Ep 198 | Teens in crisis: therapy without the waiting room!

SPEAKER_01 0:00

To your question earlier, how do they know if this is routine and normal things for teenagers? Or how do I know if this is a crisis and we need behavior health intervention? Parents kind of have an instinct and they can tell when, okay, this has reached a level of disruption in my child's life or in our family's life that this is not going away soon. It's affecting school, it's affecting social relationships, it's affecting our family. Pick up the phone and call us, and we can help you. We'll help you.

SPEAKER_02 0:59

Modern mental health as a parent is like trying to meditate in the middle of a fire drill. It's answering all the why questions all day, but leaving your own big questions unanswered. My next guests are part of a community effort to lift the load for families in mental health crisis. One is the president of Lakeview Center, and the other is the director of residential services and the leader of the virtual intensive outpatient program for teens. And today they're going to talk about why this program is a special tool in the Lakeview Toolbox, cultivating mission moments, the purpose-driven, Sean Salamita and Dustin Perry. Welcome to the show, guys.

SPEAKER_01 1:37

Thank you for having us. Thanks. It's good to be here.

SPEAKER_02 1:40

So, Dustin, the new virtual impatient mental health program I read is for kids age 12 to 17 experiencing emotional, behavioral, academic, or substance use challenges. But how do we quantify the challenges in each of those categories?

SPEAKER_00 1:58

Yeah. So the great thing about intensive outpatient services is that it really reaches a wide audience. We have our outpatient, where maybe it's a minor issue or a recurring issue that you can resolve in four to six sessions, maybe eight if you want to do some ongoing things. And then we've got our inpatient units, which is really about the acute, maybe suicide, you know, uh breaking things at home, really destructive. And then there's that group in the middle that that goes, all right, well, I'm really having some difficulties at school and fitting in with friends, and communication's a problem. So how can I get some help there? So maybe communication is a problem, but then also disrespect at the home or not being able to focus because maybe you're depressed, maybe you've got sleep issues. So then we want to tackle all the things that's not quite as intense as inpatient units, but not quite as routine as the outpatient. Where we still want to help people in the outpatient setting. So how would we quantify it? I think that we would target a very wide audience and we would do an assessment. And if you feel that intensive outpatient is the right fit, allow us to screen and then we can make those referrals to the lower levels care or even community-based cares.

SPEAKER_02 3:07

So was this outpatient virtual program designed for those middle folks?

SPEAKER_00 3:12

It really is because there's such a big gap. If you need some more recurring treatment than once a week or twice a month, you you just need something that goes, hey, my kid doesn't need to leave the house. He doesn't need to go away for two or three or four months. So how can we get that help? So the intensive outpatient is three hours, three times a week. And it really meets that middle ground to say, I need that help just a little bit more than I'm receiving, but also I need my kid at home.

SPEAKER_02 3:38

Yeah. How can parents who are tired and stretched every way tell the difference between normal adolescent angst and that which does require some sort of intervention?

SPEAKER_00 3:49

Yeah, that's a great question. It's difficult. It is. Is it happening every day? Is it happening multiple times a day? Is it happening for a specific reason? Is it happening for reasons that you you just don't know? I I think there's an opportunity to seek out professional help when you're just not sure. If there's ever a question where you say, I'm not sure if this is just normal teenage angst, or is this really a recurring problem? Is this a behavioral health problem? Is this a mental health disorder that needs a little bit more evaluation? So reaching out and and just saying, hey, can you take a look at my kid? And seeing what the professionals think is appropriate.

SPEAKER_02 4:25

Aaron Ross Powell So what does that matchmaking process look like? Because Lakeview isn't just this one program. There's a lot, what, 60 programs?

SPEAKER_01 4:34

Over 60 programs, correct.

SPEAKER_02 4:35

Aaron Powell That's so many programs. So how how are the matches made?

