December 4, 2023 • 26 mins
OhioGuidestone has been devoted to helping those in need by providing services to meet the challenges of the day. From a simple orphanage, we grew into Ohio’s leader in mental and behavioral health. A faith-based agency, we offer a range of mental health and substance use disorder services for children and adults.
Brant became the new President and CEO in 2022. Under his guidance, and leveraging his extensive experience, his focus is to increase and continue the excellent care to the agency’s 28,000 clients throughout the state of Ohio.
Brant became the new President and CEO in 2022. Under his guidance, and leveraging his extensive experience, his focus is to increase and continue the excellent care to the agency’s 28,000 clients throughout the state of Ohio.
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Episode Transcript
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(00:01):
This is CEOs you should know oniHeartRadio. I'm Keith Hotchkiss. This time
of year, we may know someonewho could use a little help. And
the Ohio Guidestone has been here foryears in Ohio helping our most vulnerable in
their worst days. We sat downwith Brent Russell on this business based on
Compassion, So Brant, tell usa little bit about Ohio Guidestone and the
(00:23):
work you're doing. So we arecurrently the largest behavioral health provider in the
States. You're in over forty fourcounties. We are the largest school based
provider and close to three hundred andtwenty seven schools right now, serving relatively
almost thirty thousand clients, which ishuge for an agency to be the scale
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and the scope and the size thatwe are. There's a lot of agencies
in the space that tend to besmaller. They tend to maybe serve counties
that are contiguous to them. Forus to be almost the entire northern half
of the state, it creates somegood synergy but also creates some challenges.
Sure, we've been around for overone hundred and sixty years, so we
(01:07):
were probably well known prior to thename of the Bria Children's Home. We
started taking care of orphaned kids comingout of the Civil War. They come
into the train line and get droppedoff in Maria and we would be their
families. That is, we stillare unbelievable, right, that story to
you go that far back. Ididn't know that, right, I probably
should have read it on the website. But with great history, great history,
(01:30):
Yeah, tell me a little bitmore about that, right, I
mean, because this work you're doing, it's unheralded but so important, and
it's not everybody wants to do thiskind of work absolutely well, and I
think it's you know, I thinknowday and today versus I would say yesterday
is even more important. I mean, you know, I think years past
we had challenges where mental health orsubstant use issues would be stigma. People
(01:56):
didn't want to talk about it.We wanted to kind of you know,
it wasn't something in the four frontof people's minds. I do believe that
is one if you call it apositive coming out of the pandemic that happened
was you know, people recognize theneed for additional support in the mental health
space and the substance use space,and so for us, you know,
having that history, having the ability, you know, so we're not only
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you know, we're predominantly we're aboutforty five percent children, we're about fifty
five percent adult. Now, Ithink people generally think we're a children's organization,
but we're actually fairly close to equal, you know. But we're serving
clients in their homes, so we'remeeting them where they're at. Sometimes it's
in the office, sometimes it's intheir homes, we're in the schools,
so we're you know, serving themin many, many, many different environments,
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and wherever we can get to themis where we're Telehealth is another option
for us, and if with ourtelehealth options, actually we're serving almost all
the counties of the state, that'show far our reach has gone, and
even actually into other states currently.So we're you know, it's an interesting
ability for us to take a shortageof caregivers and be able to serve the
(03:04):
amount of clients that we're able toserve with the with the resources we currently
have, right because you know,that's not only the challenge of our lifetime,
I think is less people getting intothe healthcare as a career, but
more people aging and recognizing mental healthanguish as a real issue, not to
(03:27):
mention the opioids and the substance abuse, right, and then the foster program,
or has the need for foster parentshas never gone away. This incredible
history that you referenced from the CivilWar, which is just incredible to think
about. Talk to me a littlebit about that, because you know,
you and I both have daughters,and you know, one of the things
(03:47):
we've we talked about adoption and fostering, but it always seems like so far
out from most people's purview. Canyou talk a little bit about what that's
like. Yeah, And I think, you know, I think there's there's
such a need. You know,we have children that I mean, they
start off a lot of times ina very acute phase with us. You
know, there's an issue that happensin the house, there's an issue that
(04:08):
happens to the parents. You know, that the child needs care. They
wind up coming to us and areunder our supervision and our family and our
love that we show them. Andthen ultimately the goal is to replace them
if we can, back with theirfamilies, but oftentimes that's not an option,
and that's where the foster care programwe have a very prevalent in Cuyahaga
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here. We're also now out inthe Northwest, and our hope is that
we can can create a continuum.So they might start with us in a
more acute residential type setting, butwe can get them into a loving family,
into and too obviously foster parents thatwill nurture them and continue to help
them become very you know, happyand productive members of society. And it
takes it takes a special person.I always say, it's it's not you
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know, I think it's someone thathas a very big heart and it has
a passion for this type of workbecause a lot of times our our kids
are are challenging. Yeah, andthey're coming from challenging circumstances, and it's
for them to bring them on andbring them in into their families and into
their lives. Is I think avery unique type person, a very special
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type person, right, because youthink about the type of care that's needed,
but not just mentally but financially.Right. Not everybody feels like they
can be in a financial position.I assume to foster, someone does.
