Highlights from Your Comp Care Center:
Regional Community Mental Health, Behavioral Health and Developmental Services

April 2008

Our Mission: To build healthy communities by helping individuals and families who are affected by mental illness, developmental disabilities, addictions and abuse realize their potential.

Meeting our Mission

Last month, “Michael”, a single man in his forties, walked into a Seven Counties’ thinking about committing suicide. He was homeless and seemed to have no hope for any improvement in his life. He was at the end of his rope and ready to end it all. Michael, very upset and tearful, described how he had been turned away from numerous places where he sought help.

The Seven Counties’ clinician told Michael that he had come to the right place for help. She immediately set about developing a crisis response plan with him. Services he needed to gain hope and stability were offered and accepted. When he returned for outpatient treatment, Michael reported that he felt much better and was no longer suicidal.

Michael now has hope and a more positive outlook. He is extremely appreciative of our help and told our staff, “You helped me when nobody else would.”

Quick Hits – Important Achievements

Project Link, an award-winning Seven Counties’ program at the Jefferson Alcohol and Drug Abuse Center (JADAC), works with pregnant and post-partum women who use drugs or are at-risk for addiction. In February, 73 women received services, 50 of whom were pregnant. In that month, nine participants gave birth. Eight of the nine babies were born alcohol and drug-free.

Seven Counties’ Daybreak Crisis Stabilization Unit for children celebrated its 11th anniversary of service on April 1st. This unit’s work embodies the heart of our mission in striving to keep children and their families together safely. In years past, every child now served would have wound up in a psychiatric hospital, where they would have stayed, on average, anywhere from 30-90 days - out of school and away from their families. This unit achieves a 98% rate of diversion from inpatient hospitalization.

Celebrating Recovery

Seven Counties’ Centers for Supported Living sponsored the firstannual Celebrate Recovery! Conference on March 7th at Masterson’s in Louisville.In spite of the winter’s greatest snowfall (you may remember that day), the conference endured with nearly 250 participants. Marsha Wilson, the Centers director, was pleased with the first year effort. “Our hope was to create a forum to bring together consumers, family members and service providers to celebrate the role that each plays in creating a recovery environment throughout our region for persons with psychiatric disabilities,” Wilson says. “From all we’ve seen and heard, I think we’re off to a very good start.”

Two new awards, created for the conference, were presented. The Champion of Service in Recovery went to Phyllis Parker, Adult Branch Manager with the Division of Mental Health and Substance Abuse. The Champion of Life in Recovery went to Charlie Merrill (pictured at right with Wellspring Assoc. Director Kathy Dobbins) a Wellspring Peer Support Counselor.

Seven Counties Services, Inc., a private, non-profit corporation, is the state-designated regional behavioral health center for Bullitt, Henry, Jefferson, Oldham, Shelby, Spencer, and Trimble counties of Kentucky. The mission of Seven Counties is to build healthy communities by helping individuals and families who are affected by mental illness, developmental disabilities, addictions and abuse realize their potential. Seven Counties is nationally recognized for its innovative and effective programming and fully accredited by the Joint Commission. The organization is the largest non-profit, non-hospital organization and one of the top forty employers in the Louisville metro area. More than 1,400 clinical and administrative staff members and 400 volunteers create and deliver quality services to approximately 32,000 persons each year. For more information, visit www.sevencounties.org.