Welcome to the second edition of the Northwest TI-ROSC Collaborative newsletter!

The Northwest TI-ROSC Collaborative is comprised of member organizations in Lake, LaPorte, Porter, and Starke counties who participate in monthly county stakeholder meetings reviewing best practices, continuous improvement, and strategic action planning in support of reducing opioid and substance use mortality and increasing treatment and recovery access.
The contents of this first newsletter include:

• Article on Prevention: Proactive Prevention Key to Substance Use and Mental Health Concerns
• Spotlights on TI-ROSC Leadership by County
• Events Calendar
• Newsletter will be published Fall, Winter and Spring each grant year.

Northwest TI-ROSC Collaborative appreciates the support of HealthLinc and the Division of Mental Health & Addiction. Funding for this newsletter is made possible through the Mobile Integrated Response Systems grant, a part of the State Opioid Response grant.

Issue 2: Prevention

Proactive Prevention Key to Substance Use and Mental Health Concerns

If a healthy brain is like a tree, given clean air, water, and soil in which to grow, it’s likely to rise tall and free from bends, breaks, or blight. But a tree that is harmed early on may grow crooked or struggle to return upright. The human brain is often confronted with many challenges—both genetic and environmental—that can inhibit its growth through trauma on the path toward adulthood.

Adverse childhood experiences, or ACEs, that arise from neglect, abuse, and other traumas, affect children in ways that can lead to mental health and substance use issues. Studies show that children with multiple ACEs are seven to 10 times more likely to experience substance use addiction, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that preventing ACEs
could avoid up to 21 million cases of depression.

Much like the tree, if a child’s brain can grow up free from trauma, neglect, and abuse, the healthy brain is less susceptible to mental health and substance use issues—as well as detrimental health outcomes—later in life. If mental health issues arise due to other reasons, the availability of and access to supportive resources in the community also play a role in heading off issues before they lead to harmful behaviors. According to Mental Health America, evidence-based prevention efforts should work to identify the biological, psychological, and social factors that can increase risk, such as:

• Strengthening families by teaching effective parenting skills.
• Strengthening individuals by building resilience and skills while improving cognitive processes and behaviors.
• Promoting mental health in schools by offering support to children encountering serious stresses.
• Promoting mental health through health care and community programs by promoting and supporting socially adaptive behavior, teaching coping skills, and targeting
  modifiable life-style factors that can affect behavior and emotional health, such as sleep, diet, activity and physical fitness, sunshine and light, and appropriate television and computer use.

While our work in the TI-ROSC is focused on treating the mental health and substance use issues existing in our communities today, programs that keep an eye toward preventing these issues in the children within the families we serve is a step toward reducing these issues for future generations to come.

Meet the TI-ROSC Stakeholders

In this newsletter, we introduce you to TI-ROSC leadership supporting Lake, LaPorte, Porter and Starke counties.

LAKE COUNTY
Meet Melanie Cox, Family Case Manager Supervisor at the Indiana Department of Child Services in Lake County

Melanie Cox has been involved in mental health and substance use work since she was in high school, when she participated in peer-to-peer support resources for students who came from homes facing those challenges. Eventually, she began working in the Lake and Porter County School Systems, where she experienced the effects of these issues in greater depth.

“I started really seeing firsthand the effects of what parental substance use disorder could have on children, whether it was directly related to schoolwork or even their ability to relate to their own peers,” Cox said. “I decided at that point, the Department of Child Services (DCS) would be a place where I can best fit in and address those issues I observed in the classroom setting.”

Cox has spent the past 18 years at DCS, where she works in collaboration with TI-ROSC to ensure the families in Lake County have access to services tailored to their individual needs. As case manager supervisor, Cox’s team identifies each family’s needs, sometimes going as far as identifying the specific substance a family member is using and the complex issues surrounding that drug.

“TI-ROSC helps me gather everything I can from the community to best meet the needs of our families and meet the needs of kids as well,” Cox said. “I fully believe that the services we offer to children are important in ensuring the family is a strong, cohesive unit and we, as DCS, can step away safely knowing we’ve offered everything we can.”