But you don't have to be independentlywealthy to take on foster support. Yeah,
we we pay for our families.I mean, we have you know,
we give them support to help takecare of Obviously it's supported by the
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state and the federal levels as well, so you know, so we're able
to help bridge those gaps. Butoftentimes, I mean, you know,
this is really you know, you'retaking them from one circumstance into a different
and we've had some great successes withthe program and our goals to continue to
build upon that. And we youknow, we're in the schools, we're
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in you know, we're in allthese different areas and I think you know
that is for us. It's sucha huge passion of our organization, you
know, going all the way backto the to the Civil War, and
that's when the kids needed it mostlyyou know, came off the trains without
any families, without any loved ones, and they just arrived. And you
know, this group of individuals thatwas here that started the organization, took
them in and gave them you know, a family, food, clothing,
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education, and brought them up andinto our communities and are probably you know
people we've probably talked about now thatin the past and they all started from
this very home. Wow, we'retalking with Brandt Russell, CEO of O
how Guidestone. But you're not justthe CEO of this incredible organization. You're
a registered nurse. I would imaginethat makes you a little bit more I
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don't know qualified the word, butjust able to handle this type of work
that you do, which is noteasy. It's mentally challenging and draining.
I would imagine you've got substance ofuse, you've got mental health issues,
you've got foster kids. How doyou deal with all that given all the
world strife that's also occurring around us. Well, I've got a great team.
I mean, I think at theend of the day is we have,
uh, you know, a greatamount of caregivers that are delivering,
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you know, absolutely wonderful services tothe clients. You know, we have
we have areas that are we haveresidential for adults with substance us or swords.
We have them all over the stateat this point. We have mental
mental health residential programs, we haveurgent cares. We so some of the
so I think this is a niceThe space has kind of two sides.
(07:30):
It has really the side of thespace that's delivered by social workers and psychologists
providing kind of that next level care, and we also have more of a
traditional model where you're dealing with medicallyassisted treatment with the substance use disorders that
you have psychiatrists and you have nursesand you have nurse practitioners. So we
have really kind of two sides ofthe world. So I have probably a
(07:51):
little more expertise on the one side, a little less, but I am
learning. There's a lot of acronymsin this space, and it's taken me,
you have been over a little lessthan two years now, to try
to slowly figure out, unfortunately whateverwe're speaking about sometimes, but it's been
fun, and I have a greatteam. I have some incredibly talented leadership
(08:11):
team and all the way from oursupervisors that really are working with our staff
that are at the ground level reallyday to day in and out of the
homes and in and out of providingthe care to our managers, directors and
above, and they just really doa phenomenal job and our outcomes are spectacular.
We have proven the fact if somebodycomes to us with a certain type
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of issued anxiety depression, that whenthey exit our care or that they're statistically
better and their outcomes are are ata whole different level than when they got
to us. So that's what we'rereally striving for. Well, it's not
just improving the individual's mental health,that you're improving society, right, because
if they're productive, contributing members ofsociety, or they not, you know,
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going off and causing ill for others. Right, what talk to me
a little bit about the need forsubstance abuse care, because on one hand,
you could make the argument that it'smuch more people are well aware now
that the prescription drugs that have beenfed to us for the last twenty thirty
(09:16):
years are ripe for abuse. Yeah, at the same time, it feels
like the need continues to grow.So if more it's you know, you
think about people people smoke less nowbecause they know it causes cancer, but
there's not they're not abusing these drugsless. Can you talk a little bit
about how that happens and what cyclewe're in here? Yeah? And I,
you know, and I has comingup born, you know, in
(09:39):
my early career as a nurse.I you know, I at some point
sometimes I reflect back and I lookat you know, at one point we
made pain the fifth vital sign,and I think Unfortunately that didn't do any
of any huge amount of favors.That means we prescribed a lot more narcotics.
We were there to try to controlpain, and I think what we
learned from that is that that isprobably not our best approach is to continually
(10:05):
kind of you know, some peopleare going to have pain. Unfortunately,
they're going to continue to have pain, and we need to do a better
job of using alternative methods. Iwould say the pandemic didn't do any favors
to us. You know, wesent home a lot of people, We
isolated them, we gave them somemoney, and we gave them a lot
of time on their hands. Andso what people struggled is that they wound
up, you know, kind ofgetting back into some of these these habits
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that they may have had under controlwhen they were you know, we're going
into an office. They were workinga job, and they were with people
and were able to manage their substanceto use issues. And then the pandemic
came and that kind of threw alot of people back into a difficult time
and we're here, We're here tohelp them. There's you know, we
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have a lot of technology, wehave a lot of advancements of how we
manage care. We have a lotof traditional kind of residential treatments. Got
to follow the steps and continue towork your way to have more healthy life.
And it's it's a challenge, Ifeel for these these folks. And
but we got to do a betterjob of managing those narcotic usage and how
we get narcotics out there into theinto the public. Has it been going
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down? Are people they are beingprescribed less, I would imagine, But
has that created a black market orchallenge a different challenge? I think so,
I can't. I don't have statisticson it. I know that if
they're not, you know, unfortunately, if people aren't going to get it
one way, they're going to getit some other ways, you know.
I know. The fentanyl epidemic hasbeen challenging for us in the population,
especially in some of our more ruleareas, which you'd think would be obviously
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probably more in a populated area,but actually it's in the county country and
obviously much of that is coming inillegally, so and once they get connected
into those it's it's hard to breakthat cycle. And you know, and
some of the behaviors that they havearen't just the taking the drugs, but
it's the usage of the needles andsome of the other challenging components that go
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along with that that are also adanger to their health and a danger of
the society as well. You're youreference the pandemic and you know probably the
seismic life changing event that that wasfor all of us. Right, Nobody
could have ever predicted that, andit was something that you know, certainly
changed. We call it it beforetimes. Right, there was the world
before and then now there's this worldthat we live in. Right, And
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certainly there were I sometimes see somegood things that came out of it,
in the sense that we are moretime with family. I spent more time
with my young daughters than I evercould have imagined. Right, But there
is the downside. The people thathave come out of this mentally not in
the space they want to be financially, not in the space they want to
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be. And our awareness of mentalhealth is greater. But is that just
because is the need getting bigger,or are we just more aware of the
issue, or are people still notready to take advantage of it. Is
there's still a stigma attached to mentalhealth. I think there's always going to
be probably some stigma. I thinkthat takes probably generational to clear. You
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know, I think you're correct,you know, the pandemics and you know,
isolated a lot of folks and andyou know, masking and making sure
people stay six feet of I mean, it's not our nature is people to
be spaced out and not gathering.And and I think you know a lot
of our programs are you know,showing people how to manage and interact and
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and when you're in a situation likethe pandemic that you've got to separate everybody,
that's that's not doing us any good. So I think we understand it.
