And I feel like if I had somebody aside from, like the other individuals that I was going through treatment with, if I had an adult who's hey, I've been there before, I know what this is, I'm living proof that you can get over this it might have helped to actually honestly speed along my recovery.

Hello and welcome. I'm your host, bill Emeiser, and you're listening to Mental Health U, the podcast dedicated to demystifying and destigmatizing mental health issues. So if you or someone you know is struggling with depression, anxiety, trauma or some other mental health issue, then this podcast is for you. This episode is proudly sponsored by Unison Health, dedicated to making lives better through compassionate, quality mental health and addiction treatment services. Learn more at unisonhealthorg. I am so excited to have Liam Hebb on the show today. Liam is a dedicated peer support specialist at Unison Health's Crisis Stabilization Unit. He is known for his unwavering passion and hard work. Committed to supporting individuals in crisis, liam brings a compassionate approach to his work, fostering a sense of understanding and empowerment among those he assists. How are you today?

I'm good. Thank you for that generous intro. I'm happy to be here.

Could you tell us a little bit about your professional experience?

Sure, as far as like in the role of social services, I have experience. I started off just diving into the deep end and my very first job in this field was as a case manager for adults with severe mental illness, so I just decided to hit the ground running. I got the opportunity to build a pilot program for a homeless outreach program and that was a fun experience because that county really didn't have much when it came to homeless outreach, but they still had a generous homeless population. So that was a very good experience for me getting able to do that and work with that population and kind of be out there in the field, in the homeless camps, in the shelters, working one-on-one with those individuals. I've worked with kids who were on the autism spectrum and had developmental disabilities and I worked as a behavioral technician with them and again, I got to spend every day one-on-one with these kids and that was a really great experience. And then, of course, as everybody does, I've worked a few retail jobs here and there.

Yeah, and how did your journey bring you to the peer support program?

As a kid I grew up dealing with the mental health system. I've been on the receiving end of the mental health system since I was about the age of 11, and I've been on the providing end for the past three or so years. But I grew up dealing with the mental health system, being in therapy, going to treatment centers, dealing with mental illness on a daily basis, and while I was in these treatment centers I would act as a peer, do what I do now. I would encourage individuals to keep going to do their best, like it's okay if you have a bad day, you just got to take that next step to keep going forward. And that really sparked a passion inside of me.

You know that I really wanted to help people and that people were actually really happy and I would have my peers tell the staff and the employees that, hey, it felt so great to have somebody who knew what I was going through say it's okay, I'll do this with you.

So that really sparked a passion inside of me and I knew that what I wanted to do was to help people. And I've known this ever since I was a teenager, that I just wanted to use my skill sets as having that empathy, having that compassion to help people, and I also figured out that I have a very good knack for problem solving, troubleshooting and helping people achieve the goals that they want to do. So all of that kind of led me to the previous jobs that I've mentioned. And then, when I saw this listing for the peer support with Unison, I figured that this would be a great way to get back into that social service field and to use my experience in the mental health field as been on the receiving end and on the providing end to get back into the field and to also use my experiences to help people in Wood County.

That's very inspirational. I have to wonder when you were going through the experiences that you had as somebody who was receiving services, did you have a peer, or was there anybody who mentored you, or did you see that there was a gap and that's how you ended up in that spot?

I definitely felt that there was a big gap I went through as a teenager and it was definitely there really wasn't a peer for what I was going through. I was dealing with depression and anxiety and an eating disorder, and, while we had staff members that were very empathetic, very great, we had the doctors and the therapists and the psychiatrists and they all did an amazing job. I never had somebody who was like, hey, I've been in your shoes, I know what this is going through. And I feel like if I had somebody aside from like the other individuals that I was going through treatment with, if I had an adult who's like, hey, I've been there before, I know what this is, I am living proof that you can get over this, it might have helped to actually honestly speed along my recovery.

That's awesome. I could see how having that lived experience could be so powerful in helping the recovery process. So we started talking a little bit about your journey and how you got here, but I think it might be a good idea to maybe even talk a little bit about what is the peer support program. What is the program that you actually provide in the service that you provide to folks?

Yeah, that's a good question. Here in Wood County I am as far as I'm aware, I'm unison's only peer support and I am run out of this crisis stabilization unit here in Bowling Green, ohio and pretty much my the peer support program. It consists of somebody who has successfully gone through their own mental health recovery and that they have overcome the barriers and everything like that and they've experienced the system and they've gone through the processes and they've gotten to where that they feel that they're in a stable place and they can take that skillset and they can take all that knowledge that they've learned on top of the shared experience and pass that along to others and successfully help them go through the same process as well as reduce the risk of relapse.

Now I know as part of your role, you work with folks who are coming into the crisis stabilization unit. They are oftentimes in a mental health crisis. That's why, oftentimes, people come to the CSU. Can you talk about if I were somebody who is coming to the CSU, how would you interact with me? How would you walk me through the process of going from where I'm in this moment of great need to working towards my own recovery?

Actually, a lot of the time I am the very first person that they'll see, because I tend to answer the door a whole lot when they come in for a walk-in or for a pre-screen at the crisis stabilization unit. Sometimes I'm the first face they see, so I will take them into the triage room. I'll sit them down. I'll be like hey, I'm Liam, I'm the peer support specialist here. You're here for a pre-screen, here's who you're going to see. After that Typically I say oh, first you get you anything to eat, anything to drink. Sometimes I am the first person they interact with. So I just make sure to have a very calm unit in nature and to make sure that their needs are met and to make sure that they feel safe in this space, because that's what we want From the very beginning. We want them to feel safe and that this is a place where they can come to get stabilized.

And then after that I do tend to meet one-on-one with every newly admitted client.

