Latest / Finding New Waters / Building Recovery Where It’s Needed Most | Colin Harris (Longleaf Recovery & Wellness)

Transcript

Building Recovery Where It’s Needed Most | Colin Harris (Longleaf Recovery & Wellness) · Finding New Waters

• 0:00
  It's rare that we get an individual struggling with
• 0:02
  substance use where there isn't some type of Co occurring
• 0:05
  disorder to go along with that. And so each of our facilities
• 0:08
  has a has a dedicated psychiatric nurse practitioner,
• 0:11
  a full time RN on staff, all this being overseen by a double
• 0:16
  boarded addiction psychiatrist. All right.
• 0:20
  Welcome back everybody to another episode of Finding New
• 0:23
  Waters. My name is Bea Reeves.
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  I'm the Director of Business Development here at New Waters
• 0:27
  Recovery in Raleigh, sitting here with our CEO, Justin
• 0:30
  McClendon. Welcome, Justin.
• 0:31
  Nice to be here. Very special guest today is my
• 0:34
  buddy Colin Harris down in Birmingham, AL with long leaf
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  recovery and Wellness. Welcome, Colin.
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  Thank you, glad to be here, been looking forward to this for a
• 0:43
  while and look forward to having a chat with you guys.
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  Well, thank you same. The feeling is mutual.
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  Just a little back story. I got to know Colin, met him and
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  we hung out some two years ago. We were on a, on a
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  professional's visit down in Mississippi to Stone Stonewater
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  and hung out. And he was, I just remember he
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  was very not just complimentary about what we were doing, but
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  really seemed to be interested in learning about what we're
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  doing. Because I could just tell he was
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  trying to, you know, figure out what's working, what's not
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  working because of, you know, what he's doing and wants to do
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  what he's doing right. And he's one of the people who
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  is doing good things. And, and then this last trip, we
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  went on the same trip again and got to hang out even more.
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  And he's just a good dude and doing good things.
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  So I'm really glad you're here. Well, thank you.
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  I appreciate you saying that. It's, it's still humbles me to
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  this day to be for people to say that what, what you just said,
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  you know, in this for the right reasons, doing, doing this the
• 1:42
  right way. And like that trip that
• 1:44
  Stonewater puts on it, it again, it always humbles me to be
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  included in that. And you know, I, I, I remember
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  coming across new waters on, on LinkedIn.
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  I think it was right around the time it first opened.
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  And, and I always thought to myself that, wow, what what
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  those guys are doing is, is, is very similar to what I want to
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  do. It it always it, I, I felt like
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  there was just a lot of synergy behind what you guys are doing
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  and what Longleaf does. So, and, and I've, I've watched
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  this podcast for a long time and, and, and always wanted to
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  be a part of it. So thank you all again.
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  Well, yeah, thank you. I'm I'm and thank you for for
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  listening and watching. So that's that's really.
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  Cool. Yeah, we definitely appreciate
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  that. So Colin, can you tell us since
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  we're on the subject, tell us about Longleaf.
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  What are you guys? What are you doing over?
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  There. Yeah.
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  So Longleaf is, we're, we're a behavioral health company based
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  out of Birmingham. We have at this point we've got
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  four different outpatient locations, so PHPIOPS across the
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  state of Alabama. We've got 2 in Birmingham, we've
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  got one in Huntsville and then we have one in Spanish Fort down
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  near Mobile in Baldwin County, right on the other side of the
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  Bay. And yeah, this all started back
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  in 2021 with our, our first location, Birmingham Recovery
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  Center. And Alabama has been incredibly
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  underserved for, for decades. It just hasn't had a lot of
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  options. And you know, with, with
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  Birmingham Recovery Center, when we, we first opened that
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  facility, we, we knew that there was a, a need here.
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  We had no idea how great the need was.
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  So, you know, that's a kind of a, a very high level way of
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  some, you know, summarizing what long leaf is and what we do.
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  There's a lot, a lot to it, but we are are proud of Alabama,
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  We're proud Alabamians and we are, we're, we're here to serve
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  the people of Alabama. Well, yeah, I mean, even I just
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  remember right when I started working in the field, that was
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  just kind of one of the first things people told me when I
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  started traveling all over the place, mostly the Southeast, but
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  all over that, that Alabama was just kind of, there wasn't much
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  there. There's only kind of excuse me,
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  one game in town and love that you're able to, you know, to
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  change that sounds like a paradigm shift in the state of
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  Alabama where it's not just kind of one, one option.
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  Yeah, you know, and, and a lot of this was, was born out of
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  personal experience. So like I said, I'm from
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  Alabama. I was born and raised here.