People are willing to come forward withit. I think there's going to
be people, you know, wehave, especially in the political environment,
Uh, they're noticing that it isa health crisis. You know, we
have you know, kind of thenext emergency out there is is mental health
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and substance use issues. You know, how do we now you know,
address that from a fiscal perspective,you know, get the federal funding,
state funding, local funding to beable to be able to give the amount
of support we need. And thatleads into really you know, we have
a significant shortage like other industry inhealth care, behavior, healthcare providers,
you know, social workers, wedon't have as many folks going into social
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work. We don't have as manyfolks going into psychology and those type of
degree psychiatry that we need to beable to support the amount of individuals just
to all just speak for Ohio acrossOhio that need help. But there's a
significant number of people that in need, and we have a significant shortage of
those that are able to provide thatneed. So I would imagine that you
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know, everybody who is thinking thatthey may have a mental health issue where
they may think they should just seesomebody about an issue they're having, how
many of them are able to dothat on their own or need an assist
from someone. Obviously, you know, I have kids and we recommended therapy.
We said, let's let's take youthere were the parents, right,
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But not everybody has that. Soare you know, if someone's listening to
this, you know how they reachout to you or someone you think might
be in crisis. You know howhow what percentage I guess is saying is
people come from others and others thatcome in on their own. I'd say,
I mean, I think it's moreprevalent that people come. You know,
there's obviously you look at television andradio. There's a lot of commercials
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out there saying, hey, ifyou're noticing somebody that has an issue,
please you know, help them connect. You know, I think oftentimes I
think now we have more ways toyou know, we have you know,
solutions now that are probably easier toconnect. You can do it online.
I know there's apps, many appsnow that have probably recently you know,
there's ability even go to ohioguidestone dotorg. You know, we have any
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of our services, all of ourservices are on our website and can get
an appointment scheduled relatively quickly. Youknow. I think the overall ability for
us to you know, I thinkit's teachers. We're in schools, you
know, so we have therapists andcounselors in three hundred and twenty seven schools.
We know a lot of our ourlike type organization partner that have organ
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you are also in school, soeach one of those are watching for kids,
are hopefully looking at signs, workingwith teachers, working with you know.
It's I think it's a you know, it's building a community of individuals
that are going to be able tocontinue to support and help folks that may
or may not recognize the fact thatthey're having some struggles and some challenges and
getting them into programs or getting theminto help. You know, our goals.
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You know, we're in the we'reinto the juvenile centers, we're into
the jails or into the courts.You know, a lot of those really
referred automatically are directly kind of referredto us. And then I think the
rest is really around a kind ofa community. And if you notice somebody
out there that's, you know,a kid that may have acted a certain
way, you know, a yearago and now seems to be acting very
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different now, I would recommend that, you know, get them into somebody.
You know, your primary cares canrefer physicians, your hospital networks obviously
if they're in more severe emergency departmentsand things such as that. But I
think there's a lot of access intothe help now which wasn't as prevalent before.
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But you know, we just needto continue to build that structure and
that ability to serve. So youmentioned a lot of the challenges in your
work, right, not just thechallenging work that it just is naturally,
but getting healthcare providers and behavioral healthscientists and those kind of folks that understand
and want to get into this kindof work, right, So there's the
challenge there, and now more peopleare aware than ever, so hopefully the
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people are getting the help they need. What is are we getting better?
Is the future looking brighter? Canyou talk a little bit about all we
have all this resource? We haveresource, but I think we you know,
we still have a trip. Imean the need is you know,
probably outpacing what we can provide froma caregiver. So we've done a lot
of work in our organization with interns. We're trying to figure out ways to
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connect our universities and our high schoolsand you know, talk to students like
what is your you know, wheredo you want to work in the future.
I mean, you know, whenI was a nurse, when I
first became a nurse, I meanmy goals I wanted to help people.
That's why I wound up into theparamedic realm and wind up getting into the
nursing realm. You know, weneed to kind of make you know that
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that behavioral health space a desired programbut we need those people that have that
mission kind of want to work withfolks and want to help people. We
got to get to connect those two. You know, I think we went
through a lot of years. Atone point when I was early and probably
year about my age. You know, in the nineties, everybody wanted to
be a physician, a physical therapistbecause that was a great degree, be
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a physical therapist. And we havea ton of people going to physical therapy.
We need a ton of people togo into behavioral health, right and
you know, so we're trying toget the word out. We're connected with
almost all of our local universities,and we're having internships. We've got a
couple of hundred interns that are nowworking for us, and our hope is
that we can keep those individuals andhave them, you know, have a
(18:48):
lifelong career and helping serving people.Well, that's such an interesting, you
know point, because we'll talk alot about on this podcast the need for
tradespeople and lack of the lack ofelectricians, the lack of those kinds of
folks doing that kind of work.And yeah, you're still going to have
people who are like listen, Iget it. I could make a lot
(19:11):
of money being a plumber. Ijust just I don't want to be a
plumber. Right, So there arethese professional services jobs that might not be
as you know, dirty, asas plumbing and all those kinds of things.
