Navigating Mental Health and Addiction Treatment
Show Notes
Host and licensed therapist Paige Bond speaks with Whitney Emmert-Bush, a resource director specializing in mental health resources and addiction treatment in Florida. Whitney discusses the critical role of resource directors in helping families find appropriate mental health and substance use treatments.
This episode covers the process of entering treatment, determining the right level of care, the importance of family involvement, and selecting treatment centers. She also emphasizes the necessity of continued care after initial treatment and building support systems for continued recovery.
Whitney is a helper and a connector! She has been working in the behavioral health field since 2018 connecting individuals struggling with SUD and MH to find treatment and support. She is passionate about helping people connect, restore, and strengthen critical relationships and enjoy their lives again.
01:33 The Vital Role of Resource Directors in Mental Health
03:41 Navigating the Treatment Process: From Assessment to Admission
06:01 Understanding Residential Treatment
11:22 Family Involvement and Communication During Treatment
15:06 The Importance of Support for Families Outside Treatment
22:21 Post-Treatment: Navigating Life After Residential Care
27:07 Choosing the Right Treatment Facility
31:15 The Therapist's Role in Treatment Referral and Client Support
33:16 Final Thoughts and Resources for Getting Started
Connect with resources that Whitney mentioned
Connect with Paige Bond
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Facebook: @paigebondcoaching
TikTok: @paigebondcoaching
Website: https://paigebond.com
Paige Bond hosts the Stubborn Love podcast, is a Licensed Marriage Therapist, and a Polyamory Relationship Coach. Her mission is to help people-pleasing millennials navigate non-monogamy so they can tame their jealousy and love with ease. Her own journey from feeling lonely, insecure, and jealous to feeling empowered and reassured is what fuels her passion to help other people-pleasers to conquer jealousy and embrace love.
Free Jealousy Workbook:
http://www.paigebond.com/calm-the-chaos-jealousy-workbook-download
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https://www.paigebond.com/people-pleasing-workbook
Disclaimer: This podcast and communication through our email are not meant to serve as professional advice or therapy. If you are in need of mental health support, you are encouraged to connect with a licensed mental health professional to receive the support needed.
Mental Health Resources: National Suicide Prevention Lifeline: 1-800-273-8255SAMHSA’s National Helpline: 1-800-662-HELP (4357)Crisis Text Line: Text HOME to 741741 for free, 24/7 crisis counseling.
Intro music by Coma-Media on pixabay.com
Transcript
(generated by AI - please excuse errors)
[00:00:00] Paige Bond: Welcome back to another episode of stubborn love. I'm your host, Paige Bond. And today on the show, we have a very special guest, Whitney Emmert Bush, who is a resource director in mental health resources and addiction treatment here in the state of Florida. So I'm really excited to talk about how to navigate the system of going into treatment and how to find the right resources for you and if your partners having trouble with these things, We're going to have a really good conversation today about navigating that whole system.
So Whitney, thank you so much for being here. Can you introduce yourself to the listeners and talk a little bit about your background, how you became this big resource person?
[00:00:44] Whitney Emmert-Bush, Resource Director in Mental Health and Addiction Treatment: Sure. Yeah. Thank you so much for having me. I'm excited to be able to share a little bit about navigating the mental health and substance use world. For me, I've been doing this particular job since 2018. And prior to that I worked with folks with special needs, with autism some more acute mental health diagnoses.
And throughout that experience, I kind of learned that there was a lack of knowledge around resources as far as like what's available for adults and children who are struggling so that kind of helped to guide me. Through figuring out that this was a type of job that is actually available in the mental health and behavioral health world, which is really cool.
And then I kind of fell into it that way. And so now I, I get to share resources and help families to connect and find therapists or psychiatrists or residential treatment or what have you so that they aren't feeling like they have to do it alone because it is a lot. It can be confusing and overwhelming and having people.
Who do jobs like mine to kind of take some of that heavy lifting is great for families and I love doing it. So.
[00:01:59] Paige Bond: And it's great for therapists. Yeah. Yeah. I'm sure it's great.
