Welcome everybody to the Rapids Report. You have your host James J. Mayloff here and welcoming
into the WFHR studio are great friends from ODC and we got Sarah Hawth with us right now
assistant director meant to help operations. Sarah I feel like it's been forever since we've
seen you. It had you on the air with us. It's good to see you. Thanks for being here. It's good to
see you too. Always good to talk with the ODC and catch up with you guys over there. We're going
to dive into an end of things that I don't know that we always get the chance to talk about today though.
So go ahead and start us off. Where do you want to begin? Well today you really want to talk a
little bit more about our mental health services that we offer at ODC but one really kind of
exciting update that I want to share with the listeners is our new CEO who's going to be onboarding.
So the board of directors of ODC is really pleased to announce that Aaron Smith has been hired as
the next CEO of ODC and she will officially join the organization on May 5th of 2025 and the board
really wants to thank Julie Strun our current CEO for the past five years with ODC and she will be
leaving in May. So there'll be a little bit of transition time as Aaron steps into this new role.
And we're very excited about her past work experience and what she will lend to the organization.
Certainly know a little bit about transitioning around here. We're doing some of that ourselves.
So while we encourage people and people that use the services at the ODC to maybe have a little
grace while that change happens, you guys are so good at things over there. I'm sure that things
are going to go smoothly and I would also like to shout out Julie and the work that she did for
our community and over there and really do appreciate her and looking so forward to getting
to meet Aaron and seeing what she's going to be able to do with this position. She's great and
it's a great fit all of these things. So it's for somebody who loves the ODC and generally can say
that. It's encouraging. It's wonderful to hear and it's just keeping things moving over there
and keeping up the great work. Excited about that and thank you for starting there, Sarah.
I appreciate it. I didn't know if you wanted to start there or not so I appreciate you starting
there. It's a good news. A great place to begin and we're looking forward to talking with Aaron more.
So I want to get into mental health with you as well as this is May is mental health awareness
month coming right up. We're getting people ready for that. Sarah, something I think you and I have
even talked about before, where our society has gone. We are so quick to take shots or to
point out things that aren't going well. I feel like we need to more often look at the wins,
big wins, small wins, all that. And as somebody who has spent my whole life talking about mental health
with my mother or other family members, I'm very thankful that we're at a point in society where
you and I are having this conversation on the air talking like this and we're not talking like
this in a corner. The way we use the treatmental health, it is not to say that there isn't work to
be done and some heavy lifting that is going to happen, but I'm encouraged by this. I'm encouraged
that we're seeing more of an essence put into it, an effort put into mental health, especially
on this level with the ODC. Absolutely. There's been a lot of stigma around mental health in the
past and I feel like our society is really going in the right direction of breaking down that stigma
in all different age ranges. Child adolescents, adults, seniors, we're really trying to work and
make sure that people if they need services can get access to those services and know that they're
available to them. You guys have been doing this for a while over there. Can we get in some of the
history about the clinic that you were referencing? Sure. So opportunity for hope is the outpatient
mental health clinic that ODC opened in July of 2022. So we're relatively new and still growing.
We have six fully six licensed staff with us right now. Two are LPCs. One is an LCSW and we have
three LPC ITs and I know that may not mean a lot to listeners. That's a lot of acronyms, but if
folks are in the clinical field, then understand we're looking at fully licensed staff as well as some
staff who are still working towards full licensure and getting their clinical hours in.
Thank you for that, Sarah. I knew what you meant, but just for the audience, I did not know what you
meant. Thank you for that. It's a really good encouraging, that's another encouraging thing to see
in here and knowing that that kind of effort is being put into this. Especially for any
person out there listening, you know that you've got, we all have our struggles, we all have our
bad or good days and everything. For the clients at the ODC to be able to focus on this and put
this much attention to it is not only I think vital in some ways, but it's also for the betterment
of them and our community. It really is. Like most things, if not every single thing we talk about
with the ODC, there is a domino effect that happens that benefits the community. Every answer ends
up with and it benefits the community. This is another one of those ones it does. That's really
cool to hear. Well, and I think it's really important to note, this might be a misconception about
opportunity for hope clinic is that we serve everybody, the general public. You do not have to be an
ODC client to participate in our mental health services. You do not have to have a physical or
intellectual disability to participate in our opportunity for hope outpatient mental health clinic.
