Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
The views and opinions expressed in the following programmer those
of the speaker and don't necessarily represent those of the station.
It's staff management or ownership. Good morning, I'll find out
Pete and the Poe Cold.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
I'm Peter and I'm the poet Gold, and we're on.
Speaker 1 (00:15):
The this morning with Jesse Surrubi, the chief program officer,
Family Services located and headquartered in Poughkeepsie. And before we
get to Jesse, you were going to go right to
the poet Gold for her weekly prayer poem incantation on Gold.
Please let it roll.
Speaker 2 (00:31):
Thank you, Peter. This morning, I'm going to do awake.
Speaker 1 (00:36):
My favorite thing to be.
Speaker 2 (00:41):
With the stroke of the pen. The outlawed, how ironic
the instrument we use describe would be used to undermine
our minds. The poet, the author, the reader, the speaker,
the thinker, the philosopher, the teacher. Now outliers those who
use words prolifically, exquisitely, consistently with clarity and meaning. Women,
Are you awake from the tyranny, the dismantling of liberty,
(01:04):
going back to strange fruit hanging from the killing tree,
the desecration of Christ and all he stood for and
believed love. Satan's breath breathe flames of hate, troubled soul,
stoking embers, releasing fire into the wind, falling from the
sky onto the dry brush of vacated minds, critically frayed
and worn information overload, drifting into a nightmare abyss, the
(01:29):
alarm goes off. Are you still sleeping? Are you awake?
I'm awake, I'm awake. I'm awake. I'm awake, I'm awake.
We we awake.
Speaker 1 (01:45):
That one's new gold. When did you write that one?
Last night? That's what you call fresh.
Speaker 2 (01:52):
From the poet's but it really came from I had
a whole nother poem with the term awake, and uh,
you know, given the state that we are, something else
came and so I decided to rewrite it.
Speaker 1 (02:06):
Ok. I love the beginnings about the use of words
with the precision, and it flows from there. So thank
you for that one, and I'm really glad to be
uh we're all in uh readers un listens included on
the first real version of that right with the world
(02:28):
premiere of Awake.
Speaker 3 (02:29):
I love it and reminder to speak.
Speaker 2 (02:33):
Absolutely absolutely, and that's that's part of what you know
you all are about in Family Services helping people find
their voice and their strength and their empowerment to work
through the challenges that they may be going through.
Speaker 3 (02:45):
That's right, Thank you. You will good reminder again, I mean.
Speaker 1 (02:50):
That is good. I don't know how you're going to
introduce yourself after.
Speaker 3 (02:53):
That, but I'm not gonna. I'm just gonna let you
keep talking.
Speaker 1 (03:00):
Family Services. You might want to give a sense of
what Family Services and what it means to be the
chief program officer at that correct question.
Speaker 4 (03:09):
So, I mean, Family Services is an organization that's been
in existence.
Speaker 3 (03:13):
For one hundred and forty five years.
Speaker 4 (03:16):
I'm doing great work working with youth, with children, with families,
with people from all backgrounds throughout the Hudson Valley. Currently
we serve Ulster, Duchess and Orange Counties. We have behavioral
health programming and a huge host of human services, you know,
from crisis responses to enrichment programs. I'm serving again, people
(03:38):
of all backgrounds, in all circumstances, all ages. As chief
program officer, I always say I have the honor the
great honor of being able to be a part of
every single one of those programs throughout all of our
counties all of our fourteen sites and be a part
of the team of people who are there on the ground,
(03:59):
you know, just with hands out reached in various offerings
to support people to have the connections they need, the
tools they need to reach their goals in life, to thrive,
as we like to say.
Speaker 1 (04:14):
And one of the programs that you has gained a
lot of esteem over the last couple of years is
the behavioral health which people used to refer to as
mental health.
Speaker 4 (04:24):
Mental health, Yeah, mental health, behavioral health essentially the same thing.
You know, behavioral health encompasses even like what people might
consider behavioral mean such as substance use, which we won't
call it that well, you know, substance use disorder or
substance use as an example, but yeah, we call it
mental health for the most part. So we have eight
(04:44):
behavioral health or mental health centers across Ulster and Duchess County,
five here in Duchess and three in Ulster County, and
we are serving currently adolescents and adults, so people age
eighteen and plus, though come this summer will be serving
people who are three years and older and their families
as well. So we're really excited about that that that's
(05:05):
the summer that we'll be kicking that off.
Speaker 2 (05:08):
So what type of program specifically in the behavior under
the behavior health umbrella that someone who's coming as an
intake would go.
Speaker 4 (05:16):
Through, right, Well, we are, I mean, we're a traditional
what we would call outpatient behavioral health program, so we
see people, they walk in, they walk back out, you know,
and that we have connections in the community for you know,
connecting people to resources, other services, other supports, and obviously
a strong connection with hospitals and other inpatient facilities like
(05:38):
for substance use disorder treatment. We are we're appointment based,
so people come to us or in some circumstances, we
can do some care outside in the community as well.
But we have therapy services for individual therapy. We do
a lot of groups. We do a lot of group
therapy and support groups. We have psychiatry, so we have
(05:59):
nurse pract tianer, psychiatric nurse practitioners and psychiatrists on staff
and they are seeking seeing people who have medication needs
and doing not the therapy end of it, but meeting
with people and talking through you know, their medication and
how the medication is affecting them, how they're progressing and
setting goals with them as a part of the full team.
Speaker 2 (06:20):
You talked about. You have these sites in Duchess County,
obviously in Poughkeepsie as well, so where as some of
the other areas with sites.
Speaker 4 (06:28):
We have a site in Poughkeepsie, we have a site
in rhyme Beck, We have a site in Beacon and
Millbrook and Dover.
Speaker 3 (06:35):
Do I hit them all? That's five, right?
Speaker 4 (06:38):
And then in Ulster County we have Kingston, Ellenville and
Highland currently.
Speaker 3 (06:43):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (06:44):
And you know, one of the things about we don't
even just me stumbling around the words behavioral health, mental
health INDICAS is a stigma are involved in other words
when we have when we use the word mental health
is people think, okay, it's very close to the word
crazy in our imaginations, and crazy is obviously a bad thing.
(07:07):
And we don't want to define people as bad because
of the mental health issues they have, which you know we
all have. But you might want to give us a
sense on how you handle the stigma part of behavioral health.
Speaker 4 (07:26):
And do you need the word behavioral health or in general,
what are we doing about it?
Speaker 1 (07:31):
Yeah? What do you want to get rid of the
prejudice against people.
Speaker 4 (07:34):
Stigma is such a big it's such a big issue.
You know, it is in their self stigma, their social stigma.
So people feel ashamed to do to stigma in the community.