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  I've got my own personal journey of recovery that I went on.
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  And, you know, it, it, when it came, when that first came out
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  that I had a problem, You know, my, my family, they, they, they
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  did what people do. They're, they're either going
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  to, to Google or they're asking a friend if they know, is dealt
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  with something similar. And, you know, very quickly
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  realize that, OK, well, there's, there's, there's one place to
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  go, we're going to go there. And, and that's just kind of how
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  it is. And, you know, I, I exhausted
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  the options that were in Alabama very, very quickly.
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  And at that point, my, my family began to look at a state and 1st
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  went over to Georgia and yeah, it was kind of one of those
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  situations where we, we, my family walks into to that scene
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  and it's like, wow, there's tons of options.
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  There's, there's so many different types of facilities,
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  types of treatment. It, it was just a, a plethora
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  one. They struggled with navigating
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  that. So they, they didn't exactly
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  know what direction was going to be the, the, the best for me,
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  but at least there were options. And, you know, eventually in my
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  own personal journey, I went to treatment a number of times.
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  I was it's, I think it totals up to 2930 times at this point all
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  across the Southeast. And, you know, now people ask
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  me, what, what did you do before Longleaf?
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  I told him that I was doing 10 years of research and
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  development due diligence. My parents don't think that is,
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  that's as funny as I do now, but they, you know, we, I, I, I
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  eventually got, when I, when I finally got sober, that was in
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  2018. I was living outside of Atlanta
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  at the time. And, and there was one other
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  program that that existed in, in Birmingham and, and it kind of
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  had the legs cut out from underneath it.
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  And, and they really, in particular, it's residential and
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  they, they shut that down. And I always like to say that
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  was the beginning of BRC. That was when I, I thought to
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  myself, wow, there's now, now there's, there's next to no
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  options in Alabama. And, and so that was what kind
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  of sparked that. And then a couple years later,
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  reconnected with a, a friend of mine, John Gianetto, who is our,
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  our, our, our current chief development officer.
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  And we, we came up with the idea for, for Birmingham Recovery
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  Center. And, you know, a lot of people
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  told us it was, it was crazy that you wouldn't be able to do
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  it. Nobody's open a program here in,
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  in 40 years. And you know, there were times
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  when, when, when we thought we were crazy as well.
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  There was a lot of hurdles to get through to open a program
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  here. But you know, it's one of my
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  favorite quotes is I don't know who it's attributed to, but
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  it's, it's something along the lines of if you, if you think,
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  if you think taking that risk is, is, is risky, if you think
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  that's going to be a challenge, wait until they hand you the
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  bill for not taking the risk. And you know, for us it was, you
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  know, we knew that if we could pull this off, we were going to
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  help a lot of people who desperately needed not only
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  another option, but what we look at is, is the gold standard of
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  treatment. But it but if we didn't, at
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  least we went down swinging, trying to provide something to
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  people that was desperately needed.
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  Yeah. You know, you said something a
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  second ago about when, when you were still kind of stuck in the
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  Alabama system, if to, you know, use that word loosely, but that
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  there's just OK, you call the, the, the place and that's where
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  you go. And, you know, I knew nothing
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  about treatment until all of a sudden I was in a treatment
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  center in North Carolina Has options, lots of options, which
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  is great. But I guess on some level, I
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  kind of thought it was just kind of like a utility, you know,
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  like, oh, well, somebody needs to go to rehab.
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  And then you go to the go to the rehab And then, you know, since
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  I now work in the field and have for, you know, a while now,
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  obviously that's not the case. But I just, you know, and it
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  kind of goes back to people just don't know.
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  And if and what they do know is usually what they think they
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  know is usually not very good. You know, most people don't have
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  like a great, you know, image of what treatment looks like.
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  Yeah. You know, and Speaking of that,
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  the you mentioned Alabama being underserved and it's, you know,
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  different level of care, different focus, I think.
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  But recently, I told you before we started started recording, I
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  have some family that lives in Alabama recently, probably about
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  a month ago, family member reached out, needed some help,
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  you know, finding some primary mental health services there in
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  a certain area in Alabama. And it was surprisingly very
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  difficult to locate those. I'm calling, you know, we feel
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  like we're pretty well connected in the, in the field, in the
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  industry and like, you know, calling people And it's like,
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  man, it's like a desert. I finally was able to find
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  something, but it was it's very difficult.
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  Incredibly challenging. So it's, I love that you brought
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  that up because that's a, that's a huge issue that we had here.
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  So we, we started BRC in July of 2021 and you know, like I said,
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  we thought there was a need. It was way more than that.
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  We kind of set the, the facility up to have a Max census of 40.