[00:02:03] Whitney Emmert-Bush, Resource Director in Mental Health and Addiction Treatment: Yeah. Probably very helpful for therapists too, because you guys can't get everywhere to meet everyone. And there are lots of people in the world that do my role specifically and we do get to go everywhere because that's literally all our job is, is to go and meet therapists and, and doctors and, and see hospitals and treatment centers and kind of be able to relay that back to therapists like you so that you can share it with your clients. So,
[00:02:30] Paige Bond: yeah. And I really appreciate too. I know we've had a lot of different conversations outside of, you know, traditional mental health, like talk therapy about All the other alternatives are out there.
I know that you just have a lot of knowledge or get connected with people who have access to maybe alternative treatments that could really be helpful to mental health. And so I love having you as a resource.
[00:02:53] Whitney Emmert-Bush, Resource Director in Mental Health and Addiction Treatment: Yeah, it's actually, it's so cool because Before I went into this role, I didn't know that all of this existed.
Initially I knew that crisis stabilization was a thing because I had a loved one who experienced that. And I knew that therapists and psychiatrists were a thing, but I didn't know How many different types of therapists how many different types of modalities there were and in this role I've learned there are just so many different options for people To help meet their needs and it's it's really cool to know that that's out there.
But I mean a normal, typical person who's not in this field wouldn't know that. So, you know, it's, it's cool to have folks like me out there doing that to help families to learn that. It's like, oh, okay, well maybe you could do this type of therapy that might help, or maybe you meet with this therapist.
So yeah, it's, it's really neat.
[00:03:41] Paige Bond: Yeah, so I want to switch gears and talk a little bit about navigating that process. You know, if someone is needing something more intense than traditional outpatient counseling, and they're needing to maybe come into intensive outpatient, partial hospitalization or residential treatment, what is like the first step in that process?
[00:04:05] Whitney Emmert-Bush, Resource Director in Mental Health and Addiction Treatment: So typically the first step is going to be meeting with your outpatient therapist. Truthfully, they're going to be the best, determinant in what your next step should be after that. most of the people that I work with are working with a therapist or a psychiatrist, so a lot of the families that find me have found me through that, That network there and maybe their therapist is recommending a higher level of care.
And so for what that means for folks who are not familiar with that is a higher level of care is just like you said, it's going to be either intensive outpatient, it's going to be partial hospitalization, which may or may not have a living component involved in it where it might, you might just be going to a clinical building versus living on campus and doing clinical that way.
And then there's residential, and then there's also inpatient stabilization. So therapists are a really big part of determining what level of care is going to be most appropriate for you. And if you're an individual who doesn't have a therapist and you might be questioning whether you or a loved one needs to seek out some additional help there are resources available to help you determine that.
So a lot of Sometimes like an inpatient hospital, they can do level of care assessments, a psychologist can do a level of care assessment, and basically they're just going to go through several different assessments with you to help determine, okay, is this someone who needs residential or is this someone who just needs to continue going to outpatient and maybe doing like twice a week sort of thing.
So definitely relying on therapists as a first stepping stone is really important to the whole process.
[00:05:44] Paige Bond: I really love how you kind of gave two different paths for people who may already be in mental health treatment with a therapist, or if they're not, where they can go to be able to see what category they might fall into as the best kind of care for them.
So that's really great to know. So let's walk through the process and say someone is coming into treatment for maybe addiction or a severe mental health crisis that they're experiencing and, and they decide that they need that higher level of care, have the assessment let's go with the idea that maybe they need a residential and that's determined for them.
Can you talk a little bit about what the process is like for the client themselves and maybe also the family members or partners who are involved?
[00:06:34] Whitney Emmert-Bush, Resource Director in Mental Health and Addiction Treatment: Sure. So in like an assessment process or an admissions process for a residential treatment center is going to be pretty much the same wherever you're going depending on the facility, but admissions is always going to be your first stop.