They societally, people are shamed for their mental health conditions
and behavioral health conditions, and it really keeps people from
(07:55):
being able to get the care they need. It's a
barrier for people to get to seek treat right. It
really keeps people from being able to ask for help
in a lot of situations. It even keeps people from
it keeps it knocks down awareness. You know, there's so
much When there's stigma, people don't even were not even
free to speak about what the real issues are, so
(08:15):
that people aren't even always aware that what they're experiencing
could be a mental health condition, and therefore they don't
get the treatment, or their child doesn't get the treatment,
they're loveling doesn't get the treatment.
Speaker 3 (08:26):
So it's a huge issue.
Speaker 4 (08:27):
At Family Services, we are consistently trying really hard to
spread messaging to increase awareness and reduce stigma about mental health.
Speaker 3 (08:41):
And the reality of it.
Speaker 4 (08:42):
I mean, the reality is that fifty two million Americans
have a mental health diagnosis, and so many people do
not get treatment for many reasons including access issues, cost issues,
big stigma issues, you know, so we are always work
towards reducing stigma. We have messaging all over our website.
(09:03):
We currently have positive messaging and anti stigma messaging on
all through the Hudson Valley Bridges being Newburg Beacon Bridge,
the Mid Hudson Bridge coming into Poughkeepsie here and then
the Kingston Rhinebeck Bridge as well. So keep an eye
out for those that during the winter months they were
pink and orangish yellow, beautiful sunset colors. The you know,
(09:27):
nice nice compliment if you will, to the to the
darkness of the winter, you know, like the stark, nice
dark contrast there, and now they're a bluish yellow going
into the spring. And the messaging is you know, basically
saying giving people a little reminder you know that they
matter to reach out, you know, talk to a friend,
(09:50):
change of life, you know, that kind of messaging. So
that's something we have on an ongoing basis. We are
also working currently under a generous grant from the from
the Office for Mental Health, New York State Office for
Mental Health and the Novo Foundation in Ulster County to
do some anti stigma messaging, specifically in Dutchess and in
(10:13):
Ulster County. So we've got some big plans with that.
And then for the second year in a row in October,
we'll be doing our fifty two en Stigma fifty two
mile run to raise awareness, going.
Speaker 1 (10:24):
To explain that.
Speaker 2 (10:26):
Right, So if you're just tuning in, you're listening to
finding out with Pete and the Poea gold and I'm
the Poea Golden. We're here with Jesse Serubi, Chief program
Officer of Family Services, Inc. And we're talking about behavior,
mental behavior correct or mental health, mental health, mental health.
I was in there between the.
Speaker 1 (10:46):
You know, even the words stigma and we certainly want
to get to the fifty plus event. But the word
stigma it sounds fancy or chronical or something, and we're
really means is uh, I feel bad. I think people
look only poor little bit.
Speaker 3 (11:06):
I think there's a lot of shame in there.
Speaker 1 (11:07):
Yeah, absolutely, and you feel better yourself, right, And.
Speaker 2 (11:12):
There's also I think also cultural and socio economic issues,
you know, embedded in that.
Speaker 1 (11:18):
Uh.
Speaker 2 (11:19):
You know, different cultures, particularly say a culture of color,
you know, my community, they don't always deal with that
something could be going on inside your head, that that
that's you know, that could be helped, it could be
managed with the right tools. And the conversation is a
very sensitive one. Have you ever thought about seeking help
(11:39):
or having a conversation with someone outside of you know,
yourself or myself or someone else? And uh and and
you really have to approach it very very sensitively. Is
there any type of when you were talking about your campaign,
does your campaign include those communities in your campaign at all?
Or is it the goal.
Speaker 3 (11:58):
Is to I think it's general and it should be.
Speaker 4 (12:02):
And when we when we talk about cultural differences, there
are actually ways to be able to reach out to
different cultures who may not have the same like cultural
understanding of mental health, with information about how how they
might how they might pick up on mental health conditions
(12:22):
outside of it being in the mind. Like for instance,
in some cultures, you might be more likely to know
you have depression not based on feeling, you know, lack
of lack of pleasure in the things that used to
join bring you pleasure, but having chronic pain, you know, headaches,
neck pain, back pain, stomach distress. If you're finding that
(12:42):
there that that is going on chronically, that might be
an indicator that you are experiencing emotional distress that is
manifesting in this in this bodily way. And a lot
of us experience I I personally, and a lot of
people experience in a bodily way when they have stresses
going on, or distress or mental health challenges going on,
(13:07):
if you will. And so I think that in our marketing,
you know, if we're raising awareness, it's important to not
always use the typical, you know way that like a
white middle class person might pick up on mental health
or be comfortable talking about mental health, and bring in
some of those other aspects where people will be more
(13:28):
comfortable with it, and it's an it's a it could
be an aha moment for people like, oh, I didn't
know that this physical you know, this physical thing could
be related to mental health, you know, but you know,
but who would know until you know?
Speaker 1 (13:44):
Right? Agree, you don't know until you know. And but
part of the reason it comes out in physical terms
is you lots of us block it in terms of
we don't want to admit we have depression, so we
don't say that in our body and we banish it
from our mind. But our shoulders might have a different
(14:06):
report or a neck or something.
Speaker 4 (14:08):
Yeah, and our bodies react to physical stress or to
you know, our bodies react to emotional stress as if
it was physical stress. So there's physiological things that happen
when you are experiencing distress emotionally mentally.
Speaker 3 (14:23):
You know.
Speaker 1 (14:23):
Well gold has heard me say that I think and
I don't have proof on this, but I like to
claim the title anyway. I think that I have spent
more money on mental health issues for myself than anybody
else in Dutchess County. Right, and there's not a lot
of people can competing for that title, but anybody who
(14:45):
wants to show me a checkbook. But Family Services money
doesn't have to be an issue, right, I mean, that's
a huge thing, right.
Speaker 3 (14:58):
I mean at Family Service is part of our job.
Speaker 4 (15:00):
As we call ourselves again it's an outpatient but we're
we consider ourselves a community health center. So you know,
we we accept pretty much all insurances. You know, a
lot of people do not accept medicaid. We absolutely accept medicaid.
You know, we have people who can assist people with
getting connected to health insurance. We have a sliding fee
(15:22):
scale for people who are what we would say uninsured
or even under insured. So some people who are under
insured have health insurance, but the copays or the deductible
is too high to actually even use it. So you
can be put on a sliding fee scale to make
that manageable.
Speaker 3 (15:38):
Though healthcare is not free ever, you know, and I
like to make a point of that.
Speaker 4 (15:44):
You know, we will not turn somebody away for inability
to pay today, but it's still our responsibility to try
to collect at least something because we do have you know,
we've got eight behavioral health centers and and staff who
are you know, who need to be who need to
be there to serve people. So yeah, so I would
I it should not be access and costs should not
(16:06):
be a barrier to healthcare. You know, the cost is
otherwise too great.
