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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. Welcome back to Pathways to Spirit. I'm your host, doctor Troy Melendez.
Troy:And with me as always is my cohost, doctor Nathan Velez.
Nate:Hey, doc. Good to be here and it's good to be back in the studio today.
Troy:Yes. Yes. Today we have, joining us Mr. Mike McFarland. He is the, newly hired program administrator for Journey to Recovery.
Troy:How are doing, Mike?
Michael:Fantastic. Thanks for having me. Appreciate the opportunity.
Troy:Yeah. So, you've been here a whole five days? Correct. Today is your fifth day.
Michael:Yes.
Troy:Yeah. We got you in the studio early. Yes. So, first impressions. You've spent a lot of time stateside and worked in very similar industries stateside.
Troy:So you bring us a lot of knowledge from the stateside environment. What are your first impressions of being here in Salt River?
Michael:I think, you know, to quantify it, it would be amazing. I I think when you look at the opportunity with... Starting with a physical plant that just really lends itself to healing, being available, very spacious, accommodating, and safe. Mhmm. So I think that, you know, from an initial, you know, introduction, the physical plant complements truly the journey Mhmm.
Michael:To healing. And then you get inside the building and it becomes more magical. You see a very powerful mission, and you see a group of people who are committed to that mission.
Troy:Mhmm.
Michael:And so then you you have a culture that is about taking care of other people and understanding the importance of addiction and why it's so important for us to create a safe space for healing.
Troy:Nice. Well said. So we we differ a little bit here in terms of our, the length of our continuum with a inpatient program that's ninety days long, and a PHP and an IOP that are both ninety days long. A typical withdrawal management stay is five to seven days, so we've got... So we have nearly two eighty days of a continuum of care.
Troy:That's very different than what I remember us having stateside as well for time. How do you think that impacts folks going through this process?
Michael:I think its healthy. I mean, I think if you look at research and they say the longer or the amount of time that you spend in the appropriate level of care when it comes to recovery, the better off you are for a positive outcome. Mhmm. So I I think if you can extend that and it's healthy, you know, for me, it's the continuum, the components are pretty traditional.
Michael:Whether it be in the community or stateside, those progressions Mhmm. In lower levels of care are important. I think it creates that safety net for people to be able to, you know, come out of detoxification and work themselves into society, into the community, you know, back on their feet, reengage with family, be the parent again, gainful employment, all of those things that come along with a good transition. And I think as far as the length of time and being in care, for me, what's most appealing in my first five days is the commitment. Mhmm.
Michael:The commitment of the community that says, this is a problem, and we're gonna address it. And we're gonna give it everything we got so that people have the support and the services available to them for whatever they may need, for however how long they need it.
Troy:Mhmm.
Michael:And to me, that is that is the book that needs to be written stateside.
Troy:Mhmm.
Nate:Yeah. It is different. And, you know, when you think about... I mean, you're you're here this week and it's fresh. Right?
Nate:It's new in there. We're feeding you with all kinds of different information, and it's it's a lot. You know, you you have some great experiences, Mike. And, you know, I think what's really nice about, you know, you coming in at this point too is when you think about these levels of care and continuum... And I've always kinda said this is, you know, we've we've been in this in the in the trenches.
Nate:It's... I call it a labor of love project. But, you know, I really... I I I appreciate diversity of opinion Mhmm. And, you know, different ideas.
Nate:And and I think that's really instrumental right now in this time because, you know, we've been seeing it and looking at it for a long time. Right. And so, you know, I'm excited for that lens of this week alone. I'm listening to you, and I'm like, this is really good energy. This is really good ideas.
Nate:Right? And so, you know, I think that's gonna be exciting for all of us.
Troy:Yeah. Definitely. Yeah. My experience this week, I've I've really appreciated how how curious you've been, and and wanting to be involved, and wanting to know more, and sitting down with people, and learning a little bit more about them and what they do and just kind of taking it all in instead of coming in with an agenda. You're coming in to learn and that's a really good trait to have coming into an environment like this.
Nate:Mike, how did you get into recovery work?
