Woman’s Voice: The Lenawee Substance Abuse Prevention Coalition is a diverse group of dedicated community members united around the goal of reducing substance use in Lenawee County. LSAPC members work collaboratively to engage and educate the community in order to promote a healthy Lenawee.
Kathy Williams: This is Kathy Williams and with me tonight is Kellie Niese and she is the project manager for Pathways Engagement Center. She’s also the HRSA grant Recovery Coordinator. Kellie, got a great topic tonight. We’re going to be talking about your crisis stabilization group.
Kellie Niese: Right.
Kathy Williams: Tell us, tell our listeners, what is that all about?
Kellie Niese: So the Crisis Stabilization group is a work group of the bigger prevention coalition in Lenawee County.
Kathy Williams: Okay.
Kellie Niese: And it’s a group that’s been stalled over the last couple years, secondary to the COVID pandemic, but really it is involving law enforcement and first responders, and access points in our community to people that are in crisis for mental health and substance use disorder.
Kathy Williams: Well I know we talked about the overdose issues recently. I know a lot of people are shocked at how much that happens in our little community.
Kellie Niese: Right. In parallel with the COVID pandemic, the incidence of overdose, substance use disorder have actually increased. I was talking to you about just the last month we had 11 overdoses in Lenawee County with Narcan administration and one overdose death. So it is a problem that’s pertinent here in Adrian.
Kathy Williams: So the goal of this group then, like you just kind of said, is to breach a stop gap moment where we’re kind of losing track of people when they could need the help the most, and possibly be… maybe a little bit more interested in finding out some changes they could make?
Kellie Niese: Right. It’s meeting people where their need is the highest. So, at that point when they’re struggling and don’t have anywhere to go and might encounter law enforcement or EMS, instead of taking them to jail or some sort of punitive process that follows their encounter with law enforcement, actually directing them to someplace that they can get help, whether that’s the engagement center, whether that’s Lenawee Community Mental Health, whether that’s the emergency department. But the goal of this group is to get the emergency department, first responders, and law enforcement, all kind of working together to get that person to a place of help.
Kathy Williams: That’s one of the things too, that they get at Pathways Engagement Center is they have some peer support…
Kellie Niese: That’s right.
Kathy Williams: That maybe might even encourage them taking advantage of more of these other opportunities.
Kellie Niese: Right. Someone that has been in their shoes with substance use disorder and has come out the other side with success can definitely kind of walk that path with a person in crisis that’s going through it right now and take them and help them, guide them to a place of recovery and support.
Kathy Williams: So the different groups then that are involved in the Crisis Stabilization group, what kind of entities are those?
Kellie Niese: Well, I’m actually really excited. We had a really good response from Lenawee County. We have the Adrian Police Department, Michigan State Patrol, Lenawee County Jail is involved with a jail release program that gets people connected to substance use disorder treatment, ProMedica ER, and CMH access.
Kathy Williams: Okay.
Kellie Niese: So, really all the groups that kind of touch folks when they’re in trouble or in crisis, they’re all kind of working together to create a plan to move forward.
Kathy Williams: Didn’t you also mention to me off air that the Probation Department is involved.
Kellie Niese: Right. So substance use disorder has two treatment programs through Lenawee County: Drug Court and Sobriety Court.
Kathy Williams: Okay.
Kellie Niese: And so we’re really hoping to get the probation officers involved in this process too, to make sure that people that are in those programs have the support that they need.
Kathy Williams: You know, the sad part is is that over the last couple of years, there is more signs of depression in our community.
Kellie Niese: Yeah.
Kathy Williams: And of course, then drug use and alcohol use people think might help get them through things, but in essence, they end up falling down a sad rabbit hole.
Kellie Niese: Yeah. I feel like the pandemic has affected our community in so many ways, and just people have stopped going out. And so that means people are kind of isolated and they’re not reaching out for help even more than before.
Kathy Williams: Right.
Kellie Niese: And so I do think the need is higher during this time; like I just think that we need to reinvigorate our efforts to kind of engage people and let people know the resources that are already available out in our community.
Kathy Williams: Well and become more social face-to-face…
Kellie Niese: Right.
Kathy Williams: And not social media. You know, I think that the human interaction has, you know, has been sidelined by all this. And yet that’s where you get your best support is in a face-to-face.
Kellie Niese: Right.
Kathy Williams: And that’s why the Pathways Engagement Center is so important in our community.
Kellie Niese: It is. Isolation is a huge symptom of substance use disorder.
Kathy Williams: Right.
Kellie Niese: It’s an easy way for people with in crisis to cope, is just to kind of pull away from everything. And so at Pathways, we really do work to re-engage and reconnect with people and kind of instill that hope in them that they may be missing.
Kathy Williams: There you go. Kelly, if our listeners want to find out more about the Crisis Stabilization group, can they find that out through the LCMHA site or Pathways, how would they call?
Kellie Niese: Both. So LCMHA’s site – the website – and also the prevention coalition website both have links to the work groups there. If not, they can reach out to Lenawee County Community Health which is (517) 263-8905.
Kathy Williams: Oh, thanks so much, Kelly. It’s an interesting group and we hope that our community sees great results from it.
Kellie Niese: Great. Thank you so much for giving me an opportunity to talk.
Woman’s Voice: Thank you for listening. This information has been provided by the Lenawee Substance Abuse Prevention Coalition. Supported by funding from the Health Resources and Services Administration. New messages air on the first and third Monday of each month at 6:15 p.m. You can listen to this program as a podcast under the audio tab on WLEN.com and listen and gather more information at DrugPreventionLenawee.com.
