Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
News right away. For whas Tony Cruz there with the
John Mark Hack who is very kind to allow all
of us here at news radi away whas to be
a part of the backside of Churchill Downs because he
is the director of the Healing Place. And John, Market's
so good to see you again.
Speaker 2 (00:19):
And it's always good to see you too, and it's
great to have you. We're honored and privileged that you
guys set up here.
Speaker 1 (00:25):
Well, we're very honored and happy that you keeps either
warm or cool.
Speaker 2 (00:30):
Yeah, it's a great space. Yeah, we've got a good
seat right here.
Speaker 1 (00:34):
Indeed, so tell us how things are. You've gone what
one year now, we're a little over a year.
Speaker 2 (00:40):
Yeah, I'm a little over a year in as president
of the Healing Place. And just as a reminder, we're
an addiction and alcohol rehabilitation facility. We provide some services
to unhoused neighbors as well. We've been in on West
Market Street and have a men's campus there. We have
a women's campus at fifteenth and Hill. We serve up
(01:02):
to about nine hundred people a day, and we have
another one hundred bed facility down in Campbellsville. And the
unique thing about the Healing Place is that we are
a peer driven social model of addiction recovery, and the
programs provided at no cost to client, and our detox
doors are open twenty four hours a day, seven days
(01:24):
a week, three hundred and sixty five days a year
to anybody who needs to walk through them. And we
have a diverse client tele and it's a man, it's
the most joyful place to work. It's been the best year.
Speaker 1 (01:35):
Great what what how did you come to take this job?
Speaker 2 (01:42):
Yeah? I think my path to the Healing Place started
on July the eighth, twenty twelve. That's my own sobriety date.
I was what some people might call a high functioning
alcoholic if you can, there's really no such thing as that,
to be honest with you. But I came to terms
with the fact that I was powerless over alcohol and
(02:06):
my life wasn't what it should have been. And I
didn't know that that was the starting date of my
path to the Healing Place. I had a career in
business and did a couple of stints and state government.
Worked for Paul Patton in the Governor's office for about
five and a half years, and the opportunity presented itself
(02:28):
to come home. I'm a little of a native. I
grew up in the South End, not far from here,
and the opportunity to come into this job to help
continue the tradition that's been established by Jay Davidson and
other people was just too good to pass up. It's
the opportunity of a lifetime. So I'm really grateful to
have to be at the healing place.
Speaker 1 (02:51):
It seems situationally maybe it was COVID or whatever, but
we have a lot of people that have been angry.
We know that a lot more people have isolated themselves,
perhaps just because they get on their phone and play
a game for two or three hours and they get
lonely and that kind of thing. And we know younger
(03:11):
people aren't drinking as much, but it seems like we've
seen cause and effect of older people, middle aged and
older people drinking more. During COVID, alcohol sales went up precipitously,
particularly in the age groups of fifty five and older.
Speaker 2 (03:28):
As I understand, you know, alcoholism and drug addiction cuts
across every demographic line. It doesn't discriminate against class or
zip code or demo other demographic criteria. And opioid addiction
in particular is still at crisis levels. We've seen some
(03:51):
encouraging trends and the reduction of opioid overdoses or overdose deaths.
Excuse me, but the trends of alcoholism and drug addiction
touched just about every family, either directly or indirectly. If
you don't have somebody in your family who's struggling, there's
(04:13):
a really good chance you know somebody in somebody else's
family who is. And our program is available to everybody.
Speaker 1 (04:21):
How do they reach out to you?
Speaker 2 (04:23):
Five oh two, five eight, five forty eight, forty eight.
We have a live person that'll answer the phone. They
can also walk in. Come down to ten twenty West
Market or fifteen oh three South fifteenth Street. That's our
women's campus that sits on eight acres between the Algonquin
and Russell neighborhoods, and our men's campus is just on
(04:46):
the west side of the Roy Wilkins Boulevard exit ramp
off of sixty four that everybody knows.
Speaker 1 (04:53):
There may be a wealthy horse owner or business person
who has a big box sho we're there that doesn't
want to admit that they may have a problem. Right now,
as they're driving in. What do you say to them,
you're a successful businessman.
Speaker 2 (05:10):
Yeah, yourself. If the people in your life who are
important to you think that you have a drinking problem
or a drug problem, there's a really good chance you do,
whether you think so or not. A lot of times
we blind ourselves to the consequences of our decision making
and the consequences of our behavior. We'd blind ourselves through
(05:34):
the importance of our work, through the stress of the day,
and coming to terms with that can be the most
the single most liberating step that we can take as individuals.