When you call into admissions, or maybe you're talking to someone like me, what they're going to do is they're going to kind of assess what your needs are. And they're, you know, trying to determine are you in need of a facility for a complex mental health need? Are you in need of a facility for a substance use support?
You know, do you need an all male facility, an all female facility? You know, what does your, your background in treatment look like? What have you been through before? And through this assessment, they're going to kind of determine if they're going to be the right fit. And I say that because there are so many different options for treatment centers. There are so many, and every single one does a different thing. And it's great because you're able to have a lot of choices. And you know that there's going to be the right fit for you somewhere. So this assessment process for admissions is really determining if they are the right fit for you and if you are the right fit for them.
Because the last thing that you want to happen is you go to a facility and the groups are not what's right for you, the therapists aren't what's right for you, the, the rest of the milieu is not what's right for you. So that's the first and most important step in admissions is doing that assessments with the admissions team.
So depending on who you're talking to that assessment could be like a quick 30 minute assessment. It could be an hour what have you, but it's, it's really just there to help determine next steps and if that place is going to be right for you. Once you get approval on that end then they typically are going to talk about the financial piece.
And that piece is going to be, you know, whether you want to utilize insurance whether you want to private pay. Things like that. And then after that, they're going to kind of determine. Okay, you know, if you're coming into us, Are you going to start with detox and then do residential? Are you able to come in and just start off with residential?
Maybe you're going to be more appropriate for PHP. So there's different steps the admissions process and Depending on the facility, that could either move very quickly, or it could take a couple of days, because there are a lot of moving pieces. But that's typically how it goes. You know, you call, you do the assessment, you do the financial piece, you determine what level you're going to step into, and then they'll schedule the admission, and then you'll come So that's the, that's the first Admissions part.
And then there's, of course, more to follow after that, but I don't know if that answered your question, but
[00:09:10] Paige Bond: no, it did. So it sounds like the beginning process is still a lot more of that kind of place of assessing what is best care for this person coming in and not so much treatment for the mental health immediately.
It's just seeing where you're at. So you can know what the next best step of treatment is. Yeah?
[00:09:28] Whitney Emmert-Bush, Resource Director in Mental Health and Addiction Treatment: exactly. Yep. Okay. Right. I mean, because residential treatment is depending on where you're going, right? It's going to be 30 days or more. And so when you're coming in, we're looking at, you know, what your diagnoses have been in the past.
Maybe you don't have really an accurate diagnosis. So we're going to go through a diagnostic when you get to us, right? Or maybe you are, have been using substances for a long time and you need to do that detox first and then you need to do residential and then you need to step down. So that initial admissions process is really.
Essentially another like level of care assessment to kind of determine where you're going to fit. At that facility to make sure it's the right fit for you. Mm-Hmm. . And especially if you're using insurance, that's a, a big part of insurance is they're gonna look at that initial assessment. They're gonna kind of look at your past history of treatment and insurance is gonna be like, okay, well yes, we agree.
You should be in residential treatment. Or maybe they'll say, no, we don't agree. We think you should be in, in PHP and try that first. And then if that doesn't work, then try residential. Hmm. So.
[00:10:35] Paige Bond: So there might be other steps beforehand that they might go through to get down to maybe the higher level of care.
[00:10:44] Whitney Emmert-Bush, Resource Director in Mental Health and Addiction Treatment: It, it could be. It just, it kind of depends. And that's why these, the initial level of care assessment is so important to get from your therapist or from a psychologist or a hospital because they're going to be that That first part be like this is where I think you would fit. And this is where you should start.
And from there, we're going to kind of work through that and determine: yes, we agree. This is where you should start and then bring you in that way. So it is a lot of assessing on the front end, which can be overwhelming, but. It's an important piece because we want to make sure you're going to the right spot.
[00:11:20] Paige Bond: Yeah. Yeah. Very important. And I'm wondering if you can walk us through, and this might be hard to answer because so many facilities might have different policies, but I'm sure there's people out there wondering what level of contact they might have with their loved one in treatment. do they just go 30 days without talking to their loved one?