Michael:Yeah. I think early on, you know, through behavioral health care and and going through corrections and working with kids, and there was always... From a general population, was always specialties and there were carve outs. And that was always intriguing to me. So I wanted to get more involved with whatever that specialty or carve out may be, something that we couldn't do on a large scale in a general attempt at treatment.
Michael:And so being able to kind of jump into those carve outs and look at, you know, maladaptive behaviors and eating disorders. And I think for me, you know, complementing the eating disorder and looking at the medical complexity, the happy place for me in treatment is that multidisciplinary approach, the treatment team. Right? Yeah. So you have providers, you have nurses, you have techs, you have all of these people who are involved, and they're playing a crucial role, but they're all run-in parallel.
Troy:Mhmm.
Michael:And from my view as the administrator of the best possible outcome, is to watch that dance of the professionals associated in the care Yeah. For that human being.
Nate:Yeah. It is a dance, and it's weaving things and creating that synergy. And I think we talked about this this week, and doctor Melendez and I have been talking about this for a while, and we've been... We really wanna educate the community on that dance or that synergy or that connection.
Nate:And so right now, we have... You know? And just to share a little bit with, you know, with the listeners is, you know, we're about a year in. I think might even be this week. Were we in here in September?
Troy:Mid to... Yeah. Yeah. Mid September, early to mid.
Nate:And I was looking at numbers the other day, and we've tripled in volume. We've tripled in volume that we're triaging. We're tripling at admissions on detox. We're helping a lot of people. Uh-huh.
Nate:Much, much more community members. We used to send away 16 to 19 community members per month Right. Because we were always at capacity, and our capacity was... I mean, we were full all the time, and so we've haven't turned one person away in a year. That's successful.
Nate:So you see that... Those things happening. Right? And so you talk about this multidisciplinary approach, why we've talked about this a lot, peers and techs and nurses and counselors and doctors prescribing. And so one of the opportunities we have right now is really enhancing the work and skills of our people who live with our members, like, eighteen, nineteen hours a day.
Nate:Right? Right. On the milieu Mhmm. The the techs and the peers. And so what does that...
Nate:I mean, what are your guys' thoughts around their influence and their needs? What are those skills that are needed in that level of care on the milieu with that... Those staff supporting the the clients every day?
Michael:I think doctor Larry Brentro, I think, wrote the book on the other twenty three hours.
Troy:Right.
Michael:And that really speaks to outside that clinical hour, all of the magic that happens with a patient in an inpatient or residential setting. And I think you start to really look at, for me, the most critical component is a trauma informed care to building rapport in a relationship.
Nate:Mhmm.
Michael:If we look at that skill set and the engagement that we have from our folks who are spending most of the time with our patients or with our members, that is by far to me the genuine piece in the vehicle for change is for, a, I'm heard, b, someone cares, and c, they're encouraging me because I can do it. Mhmm.
Nate:It's kind of the book we use. Yeah. Yeah. Gift of Therapy. Mhmm.
Nate:Mhmm.
Troy:Yeah. We use that with our peers. We meet twice a month with our peers and read chapters out of Yalam's book and it's very it's very helpful. It's not just for counselors, it's very informative for our tech staff and our peers to get a general idea of, okay, here's maybe in your own development, here's some things to pay attention to and then you can model that. That's always kind of my battle cry with that is that in order to provide great recovery services, you've got to have those recovery behaviors yourself.
Troy:Whether you're in recovery or not, improvement, it's that insight, it's the emotional management, it's the radical honesty. Know, it's it's so easy to avoid those things these days and and we justify, you know, our inappropriate reactions to things, but in this environment, there's just no room for that. And so helping those techs and the peers and the folks that are interacting with them for those longer periods to be able to model those behaviors and be able to interact with our patients in those ways, I think that's a very powerful tool that we can help them to develop.
Nate:Yeah. And they're real thirsty, you know. Mhmm. They're so passionate and they're... We want to help and they want the skills to do that.
Nate:And so I think walking them through these oversights, these training opportunities, you know, even when we break... We read these chapters together in this book, The Gift of Therapy, you know. I love this little book. It talks just in segments, right, about how not to have rabbit ears or how how to actually connect with people and just little tools that are constant for them. I think that's I think that's something that they pride themselves in is wanting to be efficient and wanting to be...