Maybe you don't want to click fixtoilets a lot. So these opportunities
teaching and mental health and nurse andparamedics, these opportunities could be the next
answer because we know, I thinkpeople are not necessarily like I know,
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I'm not going to make a bunchof money as a YouTuber, we hope,
So the backup, so not everybodywants to, but it's like it's
like it's like a rock star,right, there's one in a million.
So you're you're saying the universities arefinally recognizing this. You're starting to see
more high schools funneling people out ofthese kind of careers, right yeah,
And that's our hope. I mean, I think we're you know, I
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think we're early in the stages.You know, I think there was a
certain number of graduates come up outthey they kind of declined over the years
and through the pandemic. Our hopeis to bring and kind of push those
numbers back up you know interesting youbring you bring up plumbing and carpenter.
I we do have an entire workforcecomponent of our business which is taking individuals,
kids and young adults that you knowmay have not graduated high school,
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helping them get their ged, helpingthem build skill sets to be electricians,
be in the culinary and then andthen obviously we're trying to get them into
the medical side and be a medicaltech and those kind of components as well.
So, I mean, the needsout there, I mean we want
to get you know again, getpeople back working. And our hope is
is that they go back working insome of the care professions. And that's
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all for nursing, paramedic, doctor. You know, we have a shortage
of you know, all of them, and you know, we need people
that are willing and wanting to beable to get into this area and help.
Well. The need is great andthe work is challenging, but has
to be rewarding, right it is. There's so much you'd so much of
what I do is you know,you could see it as sort of not
(21:03):
necessarily changing the world, right,but what you guys are doing over there
is saving lives. Really, Yeah, we are saving lives, you know.
I mean, we talk about suicide, We talk about the challenges you
know, people have when they getto the end and they feel, you
know, that's all they have andthey can't do anymore. You know,
we are trying to curve that statistic. We want people to you know,
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get the help that they need,so that is not you know, the
avenue that they take. You know, I remember, you know, I
remember the patients I took care ofwhen I was still working at the bedside.
I don't think you ever forget that. I still have people sometimes when
I you know, go in thecommunity, you know, they come up
to me and say, hey,you took care of my mom, you
took care of my dad, youtook care of my brother and my sister,
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and you know, and that's somethingthat is rewarding, you know,
and it's you know, I thinkthat is something that is special about being
in health care is that you know, you're able to impact families, communities
and they're live. So that isa you know, it's one of those
areas that is kind of unique tothe health world. So Ohio Guidestone,
Brent, substance abuse, foster care, mental health services, I understand you
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have a research arm as well.Absolutely, yeah, we have an Institute
for Family and Community Impact. Weare actually you know, the kind of
the the fun part is that weare creating clinical innovation and we're teaching parents,
families, mothers, fathers, howto interact with their children and how
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to become better fathers, better mothers, better family members. And that all
helps with that connection and making surethat the you know, the family unit
grows up and is is you know, more sound, more safe, and
you know, I think that isa huge portion for us. We I
think we can become as an organization. There's not a huge amount of research,
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we can lead the way in clinicaloutcomes and developing care in this particular
space. As you know in thistown. You know the Cleveland Clinic,
you know University, some of thebiggest health, metro health, some of
the biggest health systems we have herein this in this city. And they've
done that in the into in theacute side of the world and the physical
care side. We have that ability, I think to do that in the
(23:18):
mental health and the behavior health side. So so we have great researchers,
we have whole teams working on oncare looking at outcomes, figuring out how
do we treat certain modalities depression,anxiety, uh, you know, other
types of serious mental health disorders,and how do we do that and do
it better, and and then takethat care and then publish it and make
(23:41):
sure people know how they can helpbe helped throughout the country, throughout anywhere
in the land that has this,uh, these type of issues. So
so that's exciting and I think that'ssomething that makes us separates us, makes
us unique, and we really Ithink can continue to lead the way and
provide you great out comes, youknow, set benchmarks on a lot larger
(24:03):
level than just Ohio, but evenat a more of a national level.
So if someone's listening and they knowthat they have someone who might need help,
or some they themselves need help,right, I think the messaging is
if you reach out to Ohio guidestone, there's light at the end of the
tunnel, right, your outcomes,you track these things, you know how
(24:26):
many people have been benefited, right, and you can reassure people that they're
going to get the help they need. Right. Absolutely, And we actually
we actually wrote a white paper forour federal legislators and our congressman and you
know, with some of the challengesthat we face in the behavioral health space.
And you know, our hope isto continue to work with you know,
(24:47):
our government, to work with ourofficials. We're down at the state
level all the time. The governorhas a very you know, big kind
of affinity for the behavioral health spaceand has been putting a lot of money
into those areas and making sure thatwe have of the help. So advocacy
is one of our big areas.So we we did write the paper for
(25:10):
Representative Bill Johnson, and you know, I think there's all kinds of areas
of opportunity in that area. Wedo speaker series. I think that's another
big area we reach out. Weget bring local leaders together all across the
state and we have you know,kind of lectures and presentations and somewhat to
educate them on you know, whatit is that we do. And then
(25:30):
usually it never fails that by theend of the conversation and or the speaker.
You know, we have fifteen twentydifferent types of you know, CEOs
of other companies come up to ussay hey, we'd love to partner with
you. We'd love to bring youinto our organization to help our employees and
provide service for us to make surethat our workforce is strong and healthy.
(25:51):
So the work you do meaningful andimportant. And if someone's looking to reach
out Ohio, Guidestone Brand Russell,thank you so much for joining us.
Much, thank you. I appreciatebeing here and this has been iHeartRadio CEOs.
