 Ableton On Air is sponsored by Green Mountain Support Services, empowering people with disabilities to be home in the community. Washington County Mental Health, where hope and support comes together. Media sponsors for Ableton On Air include Park Chester Times, Muslim Community Report, WWW, this is the Bronx.info, Associated Press Media Editors, New York Parrot Online Newspaper, U.S. Press Corps, Domestic and International, Anchor FM, and Spotify. Partners with Ableton On Air include Yachad New York and New England, where everyone belongs, the Orthodox Union, and the Vermont Division for the Blind and Visually Impaired. Ableton On Air has been seen in the following publications. Park Chester Times, New York Parrot Online Newspaper, Muslim Community Report, WWW, this is the Bronx.info, and www.h.com. Ableton On Air is a member of the National Academy for Television Arts and Sciences, Boston, New England Chapter. Welcome to this edition of Ableton On Air, the one and only program that focuses on the needs, concerns, and achievements of the differently abled. I've always been your host, Lauren Seiler, and my wife is here today. Say hi, Arlene. Okay. And before we begin our wonderful show today, we would like to thank our sponsors, Washington County Mental Health, Grinning Mountain Support Services, Muslim Media Corporation, and many others, including the help from Division for the Blind and Visually Impaired of Vermont. We would like to say thank you to Zachary Hughes of Washington County Mental Health for coming on today's show. Today is about advocacy and crisis health management, and many other new things that are happening in Washington County Mental Health, and welcome Zachary Hughes to Ableton On Air. It's nice to be with you, Lauren. Thank you for coming again. Let's talk about advocacy. You're a big, huge, strong advocate in the field of special needs in Washington County Mental Health. Since we are in the holiday spirit of, I know this will be edited after July 4th, but Ron Kovic was an advocate in the war times of Vietnam War, and he's a huge advocate in advocacy services with soldiers. With that movie born on the 4th of July, how does your advocacy within Washington County Mental Health deal with or kind of mesh with Mr. Kovic's advocacy? I think it meshes if we have to help somebody who's a veteran and we connect with them by talking with them and stuff and then go from there. It is kind of a mesh because there are veterans who do need services, so it's good to be able to reach out with them and get the services they need. There are plenty of veterans services out there. What type of, is there any services that Washington County offers for veterans and how? I believe that they just, you know, if a veteran came in they would be working with them and we talk with them and see what they needed and we would go from there. So what has changed Washington County Mental Health and with you working with them for so many years in crisis management, how has things changed and services changing? I know budgets are a big thing. When you're in crisis, budgets kind of go out the window when you need help. So explain. Well I think the change is that, you know, we did weather through COVID and we were able to gain more resources in there and more recognition of the mental health system and what part it plays and the peer system was instrumental as well and has changed to adapt to the COVID world and being able to connect with people, you know, in various ways. You know, we work from our homes during the beginning of the COVID situation and we adapted and I think that's what the agency has done. Do you think that that was extremely difficult or in your opinion being an advocate has it been extremely difficult for people with mental illness or mental challenges during this COVID situation? Especially now because we have this new variant quote-unquote. I do think it was difficult and it also, people were not used to it. I don't think anyone's going to come out of there and say, oh I had a great time while I was in my house. You know, it's something that was a challenge for people and it was a 100 year event. Really, think about the last time we had something like this was in 1918. So I would say mentally though. You mean with the flu epidemic? That's correct. Yeah. I think it was difficult for people mentally and that's why we adapted to work with it. We had a phone line that people were calling during the epidemic. We had two services that were two programs that helped with that. Our sunrise program and our Maple House, as you remember the Maple House bed program, a few of our staff couldn't work in the bed at that time including me. So we started a phone line from our homes. We were able to do that. So for those that don't know, I know we've touched on it with the show, but those that don't know what the Maple Bed program is, can you explain what that is? The Maple Bed is for individuals in our CSP program who need a break from wherever they're they're at and they just take a few days. Sometimes we've gone longer and it's known as a peer crisis bed. And it's one bed? Yes, it is one bed in a building. Yes, that's correct. And we actually have moved into town now. We have a new facility that's