 The Appalachian Advantage plan is the simpler, better way to get the phone you actually want instead of paying hundreds of dollars up front. Simply pay the taxes up front and a few extra dollars on your monthly bill and get the phone you really want. It's called the Appalachian Advantage and is available at Appalachian Wireless. West Care Kentucky and Ash Camp held a trauma-releasing event on Friday, May 27th for its residents as a way for them to remember loved ones they had lost. West Care Kentucky is a residential facility in which people struggling with substance use disorder can seek treatment and learn coping mechanisms to detour them from abusing substances. A lot of those residents and a lot of community members have lost loved ones and today is an opportunity to get a little bit of closure on those events. So the clients today are focusing on coping skills and releasing some trauma. So you'll see today some of the events, the events are going to culminate today with the balloon release. The balloon release is an opportunity for the rest is to just release a little bit of that trauma, get a little closure. Each resident is writing a letter that is going to be to someone that they lost in their lives through addiction. Someone who's lost the battle for addiction. The West Care Ash Camp facility is an all-men facility which currently houses 67 men with the capacity to house 112. West Care offers many resources for its residents to help them get back on their feet as they seek treatment. So what we do here in West Care Ash Camp is work on coping skills, work on mental health, work on employment services. So the folks that come in that we call residents, they have the opportunity to go through more recognition therapy, motivation interviewing, substance abuse disorder treatment. So we're really focused on helping the individual to get those coping skills to be able to when they leave here they've got a way to recognize triggers and to work on that themselves rather than have to lean on us because we're not always going to be there for them. So it's really a body community, it's a peer support community. We also offer aftercare. So when the residents leave the facilities we have staff that follow up on employment on how they're coping with the substance abuse issues. So that goes on for possibly at least six months. The day's events were all about recognizing and coping with trauma in the hope of receiving some closure. Some of the events of the day included arts and crafts such as creating paper boats that would later be used in a boat race as well as sports events such as softball. All of these events leading up to the balloon release in which every resident wrote a letter to a loved one which was tied to a balloon and released to float into the sky. The release of that tension and closure that we feel is very important in dealing with those trauma incidents. This is the day that we have set aside. We're having activities that they can feel like that even though they may have been in jail or prison they didn't get to say goodbye to those individuals. They are now putting closure on that through letters. And we've done this in the past and it's very therapeutic. It's something that the men here need. They need to be able to express and release through an appropriate coping skill. Well, you know, today is especially emotional for a lot of folks. It's a Memorial Day weekend. So, you know, we've got residents and staff as well who are dealing with loss of loved ones through the loss of loved ones maybe through bathroom addiction but you've got also folks that are this weekend it's a Memorial Day weekend who are remembering lost loved ones who gave their lives, paid the open sacrifice to the military service. So there's a lot of emotions. You'll see a lot of smiling faces and but there's a lot of there's a lot of people that are carrying a lot of hurt this weekend. There's a lot of things going on in the world and this is an opportunity to get together, have some fun but also deal with some issues and hopefully get some closure and some rest and some progress and learn some coping skills and be part of this community and lean on each other this weekend. Staff and grief counselors were available at the event to talk to residents about their trauma. Residents were also encouraged to look to their peers for assistance to build a community where they could all work through their traumas together. We hear you you know and we understand you know that you're hurting and that we care so the the caring part and the trusting part is something that they have difficulty with just because that they have been let down you know they have been disappointed. Westcare Ash Camp's trauma releasing event for its residents provided an outlet for those struggling with substance use disorder. With many events to provide these men with new coping mechanisms the event was a heartwarming display of community and remembrance. For Mountaintop News I'm Kelsey Dean.