Nate:Wanting to have more skills to help. Right? Mhmm. So, Mike, one of the other things we talk about, and you've heard this this week. Right?
Nate:And I think you may have been heard this through your interview process is this concept. Our ACM, Lina Jackson, talks about this a lot as this concept of community wisdom, right, and really layering on. And we've had some discussions this week about how do we layer on community wisdom. But you're really also... You know, we can do things different here because of that sovereignty and the ability to connect with the community.
Nate:And so, you know, hearing that word and and kind of experiencing the community for the first time this week, like, what what resonates when you... What connection resonates, and what are you feeling about what that means this week?
Michael:I think for me, my first introduction to it would be freedom to do the right thing.
Troy:Mhmm. Mhmm.
Michael:I mean, if I'm trying to to make that into a sentence, it would be, you know, identifying something that you want to do for people and having the resources and the vision to carry it out and really not having a barrier, which for thirty plus years, I've always ran up against barriers on service delivery. And to be able to spread your wings, like, you know, I'm watching and seeing happen just in Journey to Recovery is remarkable to me. So I think the the wisdom in it, the autonomy, the trust, all of those things that come along with doing what you say you're going to do and having the honesty and the integrity to get it done. Mhmm. Mhmm.
Nate:Yeah. It's such an opportunity.
Troy:Yeah. Yeah. Typically, when you're in a recovery environment, you're talking about community, you're you're typically just talking about the milieu. Mhmm. You know?
Troy:There's There's not this security blanket around us that is the community, the patients that are working with us aren't just working with our employees. They're working with elders. They're working with leaders here in the community. They have those resources available to them and the community's embraced this process with them and has shown tremendous support. I think that's...
Troy:I think we go back to that quite often that we're really blessed because of the community. That's active factor in this process. So being able to see that expand beyond the treatment facility is very encouraging and has been very helpful for us. Very... Know, added to the success of many of our folks.
Nate:Yeah. I like how you you phrase that. You don't really get that. People don't make that connection to, you know, you're embedded inside a community wrapped all around you. Mhmm.
Nate:And it's just awesome. It's awesome. And so speaking of that, so we're really excited about one feature. So we've pretty much developed and opened up every wing over the last year of the facility. Right?
Nate:We just opened up the crisis stabilization unit, and it's a few months open. And so we're starting to learn how to use that. And the goal of that is we wanna keep the members of the community who experience a substance abuse psychiatric crisis home close where we can stabilize in the community and not have to take across to a hospital where we lose them. And so that's open. So this fall, a couple new features, the final touches, which I think are really, really important, are the cultural elements of healing that we're building out onto the unit.
Nate:So the garden just got completed over the summer. Nice. And then we are... I know our operations manager is getting ready to. He's working with an elder in the community, David Jackson, to help us build out our sweat lodges for the men and the women.
Nate:Great. And so that's a really exciting thing to come, but I'm really excited about that and that garden as well, getting that garden fired up.
Michael:Yeah.
Troy:Yeah. I did see that. I think somebody took me on a little tour back there when they completed it, and it was all ready to go, but we're right in the beginning of the summer. We're not going to plant anything right now. That might not might not work out.
Troy:Excited for that. They've been doing... There's been some programming around growing things. We're not using the garden because it's just the seasons, but I've seen a lot of just individual plants growing in patients' rooms. I know one of our counselors has been doing some groups on cultivating and nurturing your plant, it's just a great addition.
Troy:Anytime we can bring nature into the process and see the process of nature, you know, side by side with what folks are going through, that's really, really helpful for our patients.
Nate:Yeah. And and, you know, I remember walking that space back there with some of the knowledge keepers of the community, you know, councilman Jacob Butler, Amson Collins, Dosh Collins, you know, folks who have been in the community teaching us how to take care of their people. And so that was a really special time, and to see that come to life is awesome. And so I can't wait to put that into practice. So, you know, a lot of good things happening, and and and also as well, like, there's challenges.