It is an open to the public general clinic. It's something I, in my head, I want to start with and
I don't mention it nearly enough. Thank you. I appreciate that. It's important to note certainly
to the community, but again, also to the, when we mentioned the amount of people that are involved
in this clinic and helping out and everything, that's why we got so many hands on deck is this is
open to everybody. When it comes to where we provide these services, can you touch on that for us?
Sure. Our main clinic is in Wisconsin Rapids. It's actually carved into the ODC building on
Huntington Avenue, and then we have another clinic location in Stevens Point, and then we're
really proud to be serving five school districts as well. So we are in Pittsville Elementary,
Nykusa School District, so both elementary, middle school, high school, how elementary in
Wisconsin Rapids, Stevens Point Kennedy Elementary, and then also Almond Bancroft School District.
So really trying to focus in on some of our local schools, but also kind of getting those
outliers in Central Wisconsin, and those more rural areas that are harder to access, and harder
for folks to leave to come to town for in-person appointments at our clinic locations.
Well, that's so key, especially not only because of weather and other factors, but certainly just
mobility and some of that for individuals. That is a wonderful thing to be able to offer, and to
just piggyback on the school's part of things, there was a time where so many people thought,
oh, we'll never get down recycling. Oh, recycling. That seems like I got to look at all these
different things, and I got to put it in a separate container. Nobody will ever do that.
And here we are, you know, 20, 30 years into this and everything, and nobody even thinks twice
about it. They just recycle now. Well, when that happened in society, most people kind of just
look at everyday households, but the real change happened when they started in including recycling
in schools, and kids grew up with this, and it was just routine for them to do this and everything.
Mental health, I think, can be a very similar topic, and having this clinic and this ability for
kids to have that right there and everything, certainly good for our teachers, and all the staff
there that could use these services as any individual. But for kids to grow up more and more in a society
where, hey, this stuff is our right to talk about. Actually, the strongest, toughest people you know
are going to face these things. There's no downside to that. There's no negative effect to something
like that for kids. Right. They're learning it in school. We're breaking down that stigma. They
have access to it. It's easy to access. They can see a mental health counselor if they want to or
if they're parent. Maybe identify as that's something there might be a need and they want their child
to see a counselor. It's just having that access and in schools, that's critical. And what's really
nice too is think about these families with so many kids. And after school, you have sports commitments,
different activities that you have committed. And being able to fit in those appointments, it's hard,
and there's not always that availability of those late appointments. So you kind of check this
off your list. Your kiddo goes to school and they get their therapy in the same day. Perfect.
Yeah. Yeah. It's a really good setup. You touched on this a little bit Sarah, but if you wouldn't mind
even expanding if you want to on who this the services are provided to or who who do you provide
support to. Sure. So kind of as mentioned, we serve the general public and we look at all age ranges.
We have a clinician, a couple clinicians who really love to work with children. There is a
clinician right now that's going through some play based therapy certification as well.
So in our clinics, you'll see we have a lot of toys, a lot of arts and crafts. There's fun
things to do with children as well as adolescents. Sometimes clinic therapy can happen outside
of the walls. They'll go outside, they'll walk around the black, but play a game. And then we also
serve adults and seniors. We really have no boundaries for the age agents that were able to serve.
And keep that that's a great well, well said. Keep that in mind. There are no boundaries with this.
If you if you need services, they're willing to help you now end of sentence. That's great.
It's a really wonderful thing to be able to say. Yes. And as far as the people we're talking about,
you got any stats for us as far as the number of people supported through this program? Sure.
