New Essentia program offers holistic mental health care in Superior
Daily TelegramNov 15, 2019
The program has been offered in Duluth for more than 25 years, serving about 300 patients a year. The
"Nationally, 1 in 5 Americans experiences a mental health condition each year, but less than half will seek treatment," said
The holistic program covers many aspects of life, from behavioral health needs to nutrition, physical activity, sensory needs, medication monitoring and even art therapy.
"It really is all-encompassing," said
It is also intense -- six hours a day, four days a week for three weeks. About 50 people have gone through it since June, some from as far away as
"It's really remarkable to see what patients can do in three weeks and how much better they come out of it," Brunette said.
Patients can be referred by a health care provider or call the main line themselves and self-refer.
"It's a direct avenue to get the help that they need," Brunette said.
The new space, created with funding from the
"This program offers people with more serious symptoms and who are struggling an opportunity to recover in their own community," Pinnow said. "Recovery from mental illness is possible, but people need tools to be able to be successful in their recovery and ongoing maintenance of their mental health. A program like this will offer intensive intervention and will provide people with tools to manage and sustain their recovery."
It's a step in the right direction, Pinnow said. It brought five additional practitioners to the
"I think it's been really eye-opening to staff here as to who participates in this program. Sometimes it's working professionals; it's parents, it's your neighbor. It's not the person that you see on the street that you would paint as the picture of mental health," Brunette said. "This is really meeting a need of the community that may be very underserved because they're afraid to ask for help."
Essentia has contracts with most insurance carriers, including Wisconsin Medicaid payers. Numerous patients with Wisconsin Medicaid plans have attended the program. The time commitment may seem like a barrier for some people, but Brunette enouraged people to reach out if they need help.
"A lot of times we can find a solution to the barriers keeping them from seeking services," she said.
'It's OK to get help'
"My message to people since then has been 'It's OK to get help and it's OK to know that you need help,'" she said. "If we don't take care of ourselves first, we can't take care of our loved ones."
The stress came in many forms. At age 43, Sullivan had her husband, Bob, had an unexpected miracle baby. When their son, Liam, was 8 months old,
When he began attending
"Everything just came to a boil," Sullivan said. "I'm 50 years old and I crashed and burned."
She was anxious and uptight all the time. Her son was having meltdowns and nightmares. Her marriage was rocky, she'd lost her spiritual bearings and felt empty.
Prompted by her husband and friends, she went to an Essentia nurse, who suggested the Partial Hospitalization Program.
"I had no idea what I was getting myself into, but I knew I had to do something," the
The program provided holistic care and a foundation for moving forward.
"People were there to learn how to cope in healthy ways; healthy effective ways of dealing with whatever life throws at us, and life is always throwing stuff at us, it doesn't stop," Sullivan said. "It's how we react to it and what we choose to do with it that matters."
Other members of the group were dealing with similar losses and situations.
"The biggest thing I have learned is that we are not alone," Sullivan said. "Everybody struggles with something. We don't go through life alone; we're not meant to go through life alone. You can reach out because somebody is always going to be there somewhere to help."
She's grateful that she made the decision to join the program. It's improved her marriage and she's seen her son thrive.
"I feel like I'm a different person because of it. I'm stronger, I'm healthier; I'm happier. I love being 50 and where I'm at in my life," Sullivan said. "I got my sense of the holy back."
The
"People are highly anxious. People are depressed. Suicide rates have increased. You have a lot of struggling people out there and they don't know how to say 'I need help,'" Sullivan said. "I want to be that person to say it's OK. You can get the help you need and it's out there. And it's OK to talk about it. We need to talk about mental and spiritual health."
For more information about the Adult Partial Hospitalization Program, call 715-817-7188.
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