SPEAKER_01 4:40

Well, typically we start with what's bringing you to us? What's prompting that phone call to Lakeview Center or that referral to Lakeview Center? As Dustin said, you know, what are the behaviors that you're experiencing or your child is experiencing? How much is it disrupting your daily functioning? That'll put us in a direction of where the most appropriate treatment intervention would be. We also have an access center right at our main campus that's open Monday through Friday and takes walk-ins. So a lot of times when people call us and say, I'm just not sure, as Dustin said, I need some professional advice of what will help my child get through this period, through this challenge, we get those folks set up to come to our access center where a screener will just get a baseline of, you know, a little bit of history, a little bit of what's currently going on, and then their professional opinion, they will connect them to the appropriate service, whether it's outpatient or whether it's whether it's intensive outpatient, or whether this is crisis level, this individual could be at risk of harming themselves or harming others. Let's take them down for a crisis screening and see if they need something a little bit more intensive. So in addition to our access center, we have a mobile response team where if parents think that their children are in a crisis right here and now, we're able to respond within one or two hours.

SPEAKER_02 6:05

Really?

SPEAKER_01 6:05

Yeah. Yeah. And that's 247-365. It's always available. And that expands all throughout our four counties. And so that like the initial assessment I described with Central Access is done through the mobile response team doing some questions over the phone. And okay, maybe I should come out and actually interview the child, talk to the parents. We do that as well. And then they also will provide that rapid connection if it's a crisis.

SPEAKER_02 6:33

That's so interesting. So it's not like a 9-1-1 moment, but it's not a nothing moment. So it's something in between where a parent is like, I need respite, I need support, I'm in a big I don't know bubble. And so they would call and get that help.

SPEAKER_01 6:47

Right. Yeah. So to your question earlier, how do they know if this is routine and normal things for teenagers? Or how how do I know if this is a crisis and we need behavioral health intervention? Parents kind of have an instinct and they can tell when, okay, this has reached a level of disruption in my child's life or in our family's life, that this is not going away soon. It's affecting school, it's affecting social relationships, it's affecting our family. Pick up the phone and call us, and we can help you, we'll help walk through that.

SPEAKER_02 7:20

So you don't expect parents to have the answers. That's really refreshing.

SPEAKER_01 7:24

Exactly. My wife and I raise six kids ourselves, and so we know how difficult it can be, how every child is different, how every circumstance is different. And, you know, you want to do your best as a parent and you can try some different things to address the situation. But if you feel like it's just not getting better and things aren't changing, and as I said, it's disrupting their life and the lives of those around them, reach out for help.

SPEAKER_02 7:49

As the president, I'm sure you'll agree that the bottom line of mental health is just to get better. Like let's just be okay. When it comes to teens, are there key ingredients for that?

SPEAKER_01 7:59

Sure. For children and teens, I think having healthy relationships in their life, whether it's it's with their adults in their life, whether it's with a a mentor or a friend, having those healthy relationships that are going to give them a sense of stability, equilibrium, normalcy and lead them down the right path. I think that's the key. What we're seeing a lot today is isolation, the opposite of that, social those social connections. The uh impression that I'm have a social relationship through all these uh people I'm friends with on social media and I scroll through is not the same quality of social connectedness that a lot of kids need. So yeah, that's certainly something that we try to foster for the kids that we work with, is having those those really strong relationships, people they can count on, people they can maybe confide in, and as I said, a mentor, role model, a positive influence in their life.

SPEAKER_02 9:03

Isn't it interesting that social media and all these virtual inputs are causing so much angst, but yet we're like, let's do a virtual outpatient program. I think that's smart to not push back so hard on, no, it must be analog, it must be in person and three times a week, and your mom must drive you. But that through meeting kids where they are, which is online, you're able to kind of solve that problem without creating new ones.

SPEAKER_01 9:30

Yeah. And there's definitely great things about the digital age that we're in. There's great things about social media, tremendous things. They just have to have guardrails to make sure they're leading in the right direction and in a positive direction.

