 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 dot info, Associated Press Media Editors, New York Parrot Online Newspaper, U.S. Press Corps, Domestic and International, Anchor FM, and Spotify. Partners for Ableton on Air include Jihad, New York, and New England, where everyone belongs, the Orthodox Union, the Vermont Division for the Blind and Visually Impaired, the Vermont Association for the Blind and Visually Impaired, the Montpelier Sustainable Coalition. 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 dot 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 its needs, concerns, and achievements. I've always been your host, Lauren Seiler, and on this show, before we get to our topic for today, we would like to say special thanks to Washington County Mental Health, our sponsor, Green Mountain Support Services, and many others, including the partners with the Vermont Division for the Blind and Visually Impaired, the Vermont Association for the Blind and Visually Impaired, and the Montpelier and the Sustainable Montpelier Coalition, and many, many others. We would like to welcome our guest, Garrett Washburn of Washington County Mental Health, and today we're going to be talking about summer camps and mental health and the importance of recreation. Welcome to Ableton on Air. Thank you for having me. Okay, what are the missions and goals of Washington County Mental Health? Sure, so I can speak for Choice Academy, which is part of Washington County Mental Health Services. The mission and goal of the summer program in particular is a non-academic space where the kids can work on group goals together with staff and then also be outside, away from electronics, things like that, so that we can really focus on mental health outside of the classroom. So explain what the Academy, you mentioned Academy, so what is the Academy? Sure, so Choice Academy is one of the schools that's an umbrella of under Washington County Mental Health Services, and it is its own building. All the teachers and the staff are in one house, I'm sorry, under one roof, and all of the academics happen in there. The teachers shift from room to room so the kids don't have to go all over the place, and it's a great program. Choice Academy is for kids that are 10 to 22, and we have everything right in Southbury. Okay, why is it so important for people who have mental illness or mental challenges to have recreation and talk about that? Sure, and I don't even think it's mental health or mental illness. I think everyone should have recreation outside. It's just great you get the fresh air, you get exercise outside. A lot of our clients and our students, even our staff, they need to be outside. Having that outlet is I think it's extremely important, whether it's sunny or if we're out biking or if we're just doing a walk or playing disc golf, all those things are so beneficial to mental health for everyone. What is disc golf in this case? Yeah, so the disc golf is fun. It's like a Frisbee and you're throwing it into a basket. It's just a lot of fun. It's kind of like the ball golf except it's with a Frisbee. Any questions you want to ask? Yes. Sure, so we have three different classrooms basically. We have a middle school for the younger kids, we have a high school and then we have individualized programs and those are one-on-ones. So in the middle school I have 14 students, the high school I have 10 students and individuals I have three currently. So I hear you said from what age is it? 10 to 22. What happened? Now I'm going to ask this question. I hope you don't mind and I hope it doesn't throw you off. What happens after age 22? Is there a program for them within your program? Yes, so it wouldn't be our program but we do have adult services and if they still need our help or anything like that they shift into the adult side. So they can still stay within Washington County. It just wouldn't be Choice Academy. Okay, so what other activities, so you said disc golf and what other activities are you doing? Yeah, so with the kids it's a lot of swimming. I want them away from screen time, so TVs and video games and their phones. No tablets. I know the tablets. I want to get them away from that because they had so much. Absolutely. And they had way too much of it during COVID anyway. So we wanted to get them away from it. So a lot of swimming, hiking, we set up Choice Carnival is what we call it and it's we have like water slides that we have their obstacle courses that the kids can run through in games and things like that. Board games too. So that way they're using their minds for something else than just watching a screen. Jazz, checkers, all that kind of stuff. And I have a lot of kids that like to play Magic the Gathering or Pokemon. Okay. Dungeons and Dragons. Is that too? Yeah. How has people with mental challenges, how has it affected, has your program been affected by COVID? How and why? Yeah, so when COVID first hit it went into totally online for about two months I would say. And we noticed a big fall-off. The students weren't participating as much because they didn't know how to either log in or they didn't have the means to log in or there was no one there right