right next to our sunrise day center. So it's really, really good. What's the new facility? Well, the new facility is just something that is down at the old Bluens building. And we have a portion of it on the side of Downing Street. So it's a very nice facility. It's the new Maple House. The one that we had before was up on Heaton Street. Which is that Heaton Street is no longer? Well, Heaton Street is our transitional program now. So they actually have two beds up there for their transitional people who are homeless. So those came online, yes. Anything you want to add to that, Arlie? Yes. Okay. Mental challenges, rather. Mental. I mean, mental health cases, of course, they have. And I'm sure people have called Washington County asking for help or various other sources. But, you know, one of the things that we did at Washington County is we reached out. As you know, you guys interviewed many people. And they included the wonderful Mary Moulton and that new Snoozlin Room. Well, it's five years into making, but that Snoozlin Room that we just did a wonderful interview. Yeah, it was a beautiful spot. But I just want to say that they have, you know, Mary's ads have been extremely reassuring. So the advertising campaigns were running. And the ability to adapt to the new, new, well, they said the new normal, but I love it when they say new normal, but it's not really. And personally, well, being a journalist for 25 years, just a little comment. And people in, in the mental health, in the mental health work, work of mental health, social workers. And so there's been, you know, bad press at some point about people with mental health. How has, in your opinion, especially now with COVID and this, that will continue for a while, how has the, how has people with mental health or mental health challenges been treated through the media? Have you seen any changes or has it gotten worse on how the media has treated people with mental health? And what is the message that you can convey today for those that are in social work or in the mental health work? Feel, yeah. Well, let's just convey that, that it is okay that if you, I think the good news, we did talk a couple years ago about the media portrayal mental health. But has it gotten worse since COVID? I don't think the media portrayal has gotten worse with COVID. In fact, I think it's gotten a little bit better because they've recognized, you know, that mental health is a major, you know, player since people have been in their houses. I mean, try being in it. What if you're homeless and you have a mental health condition? Okay, let's, let's go from one question, continue the question and then we can go to this. Yeah, so, so the whole point is I want to say that I think the media has gotten better with it because we've been able to really come out and say it's okay to have this people and say, oh, it's not, you know, prior to our 2018 interview, when you had your 2018 interview, I was saying, you know, that people didn't want anything to do with mental health, really, because they had a hard time with it. And there was a stigma, there's still a stigma out there, but we're kind of coming out and saying, listen, it's okay to call us. It's okay to call Washington County. You know, it's not a bad thing and they're here to talk. So it's, you know, I don't think it's a bad thing. Plus, I think people recognize, listen, I was depressed while I was, you know, in my house or this is crazy, I'm going to stay in here for six months, you know, or, you know, so it's, it's really COVID, I think has done a little bit of a service. It has not done a service as far as, you know, it's made it, I think it's made worse with the populate with everybody because, I mean, worse in the fact of symptoms, because people just, they're not used to having to do all this stuff, wear a mask, you know, all that stuff. And Governor Scott kind of passed a rule that if you have anxiety or you're, or you're constricted, you feel exactly restricted, meaning closed in from the mask, you don't have to wear it. Right, right, he did do that. Yes. And I think what's great about Vermont, just want to say, you know, in a sense, just for a second is that Vermont was overall pretty, pretty understanding about the needs based on the emergency and from Governor Scott versus the other states. And that's why we, you know, we had the vaccine rate at around 80% now and we're 82, thank you. I'd change it. Sorry, sorry. That's okay. I don't keep, I keep a little bit of track of those numbers, but it has made it so that we're where we are today. Yeah. Now, getting to the question of homelessness, my wife mentioned, you're still there? Yeah, yeah. Well, I haven't been homeless, so I wouldn't know that, but I will say that I think people- What services? Let's piggyback. What services? I think what my wife was trying to add. What services does mental health, does what the county mental health have for homelessness? And is there a huge number of, do you know if, do you know the numbers or is there a huge number of homelessness and mental health issues? I do have some numbers for homeless. And what I will say first is that Washington County has been able to acquire some resources to assist homeless