One of the areas in which Lake County DCS is offering its best resources is through trauma-focused care, which Cox says is key to addressing the substance use and mental health issues in the community. Once families go through court, the case manager calls a child-and-family team meeting to bring together all the providers to focus on the specific needs of each family.

“This involves digging down to what trauma may have occurred and matching up the right people to address those needs. We continue to build on this trauma-focused care, which is key to addressing these issues,” Cox said. “I see us as a leader in the state, possibly even a model in the state, for being able to incorporate the different community services for our families.”

When it comes to prevention in Lake County, Cox says DCS has seen successful outcomes in young children and older youth who participate in individual therapy and life skills training prior to leaving DCS care.

“Several grown children have returned to visit our office to share their successes with the family case manager or supervisor who was once part of their lives as their parents worked toward sobriety or received help for the mental health issues that enveloped the family when they were brought into DCS,” Cox said. “These visitors, once children of the system, have learned to meet life’s stresses and challenges without turning to drugs or alcohol due to the skills and early intervention therapies provided when they were young. There is no better example of the success of a community then when ‘the village’ provides its youngest people the opportunity to grow and develop into adults that can give back to the community and raise their own families in a healthy environment.”

LAKE COUNTY
Meet Victoria Charleston-Hanley, Program Supervisor at Regional Health Systems in East Chicago

Recovery Matters North is a 28-day residential substance abuse recovery program offering medication-assisted treatment for people with alcohol and opiate addictions. The men and women who come to Recovery Matters North self-refer or are referred through probation officers, courts, community corrections, or a variety of local agencies like DCS. For more than 30 years, the program has offered coping skills and treatment options for people in East Chicago, including the program’s supervisor, Victoria Charleston-Hanley. About 27 years ago, she completed the same program herself.

“At the time, I was using heroin and crack cocaine – I wasn’t looking for a solution. My mother had passed away, and my house caught on fire, and it was just a bad series of events. Eventually, my daughter came to me and let me know she was pregnant with my first grandchild, and I couldn’t continue this way and be a grandmother,” Charleston-Hanley said. “That’s how I got here. Not in my wildest dreams did I think I’d return as program supervisor. That’s what God does – he has given me my experiences, and then he allowed me to get the education to come back and help people.”

Charleston-Hanley completed the recovery program and moved on to a halfway house. Eventually she earned her bachelor’s and master’s degrees before returning to work at Recovery Matters North. She’s currently working on her PhD. Recovery work is important to her because she knows how life-changing it can be.

“Coming from my own personal place, I know we can’t fix everything, but once people in recovery start understanding how this disease works, why it is so cunning, and how it gets you all wrapped up, then they start to understand the why behind it—why a brain can become rewired for reward syndrome,” Charleston-Hanley said. “That’s what drugs do.”

Charleston-Hanley also manages the mental health ministry at New Hope Church in Gary, and she’s a member of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc. Her hope for Lake County is to have more recovery services available with fewer barriers to treatment. In particular, she would like to see a one-stop-shop delivery model that offers shelter for those living with homelessness, medical
services, DCS, and account trustees, all in one building. Charleston-Hanley acknowledges it’s a big vision, but in an area with a high poverty rate and lack of public or medical transportation – particularly on the weekends—people need options and services during the day when shelters are closed.

“There are several abandoned schools in this area. They have cafeterias we could use to provide food, gymnasiums for physical therapy, and classrooms that could be divided into dorm rooms and classrooms to offer everything these folks need,” Charleston-Hanley said. “Sometimes we have unrealistic expectations of what people can achieve when they have to attend therapy or drug court in Gary, but their shelter is in East Chicago. How do they get there? These barriers keep people trapped in a vicious cycle.”

These days, Charleston-Hanley has four grandchildren plus “bonus” grandchildren. Sometimes, she’s invited to events to tell her story and share her work.

