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Pathways To Spirit is hosted by Dr. Troy Melendez and Dr. Nate Velez of Journey to Recovery, offering an inside look at the people, practices, and purpose behind a culturally grounded approach to healing from addiction. Through conversations with the Journey to Recovery team, the podcast explores the program’s history, its new facility, and the clinical and cultural principles that guide their work. Pathways To Spirit provides a welcoming space to learn how Community, culture, and connection support the recovery journey, and how this program is shaping a path toward wellness and a deeper sense of spirit.
Welcome to Pathways to Spirit. Our journey today seeks to honor the sacred land, revered teachings, and ancestral wisdom that guide us through the path of mental health wellness and holistic recovery. Together, we'll explore the stories of strength, healing, hope, embracing the clinical techniques and cultural foundations that remind us we are never alone on this sacred journey toward wellness and a strong personal connection to spirit. Thanks for joining us once again on Paths to Spirit. I am Doctor.
Troy:Troy Melendez, and in the studio with me today is the newest JTR administrator, Frank Saverino.
Frank:Thanks. Glad to be here. Very happy to be here.
Troy:Today we're going to talk a little about the changes in Journey to Recovery. You've been here right around four years and a lot has happened in those four years, even more happening in the last four months. So we'll start with moving folks over. We've been anticipating the opening of JTR. Don't know what our first opening Wasn't it wasn't it May?
Frank:The billboard said November 2024, if people remember.
Troy:Oh, Vaguely.
Frank:Yes. And many years in the making, when I got here almost four years ago, that was we were planning and designing. Yeah. So it's been a long road. Feels great to to finally be in the new place.
Frank:And so we we for those just to update folks, you know, we started in the old journey to recovery with with 19 beds Mhmm. In our residential program and six beds in our detox trailer Yes. Which was
Troy:Yes.
Frank:Very cramped and small and and not the greatest you know, not the greatest environment, which was amazing because we still had some amazing treatment.
Troy:Mhmm.
Frank:And our new facility has 48 beds, 24 women, 28 24 men. And the detox unit has 10 beds and we're not hampered by gender, we can take 10 people no matter what their gender is. And so we've expanded and in September we moved the women down while the men stayed. They were unhappy about it but the men stayed at the old JTR for about a month. And our partial hospital program which is our day program, they started treatment in September.
Frank:The men moved down in October with the detox and what was wild is we moved down with about 20 patients and I think by the October, we were at 34.
Troy:Right. Yep.
Frank:And so clearly it was well needed and we didn't have to we've had to refer a lot of community members out because of being full, which we never felt good about. And hopefully now we don't have to do that. So, yeah, it's been an exciting couple months. The the clients love it. They get nice hot food.
Frank:The program is pretty much the same, which is funny, but it's it's the environment is very inviting and very warm, very peaceful. So that has an impact on we we all think that it has an impact on treatment. It can't it can't but help, especially in detox where they have they have their own rooms and they have some freedom to walk around, they're not stuck in a trailer.
Troy:Yeah, think that's the biggest improvement that I've seen is in that we have a fully staffed medical withdrawal unit as opposed to a social detox back in the day.
Frank:That's how it started. Yeah.
Troy:Give you a Gatorade and something to chew on.
Frank:Doctor Doctor Velez, the chief behavioral health officer of behavioral health, he took me on a tour four years ago and said this is our social detox and I was like, I I don't know what that means. Right. Yeah. We've come a long way. So, yeah, very exciting.
Frank:Have to do this all the time, but really thank the leadership and the council current and the council members back in 2018 when they signed the proclamation. And we now have a shining star treatment center that everybody seems to wanna come look at and try to figure out how we're doing what we're doing.
Troy:Right. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Success numbers have been quite impressive so far.
Frank:Last year, we served about three fifty intakes through our detox, probably about 300 unique individuals. That's probably obviously gonna increase. We had last week, we had 15 intakes in our detox unit, which was I'm not sure we've ever even had double digits before. So No.
Troy:We didn't have room.
Frank:The numbers are gonna go up, which is good. I mean, obviously, it's not we don't it's kind of that weird we're happy that they're coming, but we're also sad that they have to come Right. Because this is, you know, kind of a devastating disease and hurts and kills a lot of people. So the good thing is they have a place to go where they can heal.
Troy:Right. And they're staying longer. I mean I think you you mentioned the detox and the improvements that we've made, I think that's one of the more critical times in treatment for somebody is it really determines are they going to stay? Do they feel comfortable? Is this a place that they can open up?