there with them, holding them accountable. So we had a lot of numbers drop off and then as soon as we got to go back in person, which thankfully for us was only about two, two and a half months, our numbers started to go back up, participation increased. So we did find that our students needed to be in person more so than remote. So this is, is this like an alternative to medication, being outside and all of that? Are there, you want to add to something like that? Sure. I mean, I think, you know, having that natural outside release could be an alternative to medication. We do have students that are on medication. Hope it's not the wrong question. No, no, no. I think, no, that's fine. I think it's a great stress reliever, which could cause different things. As long as it's something that's calm, it could be nice for someone with anxiety. So yeah, I mean, I think it could take away some. Do you think there's going to be, do you think as COVID goes on, hopefully it doesn't go on too much longer, but, but do you think there's good, do you see more expansion to your camp and how, how will that play out? Yeah. So we actually, we added on an entire week. Our camp is eight weeks long. So we added an extra week in just to get more time with them, not in the classroom, because that was a struggle getting them back into and actually adding the weekend was better. So we might keep it longer. So why was it a struggle? Is it because of COVID or staying indoors? COVID for the most part and because they'd been away from us and they could kind of had like free reign. So they were going outside or they were just sleeping and staying up late, late, playing Dungeons and Dragons till one and three in the morning and then didn't want to wake up until noon or one next day. So this is not sleep away. This is, so this is just a day camp. Yeah. Do you see it expanding to a sleep away type of camping situation? We've never done it before, but I would never say no to anything. Through Choice Academy, the students have a chance to earn an end of the year trip and we actually take them and that's an overnight thing for about four, four days. But we've never done it for summer program. Okay. What is the misconceptions around people with mental illness or mental challenges, especially, you know, with recreation and sometimes it might be hard to work with some groups? You want to add to that? Sure. I think a lot of the misconceptions are that everyone needs help and they need extra and, you know, a lot of the places that will go to like the state parks or any of the bigger places like that will always try to be more accommodating than what we even need. So I think that they're overcompensating. What does that mean exactly? I think that their perception of what our students need is more than what they actually need because if you were to go out to one of the state parks and you saw our group there, you wouldn't be able to pick our kids out, which is great. Because some, like for example, even though I don't deal with a mental challenge, several palsy with me, you can't pick it out. You can't, you know, oh, he has a disability, you know, unless you come up to me and ask, then you're not going to be able to pick it out. Some disabilities or challenges are silent. Is that the same thing with mental challenges? Yeah, absolutely. And then if there is, you know, a student that's struggling with anything else, even if it is like a physical disability, our staff is so great with altering whatever the activity is. Say they can't kick a soccer ball, then we'll change what they're doing to something else that they can still have fun with the group and still participate. Any other questions? Of course, you got plenty of questions. Go ahead. What's the difference between a challenge and an illness in terms of? That's a tricky question. I guess I don't know how to answer that one. We take every kid individually and we work on what their plan is and then whatever they're struggling with, that's what we're going to try to focus on helping them the most with. So I guess I don't take the challenge and the illness, you know, they're their own things. Because there's been a lot of stigma around people with mental illness or mental challenges. Oh, right away, because years ago, people were putting this, two shades, that type of thing. So has stigma changed since way back? So honestly, I think the good thing that came out of COVID was that more mental illness got the awareness that it needed. Because people were on lockdown, they weren't used to being home alone and not having the social, you know, connection with people. So I think that was one positive that came out of COVID. So I do think that there's more awareness now about everyone. So what more in terms of recreation, how many more expansions are you going to do or activities? So we just finished week five. So we have three more weeks left. Like next week, they're going to go to two different state parks. We're going to have another obstacle course carnival at the school on campus. And then their big trip is what they work for toward the end of the year or the end of the summer is going to Six Flags as a group. And that's what they look