Text and Photos
By David Slone
Times-Union

PIERCETON — Bowen Center opened its doors Thursday, July 18, for its new Crisis Receiving and Stabilization Unit within its psychiatric hospital at 9 Pequignot Drive, Pierceton.

The goal of the unit is to de-escalate a mental health crisis by providing less restrictive care in a comfortable environment.

To celebrate the new facility, which will be open 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year, a ribbon-cutting ceremony was held with a roomful of invited guests. The services were funded by a $4.4 million grant from the Indiana Department of Mental Health and Addiction.

Dr. Rob Ryan, Bowen Center president and CEO, said to the large group gathered, “Your presence here today definitely speaks volumes when it comes to mental illness. I believe it says mental illness and physical health are equal, as they should be. It really says that people with mental illness, no matter what you’ve done, where you are in your recovery journey, you’re important to us.”

The unit “is a commitment to those individuals that — not during business hours, maybe late at night, maybe on a weekend, maybe during a holiday — says ‘enough’s enough. I want to do something different,’” Ryan said. “It’s also for you and your families. If someone in your family or a loved one, something’s happening, you don’t know what it is, you have a place to go. Instead of wondering if Bowen Center is open, you know this place here is always open, always ready for you to help and house you.”

In addition to the unit in Pierceton, he said, each of Bowen Center’s five core counties’ (Marshall, Kosciusko, Whitley, Wabash and Huntington) local locations or outpatient offices have crisis receiving and stabilization resources.

“This is not possible if it wasn’t for the vision of Division of Mental Health and Addiction, and they’re going to talk today about what that vision was: This idea that for — although Bowen’s been here for 60-plus years — this has been a missing segment and they have said ‘we see a vision that we need to change that,’ and they did it. You’re also going to hear from a legislator that also is responsible for saying, ‘We need to fund it,’” Ryan stated.

Indiana State Sen. Ryan Mishler said he thought it was kind of bittersweet when he was told about the new facility.

“It’s unfortunate that we need it, but it’s nice to know that it’s here for those that do need it,” he said.

He commended Bowen Center for sticking with their mission.

“There’s so many healthcare facilities that are more into providing revenue streams from investments in Wall Street than actually providing care for patients, and Bowen Center has stayed in the community and followed their mission. So, thank you for sticking with your mission and looking out for the residents of our communities,” Mishler said.

Unfortunately, funding is always an issue, he continued.

“I’ve been saying this since the last budget. Medicaid — the rate of increase in Medicaid spending — is outgrowing the pace of our entire revenue increase. So we want to make sure we can continue to fund these facilities adequately, but it is a challenge, and I’m one of the few people there that have been tasked with trying to figure out how to keep that spending in check so we can keep providing the necessary funding for the mental health facilities,” Mishler stated.

Advocacy

Zoe Frantz, president and CEO of the Indiana Council for Community Mental Health Centers, said a while back the Council started advocating for certified community behavioral health clinics (CCBHC) because they “really saw an opportunity to integrate the crisis services that you’ll see here today into a model for all Hoosiers. Thankfully, we started advocating when Jay Chaudry (Division of Mental Health and Addiction Indiana director) also had the same vision of improving access for the severely mentally ill and those with substance use disorder.”

As a result of that advocacy, Frantz said Senate Bill 1 was heard in the legislative session a couple budget sessions ago and became the No. 1 priority for Mishler and other legislators.

“So this is that work, seeing it in real form. Seeing the vision of lives being touched, and I’m just really proud of Bowen Center and the great work you guys are doing up here,” Frantz stated.

Chaudry said in public policy there’s two types of problems – scarcity problems and engineering problems.

“Engineering problems are things like input/output efficiencies through all the things that make things work better. And the solution to scarcity problems is more resources. The solution to engineering problems is to use those resources better,” he said.

“Now, historically, with providers and the state, what’s been the conversation? It’s been providers saying, ‘Hey, you give us more and we’ll do better,’ and the state says, ‘Do better and we’ll give you more.’ It’s this stalemate where we’re sort of in this viscous cycle.”

He continued that what’s really exciting right now is that the stalemate has been broken with both sides putting aside their differences to move forward because the community needs it.