Or are there checking calls? Do they get to visit them? So can you kind of walk through that process?
[00:11:46] Whitney Emmert-Bush, Resource Director in Mental Health and Addiction Treatment: Sure. So that is, it's a really great question. It's a question that we get quite a bit. So every facility you're going to have the ability for your loved one to call you, on their own, right?
So whether it be if they have access to their cell phones they'll have like cell phone time they can call, whether it be they have landlines they can call, what have you. So the individual calling out. to talk to you is kind of on the person who's in treatment. You may not be able to call them and talk to them all the time.
Because that's that's just kind of how it works. They kind of get to decide when they get to talk to their families. I guess if you want to put it that way because there's like a whole thing with like releases and whatnot, because if you're going to call a residential facility and say, I want to talk to Jimmy, they're going to say, I can't confirm or deny that Jimmy's here.
You may know that he's there, but they're not going to tell you. They can't because of HIPAA. So in terms of like communication that way, it has to come through the client themselves, they have to call you. In terms of like family therapy, a lot of places do family or partner therapy and it might be through Zoom, it might be through phone, or it might be in person, and the way that that works is you would be coordinating all that with the client's therapist.
So say Jimmy is in therapy right now and you need to start doing family sessions. Jimmy's therapist is going to be connecting with you to work on setting that up. And then they're either going to have you come in to do it. They're going to do it through zoom or phone or what have you. And you're going to work through family therapy that way.
So there's lots of different ways that you can communicate with your loved one while they're in treatment but the biggest part is they kind of get to dictate that and you, you don't necessarily get to always call in. So that can be really frustrating for families and I totally get it. But the person is in treatment for a reason.
And it's, you know, to work through whatever it is that they need to work through. So they, they kind of get to be the ones pulling the strings on that end.
[00:13:56] Paige Bond: Yeah, and then what comes to mind thinking about how this is actually really a great thing for the contact to come from the client themselves.
Maybe the person calling in or the family member of loved one who is trying to make contact is actually not really a great support for the client in treatment or maybe they're in treatment for trauma caused by the person trying to contact them. So I really love how it gives the client themselves that kind of autonomy to make that decision.
[00:14:27] Whitney Emmert-Bush, Resource Director in Mental Health and Addiction Treatment: Yeah, and, and that is, it's such a big piece of it, too, because we don't know coming in, right, necessarily the client's background or relationship with these people until they go through therapy and talk to us about it. So it may very well be their drug dealer or, you know, their abuser or what have you, and we don't know that.
It's just, it's one of those things that we're there to help the client for first and foremost and then help the support the family and through that there's just a lot of different moving pieces and parts that unfortunately not everyone's always happy with it, but we're there to, to really treat the individual who's with us, so.
[00:15:05] Paige Bond: Yeah. Are there any other things that people on the outside should know or could be really good resources for them while their loved one is in treatment?
[00:15:15] Whitney Emmert-Bush, Resource Director in Mental Health and Addiction Treatment: Yeah, definitely. I always recommend if you have someone in treatment that you also get a therapist you start attending support groups and you start really trying to educate yourself about your loved one, their diagnosis, what they're in treatment for.
Because I see it a lot where people, they send someone to treatment and they're like, this person is the problem. They're in treatment, they're the problem. Once they get out, they'll be fine. And that's never the case. Ever. I've never seen it be this one person that's the issue, right? It's always everyone else too.
Because if someone's going to treatment, there's clearly something that has happened that's caused trauma to not only that person, but everyone else involved. And we all process things differently, and maybe this person, the way they're processing it, is coming out in this way where they need that additional higher level of support.
And maybe you're processing it this way where you might not need that higher level of support yet, but you don't know that you're not going to get there. Right? And so really understanding what they're going through is going to help you to not only improve your relationship with them, but it's going to help them when they come out.
Right? It's going to help them to have that really solid support system when they leave treatment because they're going to need that and they need to come back to someone who understands what they're going through, who really took the time to be like, okay, maybe this is an us problem, not just a you problem.