Speaker 1 (16:11):
But I underline that Medicaid is absolutely a big deal.
Speaker 4 (16:16):
We take everything everything, including sliding fee scale, you know,
and if you can't pay today, but you need to
be seen today, then you know, everywhere you won't be turned.
Speaker 2 (16:26):
Away or any of the current changes in the current
alreny changes impacting you from the administration at all of
how you are operating today.
Speaker 4 (16:35):
We are on high guard in operating today and doing
planning because honestly, yes, there are there are certainly threats
to us in all of our programs, and certainly in
our behavioral health or mental health program. Medicaid in particular
is an area of real vulnerability for us, But honestly,
(16:57):
it's an area of vulnerability for the for the people
who are on Medicaid.
Speaker 3 (17:02):
Though though the.
Speaker 4 (17:03):
Administration and elected officials have said they will not, I'm
putting air quotes in which listeners can't see they will
not be cutting services, it is clear that they need to.
They need to cut significant funds.
Speaker 3 (17:19):
What are we looking at eight point eight billion dollars?
Speaker 4 (17:21):
Is that what it is from medicaid, and that might
be done through toxics such as having work requirements, frequent recertification,
which would mean that people would consistently needing to be recertifying,
which is a really complicated process, to the point that
New York State employs people to do that job, to
(17:41):
help people with it.
Speaker 3 (17:42):
You know.
Speaker 4 (17:43):
And so if every thirty days somebody needs to recertify,
they would often not have insurance. They might not realize
they don't have insurance, we wouldn't realize that, we would
check them we're not going to turn them away, but
we're not going to get paid either, you know, until
they have insurance again.
Speaker 3 (17:58):
So things like that.
Speaker 4 (18:00):
There's a provider tax that's on the table that would
affect primarily liberal states like California and of course New York,
so that could be a that could be a threat
to us too, but that's for medicaid. And then otherwise, yeah,
we are very concerned about federal funding cuts.
Speaker 1 (18:15):
And let me go back to Gold's opening poem where
she talks about the precision and the power of language.
When you referred to a zero point eight percent point
eight billion.
Speaker 3 (18:30):
That is eight point eight.
Speaker 4 (18:34):
That's the number point eight billion.
Speaker 1 (18:39):
Another name for that is eight hundred billion. A point
eight billion is sort of a euphemism. It's sort of
a way of a polite way of getting past it.
But if you're looking to save eight hundred million dollars
out of a medicaid budget, you're going to, in my opinion,
as somebody who knows arithmetic, uh, you're going to do
(19:03):
that on the backs of people who are suffering, whether
it's physical or self worth, the mental health or behavioral
health stuff. You are going to after poor people with problems.
So that was not editorial, that was simply arithmetic.
Speaker 4 (19:18):
Right, Yeah, you're going after people who don't have the power.
Speaker 2 (19:21):
Yes, right, yeah, right right, the most vulnerable.
Speaker 1 (19:24):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (19:25):
And once again, if you're just tuning in, you're listening
to finding out a Pete and the poet Gold.
Speaker 1 (19:29):
I'm Peter and I'm the poet Gold.
Speaker 2 (19:30):
And we're here with Jesse's Ruby, chief program officer at
Family Services, Inc. And we're having a discussion about mental.
Speaker 1 (19:36):
Health and Jesse well with young people are always wondering
what they're gonna do for a living? You know, how
do you do that that? What is it about in
your life that made you become uh go into human
services and wanted up being the chief program officer Family Services?
(19:57):
Because by the nobody in America when yeah, nineteen or
what are you going to be when you grow up? Well,
I'm going to be a chief program Most of your family,
nobody's looking for your job.
Speaker 3 (20:07):
They don't really didn't think I'd be here.
Speaker 1 (20:10):
How did you do it?
Speaker 3 (20:11):
That's o great? How long do we have?
Speaker 4 (20:14):
I would say my path, like most of ours, has
been pretty circuitous.
Speaker 3 (20:19):
You know, a lot of ins and outs and ups
and downs.
Speaker 4 (20:22):
But I I I was. I I was born somebody
who believe I have always been and I actually have
very like deep, like almost spiritual connection to a sense
of service and helping. And I can just say that
that's just somebody who I was, you know, whether it's
(20:44):
rescuing every single animal. I truly believed that like every
plant was speaking. This might sound out there talking about
mental but I believed, like as a child, that every plant,
every tree would speak to all the other trees, and
the squirrels, yeah, and the crows, they would to them all,
and they would know that I'm I'm not here to hurt.
I'm only here to help. And I remember that's like
(21:06):
been in my head forever, that I'm I'm here to help.
I've known that. So but that's not how I necessarily
got here. That's just who I.
Speaker 5 (21:16):
Yeah, you say, well, yeah, I'm with it.
Speaker 1 (21:21):
That's not necessarily a validating not.
Speaker 4 (21:23):
The love that you know and I believe, you know,
and actually they are communicating, and crows are communicating.
Speaker 3 (21:34):
That's a whole nother story. I love the crows.
Speaker 4 (21:37):
But yeah, so, I mean that was just kind of
me growing up, just always rescuing, you know, a new
kid in school. Guess who's right there welcoming the new kid.
And you know, but I went to I thought I
was going to be a doctor for some reason. I
think somebody told me I was going to be a doctor.
And so I said, I'm going to be a doctor.
And I was lucky to be really good at school
(21:58):
and a really good runner. So I got a free
ride to University of Massachusetts. Started off in you know,
pre med slash biopem, and took a psychic one oh
one class. And I don't know why, but I most
people think it's as boring as it gets because it's
a lot of theory, you know, in history, and I
really liked it. So and then I started looking at
(22:20):
all the other psych classes and thinking, oh, I want
to study that. I want to study stress and emotion,
and I want to study this. And I actually became
really interested in social psychology, and so I thought I
was going to be a psychologist, but to do research,
like I didn't even connect it to two people yet.
But meanwhile I was working in the university childcare and
(22:43):
taking all of these classes on they were like almost
sociology classes, but also you know the pedagogy classes, you know,
learning about development and people and then practicing what I
was learning on young people and watching behavior change and
how this kind affects somebody. And I became a head
start teacher right out of college. I was some like
(23:06):
before you had to have a master's degree to be
a lead teacher, and I was twenty two years old.
But I became a lead head start teacher, like of
all things, you know, and I somehow decided I wanted
to do public health, Like I said, how long.
Speaker 3 (23:21):
Do you want to? You know, my career changed a lot.
I have a I wanted to do public health.
Speaker 4 (23:28):
I really want to wanted to work with kids and teenagers,
which I did, And so I did a lot of
work with kids and teaching people about their bodies, how
to take care of their bodies, reproductive health. Often and specifically,
I worked under grants in human services organizations, AIDS Foundation
(23:48):
planned parenthood camps for what in those days we called
terminally ill children.
