♪ good morning, everyone. i'm jim handly. our focus is on new services for resources and innovations to help those dealing with serious mental health issues. and our guest this morning in the studio, wendy gratis. and director of business development for prs. before we get going with our conversation, we have the full half hour devoted. i'd love to share with our viewers a real success story here. and this one has to do with a video psrdc recovery academy.

it was featured in the nbc 4 changing minds campaign. >> reporter: look closely. these tattoos are of tears, telling a story of a sad life growing up on the streets. now at age 30, her turn around runs deeper than the makeup covering the marks. >> i grew up trying to make money any way i could for my daughter. >> reporter: pay me, pimp hasrd. there was breaking into houses, selling drugs, stealing cars and dealing with a mental illness she didn't know she had. her first break down? age 16, a year having her first baby. >> i wanted to leave the earth. >> reporter: not long after being hospitalized it was back to being homeless.

her depression turned into anger, when her bipolar disorder peaked. >> i didn't get arrested, but i lost that person. >> reporter: you didn't remember some of this. >> at one point i got so afraid, and that's when i went and got help. >> reporter: she stumbled into a local library and looked up mental health resources online. and it led her here. inside, a lot of smiles, laughing, clapping, only a year old, the center is already helping many young people with mental illness who have on. >> this is a large, the future is here. >> reporter: she finds help with life skills and job searching. it is just a small piece of the recovery center that has a purpose of getting people back to work and school. that's only half of it.

the bigger picture is getting them to stay there. and it's working. >> managing stress, anxiety. >> reporter: thomas is manage earn -- manager at the academy. >> we really believe if we can intervene earlier with people who are developing mental illness that we'll have greater successes and outcomes down the road. >> reporter: just look at dana. in a year she's gone from struggling on the street to getting a ged. and also becoming a peer counselor like a few people she's come to know. what is it like for people to believe in you like that? >> it feels great, i want to keep going in that direction. >> wow, and a wonderful

footnote. her dream has come true. and tell us a little bit about dana's dream. it was to get a job there. and lo and behold she's got success. >> she is a peer counselor who provides services right there at our peer academy. and peers who have experienced mental illness are among the most impactful folks who help our clients recover and rebuild their lives. >> they have walked the walk. who better. we talked about the importance of volunteers. you count on volunteers to work with all of your clients, is that right? >> absolutely. and especially at least at this point in the crisis link program that's now a program of prs. we have over 100 volunteers answering the telephone hotline 24/7. so we could not do that. we couldn't help people in crisis around the clock without our volunteers. >> that's great.

>> we also have wonderful volunteers serving on our board of directors and helping us expand our capacity throughout our program. >> let's talk a little bit about the merger and why it came to be and how it came to be. >> well, it was a year-long process, and we were really worried about protecting the critical services, ensuring their stability over the long haul. when you have a small non-profit there's an economy of scale, so that those background resources like i.t. and accounting can be done more efficientlyo you can better meet mission. that's how we began the discussion. >> what is the mission, the overall mission? >> the overall mission of the merged organization is so that individual whose live with serious mental illness, who live with mild intellectual disabilities, substance abuse disorder, autism disorder and individuals who face life crises

can achieve safety, can recover, can become really integrated in their communities and achieve physical wellness. that's what we're trying to do with all the people we serve. >> in a bigger world and the bigger family that you are now, does that mean not only more efcient but you're going to have more resources and be able to reach more people? >> absolutely. when we don't have to worry about managing our infrastructure we can focus on serving our clients and add innovative services. so it's been tremendous in the first month. >> we're just getting started. we have to take a quick break. we'd like to put up on the screen the web address if you'd like to learn something for yourself or for someone else or if you'd like to volunteer. just go to www.prs inc..org.

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and welcome back to viewpoint again. our focus this morning is prs. it is the psych yeah trek

rehabilitation services, a wonderful program that is growing because of recent merger. talk about crisis link. >> we call it prs crisis link. and crisis link is a series of services or programs that really are there to help people during an immediate crisis and responding immediately. it's generally pretty short term or brief interaction, primarily or initially, at least, it was our crisis hotline that is open every day of the year, around the clock. but then we've recently added an outbound calling. so in the crisis hotline people call us. >> okay. >> for our outbound calling we're calling people in the community and checking in on them or at least that's where we started, with seniors, making sure if they were isolated at home alone that they were doing okay, that they hadn't fallen. >> taken their meds. >> absolutely. >> and then with our merger, with prs we started looking at