Last year in 2024, we had 224 individuals that we supported through our clinic, which is
pretty amazing. That's impressive. Again, you know, we just opened Midway through the year in 2022
and we're growing and we're just trying to get our name out there more so people know that we're
available, that we have availability to get people in quickly and that we serve everybody.
And first, it's just a credit to you and the staff and everything seeing hearing a number like
that. That's impressive. That's great. It's also noteworthy that that many individuals need these
services. And I think that's something to keep in mind while also keeping in mind that for
every person that does seek, you know, advice or help or what have you, there are individuals out
there we know that are still struggling and not able to do that or not, you know, haven't gotten
to that point yet, which is part of the reason not only Sarah and I are having this conversation,
but want to remind anybody out there, whether you have seek service or not, whether you need it or
not, that this service is available and all are welcome. And you deserve it. Every individual,
I may not know everybody out there, but I know darn well that you deserve a good day. You deserve
a good to feel good in life in general. Again, we all have our bad days. We get that, but
though in those that start piling up and those start adding up, it might be an opportunity,
it might be time to look at this to maybe look into some services and everything. And I
I can say this as somebody who is not talking down to anybody, but somebody who has done this
myself many times and will probably do it again, to be honest. It's just knowing yourself a little
bit more and the kind of life you deserve and everybody deserves that. Everybody deserves that
piece of mind, that good life. I agree. And I think everybody deserves access to these services if
it's something they're interested in. And I think we can always encourage folks, even if they
may not feel like they need those services, I always say everybody could use a good therapist
session. I have my personal experience as well and I owe a lot to my therapist for working through
some of those difficult times. And I think anybody could say the same. Yeah, great. We're speaking
with Sarah, the existing director of mental health operations over at the ODC. And when we're
talking about the types of services we're available, certainly insurance is going to come up, Sarah.
What about insurance is accepted over there? Sure. So we work with most major commercial
insurances as well as Medicaid and Medicare. Something that's really interesting for us is that
we don't cap how many Medicaid patients we take. Some clinics, Medicaid reimbursement rates are
much lower than commercial clients. So some private practices need to cap how many Medicaid patients
they can take from a fiscal standpoint. Since we're not profit and really trying to serve the
community, we really didn't want to limit ourselves in that way. So if folks have Medicaid, they can
certainly apply for our services and we can work to see who their HMOs are and get them in.
We have a spirus, Blue Cross Blue Shield, palpable Claire,
MHS Health, Security Health Plan, United Health Care, and then of course, Straight Medicated
Medicare. There's numerous insurance plans out there. Of course, we are no exception. We have
to credential with them just like anybody else does. So if somebody has a unique plan out there
that they're having troubles getting in to other places, we do have a sliding fee scale discount
as well as some discounted rate policies as well to help folks. Again, similar to if you're in
need of these services to reach out, if you are in need of these services and don't have any of
these things still, please reach out. We encourage you to do that. As Sarah said, multiple times here,
all are welcome. All are welcome. And like you said, if you don't have insurance, we have that
sliding fee scale, it really can go from zero dollars per service depending on income and family
size, all the up to $55 per service. So it's very discounted, really trying to make it affordable,
so that people can get the care that they need without that financial burden. And you touched on
a little bit about the service availability and everything with the Medicaid and not having a
cap on that. Is there anything else we can touch on with that topic? Yes, I think something really
exciting is we do not have a current wait list. We have, again, as we've been growing, we have
clinician availability right now that still have spots on their schedules to get people in
immediately. If you call the day, I might be able to get you in this week or next week already.
Not months from now, you won't sit on a queue. We respond to you within 24 hours. We really take
pride in that communication piece and making sure that we can help people out.