SPEAKER_02 9:43

Yeah, that's so true. Dustin, you're the director of residential services and this new outpatient program. Why then not send the teenager to a camp or like a, you know, you hear about the wilderness programs. What's the significance of keeping them in the home?

SPEAKER_00 9:59

If we remove the kid from the home and teach them skills and life things, but we don't engage the family, we don't make any significant long-term changes. I worked with the DJJ programs in Pensacola when I started my career, and we would have those kids for six months or nine months at a time. They would go home and occasionally we would hear of one that would go, Yeah, he's he's doing real good. We we see him out in the town, he's working. But more often than not, we would say, Well, they're back in DJ J the next week. Because they'd go home and the parents hadn't changed, and the parents hadn't make any significant improvements. And so we we get the kid and he's making these improvements, right? We got him in school, he's he's getting good grades, we connected him with some workforce skills. But if we don't impact the kid in the home, we don't make any long-term changes. And typically these kids have siblings at home as well. So we're impacting the the kids that are are still at home that haven't quite got to the point that they need our services. Part of our virtual services, we include the family as well. So we we require that the family come in for an hour each week as part of the virtual session. And what we've seen is that the families get together and they almost start leading the group. It's really fantastic to see, you know, mom of one kid and then dad of the other kid kind of sharing what's going on in the similarities and saying, yeah, this is this isn't just my kid, right? This is something that we're all experiencing. And then I think it reinforces the need to be there for our kids and and be more engaged and make those changes at home. If we send them away, we don't necessarily get the parents. We we say, hey, come on, come on to this group and they go, Well, I'm busy. I it's a it's an hour away. It's it's two hours away. I don't have transportation, I don't have access. There's no excuse for access when your kids are in the same house and in the same room. So we get you on camera.

SPEAKER_02 11:44

What you're talking about is not just no excuses. You're talking about extra benefit because I, you know, I think part of the appeal of these send them away plans is like the kids go away. And so there's respite for the parent who is tired and exasperated and has siblings to deal with and all that sort of thing. So to be able to tell the parent, yes, we do require that you come and hang out with us for this amount of time, but you're gonna be able to feel supported and you'll connect with another parent who might feel similarly. It might share some of the burden.

SPEAKER_00 12:20

Yeah, we've we've had a lot of positive experience and feedback from the parents who have been engaged so far. They're they're really excited that they can they get in and get in. They're all nervous on the front end, as one would expect, because I think similar to Sean, having my own kids, anytime my kid has a a deficit, a hearing issue or a reading issue, we go, well, what did we do wrong? How did we fail? And and sometimes the kid just needs a little extra help. So seeing that other parents are are dealing with the same things that we are really allows us to open up and and realize that we're not alone here.

SPEAKER_02 12:51

Yeah, frees from some of that parent guilt. Yeah, that's real. I can tell both of you are very engaged in this topic. Like it seems a little bit deeper than just like, this is my job. Why does this work matter to you?

SPEAKER_01 13:06

One reason I think we're both passionate, and many of our behavioral health professionals at Lakeview Center are passionate about children and youth is because we see them as adults. Adults are overgrown children. That's what I like to say. And so if we can help children have healthy development and get through those difficult teenage years, we know that that's going to provide for a better chance in adulthood. And I think we both just want to see healthy people in our community. That's what what we try to contribute to our community is helping people that are having challenges in their life, whether it's crisis level or whether it's emerging challenges, that we can maybe head off with some interventions. Then you have healthier people functioning in the community, healthier families, and a healthier community overall. So it's hard to have a higher goal than that.

SPEAKER_02 13:58

Yeah, right. Because that's the bigger picture is helping the people that are struggling in the moment.

SPEAKER_00 14:04

Yeah, and I'm right there with you, Sean. If the community isn't doing well, what's my responsibility, right? I I am fortunate that I I can take care of my family and go to work every day. So how can I help my neighbor? And the way that I can help the neighbor is by improving the quality of life of youth. My kids go to school in in Scambia County. And if the kids in school with them aren't doing well, then how are my kids going to improve? Exactly. Right? How are my kids going to get better? So I have to improve the quality of life around me and make sure that the community thrives. So it's it's my responsibility.