Troy:Is this a place that they're going to be able to stay long term? When you're starting off cramped in a little trailer with two other men or two other women, gambling with whether or not you're going to stay. It really depends on your unique experience there. But when you've got your own room and you've got a place that you can congregate with staff and with peers and we got detox counselors coming in and we've got you know, if it is you know sometimes folks have to come back and if it is somebody that's been with us before there's going to be people from whatever programs they were in that are going to stop in and tell them we're happy they're back. We're not glad that they relapsed but we are definitely happy that they decided to come back in and especially when they do that quickly.
Troy:And I think that that's a big piece that I've noticed here is that when they do struggle, when they leave us and they go out on their own and they do struggle, they find their way back pretty quick if they need to. And I think that's a lot to be said for the staff and the programming is that we leave that door open for them.
Frank:I think Doctor. Velez has introduced the concept of stickiness, and we've all adopted that idea. And the idea that of it's family. We're a Journey to Recovery family. We're just talking to Darren Flippo, who's the nurse manager.
Frank:We were talking about trying to instill the idea that even if they're not community members that are working in the detox that these are brothers and sisters that are coming in and we want to treat everybody like a like a priority,
Troy:you know? Right.
Frank:Everybody's special and we treat them. But I do I do agree with you that in the old place when people started feeling better, a little bit, you know, maybe they had a day or two left of detox, it's hard to stay in that place because it's not very comfortable. Now, I do believe that environment is gonna help. You mentioned coming back. So we just had a blessing.
Frank:Our two cultural counselors, we'll probably talk about that. Bowie Leonard and Jared Lewis, I asked them and we went to the old JTR to just bless that area and to and one of the staff members, one of our staff members, somebody said, well, why don't why don't we go up the ramp? Oh, okay. And he said, if I go up that ramp, it would be my ninth time. And I was just blown away by that because this guy, he's he's an amazing employee.
Troy:With us. Yeah.
Frank:And I wanna protect his his confidentiality. But, you know, that meant that he that he was in detox eight times before he he got really well.
Troy:Yeah.
Frank:And I I it's gonna stick with me. That's gonna stick with me for a bit because I think that tells me two things is one, don't give up. Sometimes it takes two, three, four, five, in his case, eight. And then the other thing that I try to instill, we try to instill with the staff is sometimes somebody will come in for the sixth time and they'll assume, well this guy, this guy was, you know, wasn't motivated. Well, you don't know.
Frank:You just don't know. You don't know. Treat everybody uniquely when they come in, so that was just really profound, it was nice to sort of visit the old place and think about all the people that got well there, a lot of people got well through that trailer. It's kind of amazing. I told some of the clients who were out there and the staff is like, the program really is the same, you know?
Frank:And it's the people that really matter, the clients, the peer support specialists, everybody. You know, we just have a nicer building and it's beautiful but it's the program, it's the people, it's the relationships, it's that stickiness, it's the family environment, it's the cultural influences that we incorporate into treatment. Yeah, it's pretty special.
Troy:Well, I've appreciated that I think the most about my time with JTR is that aspect of family and then the way that this program was created. Know, it's solid evidence based procedures, programs that we engage, but it is also kind of interwoven with traditional teachings and practices and just aspects of the community. You mentioned walking up the ramp, and it's kind of become that iconic phrase for folks, when I walked up that ramp for the last time. Somebody mentioned that, Can we bring the ramp to the new JTR? I think
Frank:somebody actually said that this time.
Troy:Yeah, they wanted to have it there, but we have a bridge, so
Frank:we're We've crossing a a bridge.
Troy:So we've replaced the ramp with a bridge and folks can talk in their meetings about when I cross that bridge at JTR. I don't think it was on purpose, I think it was just a design aspect that was a happy accident for us. I think that we're closing an era, we're closing that loop with the blessing today on what had happened at the former site, We won't say the old JTR.
Frank:Right, right. I like that better.
Troy:Yeah, but at our former sites. Despite our meager environment, a lot of good work went on there. You mentioned that we're bringing these people forward into this new fancy building. You did mention the peer supports that we have. We had started that peer support training program about three and a half years ago.
Frank:With one? No, that was partial hospitalization.
Troy:Yeah, we had a good group. That first one was about 11 people that went through. But let's talk a little bit more about that, the staff that we're bringing forward. I mean, we've greatly increased the number of techs and even clinical staff. We're kind of in the middle of bringing some more clinical staff on board, but let's start with the techs.