Most things in life are a little time sensitive. Maybe if you are as time sensitive as mental
health issues, the opportunity to be able to offer that to people is such a headline. It's such
a big statement to be able to say. And I'm not only going to get the more services I think over
there because of that, but hopefully encourage more and more of that in society of getting availability
of that. Of course, you have to have the resources to be able to do it and stuff. Of course, I don't
make light of that, but it's as encouraging and as cool to hear for the ODC and have these
services available as it is for the community to be able to take advantage of them.
The impact that, or I'm sorry, the new opportunities. I wanted to get to that too because there's
some new stuff that you guys are doing over there. I wanted to make sure to bring some attention to.
Sure. So our mental health program, again, we're not profit-based and really community-oriented.
So we're not just a clinic. We're really trying to work with partners and see where those gaps
and those needs are and how can we compliment or how can we fill. And we have some interesting
partnerships that we're working on right now. We actually started an MOU for a co-responder program.
So we're partnering with Wood County Sheriff's Department in the Wisconsin Rapids Police
Department to have a co-responder. And what the co-responder will do is they will respond with
law enforcement to mental health specific service calls and help do some de-escalation,
connection to community resources and really look at how do we get this person the support
that they need? How do we support our law enforcement? Who maybe this is in their expertise area?
How do we cut down on the resources that are being used and give them in the correct channels?
How do we get them supports that they need? This is a conversation that Sheriff Becker and I
have had for many years. And it feels like every year that there is more being put on our law
enforcement and more things that they to be blunt didn't sign up for. And they will be the first
to tell you not that they didn't sign up for it but they don't they don't know necessarily what
to do here. They didn't have a class out of there something like that. That's not on them.
Sometimes there is nobody to point the finger at everybody. Sometimes life is just life.
Sometimes there are no heroes or villains. It's just things happen this way. And this is one of
those situations to me in talking with Sheriff Becker and other police officers about this.
The combination here is a perfect fit and a great way of addressing that. With, to be honest,
not needing government jumping in and saying, hey, do this, this, and this, we're just doing this.
We're just figuring this out as people, as individuals, as community members and organizations and
everything. There's something really cool and organic to me about that while also very, very
noteworthy of, hey, our community is working together and more and more around the country we're
seeing this. I don't mean that we're alone in this, but just to see it in our area is so noteworthy.
And once again, you're going to hear me say this a win-win situation where it is helping out
law enforcement, which is also working with you guys and really making our community that much
safer and stronger. I agree. You know, call responder programs exist around the nation as well as
around the state of Wisconsin, but this is actually the first ever of its kind in Wood County.
There's a lot of wonderful examples for us to pull from, but we're really right now this first year
in 2025, thanks to some local funding grant funding for three years. It's really about development.
We're looking at what are the needs, how are we putting our practices and policies in place,
really talking to all of our partners, getting folks on board, figuring out what are our current
systems for mental health, where are we missing, and what's the pieces that we can play in this puzzle?
We're trying to fix the boat on the water here, you know, with a lot of these things,
and not just this, but a lot of stuff in life. And I think that while giving each other grace
when it comes to that is needed just as much as being impressed by how much we've done in the
progress we've made and how far we've come while trying to fix the boat on the water. It's really
impressive, but it's also noteworthy what you said there too, I think of, you know, well, as we
grow in these departments or these programs or some of this, we're going to see, oh, we really,
this is a gray area we didn't see, or oh, this is something we're really hitting on.
To that point, and as we're getting rid of the wrap-ups here, you guys have talked about expansion,
it sounds like, maybe in Bearing or some other areas. Oh, sure. So in addition to our five school
sites, some other areas that we're serving is coming this fall in 2025. We've been talking to the
Head Start program and we're going to start serving kiddos at the Bearing Head Start location as
well as Wisconsin Rapids Head Start location. So again, those clinicians that I mentioned earlier
that really enjoy working with younger kids, they're going to be going on site and providing
services to those kids. As we're wrapping up, Sarah, can we talk about the impact that you guys are
making with this program a little bit? Oh, for sure. But I want to add just one more thing,
because I think it's really neat, too, is we're also have really strong partnerships with the
Criminal Justice program with Wood County. And so we're also seeing individuals in the jail. So
in that brand new, beautiful jail, there's all these different programming rooms now that were
really advocated for. And so we're going to be providing one-on-one therapeutic folks that,
while they're in jail, helping them kind of work through some of those mental health issues
that they may have. And then we can also support them when they release from jail as well.