Nate:You know, we've had our challenges. We've growing operationally. We're seeing a record number of people that we're helping. So it's been a development internally as well with our operations and getting things tightened. And so that's part of, you know, the next step, I think, is there's been a lot of talk and and preparation.
Nate:This has been on my mind and my role for the last year and a half is even when we were building the adolescent... Or the adult unit, the adolescents are really at the forefront of my mind.
Michael:Mhmm.
Nate:And, you know, a lot of talk lately with my director and leaders in the community, I hear I hear I hear the leaders of this community saying, what's next? And so I'm eager to start talking and and putting things together and plans together for the for the leaders of this community to review a place for adolescents. Mhmm. I think that's really important. Yeah.
Troy:Definitely. Yes.
Michael:I think organizationally too, there's been... My impression is that, you know, electronic record and the strength within our program and service delivery Mhmm. We're really fine tuning that. And so then as we start to look at expansion of the mission and how do we help more people to have that foundation and kinda grow into our space and ensure that we have the integrity of the document and that we're, you know, good stewards of the service we're providing and and all of those pieces. I think that that's perfect timing to look at it.
Nate:Yeah. It really is. And so I'm I'm I'm glad we're fine tuning and and getting things really sound operationally. So impressions coming into the first week seem positive for you.
Michael:Positive and humbling. Like, to just, you know, to find a good team, be welcomed as I have been. And then speaking of the community, like, just the onboarding, the orientation, the exposure, the introduction and education that I've had within five days Right. Has been pretty tremendous. Certainly just...
Michael:I look forward to continuing that over the next period of time as I try to understand everything.
Troy:Right.
Nate:That's great. I've got I've got one more question for you, Mike, as we kind of wind up. And so you've had a lot of experience in your career. Right?
Nate:You've run big big organizations, and and you've done a lot of really neat things out there and what we call a stateside community, you know, being a leader of many of these recovery centers and adolescent centers that... You know, we we have a need to to really do well here. And so when you think about your experiences, our alignment with connection, love, support, and hope, how do you see yourself fitting into that role and the vision of what we do and how to align how you do things under your leadership? What does that look like?
Michael:I I think for for me and working in service of other human beings pretty much my entire career, I have... I've sort of transitioned from, patient care to, the development of teams, culture, staff, all while keeping the mission in the forefront. Like, here's here's how we collectively get these measures done, service delivery and people better. And so I think, for me, my success has been really couched in trying to keep it easy and simple, patient first and centered. And then I I think if we if we look, and and really kinda going back to that experience in the specialty arenas, you're surrounded with people that put humans first, and they put everybody before themselves.
Michael:That's the job that they signed up to do. And I'm blessed to get to lead that group.
Nate:Mhmm.
Michael:And so I think that, you know, easy things. Like, you can come in, you sit in a staff meeting, you have a conversation about why can't we do this? Mhmm. Well, we can. We just gotta find a way to do it.
Michael:Mhmm. So I I think my integration here is going to be really, you know, trying to help make this even better than it is today by the development of the staff team with an understanding that we're far from done. We've got a lot of work to do, and we're gonna do it together. And we're gonna make sure that we see the success in the people that we serve. And so I I I really wanna try and focus again.
Michael:It's been five days, but I really wanna try and and bring back the evidence of the work that they're doing every day so that they can really celebrate in, the tough days and celebrate the happy days. But I I guess, in short, I wanna lead by example and out front and help people find the resources to get their job done.
Nate:Yeah. I think that's gonna serve you well, us well. Definitely. And that's the culture we built. And so we look forward to that.
Nate:We're excited you're here. We... We're glad you were able to join us this week on on our podcast, and you'll be you'll be back. I think you'll you'll you'll start to bring some of your own guests on the show.
Michael:Fantastic. I like that. Yes.
Nate:So welcome to the team. Welcome
Troy:to Thank the you,
Nate:Yeah. And we're excited to have you.
Michael:I appreciate it. Thanks. Excellent.
Troy:Well, thanks for joining us. That's all we have from Pathways to Spirit. I'm your host, doctor Troy Melendez, and my cohost.
Nate:This is doctor Velez.
Troy:And we'll be seeing you all soon. Until next time, be well.
Nate:Take care, everybody.
Troy: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.