Key Components

Tess Ottenweller, Bowen Center vice president of intensive services, stated, “I stand here with pride and excitement that today we are officially opening the doors to our new space for crisis receiving and stabilization services. This day marks a significant step forward in our ability to provide rapid, compassionate, accessible crisis support for our communities who really need it.”
There are three key components to crisis care, she said. The first is somewhere to call, which is 988. The second is someone to respond, those are the mobile crisis teams.

“And the third is a safe place to go. This is our safe place to go,” Ottenweller said.

“In a world that often stigmatizes mental health, we are here to say loudly: Seeking help is a sign of strength, not weakness,” she said. “Again, a safe place to go. A place where lives are transformed, hope is restored and futures are rewritten.

“Within these walls, we will provide a comprehensive service array to individuals when they need it, where they need it. That might look like simply a quiet place to sit, to rest, to recharge before an individual can go back out into the community. That might be connection to therapy services, medication management, psychiatric care, primary care. That might mean a higher level of care — inpatient hospitalization. The beauty of housing our Crisis Receiving and Stabilization Services here in the same building as our hospital means we can warmly walk down the hall side-by-side with someone to our inpatient admissions area and give a warm handoff,” she explained.

Bowen Center has a multi-disciplinary team there ready to ensure that anyone who walks through the doors receives care and the exact attention that they need to start their recovery journey and build resilience, Ottenweller said.

Been There

Rachael Adams, peer supervisor for Crisis Receiving and Stabilization Services, stated she is a person in long-term recovery from substance misuse. Telling her story, she said she started with valid prescriptions from her doctor and when those prescriptions weren’t available anymore, she turned to street drugs to maintain her addiction. She did a lot of things in her addiction that she’s not proud of, including her involvement with the criminal justice system.

“My disease took everything away from me, and, in turn, I took a lot of things from my family, my children and my community,” she said.

When she returned home the last time, she knew she never wanted to go back and had to figure out why she kept doing the same things and hurting herself and everyone she loved. She decided to learn everything she could about addiction.

She enrolled in school and got a job working in recovery. She took the training to become a peer recovery coach and she started slowly giving back. She poured herself into any program she could at the Bowen Center to help her figure out why she couldn’t maintain recovery. Adams started digging deep, working on her mental health and building her self-esteem and self-worth.

The more work she did on herself, the more people she began to help.

“In early recovery, I would come to group therapy or individual sessions and I would tell myself that one day I was going to work here, and I was going to help people the way Bowen Center helped me. So when a leadership position with Bowen inpatient became available, I applied,” Adams said.

When she learned of the Crisis Receiving and Stabilization Services, she knew where she needed to be, what she wanted to do and what she had been working toward.

“I knew the impact that this program could have on our community. So I was able to start as the PSD supervisor while Crisis Stabilization was being developed,” she said.

After explaining how the services worked and what they do, she stated, “Peers are people who have lived experience. Who have been where that guest has been. We’ve witnessed the power of having someone sit beside the guest and say, ‘I’ve been where you’ve been, I’m here to support you. We’ll figure this out together.’”

They currently have seven certified peer support professionals who have all gone through state training.

Adams said they started working out of the conference room in November and saw eight people. In June, they saw 80.

“Crisis Stabilization has provided another option for law enforcement providers and families who don’t know where else to turn. There’s been this need in our community for a long time and I don’t think anyone knew what the answer was, and I think Crisis Stabilization has provided an answer. I’m so proud of the work we have done, continue to do. I’m so proud to work for Bowen Center,” she said, adding that she’s graduated with her bachelor’s degree in human services and is going on to earn her master’s degree. She’s repaired relationships with her daughter, family and herself.

“I’m often asked what has been the difference this time. How have I been able to maintain my recovery. The difference has been that someone’s counting on me,” Adams stated.

Sheriff Jim Smith said he told Adams at the Bowen Center Board of Directors meeting Wednesday how proud he was of her for telling her story of where she once was and now where she is and how she’s going to turn that into helping others.

“Folks, you don’t need me to tell you this, but that’s what’s working. That’s absolutely what’s working. That’s what’s going to work in our jail with our new community recovery program, and that’s what’s going to work on the outside,” Smith said. “We’re going to do our work in the jail, we’re also going to count on Rachael and her crew to do the work on the outside, to combat that recidivism. What better way to help those turn over that new leaf than to hear from somebody who’s been there.”