“I used to be the girl asked to leave places, now people are asking me to come help. That’s a great feeling, a 180-degree turn from where I was,” she said. “Now, my kids are my greatest cheerleaders.”

LA PORTE COUNTY

Meet Sgt. James Lear of the La Porte County Sheriff’s office

Responding to mental health and substance use issues isn’t simply a part of law enforcement duties for the La Porte County Sheriff’s office, it’s central to what they do every day.

“It’s a daily occurrence responding to someone who’s having suicidal ideation or feeling depressed, including juveniles,” said Sgt. James Lear. “Each day we encounter someone with mental health issues who’s become aggressive, fighting with family members, or we have several people with autism in our county who are known to flee, so we know where these people like to go. It’s every day for us.”

Sgt. Lear’s department is building a unified law enforcement culture among the seven law enforcement agencies in La Porte County. They recently committed to completing crisis intervention training to better serve the mental health and substance use issues in their community. Starting in January, the agencies are working toward having 50% of their officers trained through a grant-funded initiative.

“We have commitment from each department, plus the Indiana Department of Natural Resources, because they also respond to these calls,” said Sgt. Lear, who is the law enforcement coordinator for the grant. “Right now, we’re focused primarily on training, but we’re also working with our healthcare providers because we will be the primary mode for transport for a lot of people seeking help once we can develop some more established services.”

Fortunately, Sgt. Lear has working relationships with many of the agencies ready to partner on this work. He’s been with the Sheriff’s office since 2013, where he has worked as an evidence technician patrolman and spent five years as a detective. Even in investigations, the substance use issues in his community were evident.

“When I responded to a burglary or stolen lawnmower, we’d ask who in the family has a substance use issue, because that’s how I’ll find your lawnmower. The substance use was always there, but after coming back out of investigations after five years in that role, we’re dealing with much more of it,” Sgt. Lear said. “As a supervisor now, I’m working with younger officers responding to mental health crises – it’s an eye opener to see the lack of services and providers to support these people in our county. When the opportunity came to be involved in this training, we knew we needed it.”

Sgt. Lear is a member of the hostage crisis negotiation team. He understands that the crisis intervention training will not only better support community members with mental health and substance use issues, but it will also help his officers be better at their jobs.

“Even a deputy fresh out of the academy will notice a void in services up here within the first couple weeks on the job,” Sgt. Lear said. “This training will not only better help people in crisis, but I tell my deputies it will translate to better police work: active listening skills, better interviewing skills. These tools are not unfamiliar to law enforcement, but most patrol officers don’t receive this specialized training.”

Training will be held in January, March, and again in 2024. Since La Porte County is so far along in its efforts to build consensus and deploy the training grant, Sgt. Lear hopes their work can be a model for other northern Indiana agencies to see what has worked and how the counties can work together.

“Our communities are considered the suburbs of Chicago, so we deal with different issues from the rest of the state because we’re so plugged into this specific crime bubble,” Sgt. Lear said. “We are in our microcosm of Indiana, and it would be nice to have a successful template we can share with each other to get these people funneled into the right systems.”

LA PORTE COUNTY

Meet Allen Grecula, Substance Abuse Director at NorthShore Health Centers

To truly trauma-informed care, one must listen to and acknowledge the lived experience that each person brings to the table. In the Frontline Program at NorthShore Health Centers, Substance Abuse Director Allen Grecula says this takes many forms.

“This can be an individual who showed up struggling and looking for Vivitrol, but we discovered he’s actually HIV positive and doesn’t have the means to address that more pressing issue. We enroll him in insurance and connect him with an infectious disease physician to get life-saving medications. Or the patient who got his first pair of glasses after not seeing an optometrist for ten years,” Grecula said. “People tend to limit treatment and recovery to counseling and meetings, but trauma-informed care is so important because we can begin to understand what each person is going through and address their needs through a network of support.”