what would it be like to call people with serious mental illness, and how could we support them and remain in the community and their homes. and that was a tremendous. we did a pilot, actually dug our vetting period and was very successful in the results from this daily call to people with serious mental illness. >> and, you know, one of the real challenges in mental illness is isolation and to know that they have a place that they can turn to and people they can turn to can make such a tremendous difference. who are you reaching out there, and i know your organization is big in northern virginia and in the district as well. >> well, last year we reached over 900 clients throughout northern virginia and d.c. and crisis link had about 40,000 calls, i believe, last year. >> wow. >> so we are reaching clients who are largely referred by mental health centers. we certainly have clients who find us themselves like dana did. but we have the core service

agencies in washington, d.c. and the community services board, the public mental health service centers that help connect clients with us. >> we put up that web address, but what can they do? can they pick up the phone? is that the best thing to do? >> they can call, they can e-mail, and now with crisis link they can text. we've added a texting component to crisis link, which is really an important addition for young people who prefer to text rather than call. >> that's the teen texting hotline. >> that's right. >> and that's the way we find them communicating. and you've been at this for a number of years, both of you. have you seen the stigma start to fade away in terms of reaching out for help? or not? >> it is slowly happening as more and more people are talking about their own personal experiences and, for example, your childing minds initiative this year has been invaluable in letting people know that one in

four people in the united states live with some form of mental illness. and if only we could talk more openly about it the way we do medical issues, more people would know where and how to find help because there is help. we know how to help people recover and rebuild their lives. >> and crisis link steps in when there is a crisis. so it is more short term in that sense, is that right? >> yes. and then we'll help them get connected to services such as those provided at the recovery academy or with supported employment, but i think that's another piece of reaching people and decreasing the significant ma is doing that in a way they're comfortable with, which is why that texting is so important. >> mm-hm. >> or maybe telephoning a senior who may be more connected to a phone than a younger person these days. so finding that way to reach out to them that's comfortable for them is most important. >> very important point. good place to end for this suggestment. and we'll be right back. i want to talk jobs. we'll show that web address one

more time here. if you'd like to learn more or maybe point someone in this direction or volunteer yourself, here it is. know that chasing performance can mean lower returns and fewer choices in retirement. know that proper allocation could help increase returns so you can enjoy that second home sooner. know the right financial planning canelp you save for college and retirement. know where you stand with pnc total insight. a new investing and banking experience with personalized guidance and online tools. visit a branch, call or go online today.

and welcome back to viewpoint again. we're talking about mental health and all the services that you provide through prs, dana we were introduced to at the very top of the program, she suffered from bipolar disorder. what are the ranges that you deal with? >> it's quite broad. we work with folk whose have serious mental illness dyiiagnos such as bipolar, and as burgers. we work with what we call co-occurring disorders where substance use disorders are co-existing with mental health

disorders. this is quite common. >> are they assigned an individual person? because some of these demanden that, some of these issues do. >> everybody in our programs have an individual that's working with them as well as a group of clinical staff that help them out. >> that's a lot of people. so how many people working in all when you factor in volunteers and everything too? >> we have almost 90 employees and 100 volunteers with the addition of these highly trained and skilled volunteers from crisis link. >> what is the biggest difference it's made so far? and you just had this merger back on august 1. is everybody starting to get used to it now and getting into the rhythm of working together? >> absolutely. but i think it's just the resources. there were five of us running the day to day operations ofam,e can go to and ask for help and get. so just that team that wea've

built has been a fabulous support. >> in the 24-hour nature of things you can still reach out 24 hours and how critical that is. >> that is absolutely critical. >> and we talk about suicide prevention and that has been in the news with the death of robin williams. how important a part is that in your organization, what you do? >> it's absolutely critical. it is so important tt people who are experiencing suicidal thoughts know that there is help for them, that that does not need to be the path that they choose. they need to go to the website. they need to find the phone number. they need to tell someone that they're struggling. and i think the more people who come out with their own stories of struggle and recovering, more will realize that they can be helped. because of the stigma that we said earlier, that's such a challenge. >> many people are even afraid to say that word suicide much less talk about it with a loved one or friend. and so to call someone that can

