Jill: You are the executive director of Purple Ink and it isn’t a tattoo parlor

Joel: Yeah we have fun with the name there it is Purple Incorporated and we like to kid with it.

Jill: Tell us about yourself Joel

Joel: I got into this field like a lot of people, I was drug in kicking and screaming by a family member and once I got to rehab and saw what recovery could do I became enchanted with what it was all about and made a change in career and change in life and here I am today as running a recovery residence and also president of GARR.

Jill: Wow, where is Purple Inc.?

Joel: We are in the Lawrenceville area and it is a men’s residential recovery program, we figured out that we knew men better than women (laugh) and decided to stick with what we knew.

Jill: I have always been told that too. Our other guest today is Beth Fisher Hatch and she is the Executive Dir.of Hope Homes and the Vice President of GARR. Beth thanks for coming, you have got to understand to our audience, we are all smooshed into this studio and we are crowded around the mics for exciting conversation. Thanks Beth for coming.

Beth: We are happy to be here. It is a fascinating experience of what happens behind the scenes of a radio show. Yes, I am the executive director of hope homes and came into it a bit different than Joel. I started at 20 and so have been in the field for over 20 years. At this a long time and I am a social worker by trade and then in 1996 I met my husband Wik and we had an idea of having nice recovery residences at the time in the 90s the residences that were traditionally thought of ¾ way houses were not by and large great and we had decided to provide nice homes single bedrooms and people thought we were crazy but we wanted good places for people to recovery and in the 90s managed care kept people out of hospitals and it was a short phase. Prior to that standard care was 8 to 12 weeks and leaving after a short time, so we wanted people to have a nice place to get on their feet. That is where hope homes started and we serve men and women all through Atlanta.

Jill: Where are you located?

Beth: Buckhead and Vinings area mostly but are expanding to various areas of the city.

Jill: So you serve as Vice President of Garr just recently?

Beth: Right. I came on as Vice President recently but we have been in Garr for 12 years of our operation. Garr is about quality recovery residences and that is what we wanted to do and anyone that is a member adheres to quality.

Brian: I really like that idea, we have an image as you said that is when a person gets into recovery and moves into residential it doesn’t ring of quality but you have shown that the quality is there through recovery and I am sure it provides a lot of support for those you serve.

Beth: It is incredibly rewarding and we have had a lot of success, we do outcome studies and have a phenomenal record for helping people stay in recovery as do all of the members of Garr or they would not be members.

Brian: What is the typical length of stay?

Beth: At hope homes it is 9 to 14 months and we require a six month minimum but all of our members we have over 30 so,

Jill: How long at Purple?

Joel: Minimum of 4 months and average is 4 to 6 months for our clients.

Jill: What is the most effective length of stay for some of your clients. Sometimes we hear of programs that are short in terms of residential and then when you mentioned managed care, they might only have coverage for a certain amount of time, do you see your ability to help people with their long term recovery is better because of the length?

Beth: At hope homes we do, but we want to equip for the long term. Now Joel can speak to his program and my understanding is that yours is more about healing

Joel: It is an intensive situation um, but we also find that it varies from client to client and you know a 35 year old with three children at home and a supportive spouse is going to need a different sort of length of stay than a 19 year old with very little social skill. He is going to need a longer term recovery experience and then like most of the programs we also offer an aftercare program where we keep these guys involved in the next year or two after leaving and the actual program.

Brian: Beth you were mentioning building skills, at Breakthrough this is one of the things we do. We really try to help our clients to develop coping skills, new life skills because we know that when they are under the influence many of those skills will begin to diminish. What are one or two things because time is close, that you do to help that you find to help people progress in recovery.

Beth: Number one is developing a sense of community and that is essential in any recovery program. 12 steps, residence and anything else. The second is the sense of safety and that is what a good recovery residence is going to provide. We have a no tolerance policy where substances are concerned.

Jill: We are at the end of our segment and when we come back we want to know more about what is necessary in these residential places to help get the community and how do you handle people staying with you for 6 months? That is an interesting challenge in itself, stay with us we will be right back, 770-226-0920.

Commercial Break

Jill: We are back with our special guests on the Breakthrough Addiction Recovery Hour, we have Beth the executive director of Hope homes. Beth, what do you do with someone for 6 months? Do you have programs during the day or things to help them while they are there in order to enhance the recovery?

Beth: Absolutely it is a very mindfully set up program in that the first three weeks the whole focus is on them integrating into the community and it is called the Buddy Phase, they always have to be together. We also want them to be looking for work and want to see them employed at some kind of low stress recovery job within 30 days and we will help them get that work and tell you how their focuses get through the 30 days is finding work and getting to their `12 step meetings every day because what we know is that it does work the best for most in recovery so they find those meetings and establishing relationships with each other so after that 30 day period then they will gain more independence so that they also come to our groups we have 5 support groups a week. And um,

Jill: Group things?