Part of that network is the NorthShore Health Center, a Federally Qualified Healthcare Center (FQHC) that offers many services, ranging from primary care, optometry, pediatrics, OBGYN, behavioral health, and substance abuse treatment. As an FQHC, NorthShore is uniquely positioned to provide a variety of services to those struggling with mental health or substance abuse needs.

“We know it’s rare when these issues don’t impact other areas of the individual or their needs, and that is where we help,” Grecula said. “Our substance abuse program was one of three organizations chosen within the State of Indiana to pilot the Mobile Response Team. Due to this unique position, we have been able to leverage partnerships and relationships to support the MIRT program.”

Grecula’s program at NorthShore piloted a Mobile Response Team (MRT) within the City of La Porte, which laid the groundwork for the wider Mobile Integrated Response Team (MIRT). When there was a prospective overdose, MIT would respond within 72 hours.

“We worked with recovery coaches to go out with police and fire and approach the individuals. A big part of this work was addressing the stigma—not just with substance use, but the stigma of law enforcement among those who struggle with substance use,” Grecula said. “They think if law enforcement is involved, they’ll be arrested. We educated people about our approach through conversations, door-to-door mailing campaigns, and billboards.”

A board member of the La Porte County Drug-Free Partnership, Grecula has worked with the mental health and substance abuse population for the past 15 years. The work began in Chesterton, where Grecula’s mother, Amber Hicks, launched Frontline in the early 2000s because there were no substance use services available. Grecula joined her in 2005, and Frontline merged with NorthShore in 2019.

“We merged with NorthShore in order to provide truly integrated care,” Grecula said. “Increasingly, clients requested Vivitrol, but we couldn’t offer it. We partnered with NorthShore and it clicked with our client’s needs and tied in with the trauma-informed care.”

Now, Grecula can seamlessly connect a client who’s experienced dental damage due to long-term substance use with a dentist who can help her improve her quality of life. His hope for La Porte County is to not only address these issues but to lead solutions.

“My vision for the county is that we are not only equipped to combat the growing mental health needs within the community, but that we also are leading the way in embracing, implementing, and addressing mental health and the related needs.”

PORTER COUNTY

Meet Becky Raderstorf, Special Programs Manager at Center of Workforce Innovations (CWI)

In her work, Becky Raderstorf helps connect people to the training they need to find jobs and provide for their families. She’s a manager at the Center of Workforce Innovations (CWI), which operates the WorkOne center in Porter County and contributes to addressing substance use issues in the community.

“Workforce training is important in recovery and prevention. If people have stable jobs, they’ll be more successful and less likely to return to substance use,” Raderstorf said. “Most of the people we see have barriers to employment, like transportation, clothing, or rent. We offer supportive services that help them overcome those barriers so they can find the tuition for nursing school, get their cell phone turned back on to receive job offers, or get the shoes they need to wear to that job. It’s support at all levels.”

Raderstorf has worked at CWI for eight years. The work has supported her love of contributing to others while applying her background in human resources and banking.

“I really have a passion to help people. My past jobs were missing that element of service and helping people get what they need to be successful,” Raderstorf said. “To me, it’s not about money, it’s the self-fulfillment that comes with helping people succeed.”

CWI received a grant through the Division of Mental Health and Addiction, which asked CWI to apply for the funding to offer peer recovery training in Northwest Indiana. In this program, people who have been through substance use or mental health issues (or both) at least one year prior can become qualified to coach others through recovery.

“My passion for this program came from a friend whose daughter who is in recovery and wants to become a peer recovery coach – I’ve been able to see her journey and provide guidance,” Raderstorf said. She serves as the project manager, working with a career advisor and an organized team to provide the weeklong peer training sessions. And they’re working to provide training to people who can create wider impact.

“We know that people of color are highly underrepresented in the peer recovery sector, so we got a special grant to train more of that specific population,” she said. “We’re training people from all backgrounds, but we’re focusing on people in our region who need the most help.”

From an employment standpoint, Raderstorf says there’s demand for peer recovery coaches from employers. Whether it’s manufacturing companies or other fields, employers increasingly want to have someone on staff to support employees struggling with recovery.