forward to like the most. So that's what they're kind of working for for the entire summer. So it's like the big thing at the very end. And do you have anything? Well, obviously you want to add more, but is there anything that we haven't covered so far that is vitally important about your camp? I just think it's a great way for these kids to get out. It gives them something to do, keeps them out of trouble. They get to work on group activities, which a lot of times they don't have that opportunity to do on their own. So this is really a great time for them to be with their peers, work on group interactions, but also work on what their individual needs are as well. Now you mentioned Washington County. Choice Academy is a school. How let's get into that a little bit in education. How is it a school? Is it a special school for people with mental challenges or? Yeah, so it's a fully accredited school and the students that come to us are through an IEP or a 504 through the public schools. So they have to get referred into us and then individualized education plan. Exactly. And they are able to graduate with a Choice Academy diploma that would be just equivalent as any of the high schools. Okay, how so? How is it equivalent to being in high school? Because it's from 10 to 22. So I know when I was, we were in New York or I mean I went to a regular high school, but there is some special ed programs, special education programs. At age 21, they age out and they go off to other programs. What happens after age 22? Sure, yeah. So if they still need our services, Washington County Mental Health Services, we have the adult program which they can shift into and they would help with housing, they would help with jobs. College, maybe? Yeah, a lot to be to be honest, a lot of our students don't end up going to college. They usually go right into the workforce. We have had a couple go to trade schools, but we haven't had very many go right into college. Now, how has, in your opinion, how has media, when we talk about mental challenges, how has media perceived people with mental challenges? Has it changed? Has it gotten any better or worse? Um, I would say it's gotten better. I think that there's more light on different mental illnesses. More studies are coming out, more research, even like with depression, which I know isn't, you know, full, full on what we're talking about here, but I feel like everything's coming more to light. So anything you want to add? Okay. Knowing that we're in a new administration because services get cut all the time, possibly. How is mental health services changing because we have a new administration? How do you see it, especially for the future? I haven't seen any changes personally. We're still able to work at the capacity that we have and, you know, still incorporate newer students and staff. Hopefully, I mean, everyone always needs more money and more resources. So hopefully that's the direction that we're going in currently. How is it with the ratio working with your students? Like special ed classes are usually like three or four or they have a power professional, so they have like three or four students and a teacher. How is it structured here? Sure. So it's all different depending on age, but on average, there aren't more than four students in a classroom with one teacher and one BI, behavioral interventionalist. And what exactly is that? So they would be like a para educator in a sense, but also like a little bit more focused on the behavior side than the education. So if a student has a problem with his or her behavior, then that person would step in, correct? Yes. Okay. In terms of mental challenges in children, have you seen differences? Like in terms of the activities now, you mentioned that you can change the activities around for the person in the house. Yeah. So if there was someone that struggled with the activity, either physically or mentally, we can alter what's happening. So if we're going out swimming and there's a student that just doesn't want to swim, we have other activities built into that day too. So if they wanted to just, if they wanted to read or if they wanted to play a game that wasn't swimming, we have different options that they could choose throughout the day. But no movies, no TV. I try to stay away from those. If it's a rainy day, they might get lucky with a movie. And is it just because you don't want them involved with it in front of a screen, right? A lot of the time, yeah. So as soon as they leave the school, like that's pretty much their outlet as they go and they play their video games or they watch TV or they're on their phones or iPads or anything like that. So I rather just keep the two separate and give them some like actual people contact. So what do you do? Do you got, and this might sound funny, but so what do you do? You take their phone away from them when they come in? So they do have to check their phone in when they come in in the morning. I know, we're mean. So yeah. So they turn their phones in and then they get them back at the end of the day. If we're going somewhere that's really far, a lot of students will use their phones as coping skills. So they'll get to have