids are still trying to adjust to.
SPEAKER_03So yeah, we're still playing catch up from a few years ago. Exactly. To be honest, we were kind of already behind the curve on that before COVID, you know, so that really didn't help us a ton.
SPEAKER_02Well, you know, when you had something like COVID that kind of dropped in our laps, none of us were prepared for that. Yeah, it's it's not like we were making plans for it a couple years ahead of time, it just we were navigating through something that we hadn't at that folks alive today have never gone through. So just understand how that works. Yeah, that that's just normal. Um and so when it comes to to receiving um mental health support at rural health, um, again, does that come through uh doctors' referrals? Do we have patients that just walk in our doors and say, hey, I need something?
SPEAKER_03How does that it typically come through doctor's referrals? Um, we can get people that that walk in, but they would have to walk in and establish and get either seen by behavioral health or primary care, and then they get a referral to us. So we're we're we're different in that regard. We're not a, I would say, a traditional counseling agency because we we don't take walk-ins or you know, it's all kind of internal referrals, but somebody could walk in and say, hey, I want to get established, they see a primary care behavioral, and then they could come to us. Okay.
SPEAKER_02So they can come and talk with one of our doctors or one of our staff that way, our providers, and that provider would do something of a needs assessment with them.
SPEAKER_03Is that yeah, a basic one probably. Yeah, and just you know, kind of seeing, hey, you know, is it are you concerned about your alcohol use, drug use, you know, mental health, you know, what are we kind of looking at here? And then then based on that, they send their behavioral health or to us, sometimes both. Um all right.
SPEAKER_02So, listener, if if you're if you're if you don't have a healthcare provider and you're looking for one, we do have them at rural health. Um, but again, this could be a door for you to get in. And and you we have uh behavioral providers at each of our five clinics, is that correct?
SPEAKER_03Um yes, I believe so. I'm not a hundred percent sure about the Dongola clinic, but I think I think we do for the most part, yeah.
SPEAKER_02So some folks can definitely get referred in in the re through the in the region to the sites and go forward.
SPEAKER_03Right. And one thing to know, it's not so much alcohol, but if you're having like an opioid, if you're uh you know struggling with an opioid use disorder or something, we do also do the MAT, M-A-R, you might hear it, referred to medication-assisted treatment um for like Suboxone and subutext, sublicate, things like that for basically an opioid replacement therapy. Helps you get through the withdrawals, can kind of help you get into recovery just a little bit, right? So uh we also offer that too. It's not so much for alcohol. Like I said, we've got a few things they can prescribe for alcohol use, but it's kind of more opioid-based.
SPEAKER_02But okay, all right, very good. And and listener, just so you know, we do have another podcast um on the medication assisted treatment program. You can check that out uh on with us as well. Okay, very good. Um, we've covered a lot of different things today. Dennis, is there anything else that that you want to share that we've not not discussed?
SPEAKER_03I I think the big thing for me is if you feel like alcohol or or other drugs might be an issue for you, the the best advice I could give you right now is don't wait. Um, these these issues don't tend to get better on their own. Um, addiction is a lot of things, but it's it's progressive first and foremost, meaning it only goes one way and that's up, right? Um, so if you feel if you're questioning it, if you're like, man, you know, I I just feel like maybe I I drink a little too much, or or you know, a big one now is my marijuana consumption is maybe too high. That's a pretty popular one now. Don't wait. Um, because that that tends to just get worse over time. So, so reach out, you know. Like I said, we're we're ready to we're ready to roll if you need us.
SPEAKER_02So very good. Well, Dennis, thank you so much for your time today. I and and I appreciate you you you chatting with me about this. This is a very important topic, I think, for our region.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, it's huge. Yeah, it's it's a big issue for sure. We we see a lot of it, and like I said, we're not unique in that regard, but unfortunately, here we we have a little higher rates of that than maybe other parts of the country do. So okay.
SPEAKER_02All right, well, really good. Well, well, thank you again. And I'd I'd like to get with you over the next year or so just to kind of see if we're seeing those numbers from COVID. Maybe we're seeing things go down. Hopefully, we will. So we'll we'll touch back on that maybe in a year or so and just kind of see where we are. Um definitely. But but in the meantime, how can folks get in touch with you?
SPEAKER_03Um, they can call here at the clinic. Um, I me personally, I'm I'm in Anna, uh, Viana, and Goreville. So I kind of split time between the three places. Um, they could always contact me directly, or you could just contact the the main Anna number. And if you need to get in touch with a provider, you know, you want to set something up, I would just call the main Anna number. Um, but you can also call me directly or or you know, get in touch with us that way too. So okay, very good.
SPEAKER_02And just so you know, uh that number is 618-833471. 618-833471, and they will get you to Dennis.
SPEAKER_03Yep, or or they'll send you to wherever you they think would be the best fit for you for to get you established with a primary care or something like that.
SPEAKER_02Exactly. All right, gotta have that starting point. That's great. Well, Dennis, thanks again. I appreciate it.
SPEAKER_03No problem. Thanks for having me.
SPEAKER_02Very good. Well, listener, thank you so much for joining us today. And uh, for this episode of your rural health connection, it's so good to have you with us. If you'd like more information about alcohol use disorder or other services that we provide here at Rural Health, just give us a call. Again, our number is 618-833-4471. You can also visit us online at ruralhealthinc.org. Uh, you can also check us out on Facebook, Instagram, and you can watch this podcast if you, you know, if you're not watching it with us right now and you want to see what Dennis looks like, so you can get familiar with him, uh, just go ahead and visit our YouTube channel and uh you'll be able to get to know him even a little bit better.
SPEAKER_03Hopefully my voice didn't scare anybody away.
SPEAKER_02So no, no. Dennis, you are an awesome guy, so I don't see that being an issue at all.
SPEAKER_03I appreciate that.
SPEAKER_02You know what? You you've got the personality for the job that you're doing, and I'm sure that your patients really appreciate it.
SPEAKER_03We hope so. We we try to help in any way that we can, and hopefully we're making a dent in this stuff, I think.
SPEAKER_02So I think so. I think you're doing a fabulous job, and that's what you gotta do. You just gotta keep checking at it, right?
SPEAKER_03That's it. One one step at a time, so it's a it's a tough sled out there for sure. I would say that much. It is uh the environment for drug and alcohol addiction is pretty higher at the moment. It's it's not an easy time out there for folks.
SPEAKER_02Well. You gotta keep going what you can, and you're doing a great job. I know you're gonna be able to do it.
SPEAKER_03I preach.
SPEAKER_02Alright, well that's gonna wrap up this episode tomorrow. This year at Real Health Incorporated, go out and make it a great day.