You should know today's show was producedby Bob Coates said, I'm Keith
Hotchkiss. We'll see you next time.
This is CEOs you should know oniHeartRadio. I'm Keith Hotchkiss. This time
of year, we may know someonewho could use a little help. And
the Ohio Guidestone has been here foryears in Ohio helping our most vulnerable in
their worst days. We sat downwith Brent Russell on this business based on
Compassion, So Brant, tell usa little bit about Ohio Guidestone and the
(00:23):
work you're doing. So we arecurrently the largest behavioral health provider in the
States. You're in over forty fourcounties. We are the largest school based
provider and close to three hundred andtwenty seven schools right now, serving relatively
almost thirty thousand clients, which ishuge for an agency to be the scale
(00:46):
and the scope and the size thatwe are. There's a lot of agencies
in the space that tend to besmaller. They tend to maybe serve counties
that are contiguous to them. Forus to be almost the entire northern half
of the state, it creates somegood synergy but also creates some challenges.
Sure, we've been around for overone hundred and sixty years, so we
(01:07):
were probably well known prior to thename of the Bria Children's Home. We
started taking care of orphaned kids comingout of the Civil War. They come
into the train line and get droppedoff in Maria and we would be their
families. That is, we stillare unbelievable, right, that story to
you go that far back. Ididn't know that, right, I probably
should have read it on the website. But with great history, great history,
(01:30):
Yeah, tell me a little bitmore about that, right, I
mean, because this work you're doing, it's unheralded but so important, and
it's not everybody wants to do thiskind of work absolutely well, and I
think it's you know, I thinknowday and today versus I would say yesterday
is even more important. I mean, you know, I think years past
we had challenges where mental health orsubstant use issues would be stigma. People
(01:56):
didn't want to talk about it.We wanted to kind of you know,
it wasn't something in the four frontof people's minds. I do believe that
is one if you call it apositive coming out of the pandemic that happened
was you know, people recognize theneed for additional support in the mental health
space and the substance use space,and so for us, you know,
having that history, having the ability, you know, so we're not only
(02:20):
you know, we're predominantly we're aboutforty five percent children, we're about fifty
five percent adult. Now, Ithink people generally think we're a children's organization,
but we're actually fairly close to equal, you know. But we're serving
clients in their homes, so we'remeeting them where they're at. Sometimes it's
in the office, sometimes it's intheir homes, we're in the schools,
so we're you know, serving themin many, many, many different environments,
(02:42):
and wherever we can get to themis where we're Telehealth is another option
for us, and if with ourtelehealth options, actually we're serving almost all
the counties of the state, that'show far our reach has gone, and
even actually into other states currently.So we're you know, it's an interesting
ability for us to take a shortageof caregivers and be able to serve the
(03:04):
amount of clients that we're able toserve with the with the resources we currently
have, right because you know,that's not only the challenge of our lifetime,
I think is less people getting intothe healthcare as a career, but
more people aging and recognizing mental healthanguish as a real issue, not to
(03:27):
mention the opioids and the substance abuse, right, and then the foster program,
or has the need for foster parentshas never gone away. This incredible
history that you referenced from the CivilWar, which is just incredible to think
about. Talk to me a littlebit about that, because you know,
you and I both have daughters,and you know, one of the things
(03:47):
we've we talked about adoption and fostering, but it always seems like so far
out from most people's purview. Canyou talk a little bit about what that's
like. Yeah, And I think, you know, I think there's there's
such a need. You know,we have children that I mean, they
start off a lot of times ina very acute phase with us. You
know, there's an issue that happensin the house, there's an issue that
(04:08):
happens to the parents. You know, that the child needs care. They
wind up coming to us and areunder our supervision and our family and our
love that we show them. Andthen ultimately the goal is to replace them
if we can, back with theirfamilies, but oftentimes that's not an option,
and that's where the foster care programwe have a very prevalent in Cuyahaga
(04:30):
here. We're also now out inthe Northwest, and our hope is that
we can can create a continuum.So they might start with us in a
more acute residential type setting, butwe can get them into a loving family,
into and too obviously foster parents thatwill nurture them and continue to help
them become very you know, happyand productive members of society. And it
takes it takes a special person.I always say, it's it's not you
(04:54):
know, I think it's someone thathas a very big heart and it has
a passion for this type of workbecause a lot of times our our kids
are are challenging. Yeah, andthey're coming from challenging circumstances, and it's
for them to bring them on andbring them in into their families and into
their lives. Is I think avery unique type person, a very special
(05:15):
type person, right, because youthink about the type of care that's needed,
but not just mentally but financially.Right. Not everybody feels like they
can be in a financial position.I assume to foster, someone does.
But you don't have to be independentlywealthy to take on foster support. Yeah,
we we pay for our families.I mean, we have you know,
we give them support to help takecare of Obviously it's supported by the
(05:35):
state and the federal levels as well, so you know, so we're able
to help bridge those gaps. Butoftentimes, I mean, you know,
this is really you know, you'retaking them from one circumstance into a different
and we've had some great successes withthe program and our goals to continue to
build upon that. And we youknow, we're in the schools, we're
(05:57):
in you know, we're in allthese different areas and I think you know
that is for us. It's sucha huge passion of our organization, you
know, going all the way backto the to the Civil War, and
that's when the kids needed it mostlyyou know, came off the trains without
any families, without any loved ones, and they just arrived. And you
know, this group of individuals thatwas here that started the organization, took
them in and gave them you know, a family, food, clothing,
(06:23):
education, and brought them up andinto our communities and are probably you know
people we've probably talked about now thatin the past and they all started from
this very home. Wow, we'retalking with Brandt Russell, CEO of O
how Guidestone. But you're not justthe CEO of this incredible organization. You're
a registered nurse. I would imaginethat makes you a little bit more I
(06:45):
don't know qualified the word, butjust able to handle this type of work
that you do, which is noteasy. It's mentally challenging and draining.