individuals, including a couple, you know, they had- I know you're on the homelessness task force. Right, I'm on the homelessness task force. And what I will say is that Washington County has acquired at least a couple new social workers. One was with the police department, but that shouldn't really deter people. I know it does when they hear the police department, but the idea is, you know, to help out with the, you know, homeless plus we have- So the person who works for Washington County, but is that the police department? Yeah, it's shared with the Barry and Mom prettier police department through a grant. That's one, and we just acquired another worker to work around the federal funding, around the new grant that comes down with the homeless money that can pay for rent and stuff like that, and all kinds of funds. So I think that they have a good thing. Now, I'll give you some numbers from what we understand. There were around just under 300 people who were homeless in the county. Now- As a blatant, as a blatant? Yeah, under, just under 300. That's not a lot. Okay, yeah. And there was around 78 who had to exit hotels. 78 of those under 300 had to exit hotels. Now, what I need to emphasize is probably a few of them got to stay because there was a lawsuit filed by Legal Aid. Legal Aid? Yeah, Legal Aid filed- The free lawyers, right? Yeah, they filed a lawsuit to get injunctive relief around some handful of disabled who were in the hotels who weren't really, the wording was a little bit murky under the governors under the agency human services. So anyway- When you say, I'm sorry for interrupting, when you say murky in this sense. It means that they would have been kicked out of the hotel, but the governor's office has assured everybody that actually they have expanded the disabled definition. Speaking about homelessness and mental health, Good, and I'm going to mention them because they're a wonderful organization where they washed the county. Good Samaritan just acquired, excuse me, one of the hotels on Berrymont Pillar Road to turn it, I'm not sure which one. Twin City. The Twin, what? Twin City. Twin City Motel. To turn it, I guess, into a hub shelter? Yes. So how would that work in your- I believe that'll work very nicely in our nice collaborative work. It's an added- Is it because Berry, the Berry Good Samaritan building can't help so many people? I think it just adds additional space. Plus I think there's going to be some unique work done in there. But I don't know what that is because that's Good Samaritan. No, no, no. I'm mentioning it within Washington County. I think it's good partners with Good Samaritans. This might be extremely useful. In fact, I will say it's extremely useful. The other thing COVID did, by the way, really quickly is it opened up a little lens to the homelessness problem. Before COVID, people were kind of like, I don't think it's that bad. Well, sleeping outside in the winter, that is why- Right, right. Well, that's why, if you're aware of the moratorium, I think I'm saying it right, different states and also the nation, they put a stop to throwing people out in the street because they couldn't pay rent, where they're going to go, they can't be out in the street. That's correct. Well, one of the things I've been concerned about with the eviction moratorium is when that ends and that will end eventually. The good news is, first of all, the good news, federal funding is out there so that that can be averted. You can get your rent paid for way back if you know where to look. Now, is there a big amount of mental health, just for the topic of that? Let's say you do diagnose physical and mental challenges. Is there extra money? Example, I know that Israel and some other countries, if you're over there and you have certain challenges, they give you extra money for housing, food, etc. Within Washington County, if you need extra assistance with housing, or you need extra assistance with certain things, does Washington County have a fund for housing per se? It depends what services you're receiving. We do have that. It depends on what services you're receiving right now because of the extra COVID money coming through from Washington. There's resources that Washington County is trying to connect with or have connect with in order to guide the clients to these funding sources. They do, as I said, have some funding support, but it depends on what service you're getting. I just wanted to mention that emergency fund that is being commercialed from the Vermont State Housing Authority, that's being advertised widely on your TV, that's for emergency situations. Your rent is back several months, or something like that. You can access that. There's other funding sources coming online. Yeah, so Washington County has that extra? If they don't, they have it, but if they don't have it, they can direct the clients to this other fund. They have the ability, because they do work with various landlords in housing and we're bringing on new partners every day. That's the unique and exciting work that's going on right now in that aspect. I do remain concerned with the eviction moratorium coming off and having all these people who couldn't pay rent and suddenly they're having to scramble to figure