them on the car ride there that way. You know, they're at least comfortable. Yeah. I mean, it's gotta be hard. Now, what are some of the challenges that you face as director of the camp? Knowing you have to take the phone away from the kid or, you know, obviously there's challenges. We're working with people with mental challenges, but what are some of the challenges? Pros and cons. Is there pros and cons? There's always pros and cons. If I'm asking the wrong question. No, no, that's a good question. As far like the phone thing, anytime you can give someone heads up is great. So the more lead time we have, quick changes are never usually good. So we always try to have our backup like our rainy day plans where people can see them. So that way they know and it's not like, oh, we can't go swimming this day. What are we going to do instead? They already have an idea of what the day is going to look like. Weather is a big con to a summer program because we don't always have the space to have something inside. So if our day was planned for outside, we have to shuffle a little bit to accommodate. No, yeah. Well, since we say pro and cons. Are there reasons why people sometimes don't want to work with people with mental challenges? Why or why not? I would say there are people that don't want to work with our population because they're not informed enough. How so? They're not used to it. They've never seen a kid with behaviors before. They don't know how to deal with them. They don't have the language to talk to them or talk them down. So I think like the unknown is a scary thing for a lot of people. So that would be a reason why they would not want to work with our kids. The summer program I set up is built around fun and that's no phone. That's that's the only non fun part. No, does that mean staff have to check their phone? I make sure they're not on their phones, but they have to keep them for emergencies. But I wish some of the staff would check their phones. But yeah, so I built around fun. So it does draw staff in that want to work with our population because they see the things that we're doing and then how good it is actually for the kids. And it's you build a lot of memories and relationships with the kids, which is great that lasts for well beyond the school year. So they make friends. So how important is friendships in this case to people with challenges? I think it's very important. Physical and mental. Yeah, so the the kids that build the bonds with the other students is great because they can actually, the students get along with each other. They understand each other and they some of them have been where the other ones been before. So it's it's a great bond to see when two of them actually get together and they they're like best friends now that they never had. You know, question as far as the camp. Hello, you there? Yeah, yeah. As far as the camp, like, do they have like a specific day? Like, let's say, a couple of people are having issues, challenges. Do you have like a counseling session with them? Or do they have like, psychologists or psychology counselor on staff? How does that work? Yeah, so we do. We have clinicians and we have currently four clinicians and they each have their own caseload. So they're assigned different students and the students to them. So if there is any kind of issue, they're always in house or they come to some of the activities with us. So they're built in, they can go reach out to their clinician at any time. They can talk things through. Now, I'm aware that there's a program that I'm aware of called Brattleboro Retreat. Is your camp, well, a camp is a retreat, nonetheless. Okay, let's see if I'm doing this right way. Okay. Compared to other camps, for people with special needs in terms of retreats, how is your camp different? Ours is more or less for, I would say, students that are in, you know, the proper homeostasis for them to be in. So they're- Oh, repeat that word, I'm sorry. Homeostasis. So like they're well-balanced, you know, as far as like they're, I don't know how you want to say, like they're zen. So like they're calm, they're able to participate. You know, they can function enough to with us, whereas, you know, sometimes those other ones like Brattleboro Retreat will send people there so that they can work on the things that they need to, things like that. So, you know, our summer camp is for the kids, most of the time, it's the kids we already have in our schools. So we had them all school year, now it's summertime, so we're already familiar with them. We know what some of their behaviors are, how they interact with each other and staff, and then there's no education. So no more teachers, no more books. So it's just the fun. Well, fun. I mean, if a child wants to work on some of their educational skills during camp, isn't that fun? Like, I remember when I was a kid, I went to a special needs summer camp, sleep away. They had an educational situation where they work on math, they work on computers, they work on different things, but you said no computers and no phones. So, well, it is funny you said that because we actually this summer, we have the most readers that we've ever had before, and