comfortably talk with you about how you're feeling and perhaps think there's some alternatives, again, it's vital. and, generally, we find the feeling of wanting to die by suicide doesn't last for days or weeks. it's a short-lived problem overall. and if we can help you through that, there is, you know, the other side. >> that's wonderful. let's talk about a big part of your program. and that's supported employment. and the national figures, i think, are one in ten will find success. you have a much better success rate. >> that's right. it's the national statistics are dismal. at prs, last year close to 70% of our clients who wanted to work became employed and close to 90% keep those jobs at least over a year. so what we do is supportive employment. it is an evidence-based

practice. help our clients get, choose, and keep jobs. and they help clients at every stage, building the resume, learning to interview, going to that first interview, working with the employer, deciding whether to disclose on the job and what the ada says about that. and then we provide long term support. because what we've learned is one of the most difficult areas is keeping that job. so that's where our job coaches or employment specialists come in and help. >> how do you convince an employer who may be a little bit hesitant hiring someone with a mental health issue. >> you know, that's not been an issue, our employers are looking for qualified, effective employees. and our clients are. they are very eager to work. they are very -- >> experienced and dedicated. >> exactly. so what we really just do is help clients find the kinds of jobs they want and help them open those doors, because so frequently, our clients lack the

confidence. you know, mental illness hits young adults just at that point where they discover where they want to be in life, whether it's through school or work. and so what we do with both supportive education and supportive employment is just to bring them back to the basics and help support them so they can get where they want to go. >> and there's no bigger self-esteem builder than having a job. >> we have to take one more break. as we go to break if you would like to learn more about the good work that prs does, maybe you'd like to donate to their organization. here's their web address. we'll be right back on viewpoint.

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and welcome back to viewpoint again. our focus this sunday morning is on mental health and the psychiatric mental services in north virginia and d.c. too. we're talking about adolescents

and their parents as well. >> oftentimes family members may recognize that their kid's not the same. they don't want to participate in the same activities they usual do. they're not eating. they're not sleeping, but they don't know what it means. they can call crisis link and we can help them figure out what the next steps are. if this is a serious situation, if there might be a risk of suicide and how to handle that. we'll even call the person they're worried about, their child, and talk with them. of course because we have so much experience in doing that, it's much easier for us to do. >> and you both have touched on a figure that is really heartbreaking when it comes to teenagers or adolescents and suicide versus the general population. >> that's right. the third leading cause of death for adolescents is dying by suicide, which is a totally preventible issue. it's the tenth leading cause of

dw death in the country. >> all the services that you provide are not inexpensive. how do you get your funding? >> we partner with local, state, and governmental associations, we also do fund-raising. we also benefit from our wonderful donors who want to help meet the needs where government can't do it all. >> have the demographics changed? have the demands changed? >> i think that we're seeing a younger population now who are hitting their first experience of a psychotic break for example. first episode. and these young people are really wanting to get right back into their lives, into volunteering, back into school or employment. so i think one of the big changes is really a renewed focus across the region on helping young adults with the kinds of support that they specifically need so that they

can move on to have the kinds of lives that they want to have. >> on the hotline we find that the youth that call up are under tremendous pressure to succeed, to graduate, to go to excellent schools. and i think that's different than when we were young. and so we're finding that they're really needing support to get through those concerns that they have. >> i think every generation says it, but it's truly got to be the toughest generation we've seen to grow up in with the social media and competitiveness and bullying and the list goes on and on for young people today. you mentioned one phone. you've got the outbound calling line. a national 273 talk. tell us about those. >> the 1-800 number is a part of a national network of call centers sponsored by samsa, with wherever you're calling from, it will ring at the closest hotline. so we'll take calls that originate local lay from that

1-800-273-talk. >> if someone is on the fence about whether to call in for themselves or perhaps a family member or colleague or friend, what do you tell them? >> call us. there is help. we can help you recover. we can help you rebuild your lives. we know how to give you your next step up, your next leg up. please call. >> and you know where to point them. if that person on the phone can't help them, they certainly have a rolodex of people who can. >> that's right. there are wonderful resources in our community. >> thank you for the wonderful work you do. we appreciate it in our community. congratulations on the merger and the potential out there for growth. that's wonderful. and we thank you for having us in on viewpoint, enjoy the rest of your day. we'll see you next week.

mmm! ring ring! ring ring! progresso! you soup people have my kids loving vegetables. well vegetables... shh! taste better in our savory broth. vegetables!? no...soup! oh! soup! loaded with vegetables. packed with taste. and now try new progresso chili. slow-simmered, homemade taste.