Speaker 3 (23:54):
Now we would not.
Speaker 4 (23:54):
Say that right like critical critical situations or critical illness.
But I really just got really into working with teenagers
and had zero boundaries. And in those days, nobody even
talked about mental health really.
Speaker 3 (24:13):
Like there was no words. There was no word for
self care.
Speaker 4 (24:16):
Nobody prepared us to have children who died or were
abused or you know what I mean. There was like
there was no supervision as there is currently or any
way of supporting the workers. And I burned out in
my twenties and I got a master's degree in social
policy focusing on health promotion because I figured, I'm not
going to say I can't do this one on one thing,
(24:38):
but I can change the world because the system is
set up against people like I can work with these
people and we can have such a great conversation they
go back into the world, and the world the whole
system is just like it's just set against them, just
keeping them down, not letting anybody reach their goals right,
reach the opportunities they want. When they talk to me.
Speaker 3 (24:57):
This is teenagers, teenage girls for the most part.
Speaker 4 (25:00):
You know, in Santa Anna and Anaheim, California, where I
was living at the time, in Texas, you know, that
was that was my experience, you know, and then Newburgh,
you know, And so somehow along the way I decided late,
like really late, when I was about.
Speaker 3 (25:17):
Thirty eight, after about three.
Speaker 4 (25:20):
Times of saying I think I should go back to
school for social work. I think I should go back
to school for social work, and then realizing, like three
or four years later, crap, if I had done it,
then i'd be done by now. So finally I got
tired of saying that to myself. I went back to
school at forty for social work and became did that
whole master's degree, which is a long and amazing program
(25:41):
and I highly recommend it for anybody who is interested
in becoming a therapist or even being a part of
human services. And then the rest is kind of history.
Speaker 1 (25:51):
Well, let me go back a little bit because you
mentioned when you were a kid you were concerned with
nature and others, and I just connections people, and you
think you're born with that or that's who you were.
And I guess two questions. One is born with it
or was that fostered by somebody by your family? And
(26:15):
then the second part of that is it shows up
in your education. Your social work is generally very individualized
in terms of working on a specific problem with the
specific purpose person. Social policy is, you know, there's the
structures we live in. So they're related questions. I mean, uh,
(26:37):
and maybe you instead of answering one or the other
you might want to give us the interrelationship between social
policy and individual problems and your individual talents and the
way they were groomed.
Speaker 4 (26:50):
Right. Well, you know, I think from a system's perspective
in general. Like I even said, when I was in
an undergrad I was fascinated.
Speaker 3 (26:58):
By social psychology.
Speaker 4 (27:00):
So I think systemically, and I think that any one
of us is so much a product of you said
I was born with it or was it or was
it nurtured by somebody? It was absolutely nurtured by my
parents basically, you know, and the way I was raised,
which is I guess a very different which is a.
Speaker 3 (27:19):
Whole nother conversation.
Speaker 4 (27:21):
But my first home was in a tepee in Wyoming,
you know, like it was when we grew I grew
up on a farm, We had our own animals and
gardens and you know, just a very different approach to
food to.
Speaker 3 (27:34):
Life than than you know a lot of people.
Speaker 5 (27:37):
You know.
Speaker 3 (27:38):
It was definitely an ecosystem. Yeah.
Speaker 4 (27:40):
But so I do think in like I think in
systems and or and I think a system is such
a huge component of somebody's outcomes, how who somebody is,
how they represent themselves, how they express themselves, how they
interact with other people, what happens to them in life,
what they do in life. That's not to say that
(28:02):
there's no individual choice in any of that, but that
that there's just this, there's just such a link, you know,
they really go together. And in social work, you can
choose a macro approach, which is that system's approach, or
you can choose the more individualized micro approach. One way
or another you're working with. If you're choosing the micro approach,
(28:25):
whether it's social work or mental health counseling, you become
a psychiatrist or you know, a psychologist clinical psychologist, you're
working with individual people. You must recognize they exist in
a system. And I guess it just depends on how
big of a system you want to look at. I
choose to look at like the big system, like not
just the family system, but the societal system. But you
(28:49):
have to at least look at the family system, and
then what's happening with the family.
Speaker 3 (28:54):
Why is there this stress?
Speaker 4 (28:56):
Oh, maybe there's no maybe there was no housing, maybe
there was no transportation, maybe there wasn't food access, And
those things have to be addressed individually. And if that
doesn't work, then at a bigger policy level for anything
to happen with an individual.
Speaker 1 (29:12):
No, the fact that I didn't fall on the floor
when you said your first home was in a teapot.
Speaker 5 (29:17):
I want you to think I didn't hear that. So
we'll go back to explain that in another half hour show. Okay, Yeah,
how can people get in touch with you?
Speaker 4 (29:28):
Right? With family services in general? Well, if you're interested
in our general phone number where twenty nine North Hamilton
Street is where our admin offices are, So that's what
this is connected to. But there's a phone system that
will you know, you can listen to the prompts and
get connected to any.
Speaker 3 (29:47):
Of the services there.
Speaker 4 (29:49):
That's four five to two one eight four or five
four or five two one one one zero. My extension
is three zero two. I think I never use it.
I use my cell phone number that's again four five
two one one one zero. And I just I just
wrote down I head to write down for myself our
behavioral health number. So if folks are interested specifically in
(30:12):
learning more about our mental health services, that would be
eight four five four eight six two.
Speaker 3 (30:19):
Seven zero three.
Speaker 4 (30:20):
But I encourage if you have access to the internet
to check out our website, which is Family Services ny
dot org. Family Services with an s ny dot org.
Then you will see all of the programs listed, including
quick access to our sexual assault and Domestic Violence Response
(30:43):
crisis team. You know, you can do it right there
online via you know, like just click a button and
and all behavior health and all our programs.
Speaker 3 (30:53):
Learn more about us and reach out.
Speaker 4 (30:55):
If you have any questions, you can always send an
inquiry through our website. Also, I get a lot of
those inquiries and you know, either direct them or answer
them myself. And I'm always happy to you know, to
speak to people individually or have a little email chat,
whatever's most appropriate.
Speaker 2 (31:11):
Fantastic, Jesse, it was great having you. Thank you to
come back. I would love to come back, and we
have so much to talk about. We do, yes, indeed,
and it was definitely continuity though in your life journey
to get to where you are.
Speaker 3 (31:23):
You know, thanks so I think.
Speaker 2 (31:24):
Thank you once again to our listeners for listening to
finding out with Pete and the Poe Gold. I simply
just want to say, if you miss the show or
you want to share the show, be sure to listen
to our podcast which is on iHeart. Thank you
The views and opinions expressed in the following programmer those
of the speaker and don't necessarily represent those of the station.