And if we're powerless over alcohol and our lives have
become unmanageable, there's a really good chance that the people
(05:58):
closest to us are too into that, even if we're not. So,
if you're getting messages, either direct or indirect messages from
the people you love, then there's a really good chance
that you probably need to think about it and take
the steps necessary. Because man, there is a solution. There's
(06:22):
a solution to alcoholism and drug addiction. I get to
see it happen every day.
Speaker 1 (06:26):
I want to ask you about the drug addiction just
real quick from this standpoint, because you know alcohol is
so accepted, right, I mean, let's be honest with you.
Speaker 2 (06:34):
I mean, yeah, right.
Speaker 1 (06:37):
But we hear a lot more about ventanyl. And I
don't know this for a fact, but I've been told
by some that once you are impacted by that, that
you can never get that same high. But it makes you,
It does something to you chemically in your brain, even
though you may not have even thought about taking ventanyl. Whatever.
(06:58):
You know the drug, What do you see in that?
And it seems to be younger people that are mostly.
Speaker 2 (07:05):
Involved in Yeah, that's right, And it's the disease concept
of addiction, and what we deal with is a legitimate disease,
and there are changes in our brain chemistry that affect
our decision making, and with fentanyl in particular, when that
addiction takes hold, the control over our decision making goes
(07:29):
away and it's given over to the drug. And in
order to break that control, it takes sustained commitment to
behavioral change, and that's the solution that we offer at
the healing place I've seen. I can think of literally
a dozen examples of people who were addicted to heroin,
(07:50):
to fentanyl, to other opioids who've gone through the long
term program at the Healing Place, gotten clean and regain
control of their lives, their parents. They're contributing productive citizens,
and they're looking to help other people, and that's the
best we can hope for.
Speaker 1 (08:07):
Yeah, it is interesting how so many former addicts do that,
you know, right, right right?
Speaker 2 (08:14):
Yeah, I mean you never know who you're going to
run into who's had that experience, right.
Speaker 1 (08:18):
Right, John Mark Hack.
Speaker 2 (08:20):
Appreciate your the website www. The Healing Place all one
words really long The Healingplace dot org or in five
oh two, five eight, five forty eight forty eight. Thanks
John Mark, all right, thanks for happy Derby, Happy Derby.
John Mark Hack here with the Healing Place News Radio
A forty w h A s
News right away. For whas Tony Cruz there with the
John Mark Hack who is very kind to allow all
of us here at news radi away whas to be
a part of the backside of Churchill Downs because he
is the director of the Healing Place. And John, Market's
so good to see you again.
Speaker 2 (00:19):
And it's always good to see you too, and it's
great to have you. We're honored and privileged that you
guys set up here.
Speaker 1 (00:25):
Well, we're very honored and happy that you keeps either
warm or cool.
Speaker 2 (00:30):
Yeah, it's a great space. Yeah, we've got a good
seat right here.
Speaker 1 (00:34):
Indeed, so tell us how things are. You've gone what
one year now, we're a little over a year.
Speaker 2 (00:40):
Yeah, I'm a little over a year in as president
of the Healing Place. And just as a reminder, we're
an addiction and alcohol rehabilitation facility. We provide some services
to unhoused neighbors as well. We've been in on West
Market Street and have a men's campus there. We have
a women's campus at fifteenth and Hill. We serve up
(01:02):
to about nine hundred people a day, and we have
another one hundred bed facility down in Campbellsville. And the
unique thing about the Healing Place is that we are
a peer driven social model of addiction recovery, and the
programs provided at no cost to client, and our detox
doors are open twenty four hours a day, seven days
(01:24):
a week, three hundred and sixty five days a year
to anybody who needs to walk through them. And we
have a diverse client tele and it's a man, it's
the most joyful place to work. It's been the best year.
Speaker 1 (01:35):
Great what what how did you come to take this job?
Speaker 2 (01:42):
Yeah? I think my path to the Healing Place started
on July the eighth, twenty twelve. That's my own sobriety date.
I was what some people might call a high functioning
alcoholic if you can, there's really no such thing as that,
to be honest with you. But I came to terms
with the fact that I was powerless over alcohol and
(02:06):
my life wasn't what it should have been. And I
didn't know that that was the starting date of my
path to the Healing Place. I had a career in
business and did a couple of stints and state government.
Worked for Paul Patton in the Governor's office for about
five and a half years, and the opportunity presented itself
(02:28):
to come home. I'm a little of a native. I
grew up in the South End, not far from here,
and the opportunity to come into this job to help
continue the tradition that's been established by Jay Davidson and
other people was just too good to pass up. It's
the opportunity of a lifetime. So I'm really grateful to
have to be at the healing place.