I would imagine you've got substance ofuse, you've got mental health issues,
you've got foster kids. How doyou deal with all that given all the
world strife that's also occurring around us. Well, I've got a great team.
I mean, I think at theend of the day is we have,
uh, you know, a greatamount of caregivers that are delivering,
(07:08):
you know, absolutely wonderful services tothe clients. You know, we have
we have areas that are we haveresidential for adults with substance us or swords.
We have them all over the stateat this point. We have mental
mental health residential programs, we haveurgent cares. We so some of the
so I think this is a niceThe space has kind of two sides.
(07:30):
It has really the side of thespace that's delivered by social workers and psychologists
providing kind of that next level care, and we also have more of a
traditional model where you're dealing with medicallyassisted treatment with the substance use disorders that
you have psychiatrists and you have nursesand you have nurse practitioners. So we
have really kind of two sides ofthe world. So I have probably a
(07:51):
little more expertise on the one side, a little less, but I am
learning. There's a lot of acronymsin this space, and it's taken me,
you have been over a little lessthan two years now, to try
to slowly figure out, unfortunately whateverwe're speaking about sometimes, but it's been
fun, and I have a greatteam. I have some incredibly talented leadership
(08:11):
team and all the way from oursupervisors that really are working with our staff
that are at the ground level reallyday to day in and out of the
homes and in and out of providingthe care to our managers, directors and
above, and they just really doa phenomenal job and our outcomes are spectacular.
We have proven the fact if somebodycomes to us with a certain type
(08:33):
of issued anxiety depression, that whenthey exit our care or that they're statistically
better and their outcomes are are ata whole different level than when they got
to us. So that's what we'rereally striving for. Well, it's not
just improving the individual's mental health,that you're improving society, right, because
if they're productive, contributing members ofsociety, or they not, you know,
(08:54):
going off and causing ill for others. Right, what talk to me
a little bit about the need forsubstance abuse care, because on one hand,
you could make the argument that it'smuch more people are well aware now
that the prescription drugs that have beenfed to us for the last twenty thirty
(09:16):
years are ripe for abuse. Yeah, at the same time, it feels
like the need continues to grow.So if more it's you know, you
think about people people smoke less nowbecause they know it causes cancer, but
there's not they're not abusing these drugsless. Can you talk a little bit
about how that happens and what cyclewe're in here? Yeah? And I,
you know, and I has comingup born, you know, in
(09:39):
my early career as a nurse.I you know, I at some point
sometimes I reflect back and I lookat you know, at one point we
made pain the fifth vital sign,and I think Unfortunately that didn't do any
of any huge amount of favors.That means we prescribed a lot more narcotics.
We were there to try to controlpain, and I think what we
learned from that is that that isprobably not our best approach is to continually
(10:05):
kind of you know, some peopleare going to have pain. Unfortunately,
they're going to continue to have pain, and we need to do a better
job of using alternative methods. Iwould say the pandemic didn't do any favors
to us. You know, wesent home a lot of people, We
isolated them, we gave them somemoney, and we gave them a lot
of time on their hands. Andso what people struggled is that they wound
up, you know, kind ofgetting back into some of these these habits
(10:26):
that they may have had under controlwhen they were you know, we're going
into an office. They were workinga job, and they were with people
and were able to manage their substanceto use issues. And then the pandemic
came and that kind of threw alot of people back into a difficult time
and we're here, We're here tohelp them. There's you know, we
(10:48):
have a lot of technology, wehave a lot of advancements of how we
manage care. We have a lotof traditional kind of residential treatments. Got
to follow the steps and continue towork your way to have more healthy life.
And it's it's a challenge, Ifeel for these these folks. And
but we got to do a betterjob of managing those narcotic usage and how
we get narcotics out there into theinto the public. Has it been going
(11:11):
down? Are people they are beingprescribed less, I would imagine, But
has that created a black market orchallenge a different challenge? I think so,
I can't. I don't have statisticson it. I know that if
they're not, you know, unfortunately, if people aren't going to get it
one way, they're going to getit some other ways, you know.
I know. The fentanyl epidemic hasbeen challenging for us in the population,
especially in some of our more ruleareas, which you'd think would be obviously
(11:35):
probably more in a populated area,but actually it's in the county country and
obviously much of that is coming inillegally, so and once they get connected
into those it's it's hard to breakthat cycle. And you know, and
some of the behaviors that they havearen't just the taking the drugs, but
it's the usage of the needles andsome of the other challenging components that go
(11:56):
along with that that are also adanger to their health and a danger of
the society as well. You're youreference the pandemic and you know probably the
seismic life changing event that that wasfor all of us. Right, Nobody
could have ever predicted that, andit was something that you know, certainly
changed. We call it it beforetimes. Right, there was the world
before and then now there's this worldthat we live in. Right, And
(12:16):
certainly there were I sometimes see somegood things that came out of it,
in the sense that we are moretime with family. I spent more time
with my young daughters than I evercould have imagined. Right, But there
is the downside. The people thathave come out of this mentally not in
the space they want to be financially, not in the space they want to
(12:37):
be. And our awareness of mentalhealth is greater. But is that just
because is the need getting bigger,or are we just more aware of the
issue, or are people still notready to take advantage of it. Is
there's still a stigma attached to mentalhealth. I think there's always going to
be probably some stigma. I thinkthat takes probably generational to clear. You
(12:58):
know, I think you're correct,you know, the pandemics and you know,
isolated a lot of folks and andyou know, masking and making sure
people stay six feet of I mean, it's not our nature is people to
be spaced out and not gathering.And and I think you know a lot
of our programs are you know,showing people how to manage and interact and
(13:20):
and when you're in a situation likethe pandemic that you've got to separate everybody,
that's that's not doing us any good. So I think we understand it.