It's staff management or ownership. Good morning, I'll find out
Pete and the Poe Cold.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
I'm Peter and I'm the poet Gold, and we're on.
Speaker 1 (00:15):
The this morning with Jesse Surrubi, the chief program officer,
Family Services located and headquartered in Poughkeepsie. And before we
get to Jesse, you were going to go right to
the poet Gold for her weekly prayer poem incantation on Gold.
Please let it roll.
Speaker 2 (00:31):
Thank you, Peter. This morning, I'm going to do awake.
Speaker 1 (00:36):
My favorite thing to be.
Speaker 2 (00:41):
With the stroke of the pen. The outlawed, how ironic
the instrument we use describe would be used to undermine
our minds. The poet, the author, the reader, the speaker,
the thinker, the philosopher, the teacher. Now outliers those who
use words prolifically, exquisitely, consistently with clarity and meaning. Women,
Are you awake from the tyranny, the dismantling of liberty,
(01:04):
going back to strange fruit hanging from the killing tree,
the desecration of Christ and all he stood for and
believed love. Satan's breath breathe flames of hate, troubled soul,
stoking embers, releasing fire into the wind, falling from the
sky onto the dry brush of vacated minds, critically frayed
and worn information overload, drifting into a nightmare abyss, the
(01:29):
alarm goes off. Are you still sleeping? Are you awake?
I'm awake, I'm awake. I'm awake. I'm awake, I'm awake.
We we awake.
Speaker 1 (01:45):
That one's new gold. When did you write that one?
Last night? That's what you call fresh.
Speaker 2 (01:52):
From the poet's but it really came from I had
a whole nother poem with the term awake, and uh,
you know, given the state that we are, something else
came and so I decided to rewrite it.
Speaker 1 (02:06):
Ok. I love the beginnings about the use of words
with the precision, and it flows from there. So thank
you for that one, and I'm really glad to be
uh we're all in uh readers un listens included on
the first real version of that right with the world
(02:28):
premiere of Awake.
Speaker 3 (02:29):
I love it and reminder to speak.
Speaker 2 (02:33):
Absolutely absolutely, and that's that's part of what you know
you all are about in Family Services helping people find
their voice and their strength and their empowerment to work
through the challenges that they may be going through.
Speaker 3 (02:45):
That's right, Thank you. You will good reminder again, I mean.
Speaker 1 (02:50):
That is good. I don't know how you're going to
introduce yourself after.
Speaker 3 (02:53):
That, but I'm not gonna. I'm just gonna let you
keep talking.
Speaker 1 (03:00):
Family Services. You might want to give a sense of
what Family Services and what it means to be the
chief program officer at that correct question.
Speaker 4 (03:09):
So, I mean, Family Services is an organization that's been
in existence.
Speaker 3 (03:13):
For one hundred and forty five years.
Speaker 4 (03:16):
I'm doing great work working with youth, with children, with families,
with people from all backgrounds throughout the Hudson Valley. Currently
we serve Ulster, Duchess and Orange Counties. We have behavioral
health programming and a huge host of human services, you know,
from crisis responses to enrichment programs. I'm serving again, people
(03:38):
of all backgrounds, in all circumstances, all ages. As chief
program officer, I always say I have the honor the
great honor of being able to be a part of
every single one of those programs throughout all of our
counties all of our fourteen sites and be a part
of the team of people who are there on the ground,
(03:59):
you know, just with hands out reached in various offerings
to support people to have the connections they need, the
tools they need to reach their goals in life, to thrive,
as we like to say.
Speaker 1 (04:14):
And one of the programs that you has gained a
lot of esteem over the last couple of years is
the behavioral health which people used to refer to as
mental health.
Speaker 4 (04:24):
Mental health, Yeah, mental health, behavioral health essentially the same thing.
You know, behavioral health encompasses even like what people might
consider behavioral mean such as substance use, which we won't
call it that well, you know, substance use disorder or
substance use as an example, but yeah, we call it
mental health for the most part. So we have eight
(04:44):
behavioral health or mental health centers across Ulster and Duchess County,
five here in Duchess and three in Ulster County, and
we are serving currently adolescents and adults, so people age
eighteen and plus, though come this summer will be serving
people who are three years and older and their families
as well. So we're really excited about that that that's
(05:05):
the summer that we'll be kicking that off.
Speaker 2 (05:08):
So what type of program specifically in the behavior under
the behavior health umbrella that someone who's coming as an
intake would go.
Speaker 4 (05:16):
Through, right, Well, we are, I mean, we're a traditional
what we would call outpatient behavioral health program, so we
see people, they walk in, they walk back out, you know,
and that we have connections in the community for you know,
connecting people to resources, other services, other supports, and obviously
a strong connection with hospitals and other inpatient facilities like
(05:38):
for substance use disorder treatment. We are we're appointment based,
so people come to us or in some circumstances, we
can do some care outside in the community as well.
But we have therapy services for individual therapy. We do
a lot of groups. We do a lot of group
therapy and support groups. We have psychiatry, so we have
(05:59):
nurse pract tianer, psychiatric nurse practitioners and psychiatrists on staff
and they are seeking seeing people who have medication needs
and doing not the therapy end of it, but meeting
with people and talking through you know, their medication and
how the medication is affecting them, how they're progressing and
setting goals with them as a part of the full team.
Speaker 2 (06:20):
You talked about. You have these sites in Duchess County,
obviously in Poughkeepsie as well, so where as some of
the other areas with sites.
Speaker 4 (06:28):
We have a site in Poughkeepsie, we have a site
in rhyme Beck, We have a site in Beacon and
Millbrook and Dover.
Speaker 3 (06:35):
Do I hit them all? That's five, right?
Speaker 4 (06:38):
And then in Ulster County we have Kingston, Ellenville and
Highland currently.
Speaker 3 (06:43):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (06:44):
And you know, one of the things about we don't
even just me stumbling around the words behavioral health, mental
health INDICAS is a stigma are involved in other words
when we have when we use the word mental health
is people think, okay, it's very close to the word
crazy in our imaginations, and crazy is obviously a bad thing.
(07:07):
And we don't want to define people as bad because
of the mental health issues they have, which you know we
all have. But you might want to give us a
sense on how you handle the stigma part of behavioral health.
Speaker 4 (07:26):
And do you need the word behavioral health or in general,
what are we doing about it?
Speaker 1 (07:31):
Yeah? What do you want to get rid of the
prejudice against people.
Speaker 4 (07:34):
Stigma is such a big it's such a big issue.
You know, it is in their self stigma, their social stigma.
So people feel ashamed to do to stigma in the community.