we have that built in. So they, we created space where they could read as many books as they wanted to, and we created an incentive plan around that and how many they wanted to read. But instead of playing, give them a library card? Yeah, so it could be a library card or it could be like purchasing that book, the next one in their series or something like that. And we have our own library on campus that we really refill it all the time. Yeah. And now, because I know like movies are based on books and those kids might be interested. Yeah. What is the future since we only have a couple minutes left? What is the future of the camp and of recreation? What is for recreation for people with mental challenges? I mean, this is every summer thing. I've been with the camp and Choice Academy for nine years, and it was there well before me too. So I mean, it's not going to go anywhere. I think if anything, it'll just get bigger and more activities and slight changes. It changes every year based on the students that we have because I want to cater. Is it based on now, based on theme also, like the camp would have a theme for that year? Oh, we've never done that, but I do like that idea. Because example, in terms of recreation, I remember the camp I went to, there was these specific days, like they would take the whole camp and instead of, I know you said no TV, but what they would do is kids' favorite TV shows, like one part of the camp would be Sesame Street, and then they would have characters, or Batman or like the old Batman series, that kind of thing. But that would be a good idea to have a theme. That is a good idea. Bringing the TV away from the kids, but they would have like a costume party or something along those lines. Yeah, during the school year, they have their spirit days. So once a month, they all have pajama day or crazy hat day or inside out clothing day. That's strange. Yeah. I don't know if I want to have inside out clothing day or, you know, that would be a little strange. But like for example, you got a pineapple on your shirt or something, SpongeBob day or something along those lines. Now, in terms of recreation, I know you said no video games, but do you have educational computer games that a kid might want to play? Yeah, so those stay with us throughout the school year. So they actually do access those during the school year. Not so much in the summer, but they are available if we did have a student that wanted to. Any last questions? What was that? Repeat that? Yeah, is there a is it free or is it scholarship for those that can't afford it? How does it work? So it's built into their IEPs. I don't understand. So it is free for them. They don't have to pay extra because it's already kind of like in their their contract per se through the school. Yeah, so all that stuff is in. So we have our funds where we pay like the state parks and things like that. But the student would never have to. Okay. So like example, if you go on a trip and it requires an admission fee to go somewhere, Washington County would pay that fee. Yes. Okay. And then but then the kid, the child or the participant will be responsible for paying for their own food or? No, we provide lunch. We have a kitchen at Choice Academy and we do bag lunch all summer every day. Okay. Well, now if you're going to amusement park and the child wants a specific thing, they would have to bring money for that. Yes, if they wanted, yes, if they wanted like the bag of cotton candy or something like that, then they would have to they'd have to provide that money. Okay. Well, we would like to thank Garrett Washburn for joining us on this edition of Abledon on Air. For more information on Washington County and their services, you can go to www.wcmhs.org. The emergency number for Washington County is 229-0591. That number once again is 229-0591. 802-229-0591 and www.wcmhs.org. Thank you, Mr. Washburn. Thank you for having us on this edition of Abledon on Air. We would like to say special thanks to our sponsors Washington County Mental Health, Green Mountain Support Services, and many others, including the Vermont Association for the Blind and Visually Impaired, the Division for the Blind and Visually Impaired, and many others, including also the Sustainable Montpelier Coalition. I'm Lauren Seiler. I'm Lauren Seiler. See you next time for the next exciting edition of Abledon on Air. 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 Parkchester Times, Muslim Community Report, www.thisisabronx.info, Associated Press Media Editors, New York Parrot Online Newspaper, U.S. Press Corps, Domestic and International, Anchor FM, and Spotify. Partners for Abledon on Air include Jihad, New York, New England, where everyone belongs, the Orthodox Union, the Vermont Division for the Blind and Visually Impaired, the Vermont Association for the Blind and Visually Impaired, the Montpelier Sustainable Coalition. Abledon on Air has been seen in the following publications, Parkchester Times, New York Parrot Online Newspaper, Muslim Community Report, www.thisisabronx.info, and www.h.com. Abledon on Air is a member of the National Academy for Television Arts and Sciences Boston, New England Chapter.