Troy:Techs were a big part of what was going on before we arrived in JTR four years ago, and their roles just shifted a little bit. They still were a big part but we brought in some more support for them.
Frank:Yeah, they are a big part and the peer support, like we said, we started with our first one three years ago, maybe, I don't know, in Twenty HP
Troy:twenty two. Yeah.
Frank:In our partial hospital. And I I really should know the numbers, but we probably have hired about 35.
Troy:I think it's right around there.
Frank:Yep. And most of them are community members. So we're helping we're helping people find jobs. We also not only are they community members, many of them have gone through the program. In fact, many of them have gone through that old the former.
Frank:The former JTR. And then they get to work at this beautiful place and they're probably thinking, well, know, I didn't get this hot food. So you know, and the behavioral health technicians who manage the clients on a day to day basis. I was talking to Palino Velasuella, he's our operations manager and he oversees all the techs. For whatever reason and you've worked in places too, that I've always respected that job, it's a difficult job, you're with them all the time, you're waking them up, you're there when they're in pain and you know, I'm a trained therapist and therapy is a big part of our program but the techs and the peers, they're on the line, they're the ones that are talking to them after a bad phone call with or going to a meeting with them or whatever so it's a very, very important job.
Frank:We have some great BHTs and again, lot of our BHTs are community members and some of the BHTs have gone through our program as well. So we have this kind of from within infrastructure both culturally from a community standpoint and culturally from a recovery standpoint. So it's kind of a double whammy with not only can the clients relate to the staff because they're in recovery, but they can relate to the staff because they're community members. Right. They may
Troy:have grown up together.
Frank:And we have community members that are nurses. We have counselors that are community members throughout. And you mentioned the interwoven. Always think about doctor Lee's when we go out, talk about the two eyed approach. And we have the therapy and we have the counseling and in detox, we have the medicine, we have medication assisted treatment.
Frank:But one of the other things that's exciting about our new building is we're going to be finishing up with the two sweat lodges that are going to be on-site. We just hired again Bowie Leonard as our new cultural counselor to join Jared Lewis. So, you know, we continue to do song and smudging and willbriety and talking circles and so there's this kind of nice mix with in fact, talked to Bowie today, making sure that he will show his presence on detox so he can be one of the first people that people meet when they come in here. And he can address those kind of cultural and spiritual needs that people might have when they come in here. Then the other thing that we're doing that's more Western if you would, is our crisis stabilization unit will be opening up and that is to assist people, we're gonna have three beds and that's to assist people who are having psychiatric crisis here in the community that prior to this opening up, we would send them out to other places.
Frank:Good places. I'm sure. Be a Linda, you know, I don't know. But this will be huge. This will be really, really important for the community to know that if their loved one or themselves is suicidal or struggling and not feeling safe, that there's a place that they can go.
Frank:And that'll be, you know, right next door detox unit so people know it's right on campus. So we're really kind of excited about that, that's never happened here before.
Troy:Because previously these individuals would be picked up by the police, be taken to DOC before they would be transferred someplace. They're in that kind of place where they're maybe not getting the clinical care that they need or even their understanding of what they're dealing with.
Frank:Or they're sent out to a psychiatric facility off out of the community. So, you know, one or either of the both. So now we'll have a place not only for the substance abuse, but for those people who are experiencing a psychiatric crisis. Those are two bookends of what we're trying to build here, what we have built here is trying to blend the best of both. Know, whatever the good medicine, good treatment, evidence based, our clinicians are well trained in EMDR or whatever evidence based program we incorporate curriculum that's evidence based with living in balance and seeking safety and things like that and our family program is both evidence based and culturally relevant.
Frank:We just started, I'm thinking about four or five months ago we adopted the White Bison family program called Celebrate Families and we finally think we nailed it. I mean, we've been struggling with this family thing for years. And so every Wednesday is family day, and this family comes, they spend three hours with each other and sharing and eating and praying. And it's very emotional.
Troy:It's been very active. I've kind of witnessed this. I know that we've tried, you know, attempted different approaches to families before to, you know, vary degrees of success. But yeah, celebrating families has been a big hit so far in the community. Yeah, lots of kids running around, lots of families in there.
Troy:You definitely know when it's Wednesday at JTR. Definitely know.
Frank:Especially in Building D. Yes. Yes. They take it over and it's just very full of life, full of love. And I think one Wednesday, we had, like, forty five forty five people and probably, you know, 35 or 30 were family members.