“Particularly in a difficult job market, employers are starting to see that it behooves them to retain talent and to find new ways to do that. A peer recovery coach is one way to help keep workers on the job,” Raderstorf said. “We have an entire business services team and a grant-funded career advisor who work specifically with people undergoing peer recovery training to help with resumes, interviewing, and getting a job with this qualification. We also have a business services representative who works to educate the public and employers on why peer
recovery coaches are so vital.”

PORTER COUNTY

Meet Samantha Burgett, MSW, LSW, Social Worker at Valparaiso Police Department

When Valparaiso Police Department Chief Jeffrey Balon recognized that many calls his department received were not criminal, but people in need of help—often repeatedly—he worked to create a social worker position to handle the calls for which police offers are not trained. The first police social worker, Samantha (“Sam”) Burgett, was hired in September 2021.

“I receive referrals from the officers when they recognize a community member needs help, or they call me on scene if it’s time sensitive. I reach out and connect people to a community resource to address their needs. When I started, I was very intentional about networking with other local agencies who reach out to ask me about resources to help their clients,” Burgett said. “The longer I’m here, the more community members just show up and ask for me or call to ask about the friends and family they’re worried about. Sometimes, community resources just aren’t working, so I’ll step in and provide case management.”

In this role, Burgett also runs the Recovery Arts events, a 12-month series of recovery-based art events to address stigma and engage community members in recovery or considering it. At 25, Burgett has spent her career, education, and free time helping youth and those in recovery. During her undergraduate studies, Burgett was running a teen program in Valparaiso when she noticed her kids were getting arrested and coming out of the detention centers with worse behaviors than when they went in. She started a mentoring program in the detention center in 2018.

“I was running a twice monthly mentoring program, and I fell in love with the population, so I started working there as a detention officer. I continued to see that same pattern in behavior, with some kids arrested just a couple hours after release,” Burgett said. “I designed and implemented a mentorship-based reentry program, which I ran within the detention center. I had the opportunity to launch something similar in Westville Correctional Facility, so while I was in school, I when I was running both programs. I realized I’d have a lot more success if I could pull in funding and resources.”

Burgett researched how to launch a nonprofit and turned her mentorship program into one in 2019. With two homes donated to the nonprofit in Gary, she operated programming in both. Ultimately, programming in the juvenile detention center and prison were shut down during the pandemic. Burgett used this time to build up the community-based services. She also decided to pursue her master’s degree at IUPUI while working at a facility in Indianapolis for young adults experiencing homeless.

“I gained a lot more experience, which I brought back here, desperate to continue with my reentry work. I moved back to Valparaiso and strategically decided to work in the prosecutor’s office for five months in order to learn the other side of this work with kids,” Burgett said. “I gained a lot of valuable connections.”

It was at this point Burgett was hired as a social worker at the police department. She also raises a foster child and runs a non-profit called the Community Change Center, which provides support and resources to individuals during incarceration and as they transition back into their communities. The center operates Unity Café, which offers food, snacks, networking, support groups, and a safe space for the community at Living Hope Community Church in Valparaiso.

“People I engage with struggle because they don’t have the social support and capital to succeed. If you’ve burnt all your bridges and have nobody to support you when things go south, it’s difficult to get better,” Burgett said. “Unity Café is a barrier-free community with free food, workshops, yoga, support groups, and courses. People can show up, share, and engage.”

The care of her community is clearly a part of who Burgett is, and it defines her passion for her work.

“I was meant to do this work; I don’t think I chose it,” she said. “I can remember being in elementary school asking my mom to help me organize food drives. I felt it was important. I can’t not do something.”

EVENTS CALENDAR

Virtual Recovery Coach Training

WorkOne is offering virtual training for Community Health Workers/Certified Recovery
Coaches. The one-week training offers participants both certifications. Registration for the
upcoming classes is open from now until January 6th. Learn more
at https://gotoworkonenw.com/peerrecovery/.