SPEAKER_02 14:37

I know this is like the choir preaching to the other choir a little bit, but sometimes I run into people in the community that are reluctant to pay a tax or invest in this program or that program when it comes to children because they are like me and they're child-free, or they'll say, My kids are grown, it doesn't matter. And I'm like, sir, don't you have a business? Aren't you going to be hiring some people for said business? Wouldn't you like them to be mentally stable? I think you would. So this is important on so many very practical levels. But because we're talking about children, it also has that deep, like visceral emotional element to it as well.

SPEAKER_01 15:18

Yeah, 100% for a thriving community. Look no further than what's the quality of life for children. You know, that's your future, that's your future workforce, that's your future taxpayer, that's your future leadership. So if we're investing as a community, if we're investing in children and youth, that is an investment in the future.

SPEAKER_02 15:38

Yeah. Dustin, I wanted to ask you about the I guess the intake process for someone who has been successfully matched for the virtual outpatient program for teens. Can you kind of walk me through what that feels like for the kid and the parent and kind of like step by step?

SPEAKER_00 15:54

Yeah. So we have a young counselor in calling registration at Lakeview Center. They would connect and make an appointment on her calendar. The individual in the family would either show up in person or virtually. We offer both options. The counselor would walk through the entire process with the family from let me get some details about the youth directly with the youth. They they pull the youth aside and get the details from the parent. That way we're getting both stories. They do a comprehensive assessment, they make sure that this is the right fit, and then they develop a treatment plan. They go through all the legal agreements that we all have to go through. And then from there, they schedule about six to eight weeks of Monday, Wednesday, and Thursday evening groups. They make sure that Zoom works for both the youth and the parent. And then we kind of give them some tools to take home with them. And then we make a follow-up call before the first group to ensure that everything's working well. And when they show up to the first group, there's a couple other kids in group. We we acclimate them to the group, we go over rules, and then they do 45 minutes to an hour of group. There's a little bit of a break so that we can keep their attention. And then we repeat that for the full three hours.

SPEAKER_02 17:03

If a parent feels like the counselor or the group dynamics aren't a fit, are they able to make adjustments or switch?

SPEAKER_00 17:10

Yeah, absolutely. I think that's a big part of social work and counseling is that it's no different than dating. Is that sometimes we we find the person that we think is a good fit, and then we go, well, this isn't going to work out. How do we find the right person? So then we we either find a different counselor that that can fill that role. We'll step down to the outpatient level of care, we'll make a referral to one of our community-based programs, or we'll we'll find the right treatment, or we'll look and pull somebody in and say, hey, how can we resolve this? How can this be a better fit?

SPEAKER_02 17:37

So people don't see it as dating, though. I think people see it maybe maybe it's a generational thing, but they don't see it as, oh, I tried that kind of counselor or that type of counselor, and now that did Merple try another one. They're like, I tried counseling, it didn't work. You know, and and I read on the website that there's different kinds of therapeutic approaches, like one of them was called motivational interviewing. Can you kind of unpack the different kinds and how they're different? Just so if there's a parent listening and they're like, Yes, I tried counseling, it didn't work, maybe they would be open to what you have to offer.

SPEAKER_00 18:13

Yeah. So generally things like motivational interviewing and cognitive behavioral therapy are just generally trained across the board. So you'll go to one clinician and they'll be motivationally interviewing, experienced, as well as CBT. But maybe they've got a specialty. Some of our clinicians are trained in DBT or EMDR, which are I know are complicated abbreviations.

SPEAKER_02 18:35

Aaron Powell Do you think you can describe them in one sentence? I know that's asking a lot, Dustin. I'm so sorry, but I think it would help the listener not just like brush them off.