Right? Because family dynamics are always so complicated, but I always recommend finding some sort of support group because it's traumatic for the families, too. Like, your loved one is in treatment for maybe 90 days, you know? So, really being able to understand and find that support and, you know, reach out to other people to build other relationships to help support you through that is so important.
[00:17:12] Paige Bond: Yeah, I'm really glad you highlighted how important treatment is, not only for the person with the most visible issue that they're trying to treat, and the person going through the 30, 90 day treatment, what have you. But really important for everybody else who is surrounding them to also I've really been enjoying reading the book codependent no more.
And it talks so much about how, okay, so you may have someone who is addicted to drugs or have some other type of addiction. Sure, that's one thing, but there's also a whole bunch of other people who may be enabling them and may have really bad boundaries there and may be enmeshed or, and so I love how you highlighted that it's really important to shine a light on everybody in the system to make sure we're all working together well.
[00:18:07] Whitney Emmert-Bush, Resource Director in Mental Health and Addiction Treatment: Yeah, and for families, it's difficult, and I totally get it, because you're having to admit that, okay, this is an issue we all have to work on, not just this one person, and a lot of people don't want to admit that, that maybe they also need to focus on them. Some is, you know, things that need fixing as well.
I will say a lot of facilities do have like family educational services that they offer so that you can understand the diagnoses better so that you can understand substance use better and and how that affects the brain and, and, Bye. Bye. Bye. So there are facilities out there that will have, like, these, like, three day family informational sessions.
So you would have to be invited. It's never, like, you don't get to call and be like, I'm coming to this. Like, it has to be appropriate. Like, we need to make sure the client's supported. We need to make sure everyone's on the same page. And then they'll reach out and say, okay, we think you might benefit from this.
And then they'll do a lot of education around addiction or mental health. You might do family sessions. You might go to groups to really understand what it is that people are going through while they're in treatment because And I hear this a lot, treatment's not just a getaway for 30 days. It's intense.
A lot of families are just like, Oh, well, they're just there for 30 days. No. They're going to, if it's residential treatment, you're going to groups seven days a week. You're meeting with therapists individually multiple times a week. You're meeting with psychiatrists. You're working on really intense stuff.
Like, it's not just you're going there and getting massages and twiddling your thumbs and waiting until you can check out, right? So, Having that education is so important on the family's part, too, to really understand what their loved one is going through, because it's a lot. Like, you're going to treatment for a reason and so it's really important that the families understand that.
But like I said, a lot of facilities will offer that family education piece, or even, like, family support groups, too. there are some facilities where maybe they work with people with more acute mental health. They'll have support groups that are specific to that, so that, as a loved one, you can connect with other families who are going through similar things to help support you that way, so that you can really, even better, understand how to work with whatever is going on in your life.
So, they all have those resources. They should all have those resources. I won't say they all have them, but they should. And if they don't have them, then I definitely encourage you to reach out to, to find, Resources that are there because they're there so
[00:20:38] Paige Bond: yeah, and I really think that's so important to to build that kind of community, especially as the family on the outside, you can feel really alone, or maybe even ashamed to talk about this with whoever is in your support network.
So I really love that idea that the facility actually providing that kind of support for these families to be able to connect and know that you're not alone because This is a really hard thing for being on the inside of treatment or on the outside.
[00:21:08] Whitney Emmert-Bush, Resource Director in Mental Health and Addiction Treatment: Yeah, it really is. And the opposite of addiction is connection.
And that it's valid for mental health too, right? The opposite of mental health and the isolating is, is forming those connections and realizing that you're not alone. I think the most powerful thing about going to groups and doing the support groups is recognizing that you are There are other people out there who understand what you're going through and they are there to help support you and it's super scary to try and trudge through all of this by yourself and just recognize that there are resources out there that you can have those connections and you can be like, Oh my gosh, I don't have to do this alone, right?