They societally, people are shamed for their mental health conditions
and behavioral health conditions, and it really keeps people from
(07:55):
being able to get the care they need. It's a
barrier for people to get to seek treat right. It
really keeps people from being able to ask for help
in a lot of situations. It even keeps people from
it keeps it knocks down awareness. You know, there's so
much When there's stigma, people don't even were not even
free to speak about what the real issues are, so
(08:15):
that people aren't even always aware that what they're experiencing
could be a mental health condition, and therefore they don't
get the treatment, or their child doesn't get the treatment,
they're loveling doesn't get the treatment.
Speaker 3 (08:26):
So it's a huge issue.
Speaker 4 (08:27):
At Family Services, we are consistently trying really hard to
spread messaging to increase awareness and reduce stigma about mental health.
Speaker 3 (08:41):
And the reality of it.
Speaker 4 (08:42):
I mean, the reality is that fifty two million Americans
have a mental health diagnosis, and so many people do
not get treatment for many reasons including access issues, cost issues,
big stigma issues, you know, so we are always work
towards reducing stigma. We have messaging all over our website.
(09:03):
We currently have positive messaging and anti stigma messaging on
all through the Hudson Valley Bridges being Newburg Beacon Bridge,
the Mid Hudson Bridge coming into Poughkeepsie here and then
the Kingston Rhinebeck Bridge as well. So keep an eye
out for those that during the winter months they were
pink and orangish yellow, beautiful sunset colors. The you know,
(09:27):
nice nice compliment if you will, to the to the
darkness of the winter, you know, like the stark, nice
dark contrast there, and now they're a bluish yellow going
into the spring. And the messaging is you know, basically
saying giving people a little reminder you know that they
matter to reach out, you know, talk to a friend,
(09:50):
change of life, you know, that kind of messaging. So
that's something we have on an ongoing basis. We are
also working currently under a generous grant from the from
the Office for Mental Health, New York State Office for
Mental Health and the Novo Foundation in Ulster County to
do some anti stigma messaging, specifically in Dutchess and in
(10:13):
Ulster County. So we've got some big plans with that.
And then for the second year in a row in October,
we'll be doing our fifty two en Stigma fifty two
mile run to raise awareness, going.
Speaker 1 (10:24):
To explain that.
Speaker 2 (10:26):
Right, So if you're just tuning in, you're listening to
finding out with Pete and the Poea gold and I'm
the Poea Golden. We're here with Jesse Serubi, Chief program
Officer of Family Services, Inc. And we're talking about behavior,
mental behavior correct or mental health, mental health, mental health.
I was in there between the.
Speaker 1 (10:46):
You know, even the words stigma and we certainly want
to get to the fifty plus event. But the word
stigma it sounds fancy or chronical or something, and we're
really means is uh, I feel bad. I think people
look only poor little bit.
Speaker 3 (11:06):
I think there's a lot of shame in there.
Speaker 1 (11:07):
Yeah, absolutely, and you feel better yourself, right, And.
Speaker 2 (11:12):
There's also I think also cultural and socio economic issues,
you know, embedded in that.
Speaker 1 (11:18):
Uh.
Speaker 2 (11:19):
You know, different cultures, particularly say a culture of color,
you know, my community, they don't always deal with that
something could be going on inside your head, that that
that's you know, that could be helped, it could be
managed with the right tools. And the conversation is a
very sensitive one. Have you ever thought about seeking help
(11:39):
or having a conversation with someone outside of you know,
yourself or myself or someone else? And uh and and
you really have to approach it very very sensitively. Is
there any type of when you were talking about your campaign,
does your campaign include those communities in your campaign at all?
Or is it the goal.
Speaker 3 (11:58):
Is to I think it's general and it should be.
Speaker 4 (12:02):
And when we when we talk about cultural differences, there
are actually ways to be able to reach out to
different cultures who may not have the same like cultural
understanding of mental health, with information about how how they
might how they might pick up on mental health conditions
(12:22):
outside of it being in the mind. Like for instance,
in some cultures, you might be more likely to know
you have depression not based on feeling, you know, lack
of lack of pleasure in the things that used to
join bring you pleasure, but having chronic pain, you know, headaches,
neck pain, back pain, stomach distress. If you're finding that
(12:42):
there that that is going on chronically, that might be
an indicator that you are experiencing emotional distress that is
manifesting in this in this bodily way. And a lot
of us experience I I personally, and a lot of
people experience in a bodily way when they have stresses
going on, or distress or mental health challenges going on,
(13:07):
if you will. And so I think that in our marketing,
you know, if we're raising awareness, it's important to not
always use the typical, you know way that like a
white middle class person might pick up on mental health
or be comfortable talking about mental health, and bring in
some of those other aspects where people will be more
(13:28):
comfortable with it, and it's an it's a it could
be an aha moment for people like, oh, I didn't
know that this physical you know, this physical thing could
be related to mental health, you know, but you know,
but who would know until you know?
Speaker 1 (13:44):
Right? Agree, you don't know until you know. And but
part of the reason it comes out in physical terms
is you lots of us block it in terms of
we don't want to admit we have depression, so we
don't say that in our body and we banish it
from our mind. But our shoulders might have a different
(14:06):
report or a neck or something.
Speaker 4 (14:08):
Yeah, and our bodies react to physical stress or to
you know, our bodies react to emotional stress as if
it was physical stress. So there's physiological things that happen
when you are experiencing distress emotionally mentally.
Speaker 3 (14:23):
You know.
Speaker 1 (14:23):
Well gold has heard me say that I think and
I don't have proof on this, but I like to
claim the title anyway. I think that I have spent
more money on mental health issues for myself than anybody
else in Dutchess County. Right, and there's not a lot
of people can competing for that title, but anybody who
(14:45):
wants to show me a checkbook. But Family Services money
doesn't have to be an issue, right, I mean, that's
a huge thing, right.
Speaker 3 (14:58):
I mean at Family Service is part of our job.
Speaker 4 (15:00):
As we call ourselves again it's an outpatient but we're
we consider ourselves a community health center. So you know,
we we accept pretty much all insurances. You know, a
lot of people do not accept medicaid. We absolutely accept medicaid.
You know, we have people who can assist people with
getting connected to health insurance. We have a sliding fee
(15:22):
scale for people who are what we would say uninsured
or even under insured. So some people who are under
insured have health insurance, but the copays or the deductible
is too high to actually even use it. So you
can be put on a sliding fee scale to make
that manageable.
Speaker 3 (15:38):
Though healthcare is not free ever, you know, and I
like to make a point of that.
Speaker 4 (15:44):
You know, we will not turn somebody away for inability
to pay today, but it's still our responsibility to try
to collect at least something because we do have you know,
we've got eight behavioral health centers and and staff who
are you know, who need to be who need to
be there to serve people. So yeah, so I would
I it should not be access and costs should not
(16:06):
be a barrier to healthcare. You know, the cost is
otherwise too great.