it out. That's why I'm hopeful that Washington County and other providers will be able to direct these people to the right funding, so this doesn't happen. Any other questions you want to add, Arlene? Yes, the emergency money through the Vermont State Housing Authority can help pay rent or pay the back rent and I think some back utilities as well. This has just been coming online and they advertised it on TV and that's all over the place, so you would apply through Vermont State Housing Authority if you want to do it. In fact, I have a friend who did that. We really am worried about this idea of people who didn't pay their rent because either they couldn't or they thought, oh, I don't have to pay my rent. So now there's this little scramble. The Biden administration has said they will not extend the eviction moratorium past the 31st of July. Yeah, because with those stimuluses, you would assume people can pay some rent. That would be an assumption. The stimulus was meant to stimulate that and help people get through, but not everybody went that route with the stimulus. I think it's important to know that we have a nice umbrella of support and services in place right now. Okay, so give us, we have a couple minutes left. What do you think the future of mental challenges is with Washington County Mental Health? Continuing to serve the community and widening the horizons. We have a great administration in Washington right now. I don't expect any problems with that much. And we have supportive leaders here in Vermont. And I think it's really cool that we have that ability. And even, you know, I think the agencies at Washington County is also interested in making sure that workers take care of themselves. And I think it's really important that people exercise self-care. I have started doing this. If I could please have a minute and just say that I went into COVID scared because I, you know, I have a disability and I thought I would be really sick if I caught this thing. And I just decided to make some changes after COVID. And one of them was, I'm going to start saying no to certain things and also taking care of myself more. Yeah, because I wasn't doing that. And so it's really important to take care of yourself. Choose one thing a day you'll do for yourself. Choose one thing a day you'll do for yourself. I hear people, I don't have time for that. And I'll tell you something else. Some people in this life, well, some people in this, in, oh, I work too much. I don't have time to eat. Well, you know what, you got to take time to eat. Because I'll tell you, if you don't make the time, it's going to come back and bite you. And you may miss opportunities. So the idea of one of the things I'm going to do to self-care myself this year is I am taking a vacation sometime in August. So that's something I want to do. But the biggest change was just that I was going to make changes after COVID or after the severe COVID part. And I did that. So anyone could do that. And don't say I can't do that because you can. So thank you for that. Yep. Okay. And with that said, we would like to thank Zachary Hughes, advocate for Washington County Mental Health. By the way, what is your title exactly? Yeah. Well, it's an assistant team leader at Maple House. But I carry many duties over there related to the peer programming. So we would we say you're a peer advocate for Washington County Mental Health. You could say that. Yes. Okay. We would like to thank you for joining us on this edition of Abledon on Air. For more information on Washington County Mental Health and their services, you can you can call 802-229-0591 if you're in crisis 802-229-0591. Do you have the information about the Vermont State Housing Authority? Just their website, I believe it's VHSA.org. Okay. So if you would like more information on extra COVID funding for any housing problems you may have, you can go to www.VSAJ.org. VSAJ.org. Or if you're in crisis again, 802-229-0591. Again, we would like to thank our sponsor, Washington County Mental Health Services and Green Mountain Support Services and many, many, many others, including the support of the Vermont Division for the Blind and visually impaired as a partner of Abledon on Air. This has been Abledon on Air. I'm Lauren Seiler. I'm Lauren Seiler. See you next time. Abledon on Air is sponsored by Green Mountain Support Services, empowering people with disabilities to be home in the community. Washington County Mental Health, where hope and support comes together. Media sponsors for Abledon on Air include Park Chester Times, Muslim Community Report, WWW, this is the Bronx dot info, Associated Press Media Editors, New York Parrot Online Newspaper, U.S. Press Corps, Domestic and International, Anchor FM and Spotify. Partners with Abledon on Air include Yachad, New York and New England, where everyone belongs, the Orthodox Union, and the Vermont Division for the Blind and visually impaired. Abledon on Air has been seen in the following publications, Park Chester Times, New York Parrot Online Newspaper, Muslim Community Report, WWW, this is the Bronx dot info, and WWW dot H dot com. Abledon on Air is a member of the National Academy for Television Arts and Sciences, Boston, New England Chapter.