People are willing to come forward withit. I think there's going to
be people, you know, wehave, especially in the political environment,
Uh, they're noticing that it isa health crisis. You know, we
have you know, kind of thenext emergency out there is is mental health
(13:43):
and substance use issues. You know, how do we now you know,
address that from a fiscal perspective,you know, get the federal funding,
state funding, local funding to beable to be able to give the amount
of support we need. And thatleads into really you know, we have
a significant shortage like other industry inhealth care, behavior, healthcare providers,
you know, social workers, wedon't have as many folks going into social
(14:05):
work. We don't have as manyfolks going into psychology and those type of
degree psychiatry that we need to beable to support the amount of individuals just
to all just speak for Ohio acrossOhio that need help. But there's a
significant number of people that in need, and we have a significant shortage of
those that are able to provide thatneed. So I would imagine that you
(14:30):
know, everybody who is thinking thatthey may have a mental health issue where
they may think they should just seesomebody about an issue they're having, how
many of them are able to dothat on their own or need an assist
from someone. Obviously, you know, I have kids and we recommended therapy.
We said, let's let's take youthere were the parents, right,
(14:52):
But not everybody has that. Soare you know, if someone's listening to
this, you know how they reachout to you or someone you think might
be in crisis. You know howhow what percentage I guess is saying is
people come from others and others thatcome in on their own. I'd say,
I mean, I think it's moreprevalent that people come. You know,
there's obviously you look at television andradio. There's a lot of commercials
(15:16):
out there saying, hey, ifyou're noticing somebody that has an issue,
please you know, help them connect. You know, I think oftentimes I
think now we have more ways toyou know, we have you know,
solutions now that are probably easier toconnect. You can do it online.
I know there's apps, many appsnow that have probably recently you know,
there's ability even go to ohioguidestone dotorg. You know, we have any
(15:39):
of our services, all of ourservices are on our website and can get
an appointment scheduled relatively quickly. Youknow. I think the overall ability for
us to you know, I thinkit's teachers. We're in schools, you
know, so we have therapists andcounselors in three hundred and twenty seven schools.
We know a lot of our ourlike type organization partner that have organ
(16:00):
you are also in school, soeach one of those are watching for kids,
are hopefully looking at signs, workingwith teachers, working with you know.
It's I think it's a you know, it's building a community of individuals
that are going to be able tocontinue to support and help folks that may
or may not recognize the fact thatthey're having some struggles and some challenges and
getting them into programs or getting theminto help. You know, our goals.
(16:21):
You know, we're in the we'reinto the juvenile centers, we're into
the jails or into the courts.You know, a lot of those really
referred automatically are directly kind of referredto us. And then I think the
rest is really around a kind ofa community. And if you notice somebody
out there that's, you know,a kid that may have acted a certain
way, you know, a yearago and now seems to be acting very
(16:41):
different now, I would recommend that, you know, get them into somebody.
You know, your primary cares canrefer physicians, your hospital networks obviously
if they're in more severe emergency departmentsand things such as that. But I
think there's a lot of access intothe help now which wasn't as prevalent before.
(17:02):
But you know, we just needto continue to build that structure and
that ability to serve. So youmentioned a lot of the challenges in your
work, right, not just thechallenging work that it just is naturally,
but getting healthcare providers and behavioral healthscientists and those kind of folks that understand
and want to get into this kindof work, right, So there's the
challenge there, and now more peopleare aware than ever, so hopefully the
(17:26):
people are getting the help they need. What is are we getting better?
Is the future looking brighter? Canyou talk a little bit about all we
have all this resource? We haveresource, but I think we you know,
we still have a trip. Imean the need is you know,
probably outpacing what we can provide froma caregiver. So we've done a lot
of work in our organization with interns. We're trying to figure out ways to
(17:47):
connect our universities and our high schoolsand you know, talk to students like
what is your you know, wheredo you want to work in the future.
I mean, you know, whenI was a nurse, when I
first became a nurse, I meanmy goals I wanted to help people.
That's why I wound up into theparamedic realm and wind up getting into the
nursing realm. You know, weneed to kind of make you know that
(18:07):
that behavioral health space a desired programbut we need those people that have that
mission kind of want to work withfolks and want to help people. We
got to get to connect those two. You know, I think we went
through a lot of years. Atone point when I was early and probably
year about my age. You know, in the nineties, everybody wanted to
be a physician, a physical therapistbecause that was a great degree, be
(18:27):
a physical therapist. And we havea ton of people going to physical therapy.
We need a ton of people togo into behavioral health, right and
you know, so we're trying toget the word out. We're connected with
almost all of our local universities,and we're having internships. We've got a
couple of hundred interns that are nowworking for us, and our hope is
that we can keep those individuals andhave them, you know, have a
(18:48):
lifelong career and helping serving people.Well, that's such an interesting, you
know point, because we'll talk alot about on this podcast the need for
tradespeople and lack of the lack ofelectricians, the lack of those kinds of
folks doing that kind of work.And yeah, you're still going to have
people who are like listen, Iget it. I could make a lot
(19:11):
of money being a plumber. Ijust just I don't want to be a
plumber. Right, So there arethese professional services jobs that might not be
as you know, dirty, asas plumbing and all those kinds of things.