Frank:So because one of the things that I feel strongly about, and and this will help, is we need to help family members more and figure out a way to get get the message out. There is resources, not only Journey to Recovery, but there's resources at River People Health Center and the behavioral health services there on the 2nd Floor. They have a lot of offerings for family members of loved ones who are struggling with addiction or mental health issues. And I've been a big family proponent treatment because they're in as much if not more pain than the people suffering from addiction. So it's a double win if we help the families, we not only increase the chances of the person who's addicted getting well, but we also help the family members get well and support them on their journey to have some sort of peace.
Frank:Because I'm a parent, you're a parent, it's very difficult to a lot a lot of our clients have moms and dads that are suffering from watching their loved ones go through all this all this pain. So we're trying you know, that's that's a big agenda for us to try to reach out into the community and try to help family members.
Troy:Yeah, no, it's essential, essential effort in this. That's the environment that they came from, it's the environment that they will go back with. It's some of your strongest triggers are with family members around family issues. And so, yeah, the work that's being done in that regard is definitely needed and and looking to be quite successful so far.
Frank:Yeah. And hopefully, you know, we we I mean, we didn't really bring we a a we we initiated the recovery through the Mays meeting that's on Monday nights. I think it celebrated its three year anniversary recently. And Yep. We'd like to figure out a way to, you know, get maybe an Al Anon or or a Well Anon.
Frank:Well,briety now has a family component. We we need to try to do that so the community has resources that they don't have to travel to Mesa or anything to to get that support and they probably would more access if it was here in the
Troy:Right. If if you build it, they will come. Apparently that's true. We've seen that in all of our efforts so far, which is great. Like you mentioned, the double edged aspect of it is like, Well, we wish we didn't need all of this, but it's good that it's here because obviously folks are taking advantage of it.
Frank:When I first got here, I think our average census was like eight or nine.
Troy:Oh,
Frank:okay. And now we're running about 32, 33 already.
Troy:And probably
Frank:within three, four, five, six months, we'll be in the forties. And so again, yeah, there's a lot of people suffering and that kind of, you know, we don't wanna see that. But at the same time, something's happening in this community. I mean, recovery seems to be a little bit contagious. I'm not sure how to define it or describe it, but it seems like I don't know, there's just a lot of people in this community that are in recovery right now.
Troy:And I'm hearing that more and more that this culture of recovery is starting to take hold, that more and more people are talking about being sober, talking about their time either with JTR or being with one of the other stateside facilities, but changing their lives in positive ways, connecting them with their families, getting them back into being gainfully employed. People are making positive changes and it's starting to kind of be a new trend for us here. We're very grateful for that aspect of it. I also too, I think that there's something here in this community. There's something, maybe it's the land, maybe it's just the people.
Troy:I don't know, I was compelled in my own time here to get healthier, to continue my recovery, to get more physically healthy and I think that we're seeing a lot of that is that not only are people dealing with their substance use issues, but they're dealing with health issues, they're dealing with their relationship issues. They're seeing that, Hey, there's a lot that I would like in my life that this is going to help me to gain that in my life or regain it back, you know, things that have been lost. So, I think that that's a big piece of what's been going on for us. There's something here in this community that's promoting.
Frank:I'm with you. I'm not sure I can define it or identify it. I've been doing this a long time. I've been at this for forty years, and not sure I've ever felt more comfortable in in a place. And, you know, for me to feel that way as a as an as an outsider and not a community member, it's like you feel the warmth in this community, the connectivity, the willingness to wanna help each other, the resiliency.
Frank:And yeah, think you piece all that together and then you provide good care and good opportunity to not only get well but get jobs. You know this because you facilitate the peer support. How many people say, Well, I want to give something back.
Troy:Pretty much all of them.
Frank:Pretty much That's all why they're there. And it's just kind of contagious and I agree with you, it's just something very, very, very special, very spiritual, and just very positive. Like I said, you and I have been doing this a long time.
Troy:It's been a while.
Frank:I've never experienced anything so positive in my life
Troy:as
Frank:far as not only the community, but even the working at Journey to Recovery, working in HHS. I tell people I've never been treated better in my life for
Troy:It's a nice place to be.
Frank:It's a nice place to be, great support and, yeah, just a really, really special but I agree with you. Something's going on, I can't define it. Right. It seems like a movement.
Troy:Yes, we're grateful for it, we don't have to over define it at this point. You mentioned the Peer Academy, we just recently wrapped up our ninth Peer Academy, approximately 90 plus people have been through that program. I think you mentioned earlier, I think we've probably hired 35 of them to great success. I guess where I'm moving with this is the staff development. You mentioned promoting from within, developing from within.