Beth: They are all about community and supporting each other lifting each other. We have a wonderful team that works with our residents pointing them where they need to go in the community.

Brian: You bring this up but we tell our clients when they finally leave the formal addiction rehab is the importance of ongoing support. I love the term community and that buddy phase, that is so vital. As they get tied in with others that are serious about recovery and find those that are just as concerned and interested don’t you find that to be a strength to continue?

Beth: Yes.

Brian: We know that thought process is still going on

Beth: It is the healing element for recovery and we facilitate and that is counter to what most active addicts want to do. If we are using we want to isolate and we don’t want anyone to know what we are doing so the cure so we support each other.

Jill: During the stay at Purple are the clients working or are they what is the type of typical person that may come into your program.

Joel: Well we certainly get a gammit there but everybody eventually working one of the things that may be a little different in our program is that we don’t require or push them to work so soon um, but they cause we liked for them to become integrated into that community work 2 to 6 weeks being there and we feel they are stable and can be out in the world and working on their own a lot of things very similar about the programs and that is one of the good things about GARR we share our best practices and find what works and we duplicate what is working at another program.

Jill: Brilliant,

Brian: A collaboration is going on everyone learning from each other. That is a tremendous resource I would think and that is another reason why people who are thinking a residential should be a part of something like GARR.

Joel: GARR came about as a quality standard program. It was there to help establish best practices for recovery residences.

Jill: How long has GARR been in existence

Joel: 20 years, it started at that point whereas we moved into managed care and away from short stay programs and longer term recovery became the norm we began to see other programs pop up and thus anyone can hang out a shingle and so therefore you have a lot of people popping up that weren’t giving quality care and so we that were committed to quality standards.

Brian: Well if you have someone that could benefit from what we are discussing please call at 770-226-0920 and we have the experts behind the and we have some fantastic resources and if you have been thinking about residential services you can count on those in GARR to be high standard addiction rehab and care.

Jill: Is there a website for GARR? Before we leave this segment give it to us so listeners can get on that .

Beth: Yes, it is ^{www.garronline.org}

Commercial Break

Jill: Ok, we are back and that number again is 770-226-0920 welcome back to the Breakthrough Addiction Recovery Hour, my name is Jill Mattingly and my co host is

Brian: Brian Fujii

Jill: I like to do that I talk then Brian comes in it might scare some but… we are talking to Joel Bagley the President of GARR and Beth Fisher Hatch the Exec. Dr. of Hope Homes and Vice President of GARR and if you have someone in need of a residence. Joel and Beth I have been online looking for places for clients and seeing what they have to offer and stumbled onto websites that show this incredible view of the beach like a place in Florida, on the website it will have a beautiful room with a bed and flowers and everything else and an amazing looking place and then I find out that if you were to pan out the shot it was probably in the worst part of town, one room with a shingle on the front and that they were five miles from the beach so it is not what they are advertising.

They don’t have the amenities so you know there are so many like this online is this something that GARR helps to make sure that doesn’t happen.

Beth: Absolutely and I do want to clarify that GARR is an association of many recovery residences because we get calls all of the time of how to get my son or daughter into GARR thinking it is a free standing facility we are an association and you have to have standards to be a part of our association and what we do, we go out and do peer reviews and work with organizations so that they adhere to high quality care. And there are a lot of levels of care some are simply supportive living but the common denominator is the quality, so policy and procedures are a must.

Jill: If you don’t have a pool, they will tell you they don’t.

Beth: Correct, you have to provide what you state you will provide.

Brian: We have a call in Stone Mountain, Evan, Hello and welcome

Evan: There is more and more evidence and communication with people with dual diagnosis alcohol and mental illness? Uh, programs such as DTR and dual recovery anonymous on line as well and I just wondered if your facilities were uh, available to meet the needs of those individuals as well as people suffering from only one if you will particular problem

Joel: Certainly and Evan that is a great question, um, there are of course as Beth said in Garr a number of different facilities available and different levels of addiction rehab and many do recognize that dealing with dual diagnosis is part of what comes along with dealing with addiction and each facility that does provide dual diagnosis addiction rehab is a facility that feels like they are equipped to manage the client and meds. In networking cooperatively like that we can work with the client that have dual diagnoses.

Evan: One thing that voices as a complaint but um, I am almost 60 years old and I have been very close to AA for many years their promotion of healing or letting people know that there is going to be difficulty for some to stop drinking and using uh, if they are not aware and I was not almost 20 years ago that there could be a dual problem. AA is used as you know as one of the major to send people to because the medical community has not been able to reach because of the science, etc., they can’t seem to reach some consensus as to how addiction works.