Speaker 1 (02:51):
It seems situationally maybe it was COVID or whatever, but
we have a lot of people that have been angry.
We know that a lot more people have isolated themselves,
perhaps just because they get on their phone and play
a game for two or three hours and they get
lonely and that kind of thing. And we know younger
(03:11):
people aren't drinking as much, but it seems like we've
seen cause and effect of older people, middle aged and
older people drinking more. During COVID, alcohol sales went up precipitously,
particularly in the age groups of fifty five and older.
Speaker 2 (03:28):
As I understand, you know, alcoholism and drug addiction cuts
across every demographic line. It doesn't discriminate against class or
zip code or demo other demographic criteria. And opioid addiction
in particular is still at crisis levels. We've seen some
(03:51):
encouraging trends and the reduction of opioid overdoses or overdose deaths.
Excuse me, but the trends of alcoholism and drug addiction
touched just about every family, either directly or indirectly. If
you don't have somebody in your family who's struggling, there's
(04:13):
a really good chance you know somebody in somebody else's
family who is. And our program is available to everybody.
Speaker 1 (04:21):
How do they reach out to you?
Speaker 2 (04:23):
Five oh two, five eight, five forty eight, forty eight.
We have a live person that'll answer the phone. They
can also walk in. Come down to ten twenty West
Market or fifteen oh three South fifteenth Street. That's our
women's campus that sits on eight acres between the Algonquin
and Russell neighborhoods, and our men's campus is just on
(04:46):
the west side of the Roy Wilkins Boulevard exit ramp
off of sixty four that everybody knows.
Speaker 1 (04:53):
There may be a wealthy horse owner or business person
who has a big box sho we're there that doesn't
want to admit that they may have a problem. Right now,
as they're driving in. What do you say to them,
you're a successful businessman.
Speaker 2 (05:10):
Yeah, yourself. If the people in your life who are
important to you think that you have a drinking problem
or a drug problem, there's a really good chance you do,
whether you think so or not. A lot of times
we blind ourselves to the consequences of our decision making
and the consequences of our behavior. We'd blind ourselves through
(05:34):
the importance of our work, through the stress of the day,
and coming to terms with that can be the most
the single most liberating step that we can take as individuals.
And if we're powerless over alcohol and our lives have
become unmanageable, there's a really good chance that the people
(05:58):
closest to us are too into that, even if we're not. So,
if you're getting messages, either direct or indirect messages from
the people you love, then there's a really good chance
that you probably need to think about it and take
the steps necessary. Because man, there is a solution. There's
(06:22):
a solution to alcoholism and drug addiction. I get to
see it happen every day.
Speaker 1 (06:26):
I want to ask you about the drug addiction just
real quick from this standpoint, because you know alcohol is
so accepted, right, I mean, let's be honest with you.
Speaker 2 (06:34):
I mean, yeah, right.
Speaker 1 (06:37):
But we hear a lot more about ventanyl. And I
don't know this for a fact, but I've been told
by some that once you are impacted by that, that
you can never get that same high. But it makes you,
It does something to you chemically in your brain, even
though you may not have even thought about taking ventanyl. Whatever.
(06:58):
You know the drug, What do you see in that?
And it seems to be younger people that are mostly.
Speaker 2 (07:05):
Involved in Yeah, that's right, And it's the disease concept
of addiction, and what we deal with is a legitimate disease,
and there are changes in our brain chemistry that affect
our decision making, and with fentanyl in particular, when that
addiction takes hold, the control over our decision making goes
(07:29):
away and it's given over to the drug. And in
order to break that control, it takes sustained commitment to
behavioral change, and that's the solution that we offer at
the healing place I've seen. I can think of literally
a dozen examples of people who were addicted to heroin,
(07:50):
to fentanyl, to other opioids who've gone through the long
term program at the Healing Place, gotten clean and regain
control of their lives, their parents. They're contributing productive citizens,
and they're looking to help other people, and that's the
best we can hope for.
Speaker 1 (08:07):
Yeah, it is interesting how so many former addicts do that,
you know, right, right right?
Speaker 2 (08:14):
Yeah, I mean you never know who you're going to
run into who's had that experience, right.
Speaker 1 (08:18):
Right, John Mark Hack.
Speaker 2 (08:20):
Appreciate your the website www. The Healing Place all one
words really long The Healingplace dot org or in five
oh two, five eight, five forty eight forty eight. Thanks
John Mark, all right, thanks for happy Derby, Happy Derby.
John Mark Hack here with the Healing Place News Radio
A forty w h A s
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