Family Support Center celebrates second year

The Family Support Center (FSC) celebrated its second birthday with popcorn, ice cream, games and a bouncy house at Vesco Park on Monday. Like any growing being, the changes from one year to the next are astonishing.

The FSC began as an offshoot of Sixth Judicial Court and combined several services and programs related to mental and behavioral health, such as Project AWARE. Initially, most of their clientele were referred through the court. The vision, however, was to incorporate services for the whole community.

Programs range from individual therapy to crisis response, monitored visitations, parenting, holistic wellness and court-required programs like DUI School.

Some clients come to the FSC with problems they can't explain or express. In these cases, the Family Care Coordinator will help match the client with the type of help they need. She will also go with the person to make the connection with someone who can help.

"Most people, when they leave, aren't going to follow through, is what we've learned," FCS Executive Director Becky Coleman said. "The warm hand-off just increases people's ability to successfully make that connection more powerfully than anything that we can do."

At the end of 2017, the FCS moved to its new location across Haskell Street from Humboldt General Hospital (HGH). The new space reflects the FSC's trauma-informed care, which seeks to provide physical, psychological and emotional safety as well as a sense of control for the client.

"The way that we have it laid out is on purpose, the way we bring people through is on purpose, the way we schedule, all of it. So, the building lends itself to that," Coleman said.

The close proximity to HGH also helps when a hospital patient is in crisis. Coleman said therapists from FSC have helped in those situations. "It's a blessing to the community that we're able to say ?ok, let me get one of the therapists and we'll send somebody over as soon as possible.' Because when someone is in crisis, every minute counts."

The FSC's Living Room, for example, is a place where people in crisis can sit down with a therapist to work through the crisis. The service is free. "We want to save lives," Coleman said. "We don't want anybody to think that nobody cares and there's no hope."

The FSC has added some important services to help more community members. Mental Health Nurse Practitioner Bert Andreozzi comes to Winnemucca from Elko on Fridays to provide psychiatric assessments and therapy as well as medication management.

Andreozzi's minimum appointment time is 30 minutes, and appointments include more than a quick check of vitals and a refill of medication, Coleman said. "She's talking with you, finding out what's going on with your life, educating you about ?these are some things that might be going on in your body as a result of this medication,' and educating people on things that they can do to minimize those effects through nutrition, holistic things, in addition to just taking the medication."

Coleman said FSC has a couple of big steps coming up. They are currently working on becoming a Medicaid provider, which, in conjunction with private insurance, sliding fee scale and Gracie's Fund, would allow the center to accept all patients regardless of their ability to pay. Coleman said the process should be complete sometime this summer.

FSC is also working on ways to fill the after-hours gap for mental health assistance. They are applying for a grant that would allow them to build the infrastructure to become a Certified Community Behavioral Health Clinic (CCBHC). Coleman said a CCBHC takes what FSC already does and "beefs it up," providing for 24/7 crisis response, as well as the ability to coordinate behavioral health with primary care. Medical conditions have mental health components as well, so coordinating both mental health and primary care can improve a patient's overall condition and quality of life, Coleman said.

"That was truly the dream of Family Support Center, to be wrap-around care. No wrong door to get in, and nobody turned away for any reason. And this is an opportunity to realize the dream," she added.

While FSC has grown and expanded, the perspective on mental health has also changed, particularly regarding suicide.

The Center for Disease Control reported recently that nationwide suicide rates have risen in every state except Nevada, which saw a 1 percent decrease. While Nevada's suicide rate remains above the national average, the fact that it hasn't increased shows that projects like the Zero Suicide Initiative and services like FSC are making a difference in how the community views mental health.