Speaker 1 (16:11):
But I underline that Medicaid is absolutely a big deal.
Speaker 4 (16:16):
We take everything everything, including sliding fee scale, you know,
and if you can't pay today, but you need to
be seen today, then you know, everywhere you won't be turned.
Speaker 2 (16:26):
Away or any of the current changes in the current
alreny changes impacting you from the administration at all of
how you are operating today.
Speaker 4 (16:35):
We are on high guard in operating today and doing
planning because honestly, yes, there are there are certainly threats
to us in all of our programs, and certainly in
our behavioral health or mental health program. Medicaid in particular
is an area of real vulnerability for us, But honestly,
(16:57):
it's an area of vulnerability for the for the people
who are on Medicaid.
Speaker 3 (17:02):
Though though the.
Speaker 4 (17:03):
Administration and elected officials have said they will not, I'm
putting air quotes in which listeners can't see they will
not be cutting services, it is clear that they need to.
They need to cut significant funds.
Speaker 3 (17:19):
What are we looking at eight point eight billion dollars?
Speaker 4 (17:21):
Is that what it is from medicaid, and that might
be done through toxics such as having work requirements, frequent recertification,
which would mean that people would consistently needing to be recertifying,
which is a really complicated process, to the point that
New York State employs people to do that job, to
(17:41):
help people with it.
Speaker 3 (17:42):
You know.
Speaker 4 (17:43):
And so if every thirty days somebody needs to recertify,
they would often not have insurance. They might not realize
they don't have insurance, we wouldn't realize that, we would
check them we're not going to turn them away, but
we're not going to get paid either, you know, until
they have insurance again.
Speaker 3 (17:58):
So things like that.
Speaker 4 (18:00):
There's a provider tax that's on the table that would
affect primarily liberal states like California and of course New York,
so that could be a that could be a threat
to us too, but that's for medicaid. And then otherwise, yeah,
we are very concerned about federal funding cuts.
Speaker 1 (18:15):
And let me go back to Gold's opening poem where
she talks about the precision and the power of language.
When you referred to a zero point eight percent point
eight billion.
Speaker 3 (18:30):
That is eight point eight.
Speaker 4 (18:34):
That's the number point eight billion.
Speaker 1 (18:39):
Another name for that is eight hundred billion. A point
eight billion is sort of a euphemism. It's sort of
a way of a polite way of getting past it.
But if you're looking to save eight hundred million dollars
out of a medicaid budget, you're going to, in my opinion,
as somebody who knows arithmetic, uh, you're going to do
(19:03):
that on the backs of people who are suffering, whether
it's physical or self worth, the mental health or behavioral
health stuff. You are going to after poor people with problems.
So that was not editorial, that was simply arithmetic.
Speaker 4 (19:18):
Right, Yeah, you're going after people who don't have the power.
Speaker 2 (19:21):
Yes, right, yeah, right right, the most vulnerable.
Speaker 1 (19:24):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (19:25):
And once again, if you're just tuning in, you're listening
to finding out a Pete and the poet Gold.
Speaker 1 (19:29):
I'm Peter and I'm the poet Gold.
Speaker 2 (19:30):
And we're here with Jesse's Ruby, chief program officer at
Family Services, Inc. And we're having a discussion about mental.
Speaker 1 (19:36):
Health and Jesse well with young people are always wondering
what they're gonna do for a living? You know, how
do you do that that? What is it about in
your life that made you become uh go into human
services and wanted up being the chief program officer Family Services?
(19:57):
Because by the nobody in America when yeah, nineteen or
what are you going to be when you grow up? Well,
I'm going to be a chief program Most of your family,
nobody's looking for your job.
Speaker 3 (20:07):
They don't really didn't think I'd be here.
Speaker 1 (20:10):
How did you do it?
Speaker 3 (20:11):
That's o great? How long do we have?
Speaker 4 (20:14):
I would say my path, like most of ours, has
been pretty circuitous.
Speaker 3 (20:19):
You know, a lot of ins and outs and ups
and downs.
Speaker 4 (20:22):
But I I I was. I I was born somebody
who believe I have always been and I actually have
very like deep, like almost spiritual connection to a sense
of service and helping. And I can just say that
that's just somebody who I was, you know, whether it's
(20:44):
rescuing every single animal. I truly believed that like every
plant was speaking. This might sound out there talking about
mental but I believed, like as a child, that every plant,
every tree would speak to all the other trees, and
the squirrels, yeah, and the crows, they would to them all,
and they would know that I'm I'm not here to hurt.
I'm only here to help. And I remember that's like
(21:06):
been in my head forever, that I'm I'm here to help.
I've known that. So but that's not how I necessarily
got here. That's just who I.
Speaker 5 (21:16):
Yeah, you say, well, yeah, I'm with it.
Speaker 1 (21:21):
That's not necessarily a validating not.
Speaker 4 (21:23):
The love that you know and I believe, you know,
and actually they are communicating, and crows are communicating.
Speaker 3 (21:34):
That's a whole nother story. I love the crows.
Speaker 4 (21:37):
But yeah, so, I mean that was just kind of
me growing up, just always rescuing, you know, a new
kid in school. Guess who's right there welcoming the new kid.
And you know, but I went to I thought I
was going to be a doctor for some reason. I
think somebody told me I was going to be a doctor.
And so I said, I'm going to be a doctor.
And I was lucky to be really good at school
(21:58):
and a really good runner. So I got a free
ride to University of Massachusetts. Started off in you know,
pre med slash biopem, and took a psychic one oh
one class. And I don't know why, but I most
people think it's as boring as it gets because it's
a lot of theory, you know, in history, and I
really liked it. So and then I started looking at
(22:20):
all the other psych classes and thinking, oh, I want
to study that. I want to study stress and emotion,
and I want to study this. And I actually became
really interested in social psychology, and so I thought I
was going to be a psychologist, but to do research,
like I didn't even connect it to two people yet.
But meanwhile I was working in the university childcare and
(22:43):
taking all of these classes on they were like almost
sociology classes, but also you know the pedagogy classes, you know,
learning about development and people and then practicing what I
was learning on young people and watching behavior change and
how this kind affects somebody. And I became a head
start teacher right out of college. I was some like
(23:06):
before you had to have a master's degree to be
a lead teacher, and I was twenty two years old.
But I became a lead head start teacher, like of
all things, you know, and I somehow decided I wanted
to do public health, Like I said, how long.
Speaker 3 (23:21):
Do you want to? You know, my career changed a lot.
I have a I wanted to do public health.
Speaker 4 (23:28):
I really want to wanted to work with kids and teenagers,
which I did, And so I did a lot of
work with kids and teaching people about their bodies, how
to take care of their bodies, reproductive health. Often and specifically,
I worked under grants in human services organizations, AIDS Foundation
(23:48):
planned parenthood camps for what in those days we called
terminally ill children.