And then we also support the Wood County Drug Treatment Court, too. So lots of different partnerships
that we're working with the Sheriff's Department. If Sean's ears are breathing at burning,
somebody won't tell him it's my fault and everything. Because again, going back to an early
conversation, Sheriff Becker and I have been having about how do you stop the revolving door?
The career criminal, if you will. And I talk about this stuff as somebody who grew up with one,
and somebody who grew up with a lot of this stuff and everything. So I'm not throwing stones
or anything like that. I'd be throwing them on my own family. When I'm talking about is how
the actual work that gets done on that and how you actually solve that in society. And when
we were kids and this idea of three strikes and some of this stuff and we saw that that wasn't
working. So how do you make this happen? And you talk to people. You find out why they're doing this.
And yes, some people are knuckleheads. It's life. But some people are doing this because of this
reason or this reason. And when you talk to somebody and you find that out, you're not only
doing right by that individual, you're adding to your community because that individual doesn't
go back to jail. They become a taxpayer. They get a job, et cetera, et cetera. I've talked about
this endlessly. So I'd like to think that it's pretty self-explanatory. But the domino effect of
positive things that happen in the community because of programs like this. I don't know that we
could really even put into words or numbers for people to really completely understand how
impactful that can be. It's really cool to hear. Thank you for mentioning that. And going back
again to that impact you guys are making. Kind of touch it on that a little bit too right there
with that. But just expanding on it a little bit more. Yeah, I think what's really unique about
opportunity for hope is we're really focusing on those vulnerable and underserved populations. So
those real communities, our children, our adults looking at the folks who are incarcerated.
Really trying to wrap support around individuals who could use a little bit more mental health
services support and how we can fill in that gap and serve those needs in our community.
And we're going to be able to help you guys do that stuff coming up here because you got a
fun raising opportunity right around the corner. Oh, we sure do. So if you like to golf on Thursday,
May 14th, there's a nine-am shotgun start. We have our golf outing at San Valley at the Sandbox.
And again, that's May 14th on a Thursday. And you have to sign up rather quickly because
there's an 88 golfer limit. And folks can find that information on our website if they go to
odcinc.com. There is a events tab at the right hand corner that they can drop down and find
that information they can even register online if they like. It's a fantastic website. Again, odcinc.com
is the website and this area the way they love golf and being at these events. And
I talked to so many people who they like golf, what they love is golfing and being outdoors and
being a part of things and stuff. And I can only imagine that's going to fill up real quick. It
might even fill up by the time we're done talking. So you sold out every year. So if you're
interested, you must sign up quickly. And Sarah, as we're getting done here and everything,
and people might have follow up questions about every things we've talked about today,
how can they reach you? How can they find out more about these great programs? Absolutely. I
encourage anybody who's interested in learning more about our programs or programs or services
for yourself. You can call our opportunity for hope phone at 715-818-6443. That's 715-818-6443.
Or you can always send us an email. I know some people really just don't like to pick up the phone
and call. Myself included. I get it. So you can send us an email at hope at odciinc.com.
We can get you intake paperwork electronically through the mail. You can pick things up in person.
Whatever's going to work for you, we will make it happen. And we'll get you the services that you
need. And again, that website encourages a book market odciinc.com. Be sure to follow them
on social media and share the posts that they make on your page. You just don't know who might see
them otherwise. And say hi to everybody over there for us. We love to talk with you guys.
And we'll talk again real soon. And we'll have more rapids report coming up for you,
everybody here at 975-FM1320-AMWFHR, locally grown radio.