It's, it's so important to, to utilize those resources because it is scary. It's overwhelming. It's scary. You don't know what What's going on sometimes you don't know what other people are feeling. And so having the ability to really. Form those connections and relationships is vital to anyone's recovery
[00:22:05] Paige Bond: Seriously. Things can shift where they exit treatment.
I'm wondering for that place What happens next do they go back to seeing their therapist or do they get connected with a therapist if they didn't have one before? What happens after treatment?
[00:22:24] Whitney Emmert-Bush, Resource Director in Mental Health and Addiction Treatment: That's a good question. Because after treatment, you unfortunately don't just get to go back to, to normal everyday living.
Because ideally, you know, you go to treatment, you work on the issues that you need to work on, you process all the things you need to process, and you are, you're going back to life, but in a different place. And that's, so that's gonna look super different for you, for your family, for everyone. So it's vital that you continue working with therapists, that you continue going through all of the steps. The longer that someone is in treatment, the more probability of success that they're gonna have. So, and when I say going through the steps, I mean, so say, for example, someone is struggling with substance use. They might start going to detox first, and then they're gonna step into residential.
And then after that, they're probably gonna need to step into what's called PHP, like we mentioned. So that's Where you're doing groups five days a week, and then you're going to want to step down into IOP, where you're doing groups three days a week. And then you want to step down into outpatient, where you're meeting with your therapist and your psychiatrist, maybe one to two times a week.
And then that level is going to continue until, you know, you feel like maybe you only need to see your therapist one time a week, right? So, the longer that you're in that continuum, Whether it be for substance use or for mental health is, is completely vital to your, your recovery because just going from residential where you are, you have support every single day, seven days a week, you're going to groups every single day, seven days a week. You're on a schedule, and then stepping out of that and just expecting life to just Go back to how it is, is a shock to the system.
It really, really is. So that's when you're gonna see the most hiccups with people in their recovery, mental health, or substance. It's because all of a sudden, they're like, Oh. Oh, no, I have to go back to work where all my stressors are. I have to go back to, to my family and my kids and all of these things and back to life and pay bills.
And it's like, whoa, it's a lot. So really relying on the facility to help you create an aftercare plan and actually going through that aftercare plan, regardless of how great you feel when you leave treatment, because everyone's going to be like, Oh, I'm amazing. I'm fixed. I'm healed. You know, that's wonderful.
But reality is going to set in and you're going to have to go back to everything else. So kind of easing yourself into that, following the aftercare plan, really sticking to the continuum, however it's recommended by your therapist, is so, so important to maintaining that, that recovery and that sobriety and the mental health strength that you've just achieved in, in residential treatment, right?
So.
[00:25:14] Paige Bond: Yeah. I like how you explain that as just, you know, a step down of care at, at each step of the way when they're doing better, when they're going to their groups enough, when their stressors are becoming less stressful for them and they're able to better manage life or what have you, then that's where you can start like decreasing the intensity of treatment.
[00:25:38] Whitney Emmert-Bush, Resource Director in Mental Health and Addiction Treatment: Yeah, yeah. And there's, I mean, there's a lot out there for people that don't necessarily know that all of that stuff is out there, but it's created to help people to be successful, to get to that point in life, and work toward healing and recovery to where you, you don't need this much support.
And so unfortunately, some states, it's not great. You're not going to have as many options. Florida has a lot of options. Florida, we have tons of residential facilities. We have tons of partial hospitalizations with housing. So it still has a residential type feel, but you're only going to groups five days a week.
And then the weekends you get to kind of be on your own and practice those life skills and what have you. And so. Really understanding that, Florida, Florida has a lot, listeners are in other states, they may not, but your residential facility should help you and should know what is around the area that you're going to, to be able to set you up with that structured aftercare that you need because it is, I mean, it's, it's incredibly important to have that.
[00:26:41] Paige Bond: Yeah. And kind of speaking to Florida having so many facilities. I mean, I remember when I was a young whippersnapper watching intervention on the TV and they always either went to Betty Ford out in California or somewhere here in Florida.
I'm like, wow, Florida has a lot of treatment centers for these people. Yeah.