Troy:I think this was something that Doctor. B and I established early on was this peer academy and specifically for this purpose is to get those entry level folks in, people that have that lived experience of recovery, they can come and share that. I guess I'm real impressed by the ongoing development. We have weekly or biweekly meetings with the peers, kind of a clinical oversight format. We do that once a month with our BHTs as well.
Troy:So the ongoing training that's present with us, I think one of the immediate results that I see from that is our techs are really empowered. Like they run with stuff and they're typically pretty right on with what they choose to take action on, but they're not waiting around to be told what to do. They're coming to clinicians and suggesting, they're sharing. I really like that interaction with the techs and the clinical staff, I think that that does a lot to help us kind of promote and develop the program and the individuals in it. It's a great part of that ongoing development.
Troy:But let's talk a little bit about kind of what we've established. There's some new positions, yours being one of them. There's new leadership that we've had to And create
Frank:still in process.
Troy:And still in process.
Frank:Your new position as the clinical manager. So you will be overseeing the clinical programming at Attorney to Recovery. And we just, again, hired our first cultural counselor, which is new. And now we have two of them in the behavioral health system. We're doing some recruiting, we're hiring a lot of nurses for our crisis stabilization unit.
Frank:And you mentioned in the text, what's nice is I just started, I realized that our first peer actually is now our case manager. Oh, yes. Right? Right? Yeah.
Frank:Yeah. We've many of the peers have been promoted to techs. We've had techs promoted to one of our techs is now our PHP counselor, Kim.
Troy:Yes.
Frank:Oh, yeah. She graduated. So we we do a lot of that. We have a we have a BHT oversight where they get education. Mhmm.
Frank:We try to we try to promote them, and we try to hire people to what you're saying, people that really want to make this their life, not just a job. I think we definitely try to hire within, we try to grow within and we also there's other things going on, we're getting a new medical director at behavioral health services that oversee not only Journey to Recovery but also the outpatient behavioral health. So there's lots of growth, lots of new positions and lots of opportunity for folks to move.
Troy:So we talked a lot about the recent changes and how we got to where we're at with the current program and the new location. What's coming up for us?
Frank:Well, there's a few things. Think I mentioned that the sweat lodge is being built. We're also building a garden. Oh, So Amson and Tosh Collins are helping us design and build a garden that's going to go in the back of the women's unit. Hopefully at some particular time, maybe we'll have some farm to table kind of food going Oh,
Troy:like it.
Frank:Yeah. Also, one of the things that's is happening is in our CSU there are some policy changes around what's called emergency apprehensions. These are people that are court ordered to treatment up until now and currently they are going to DOC and being held and being evaluated and potentially sent out. Soon to be, that'll that'll be they'll they'll most of them will come to our crisis stabilization unit. So those are kind of some of the things that we can talk about in in in future podcast.
Frank:And I'm sure there's things that I'm probably forgetting that's there's some changes in crisis, and our reentry program is growing. We're hoping to we're hoping to take over the men's unit in the previous JTR, make that a reentry hub for people to so there's lots of stuff coming in the future that will give us things to talk about in the future.
Troy:So we can keep a little bit of the past alive.
Frank:Yep. Yes, we can. I like that. Yep. Yep.
Frank:I like that.
Troy:Well this is great, this has been very informative. If you or a loved one are suffering from an addiction or substance dependence program, how do we make contact with Journey to Recovery?
Frank:Well, that's a good question, we're open 20 If you call (480) 362-5640, somebody will answer the phone and a live person will always answer the phone. Alright. And you could just or show up, not off the ramp.
Troy:No more ramp, it's a bridge folks.
Frank:But the bridge, there's also outpatient services at River People Health Center that's Monday through Friday, you can reach out to them and there's also crisis which you can call dispatch right now. There will be eventually maybe a crisis psychiatric number but people can call and crisis will respond 20 as well. So lots of different ways to reach out to us.
Troy:Excellent. Well that's our time. I'd like to thank Frank for joining us. I'm Doctor. Troy Melendez, be a good relative and be well.
Troy:Thanks folks. Thank you for joining us on Pathways to Spirit. Remember, within our traditions and our spirit lies connection, support, love, and hope. Let us walk forward together, honoring our paths and supporting one another on the journey toward physical, emotional, and spiritual health and wholeness. Until next time, may the spirits of the ancestors guide you, and may you find peace, healing, and renewal in every step along your journey.