SPEAKER_00 18:44

Yeah, no, absolutely. I I think that's a good question. So motivational interviewing is really about somebody who's a little resistant to change. So if you if you present to services and maybe your parent is saying, hey, maybe you've got some anger issues, and they go and they go arms crossed and they go, I don't have any anger issues. So you start to ask open-up questions and then explain discrepancies between this is what you're saying is happening, but this is what everybody else is saying. So it's really trying to engage that person from being resistant into being aware of the situation. And typically after motivational interviewing and that resistance, you would move into maybe one of the more traditional therapies where it's it's more asking questions, thinking about how the your thoughts influence your actions, which is more of a CBT or the DBT of how your emotions influence the actions as well. EMDR is gonna be a little bit more geared towards trauma and and it's very specialized in that there's some eye movement involved with it. So the clinicians are typically licensed therapists who go that route. The reason that you would switch between one style and the other is gonna be more geared on your level of or your desire to change. If you're really eager to change, you you wouldn't start with somebody with motivational interviewing. You might jump them straight into a CBT or a DBT. And it's somebody that was addressing some of their maybe crisis or urgent crisis when you do the CBT or the motivational interviewing. Once they're stabilized, you might transition to the EMDR for long term. So for the parents' benefit, I apologize.

SPEAKER_02 20:15

No, that was really good. And I'll I'll just jump and give you a give you a moment because that was really good because you know, parents are either like, okay, we tried that, didn't work, and or oh, I saw this on TikTok. EMDR. That's what my kid needs. So what you just described was so helpful because not only is there a matchmaking happening from like a big point of view where okay, now we're matched to the outpatient program for teens, but now there's like an internal matchmaking for the clinician to matchmake the modality of care to the teenager, which is like such much more a picture of care than I think people might realize.

SPEAKER_00 20:58

Yes, man, I agree. Yeah. And and I think in addition to the modality, there's just the the personality as well, right? Sean and I, I think that we both care very deeply about this, but we're different people, right? You you may sit down with Sean for an hour and you go, that was fantastic. You may sit down with me and go, I never want to see that guy again in my life. And we're both trained in the same modalities. We're both very eager to help. And that's I think the luxury of Lakeview and the wide agency that we have is we have a lot of resources. That if a parent goes, you know, my kid's really not doing well in IOP, we can step in and go, I've got a Sean right here who may be a great fit for you.

SPEAKER_02 21:33

Yeah. So tell me about what the teens learn in the outpatient program. What kind of skills are they acquiring?

unknown 21:39

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 21:40

So we're we're trying to do a wide variety of skills, and we really target it to the youth. So we've been doing this about six to eight weeks now, and none of the youth really have any substance use problems right now, which is great, right? We're really excited about that, and hopefully we can continue that path. But because of that, we're we're dealing a lot more with depression and anxiety and Communication. We've got some homeschooled kids who don't necessarily get that relationship piece. So we're we're working with them to say, hey, how do we get you into the community? How do we get you to church? How do we get you to socialize at the park? How do we expand their lifestyle from being at home all the time and having unregulated sleep patterns into let's work on healthy sleep habits? Let's work on eating at the right time. Let's let's do three meals a day instead of all day long, or one meal a day. So anxiety, we're talking about social skills, we're talking about communication, we're talking about recognizing kind of the triggers. What what causes you to want to go to sleep? What causes you to want to blow up and be angry? What's what's causing those kind of things? And then similar to substance use, we would do relapse prevention. So if this happens, how do you recover from it? How do you maintain this long term?

SPEAKER_02 22:51

Oh, I like that. That's good. Do you feel like teens learn differently than adults?

SPEAKER_01 22:56

Definitely. Definitely. It's part of the developmental process you go through as an adolescent, as a teenager. Social relationships carry a lot more weight. And so the impact on your interactions with others as a teen is a little different than as adults. That's why some of what Dustin's was describing with our ILP program is so significant because, you know, it it brings for the teens some insight into that. And the the interactive component that Dustin's describing is a key element as well. Don't get me wrong, adults also relationships are key, social connectedness is key, but there's a heightened, it's just a higher level for teenagers. So I think they learn a little bit differently in that way from adults.