Speaker 3 (23:54):
Now we would not.
Speaker 4 (23:54):
Say that right like critical critical situations or critical illness.
But I really just got really into working with teenagers
and had zero boundaries. And in those days, nobody even
talked about mental health really.
Speaker 3 (24:13):
Like there was no words. There was no word for
self care.
Speaker 4 (24:16):
Nobody prepared us to have children who died or were
abused or you know what I mean. There was like
there was no supervision as there is currently or any
way of supporting the workers. And I burned out in
my twenties and I got a master's degree in social
policy focusing on health promotion because I figured, I'm not
going to say I can't do this one on one thing,
(24:38):
but I can change the world because the system is
set up against people like I can work with these
people and we can have such a great conversation they
go back into the world, and the world the whole
system is just like it's just set against them, just
keeping them down, not letting anybody reach their goals right,
reach the opportunities they want. When they talk to me.
Speaker 3 (24:57):
This is teenagers, teenage girls for the most part.
Speaker 4 (25:00):
You know, in Santa Anna and Anaheim, California, where I
was living at the time, in Texas, you know, that
was that was my experience, you know, and then Newburgh,
you know, And so somehow along the way I decided late,
like really late, when I was about.
Speaker 3 (25:17):
Thirty eight, after about three.
Speaker 4 (25:20):
Times of saying I think I should go back to
school for social work. I think I should go back
to school for social work, and then realizing, like three
or four years later, crap, if I had done it,
then i'd be done by now. So finally I got
tired of saying that to myself. I went back to
school at forty for social work and became did that
whole master's degree, which is a long and amazing program
(25:41):
and I highly recommend it for anybody who is interested
in becoming a therapist or even being a part of
human services. And then the rest is kind of history.
Speaker 1 (25:51):
Well, let me go back a little bit because you
mentioned when you were a kid you were concerned with
nature and others, and I just connections people, and you
think you're born with that or that's who you were.
And I guess two questions. One is born with it
or was that fostered by somebody by your family? And
(26:15):
then the second part of that is it shows up
in your education. Your social work is generally very individualized
in terms of working on a specific problem with the
specific purpose person. Social policy is, you know, there's the
structures we live in. So they're related questions. I mean, uh,
(26:37):
and maybe you instead of answering one or the other
you might want to give us the interrelationship between social
policy and individual problems and your individual talents and the
way they were groomed.
Speaker 4 (26:50):
Right. Well, you know, I think from a system's perspective
in general. Like I even said, when I was in
an undergrad I was fascinated.
Speaker 3 (26:58):
By social psychology.
Speaker 4 (27:00):
So I think systemically, and I think that any one
of us is so much a product of you said
I was born with it or was it or was
it nurtured by somebody? It was absolutely nurtured by my
parents basically, you know, and the way I was raised,
which is I guess a very different which is a.
Speaker 3 (27:19):
Whole nother conversation.
Speaker 4 (27:21):
But my first home was in a tepee in Wyoming,
you know, like it was when we grew I grew
up on a farm, We had our own animals and
gardens and you know, just a very different approach to
food to.
Speaker 3 (27:34):
Life than than you know a lot of people.
Speaker 5 (27:37):
You know.
Speaker 3 (27:38):
It was definitely an ecosystem. Yeah.
Speaker 4 (27:40):
But so I do think in like I think in
systems and or and I think a system is such
a huge component of somebody's outcomes, how who somebody is,
how they represent themselves, how they express themselves, how they
interact with other people, what happens to them in life,
what they do in life. That's not to say that
(28:02):
there's no individual choice in any of that, but that
that there's just this, there's just such a link, you know,
they really go together. And in social work, you can
choose a macro approach, which is that system's approach, or
you can choose the more individualized micro approach. One way
or another you're working with. If you're choosing the micro approach,
(28:25):
whether it's social work or mental health counseling, you become
a psychiatrist or you know, a psychologist clinical psychologist, you're
working with individual people. You must recognize they exist in
a system. And I guess it just depends on how
big of a system you want to look at. I
choose to look at like the big system, like not
just the family system, but the societal system. But you
(28:49):
have to at least look at the family system, and
then what's happening with the family.
Speaker 3 (28:54):
Why is there this stress?
Speaker 4 (28:56):
Oh, maybe there's no maybe there was no housing, maybe
there was no transportation, maybe there wasn't food access, And
those things have to be addressed individually. And if that
doesn't work, then at a bigger policy level for anything
to happen with an individual.
Speaker 1 (29:12):
No, the fact that I didn't fall on the floor
when you said your first home was in a teapot.
Speaker 5 (29:17):
I want you to think I didn't hear that. So
we'll go back to explain that in another half hour show. Okay, Yeah,
how can people get in touch with you?
Speaker 4 (29:28):
Right? With family services in general? Well, if you're interested
in our general phone number where twenty nine North Hamilton
Street is where our admin offices are, So that's what
this is connected to. But there's a phone system that
will you know, you can listen to the prompts and
get connected to any.
Speaker 3 (29:47):
Of the services there.
Speaker 4 (29:49):
That's four five to two one eight four or five
four or five two one one one zero. My extension
is three zero two. I think I never use it.
I use my cell phone number that's again four five
two one one one zero. And I just I just
wrote down I head to write down for myself our
behavioral health number. So if folks are interested specifically in
(30:12):
learning more about our mental health services, that would be
eight four five four eight six two.
Speaker 3 (30:19):
Seven zero three.
Speaker 4 (30:20):
But I encourage if you have access to the internet
to check out our website, which is Family Services ny
dot org. Family Services with an s ny dot org.
Then you will see all of the programs listed, including
quick access to our sexual assault and Domestic Violence Response
(30:43):
crisis team. You know, you can do it right there
online via you know, like just click a button and
and all behavior health and all our programs.
Speaker 3 (30:53):
Learn more about us and reach out.
Speaker 4 (30:55):
If you have any questions, you can always send an
inquiry through our website. Also, I get a lot of
those inquiries and you know, either direct them or answer
them myself. And I'm always happy to you know, to
speak to people individually or have a little email chat,
whatever's most appropriate.
Speaker 2 (31:11):
Fantastic, Jesse, it was great having you. Thank you to
come back. I would love to come back, and we
have so much to talk about. We do, yes, indeed,
and it was definitely continuity though in your life journey
to get to where you are.
Speaker 3 (31:23):
You know, thanks so I think.
Speaker 2 (31:24):
Thank you once again to our listeners for listening to
finding out with Pete and the Poe Gold. I simply
just want to say, if you miss the show or
you want to share the show, be sure to listen
to our podcast which is on iHeart. Thank you
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