[00:27:00] Whitney Emmert-Bush, Resource Director in Mental Health and Addiction Treatment: It definitely does. I mean, who doesn't want to come to Florida, right? The beach is here. It's warm all the time. You know, you can't go wrong with the weather. Yeah. But yeah, we definitely have a lot of options, which is great, but it's also really overwhelming, which is why roles like mine are so important because we kind of can help to narrow that down for therapists to be like, all right, this might be a good fit for your client.
Maybe you should try talking to this facility and see. And that's another really important piece of Going into residential treatment is talking to the facility is not only looking at the website. Websites always look beautiful. Everyone's website is just stunning. You know, the facilities look amazing.
Because that's I mean, that's important, right? It makes people come to them. But really talking to the admissions team, seeing if you can set up a tour, like see if they'll let you come and actually walk the campus and maybe meet with someone to determine if if you're even gonna like it there. Because I can't tell you how many times I've talked to families and they'd be like, oh, I went to this treatment center and the second I walked in I knew it wasn't a fit because of the blah blah, you know, A, B, and C.
It's like, well, I get it. I've been to treatment centers like that before for tours and I'm like, ooh, okay, this is not what's on the website. And not saying that they maybe don't have good services, but You know, it's important to, to really understand where you're going. So if you can get that tour, if you can get in front of, you know, a member of the clinical team and talk to them, even if you can like talk to an alumni, not every facility does that, but some do where if you ask admissions, like, Hey, can I Talk to someone who's been there before.
They may have someone who they can connect you with, where they'll tell you how the food in the cafeteria was , what the sleeping arrangements were like, what the clinical team was like, how groups were to really kind of help you understand that as well because what you see online is not always accurate.
That goes both ways, either good or bad. Like, don't rely on reviews for a facility. Those are, those are always done by people who have left unhappy. It's the same on like Yelp with restaurants. You're going to see the reviews where the, the people, because you're, you're going to be more likely if you're mad about something, you're like, oh, I tell everyone about this.
Whereas if you're leaving in a good spot, that may not necessarily be the first thing on your mind, right? To complain or to, to make note of it or what have you. So reviews are not always super accurate either, which can be frustrating, I get it, but definitely encourage you to ask a lot of questions in the admissions process, see if they'll let you tour, see if maybe they'll let you talk to someone who's been through it.
And like I said, not every facility does that and that's totally fine. But just definitely ask the questions because it's not always a good representation online, what it is in person.
[00:29:38] Paige Bond: Yeah, those are really good tips to really kind of cipher out what kind of treatment facility might be best. I actually didn't realize that alumni were, and I know you said it's not always available, but were willing and able to be able to talk to people who might be interested in treatment.
I think that's probably such a really strong point of, someone who's maybe anxious about coming into the facility to really be Put at ease. So I really love that option. Hopefully it's available more often than not.
[00:30:11] Whitney Emmert-Bush, Resource Director in Mental Health and Addiction Treatment: Yeah, it is. It's a great option to be able to talk to someone who's actually been through it because again, it's a scary process.
It's overwhelming. You're leaving your life to go someplace for 30, 90, 180 days, right? That's a long time. And so to really understand. What you're kind of walking into is, is really important. And well, it helps a lot of clients to feel more at ease and really understand there are also like some facilities who have like, I guess you maybe call it like a client advocate or what have you who can talk to the clients on the front end through the admissions process too, if that's needed.
Maybe an alumni program director, I don't know. would be available too. Typically the alumni program directors either have been to treatment themselves or even went through that facility but they're very familiar with the process as well. So just really ask questions, talk understand where you're going.
It's so important because the last thing you want to do is get some place and Not feel good being there because you're there to heal, right? You're there to get help So and then for therapists who are trying to to help their clients to to find that next step, It's so important for therapists to get to know other treatment facilities, too.