SPEAKER_02 23:42

Aaron Ross Powell Like everything's more literal and intense. Is that what you're kind of Yes, yes.

SPEAKER_01 23:47

Because they're their brain is still growing. Yeah. They're still taking in the world and they're trying to make sense of it and they're trying to piece together what things mean. And it's it's difficult. I mean, being a teenager is difficult. It might might well we look back and remember the fun times maybe, and it might look like fun, but it's it's not easy. Figuring all that out and and again, the social relationships are are just they carry a lot of weight for teens as they go through that process.

SPEAKER_02 24:13

Aaron Powell It sounds like you kind of leverage that a little bit though, like in the encouraging connection and encouraging community. And you're not like, you know, doing the virtual version of go to your room. It's very much like come out, be a part of the community.

SPEAKER_01 24:29

Right. For sure, for sure. And we recognize that, you know, maybe there the parents out there that see this when their kids are struggling emotionally, they do see their kids isolate themselves, isolate themselves from the family, maybe isolate themselves from social activities or or you know, different relationships they normally had. You know, so that's a sign that parents can look for as well. Are kids isolating themselves? So in all of our programs where we serve youth and teens, uh, that's one of the things we strive for is to build those social connections back up. So so you're right. It's a little bit of a hack. We know that relationships are important to teens. And so we use that, leverage that in the in the growth and healing process.

SPEAKER_02 25:14

Aaron Powell Do you feel like people are catching on that mental health is health more, or is it still kind of like an uphill push?

SPEAKER_01 25:22

Aaron Powell I think it's slow but steady. I think coming out of COVID, there was a uh just kind of a big, big steps taken in destigmatizing mental health issues because people saw that the impact that the COVID pandemic had and the aftermath and recovery after COVID, the impact it had emotionally on individuals. So I think there's been a broad recognition. I think in terms of recognizing that mental health is health care, you know, the brain is an organ too, just like your heart, liver, and all of your organs, gotta take care of all of that. And so, you know, and you can hear in some of what Dustin's describing about the different therapeutic modalities, that's the science. That's the science of mental health. We know because we can study the brain, we can study emotion, we can, we can look at data to see how can how we can have the biggest impact given what people are going through. And it's no different than other forms of medicine. So we've still got some work to do in that area, but it's a much broader conversation. People are more open to it. We've seen a lot of growth in people reaching out to ask for help. Other sectors beyond Lakeview Center have, you know, incorporated behavioral health staff into their organizations and institutions. And so so yeah, I think it's starting to get much more credible attention and recognition. And I think that's a good thing.

SPEAKER_00 26:51

Aaron Powell And Sean, just to add, I and I think that we look at COVID-19 and it really created a lot of turmoil in across the country, right? But I think that it also had some silver linings that it allowed more people to access telehealth services, right? We go back to the virtual IOP. But people weren't accessing telehealth prior to COVID. So it we reduced some of the stigma by saying, I don't have to drive to this place and somebody might see me, uh, get out and go to my therapist's office. I can do it from the comfort of my car or the comfort from my home. So we've created this opportunity for people to access services that may have been resistant before because they didn't want to be seen at this place.

SPEAKER_01 27:28

Yeah. Before COVID, we were talking about, well, should we do telehealth services at Lakeview? Maybe, maybe not. After COVID, we rapidly said we need to do this. That's how we can get that's how we can be accessible to people. And now it's a normal and highly effective component of our of our programming.

SPEAKER_02 27:47

Aaron Powell Success in the mental health space is kind of a weird thing, though, right? As you know, you you guys care about mental health, but you're also part of a large organization. And people like wins and finish lines. And you know, you break the tape in the race, you hit your Q3 numbers or whatever. But mental health is more cyclical. So does that make it harder to have like mental health trophies?

SPEAKER_01 28:14

Well, it doesn't answer that first.

