Harbour Hall

Why Giving Back to the Community is Important

Oct 4, 2017

 From the Desk of the CEO, Patrick McGinn, MS, MA, LLP, CAADC, CCS-M

“We make a living by what we get.  We make a life by what we give.” Sir Winston Churchill

Recovery is about new opportunities, to discover one’s true potential.  Residents at Harbor Hall often have questions concerning how to connect, fit-in and contribute to self and others.  Part of the recovery program at harbor Hall is to provide opportunities to become involved in some manner. Being involved may include doing tasks such as house chores, volunteering in the community or seeking paid work.  Through our treatment program, the residents gain a sense of pride, self-worth and accountability that may have been lost in active addiction.  Our clients learn that they DO have something to contribute and that their contributions matter. Learning this and engaging in the community is all part of effectively managing one’s life in recovery.

Local Impact of Service Work

The residents of Harbor Hall have been actively involved in the local community for as long as I have been at Harbor Hall, over 18 years.  They are taught that service and servant-hood are key ingredients in living a life in recovery and obtaining sobriety.

Here is a list of how the Harbor Hall residents are taught to give back.  This list is in no particular order of importance.  Below is a list of community partners and service work where the residents of Harbor Hall regularly give of themselves:

  • Women’s Resource Center: Gold Mine Resale Store
    • Two times a week, helping with the heavy lifting and moving of donated items.
  • Salvation Army
    • Two times a week working in the resale shop and bell ringing over the holidays.
  • Manna Food Project
    • Weekly volunteer opportunities.
  • Project Connect
    • Set up and tear down for the event.
  • Camp Daggett
    • Spring and fall clean-up and maple syrup cooking.
  • Speaking events at schools in Petoskey and Charlevoix.
  • Petoskey Chamber of Commerce
    • Volunteers for a variety of events like decorating downtown Petoskey for the Fall Harvest Festival.
  • Set up for several local AA/NA meetings in Petoskey.
  • Provide a great car wash every week during the warm months.
  • Maintain the Harbor Hall campus in pristine condition.

Why Giving Back is Important in Addiction Recovery

Most people in active addiction are takers.  They are self-centered and ego driven.  The actions above are all selfless, and help the recovery process by building a sense of community, self-worth, humility and recovery capitol.  It is critical that people in early recovery learn it is very important to serve their community.  The person in recovery greatly benefits from serving the community and individuals, as service brings about a new humbleness.  The action of giving brings about positive thinking and feeling for everyone, but most importantly for the person in recovery. Thoughts and feelings that were once driven by egos and self-centered behavior, are replaced with a positive sense of self, the ability to care for others, and the desire to serve.  I believe that the benefit to the community is apparent to each of the above actions.  Thank you to all who have participated in these events and for your support of our mission.

“For it is in giving that we receive” – St. Francis of Assisi

 

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EMDR with Dr. Andrew M. Leeds

Why EMDR Works

Pat McGinn; Director of Clinical Operations for Harbor Hall is a skilled EMDR Therapist. We utilize EMDR to deal with trauma that keeps clients stuck. EMDR is a good orientation model that helps to get the client beyond the stuck phase and moving forward in to recovery. Pat utilizes this orientation in residential and outpatient treatment at Harbor Hall.

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October Happenings at Harbor Hall

Harbor Hall’s residential makeover continues. The dining room is completely finished and now has a washable floor in case of food spillage. We have also completed tiling the food pantry area, one bathroom and have moved on to dorm bathroom number two, to tile the floor, walls and showers. Tile will keep any water from going through the ceiling from the second floor and there are floor drains which also help to shed water. We are in the process of fixing up the night tech office that will include a service window for the administration of medications and shelves so the office will be neat and organized. Our next project will be to continue painting the residential dorm area and installing new furniture in the patient bedrooms. We have purchased heavy duty furniture that is currently used in the dorm of Hope College and our local Community College. We were impressed with the longevity of the furniture. It has a lifetime warranty. It has been in the dorm for 30 years at Hope College and we believe that it will look good and wear well. Our bedrooms will have new beds with a padded headboard and individual lighting so that patients can read in bed without disturbing other patients in the room. We have also fixed a few of the roofs on our residential building as well.

We also planted a commemorative tree in honor of long time foundation board member, Bob Ford, as he has just recently resigned from the board. We thank him for his many years of service and wish him well in his future endeavors.

As we move from summer to fall and the colder part of the year, think of what has changed in the life of a loved one who is struggling with the disease of addiction. The weather has gotten colder. The problem with the life of the addict is, without treatment, life becomes stagnant and the addict experiences the sameness that they always feel. Treatment gives the person an opportunity to live drug and alcohol free and move forward in their life.

Harbor Hall has started to take in many private pay patients because of our affordability versus many of the other private treatment centers in the State of Michigan. Please look at our cost comparison page and see the difference of our costs versus many other long term treatment facilities. If you have any questions concerning admissions, please call our Executive Director, Terry Newton at (888)-880-5511.

 

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The Time is Now for the People We Serve

The months of anticipation are over, the lawn signs advertising support for candidates are coming down; when televisions are turned on, we no longer see an ad stating that one candidate is going to destroy America and the following commercial claiming otherwise. People can now breathe a sigh of relief as; the elections are over. Whether you are satisfied with the results or otherwise, we are Americans and we just exercised our right to engage in Democracy. No one was killed in the process, tanks did not roll out in the streets, the world did not stop revolving on its axis and the sun rose and set.  Our job now is to go back to being Americans and hopefully coming to an understanding that we are all in this together. We are responsible for solving our own issues and problems. Many people long for the days when our political system was not completely polarized and our leaders engaged in; “compromise”, where it is about the people that the elected officials are supposed to represent in our country. Not special interests, not a one sided political agenda but, true compromise, with a give and take agenda. That is the scenario where; neither party gets everything they want but, things get accomplished and issues get resolved that are supposed to make our country a better place to live in.

Mental health and addiction professionals awaited in anticipation, because the outcome of the election meant a different scenario under each candidate. With the president being reelected, the Affordable Care Act is in the works to be implemented. For mental health and addictions this proves promising for our constituents, especially with the inclusion of the Federal Parity Act; which could grant benefits, not previously experienced by persons with mental health and substance abuse disorders for many years. Depending on the states setting up an insurance exchanges or facilitating ones with the federal government, Medicaid expansion could be expanded at 133% – 138% of Poverty which would make many eligible for services through mental health or substance abuse treatment. The unfortunate deal is that some states have not been inclusive of this benefit in their plan. This could cause severe financial stress to programs that have been marginalized by years worth of cuts due to the states financial hardships. Now is the time to advocate for the benefit with your representatives so they are protected for people who need them. Once a system has been destroyed, there is typically no rebuilding it. Programs that were grandfathered in with zoning laws could not afford to rebuild, people who have sat back and watched a system implode typically have no desire to recreate it and, once destroyed, it can not be rebuilt at the same cost as when it first was built. So again, this is the time to advocate for persons with mental health and substance abuse disorders  so that we can have a healthcare system that will be proud of for years to come. We owe it to the people that we serve, we owe it to their families and we owe it to the communities that the people live in. A healthy society benefits us all.

Some have adopted the notion that these people brought their problems on themselves. The problem with that line of thinking is that people will get their needs met one way or another. If we do not treat mental illness we have untreated people that engage in criminal activity and we pay for them in jails or other forms of incarceration. We also pay for them when they show up in the emergency rooms and receive uncompensated care. People that live with mental illness have a life expectancy that is 25 years less than the average population. Pay me now, or pay me later; a healthy society does benefit us all.

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