And I know it's It's probably very overwhelming because you guys have so much on your plate, but you know, if you are at that point where you're thinking, you know, Jimmy needs to step up to the next level. You know, maybe you call the facility and ask the questions or like most facilities have people like me
where it's our job to talk to the therapist or help to connect them to the clinical team or the doctors or to come and tour or what have you. So the therapists who are doing the referring can really understand where they're sending their client because you guys are the ones with a lot of the knowledge, right?
You guys are the ones who understand the modalities. You guys know the right questions to ask about the types of treatment that they're going to be getting while they're there. So it's important for, for you guys as well to, to be involved in that. Placement with your client to help support them and really understand where it is they're going. It's going to take a lot of the stress off of them as well.
[00:32:24] Paige Bond: Yeah. So it's really important for therapists themselves to be connected with certain facilities that they recommend to be able to give some more easily findable resources for their clients needing treatment.
[00:32:36] Whitney Emmert-Bush, Resource Director in Mental Health and Addiction Treatment: Oh, for sure.
For sure. I mean, there's nothing worse than, you know, recommending a facility and then hearing from the client that it was awful, right? I mean, nobody wants that. Oh, yeah. So, you know, being able to really know where you're sending your client is super important. And I know not everyone can do that. Again, there's, there's folks in different states that there's really nothing.
So it's like if you're referring to someone in California, you really have to rely on the people that you're talking to and the people that you trust, right? So I mean, I totally get it. It's not feasible for everyone, but you can still call, ask the questions, talk to the clinical team, and get a really good understanding of where you're sending your client.
[00:33:16] Paige Bond: Well, we have to start winding down here, but I think you gave a really comprehensive insight look as far as what it is like to go through this process of going into treatment and even the aftercare and prior to treatment. So I think we covered all our bases. Is there anything else that the listeners should be left with as far as maybe anything that we didn't cover or kind of maybe next steps if someone's listening to this and realizing Oh, okay maybe I do need to get connected with someone. What would you leave them with?
[00:33:49] Whitney Emmert-Bush, Resource Director in Mental Health and Addiction Treatment: Oh, gosh. There's so much. There's so much. I, I, I genuinely hope that this was, was helpful for people. And I will say that If you are curious or you feel like maybe your loved one needs a next step, to know that there are people out there to help you through the process.
That it doesn't have to be a terrifying, scary, overwhelming process. Because the last thing that we want is for you to call into some hotline number and then get bounced around all over the country and just, like, feel disheartened. It's just, it's a lot, and just know that there are people there to help.
And the first step is, like I said, always a therapist to see if they know of any resources, and, and if not, then, you know, to reach out to a facility themselves, and, and kind of start from there is always an option too. so, yeah, there's resources out there, and there's folks like me all over the country.
who this is their job. So it's a good place to start. Yeah, they'll be in good hands. And I know you left me some particular links to share in the show show notes as far as either facilities to look into or national and local organizations to be able to just get more information on substance abuse on mental health treatment.
So I'll make sure those links are in the show notes. Good. Yeah, no, those are so important to be able to just kind of look at. I gave you the NATAP one, so that's specific toward addiction treatment. SAMHSA is the Addiction Mental Health, and those can be a good launching point to kind of start your journey.
The Mental Health Association of Central Florida. They're a great resource to start with. They often have a list of trusted providers that they can help kind of give you that starting point. And sometimes you do, you do have to cast a wider net and then narrow it down from there, but they'll be able to help you connect to places and resources and, and people that can get you where you need to go.
So.
[00:35:49] Paige Bond: Hmm. Perfect. Well, thank you, Whitney, so much for sharing your knowledge. I feel like we just dipped into the library of your brain of all of the mental health resources that we could today. So I appreciate you sharing all this.
[00:36:01] Whitney Emmert-Bush, Resource Director in Mental Health and Addiction Treatment: Yeah. Thanks for having me. And I'm always happy to answer questions because I know that was a ton of information.
So I hope that I at least explained it and in a way that made it a little less confusing, but yeah, always happy to help. And thank you so much for having me.
[00:36:15] Paige Bond: Yeah. It was great. All right, listeners. Thanks for listening. We'll catch you on the next one.