SPEAKER_00 28:16

It does. And it's it's tough because you know, we're we're so scrutinized about confidentiality and privacy that when it's time to celebrate these victories, people don't want to come back and and necessarily be showcased. So people are very proud of the work that they do, and they're very proud of the work that Lakeview does. But to say, hey, come on back and and maybe relive this a little bit when they're they're ready to move on is a challenge.

SPEAKER_02 28:39

Yeah, hard to collect those testimonial videos, I imagine. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 28:42

Yeah. I've I've got a great story though. Of so I started at Pensacola Boys Base 20 years ago, and and there was a young man, he was a little younger than I was, and he he was 17 at the time, and we got him to go into one of those military schools. So we got trained for about six weeks alongside the Marines or the sailors that were out at NAS Pensacola. And he he graduated from that program and he graduated from Boys Base, and I would see him out in the community working, and it was great to see him working. And then a couple years went by, and I was working substance use with adults, and I was down on Palafox eating lunch, and I recognized this guy, and I go, he is not doing well. And he recognized me, and I said, Hey, look, I know what's going on. This is kind of what I'm doing, and it's really unfortunate. If you need anything, we're here, we're available, give us a call. I didn't hear from him. Years went by, and and my my third child's playing travel soccer, and and I look over the sideline, and and one of the parents has this kid on the team with me, and it's the same kid, and he's he's doing fantastic. So he's he's moved on from this this young kid who was struggling, he did well in early adulthood. He struggled a little bit in his late 20s, and he turned his life around, and now he's a parent. He's watching his kid play soccer, he he's doing everything that we would ask for. And seeing those journeys in the mental health world and the substance use world is just really fantastic. I would I would never invite him to come and share those kind of things because it's his journey. But to see it from adolescence into adulthood and the impacts that we can play is always really fascinating. Aaron Powell Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 30:22

Well, he I mean he does share that journey. He shares it in being well, right. You know, and being in the community, just not, you know, telling the story word for word.

SPEAKER_01 30:30

That's yeah. And on that note, there are a lot of hidden Lakeview success stories in the community. You know, for your listeners, the person that's bagging your groceries or approving your loan or teaching your children may have had a struggle that they came to us and we helped them get through it. When people in the community see me with my Lakeview badge or shirt or they hear I'm from Lakeview, it is not uncommon for them to pull me inside and aside and say, you know, you saved my dad's life. Or I met a gentleman two weeks ago who pulled me aside and he's he's an adult now, and he said Lakeview had a had a big impact on me when I was a kid. I had anger management issues, and I went to Lakeview for counseling, got me on track, and uh unsolicited. So again, it's because of confidentiality and privacy, you know, we can't necessarily showcase those stories all the time, but there is definitely Lakeview's been around for 75 years. So that's a lot of people that we've served that are out there in a community and folks may not see the success stories, but but they're there in the sense that that they are you know functioning well, and that's our goal. That's what that's what we want.

SPEAKER_02 31:44

Yeah. Well, you're you're doing the work for sure. If someone wanted to take that first step and connect their kid with your services, is there a number that they can call or a website that they can visit? I'll put it in the show notes for sure, but just in case they're driving, that they can hear it.

SPEAKER_01 32:01

Yeah, well, they can since as I said, that we're in the digital age, they can visit www.elakeviewcenter.org. Lots of information. If they want to dig dig into the different programs that we have and services we provide, they can do that. Uh or just right on our homepage, they'll find the number for uh the mobile response team that I mentioned earlier, but also our central client registration. That's 247-365. You can call and someone will answer and get your questions answered and get you started in the process. We are on Facebook in particular. You can just find us on Facebook and give us a follow, and good lots of good information, education for folks, and good and good information about resources too.

SPEAKER_02 32:47

Perfect. Thank you guys so much. This was really great.

SPEAKER_01 32:50

Thank you. Thank you.

SPEAKER_02 32:52

Thanks for listening. Be sure to subscribe and share. Voices United in Education is a production of the Scambe County Public Schools.