I sit them down and I explain who I am, what I do, what the peer support program is and what services I offer to them while they're in the CSU and also while they're out, when they are discharged and are outside, back out in the community, and then I also do tend to just sit with the residents on the floor. Sometimes I do fill in as the tech, so they'll see me for eight hours a day. Whether that's good or bad, that's up to the individual client, but they'll see me and I sometimes I run leisure groups not necessarily therapeutic groups, but I run groups that just give them something fun to do throughout the day, and sometimes I also just tend to sit on the floor and enjoy just spending time with the clients so that I make sure that my face is known and that they know who I am and that they have the support, and make sure that they know that if they need to come to me for support, that I am here for them.

Mental Health? U is brought to you by Unison Health. Unison Health making lives better. Unison Health Unison Health Making lives better. Liam, you really wear a lot of different hats. When you're the welcoming committee, when somebody comes in, your job is to build that rapport, build that relationship with folks, but you also provide a lot of education. You help people understand what to expect, especially if they've never been in a crisis situation, and then you're there to support them the whole way through the process, from where they might be at their most, unsafe and feeling overwhelmed, to maybe going to a different level of care, which would be coming out of the CSU and going out into the community. Do I have that right?

Yeah, you have that right, and sometimes I am that first person and I do make sure that if I'm aware of the fact that a client is discharging for the day, I make sure to meet with them like really quickly it's just a couple of minutes and be like hey, you have my number, you have my work number, you know when I work. If you ever need anything, feel free to reach out to that number. So there are some clients that I'm the first and one of the few last people that they see at the CSU.

That's fantastic always the end of the journey that you do some aftercare or you do some follow-up on folks who might call in, maybe don't show up at the CSU, but you also do some aftercare once they leave the CSU.

Yes, so there are two types of follow-up that I do. I keep track and I have a little excel spreadsheet that I keep track of everyone who has been to the CSU that has been discharged. I keep track of whether or not they have had a follow-up appointment scheduled. I keep track as to whether or not they have enough medication and just overall how they've been doing since their discharge. So I do follow up with them and I give everybody a call, typically about three to five days after they've been discharged. And then I also do continue to see them out in the community. Right now I have a couple of clients that they really enjoyed my services while they're here in the CSU and they specifically asked hey, can I have a follow up appointment with Liam? And we've been seeing each other for a couple of weeks and we continue to see each other out in the community and I just check up on them and make sure that they're doing okay and that they have everything that they need to be successful in their mental health recovery.

Yeah, that is so needed. Walking that path with them to recovery and being a support even after their time at the CSU, I can imagine, is really a big deal.

Yeah, and, like I said, sometimes that transition from being inpatient back into the community can be really scary and I know when I was going through that myself going from an inpatient facility or a hospital back out into the community and back out into my home life I did not have a peer to help me do that. I did not have an aftercare team. So the fact that the CSU offers that aftercare, whether it's through me or through another provider, is absolutely phenomenal and it's crucial in that continued and to not have, you know, readmission within 30 days.

And why do you think your program is so important?

I think it's important because one sometimes you get stuck when you have mental health, you do tend to get stuck in that idea of, oh, this isn't a curable thing, I'm never going to get over it, this is just how it's going to be.

And to have somebody who I can say, hey, I've gone through mental health recovery and now I'm here helping you, to have that kind of metaphorical light at the end of the tunnel, to see that somebody has gone through it and has recovered from a mental illness and has taken the steps to manage it on a daily basis, that can be very inspiring to people and they can go hey, this person right in front of me, they've done it. Maybe I can do it too. And it's also just the empathy of it all. It's very nice to have somebody who's been in their shoes before and to say I truly understand what. Obviously I don't understand 100%, because everybody's different and individualized and based on how they do their own recovery. But I can at least say, hey, I've had this before and I've gone through the recovery process and I know exactly what it's like.

So, speaking of inspiration, can you tell us, without obviously disclosing any confidential information, but are there any success stories that you might be able to relate to us to get an idea of your impact on people's lives?

going from the CSU to back to the community, One that we tend to talk about a lot was a client who had, in the past, been very hesitant. I noticed that they had called the crisis line. So one of my follow-ups is the fact that individuals who call the Wood County crisis line, if they've been safety planned or if I feel like they need a follow-up call, I give them a follow-up call. And that day that individual gave a call and I was like, hey, they should have been offered the CSU. I'm going to give them a follow-up call.

Apparently, in the past, this client had been very hesitant to receive a higher level of care, but I spent the entire day talking with them, off and on, giving them multiple phone calls and being like, hey, this is what it's like, this is what you need to bring, this is what care you'll receive, and one of the barriers that they were experiencing is the fact that they had a cat. So I was like, hey, hold on, I'm going to hang up from this phone call and I'm going to immediately call my manager and then I'll give you a call back, spoke with my manager and she said, yes, we can take the client to go feed the animal. I relayed that information and later that day that client presented at the CSU and finally got the higher level of care that they needed.

That's amazing. So just overcoming challenges and barriers, hey, you're known for your problem solving and there you go. There's a great example of that and being flexible and helping people overcome barriers to getting the treatment that they need. It's amazing. So if someone were interested in learning more about the crisis peer support program, about what you do, about the CSU, where could they go to learn more information?

So the best place that they could go to learn more information about the Crisis Peer Support Program or the CSU is they could go to unisonhealthorg slash crisispeersupport and that's got a webpage that's got all the information on it. Like more about what the program does. It does have my contact information on it.

Thank, you so much. This was great. I really appreciate you coming on today and sharing a little bit about what you do. We're definitely going to have you back on again.

Sure, I'd love to be back on.

This podcast has been brought to you by Unison Health. Unison Health is a nonprofit mental health agency dedicated to serving the Northwest Ohio community for the past 50 years.