Maybe you don't want to click fixtoilets a lot. So these opportunities
teaching and mental health and nurse andparamedics, these opportunities could be the next
answer because we know, I thinkpeople are not necessarily like I know,
(19:34):
I'm not going to make a bunchof money as a YouTuber, we hope,
So the backup, so not everybodywants to, but it's like it's
like it's like a rock star,right, there's one in a million.
So you're you're saying the universities arefinally recognizing this. You're starting to see
more high schools funneling people out ofthese kind of careers, right yeah,
And that's our hope. I mean, I think we're you know, I
(19:55):
think we're early in the stages.You know, I think there was a
certain number of graduates come up outthey they kind of declined over the years
and through the pandemic. Our hopeis to bring and kind of push those
numbers back up you know interesting youbring you bring up plumbing and carpenter.
I we do have an entire workforcecomponent of our business which is taking individuals,
kids and young adults that you knowmay have not graduated high school,
(20:18):
helping them get their ged, helpingthem build skill sets to be electricians,
be in the culinary and then andthen obviously we're trying to get them into
the medical side and be a medicaltech and those kind of components as well.
So, I mean, the needsout there, I mean we want
to get you know again, getpeople back working. And our hope is
is that they go back working insome of the care professions. And that's
(20:42):
all for nursing, paramedic, doctor. You know, we have a shortage
of you know, all of them, and you know, we need people
that are willing and wanting to beable to get into this area and help.
Well. The need is great andthe work is challenging, but has
to be rewarding, right it is. There's so much you'd so much of
what I do is you know,you could see it as sort of not
(21:03):
necessarily changing the world, right,but what you guys are doing over there
is saving lives. Really, Yeah, we are saving lives, you know.
I mean, we talk about suicide, We talk about the challenges you
know, people have when they getto the end and they feel, you
know, that's all they have andthey can't do anymore. You know,
we are trying to curve that statistic. We want people to you know,
(21:26):
get the help that they need,so that is not you know, the
avenue that they take. You know, I remember, you know, I
remember the patients I took care ofwhen I was still working at the bedside.
I don't think you ever forget that. I still have people sometimes when
I you know, go in thecommunity, you know, they come up
to me and say, hey,you took care of my mom, you
took care of my dad, youtook care of my brother and my sister,
(21:47):
and you know, and that's somethingthat is rewarding, you know,
and it's you know, I thinkthat is something that is special about being
in health care is that you know, you're able to impact families, communities
and they're live. So that isa you know, it's one of those
areas that is kind of unique tothe health world. So Ohio Guidestone,
Brent, substance abuse, foster care, mental health services, I understand you
(22:11):
have a research arm as well.Absolutely, yeah, we have an Institute
for Family and Community Impact. Weare actually you know, the kind of
the the fun part is that weare creating clinical innovation and we're teaching parents,
families, mothers, fathers, howto interact with their children and how
(22:33):
to become better fathers, better mothers, better family members. And that all
helps with that connection and making surethat the you know, the family unit
grows up and is is you know, more sound, more safe, and
you know, I think that isa huge portion for us. We I
think we can become as an organization. There's not a huge amount of research,
(22:55):
we can lead the way in clinicaloutcomes and developing care in this particular
space. As you know in thistown. You know the Cleveland Clinic,
you know University, some of thebiggest health, metro health, some of
the biggest health systems we have herein this in this city. And they've
done that in the into in theacute side of the world and the physical
care side. We have that ability, I think to do that in the
(23:18):
mental health and the behavior health side. So so we have great researchers,
we have whole teams working on oncare looking at outcomes, figuring out how
do we treat certain modalities depression,anxiety, uh, you know, other
types of serious mental health disorders,and how do we do that and do
it better, and and then takethat care and then publish it and make
(23:41):
sure people know how they can helpbe helped throughout the country, throughout anywhere
in the land that has this,uh, these type of issues. So
so that's exciting and I think that'ssomething that makes us separates us, makes
us unique, and we really Ithink can continue to lead the way and
provide you great out comes, youknow, set benchmarks on a lot larger
(24:03):
level than just Ohio, but evenat a more of a national level.
So if someone's listening and they knowthat they have someone who might need help,
or some they themselves need help,right, I think the messaging is
if you reach out to Ohio guidestone, there's light at the end of the
tunnel, right, your outcomes,you track these things, you know how
(24:26):
many people have been benefited, right, and you can reassure people that they're
going to get the help they need. Right. Absolutely, And we actually
we actually wrote a white paper forour federal legislators and our congressman and you
know, with some of the challengesthat we face in the behavioral health space.
And you know, our hope isto continue to work with you know,
(24:47):
our government, to work with ourofficials. We're down at the state
level all the time. The governorhas a very you know, big kind
of affinity for the behavioral health spaceand has been putting a lot of money
into those areas and making sure thatwe have of the help. So advocacy
is one of our big areas.So we we did write the paper for
(25:10):
Representative Bill Johnson, and you know, I think there's all kinds of areas
of opportunity in that area. Wedo speaker series. I think that's another
big area we reach out. Weget bring local leaders together all across the
state and we have you know,kind of lectures and presentations and somewhat to
educate them on you know, whatit is that we do. And then
(25:30):
usually it never fails that by theend of the conversation and or the speaker.
You know, we have fifteen twentydifferent types of you know, CEOs
of other companies come up to ussay hey, we'd love to partner with
you. We'd love to bring youinto our organization to help our employees and
provide service for us to make surethat our workforce is strong and healthy.
(25:51):
So the work you do meaningful andimportant. And if someone's looking to reach
out Ohio, Guidestone Brand Russell,thank you so much for joining us.
Much, thank you. I appreciatebeing here and this has been iHeartRadio CEOs.
You should know today's show was producedby Bob Coates said, I'm Keith
Hotchkiss. We'll see you next time.
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