Brian: We have a behavioral therapy approach and do treat and help when there is a co-occurring disorder and staying clean and sober it can contribute to ongoing sobriety. You are right on target, the idea is to combine and utilize medications along with addiction rehab.

Evan we are coming to a break we want to thank you for being with us. Stay with us the number is 770-226-0920, we will be right back.

Commercial Break

Brian: Welcome back to the Breakthrough Recovery Hour, I am Brian Fujii with my co host Jill Mattingly and our special guests today are Joel Bagley from Purple Incorporated and Beth Fisher Hatch from Hope Homes. 770-226-0920 is the number to call to get engaged with our conversation on residential services in the state of Georgia. One of our questions from a caller was Mickey, we lost her on the line but she wants to know how to get her loved one into addiction rehab and part of a residential program. Beth what is the best way for yours?

Jill: Is this happening across the country?

Beth: It is not and we are so proud because we are the only organization we know of in this part of the country different states call us for guidance to see how this can happen and it needs to.

Jill: GARR is going to be participating in National Recovery Month. Tell us about it.

Beth: We are also proud of this it is the first annual networking fair for GARR and what we are doing is an all day conference at Peachford in Atlanta and we have arranged for nationally known speaker Dr. Paul Early who works at Talbot Recovery Campus here in Atlanta um, very well known individual in the field and he will be doing our CEU presentation and it is a great opportunity for professionals listening to come and find out what the recovery resources are here in the state and here in Atlanta. We will be showcasing ourselves from 12 – 3 in our networking fair following the presentation by Dr. Early and there will be over 30 tables or more as we are going along the registration has been brisk and we are going to talk to each other and see who does what because we all do different things.

Brian: People get to share what they are doing and we can take advantage of each others resources

Jill: That captures the spirit of National Recovery Month. This is the actual pulling together of professionals to say this is what we are doing and this is what works. There is no need to reinvent the wheel there are things that work and if we will talk to each other that will push our addiction addiction rehab in the nation forward instead of staying all isolated separate components. I am really impressed by this that you are heading up, and Joel will you be there mr. President?

Joel: Oh yes it is a requirement.

Jill: Do you wear a special outfit because of your stature

Joel: If I came in my special outfit they would recognize me as Yoda so I think I will leave it at home (laugh)

Jill: I was asking Joel earlier about you know what dog is in the fight, is he for Georgia or South Carolina today and what did you say,

Joel: This is one of those days when I can’t I have been a big Georgia fan and married a game cock and now I have to be quiet today.

Brian: At least you know your place

Jill: Anyway it actually sounds as if you are a big family, the Garr people know each other

Beth: We meet every other month and I would like to think we model as a community ourselves what we try to show our clients to do

Joel: Certainly, that was one of the things that impressed me the first meeting I came to before opening Purple was that there were people there that really wanted to help and they followed up and sent me information it was such a spirit of cooperation

Brian: You know to say that I find it interesting there may be other residential programs out there that want to improve their quality and so they want to be able to do that they can contact the website and become part of the organization

Beth: We would love that

Jill: We are at the end of the segment and when we return we will talk about what Breakthrough is doing for National Recovery Month so call us today at 770-226-0920, stay with us we will be right back

Commercial Break

Jill: This is recommended for addiction professionals, so the networking is going to be primo from what I understand

Brian: And we will be there

Jill: Brian, that is right you can meet a radio personality.

Brian: Jill

Jill: So that is what you guys are doing on the 24th, any other events coming up?

Joel: There is an event in Snellville on next Tuesday the 16th at the City Hall and the program director Brett Bagley from Purple will be there as one of the people on the panel talking about addiction in the community and there will be discussion

Jill: So, once again National Recovery Month is about getting information out there and letting them know what the resources are, there is so much hope to go around and I hope that from listening today you have more hope because you know what is out there in term of residential recovery and facilities and out patient like Breakthrough.

Brian: I want to again emphasize to our audience, especially since the call from Evan regarding dual diagnosis that is a major problem. About 99% of people coming in have a co-occuring and we know it is a major issue and if not treated you will not get the effective addiction rehab and that is what we do best at Breakthrough.

Jill: I want to thank you guys Joel Bagley of Purple, Inc. and Beth Fisher Hatch of Hope Homes, it has been a pleasure to have you and I hope you guys can come up one time and sit in for Brian and I, you guys know your stuff. Alright, everyone listening have a wonderful week and go to the website, Nationalrecoverymonth.gov and get more information.

Brian: Join us next week.