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  Really we thought that was a pipe dream.
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  We blew past that in about 3 months had to expand the
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  facility. We lost our, our conference room
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  to pick up another couple offices and it expanded our kind
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  of Max census capability up to 60.
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  And what we, we started having people coming from, from all
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  over the state. We, we had some people from
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  North Alabama who were driving, you know, 90 minutes there and
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  back every single day because it's outpatient care.
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  And we also were getting a lot of, a lot of phone calls from
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  individuals who were looking for primary mental health treatment.
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  They didn't have a substance use issues, so they weren't a very
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  good fit for for Birmingham Recovery Center.
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  And, and we have always prided ourselves on getting people,
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  getting people to help. It's going to be best for them.
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  Birmingham Recovery Center is not going to be the best fit for
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  everyone. People need different things.
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  This is not a one, one-size-fits-all approach.
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  And so when people were calling for that, our next step was OK,
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  well, we need to get them. We need to get them to a program
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  that's going to work for them. We could not find anything in
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  Alabama and we, we kept running into this issue over and over
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  and over again. And so part of our our expansion
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  that took place in in January of 2023 where we, we open these
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  three new outpatient centers in in one year.
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  One of them was our other facility in Birmingham called
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  Long Leaf Wellness Birmingham, which is a primary mental health
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  PHPIOP. And you know, again, we, the
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  need is just far exceeded anything we could have imagined.
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  And it's, it's been incredibly, incredibly busy.
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  And we've, we've helped a number of people through that program.
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  So I'm really glad you brought that up because primary mental
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  health is, is something that often gets overlooked.
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  And I overlooked it. I, I, I spent years talking
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  about how desperately we needed more substance use services.
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  Meanwhile, here was this whole other issue that we hadn't
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  noticed yet. Yeah.
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  That's very humble of you to admit that too, that you over
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  looked at yourself, you know, and and the other thing I was
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  thinking about is it's so amazing and I'm and I'm so happy
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  for you and the community and and people be able to find
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  services largely due to you in Alabama.
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  But how sad is that that like just nothing there.
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  All this, you know, you kind of, you know, do you put up three or
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  four treatment centers in a very short amount of time and they're
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  just filling up. And it just tells me that before
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  that people were just completely suffering.
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  Just suffering. Yeah, that's horrible.
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  Yeah, a lot of people were going out of state.
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  That was that was typically the case.
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  And that that still is, is the the situation to a large degree
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  for residential treatment where we're hoping to remedy that as
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  well. But yeah, it, it's just, you
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  know, I really wish I had a good explanation as to why that has
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  been the case in Alabama for a long time.
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  I think there's, there's a, a number of reasons.
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  But you know, at the at the same time, it was a, you know, I'm,
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  I'm, I'm grateful in the sense that that we had the opportunity
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  at least to come in and provide something that was really
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  needed. And because for us, you know,
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  our, our whole kind of mission, our whole ideology has been
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  around not only just bringing these, these, these services to
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  Alabama, but, but really raising the bar, especially in terms of
• 12:45
  outpatient treatment. As much as we can like our, our
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  entire mission is, is, is built on delivering compassionate,
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  individualized care to, to each person who walks through our
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  doors. And, and those doors are, you
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  know, I'm, I'm a firm believer in that environment of care is
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  very important. And I, I know new waters feels
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  the same way. That was one of the, the things
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  that I noticed about you all. Where I felt we really aligned
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  is how, how nice your facility is and how warm and welcome and
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  inviting it is. But you're not just putting
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  lipstick on a pig there. There's great staff to back that
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  up. And you know that that's what we
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  did. All of our facilities are stand
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  alone new construction. They're they're nice, they're
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  warm, they're welcoming. They don't feel clinical, they
• 13:29
  don't feel medical, but they very much so are we have and
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  Speaking of medical, we were really highly staffed from a
• 13:38
  medical perspective. It's I feel like especially
• 13:40
  nowadays, it's rare that we get an individual struggling with
• 13:44
  substance use where there isn't some type of Co occurring
• 13:46
  disorder to go along with that. And so each of our facilities
• 13:50
  has a, has a dedicated psychiatric nurse practitioner,
• 13:52
  a full time RN on staff, all this being overseen by a double
• 13:58
  boarded addiction psychiatrist. And it we just, we've really,
• 14:02
  really wanted to, to raise the bar in terms of outpatient
• 14:05
  treatment. Yeah, it's awesome.
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  Yeah. Well, you mentioned a second ago
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  about hoping to be able to change the landscape in terms of
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  residential. I'd love to talk about that in a
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  second. I just, you know, I'm sitting
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  here looking at you on the screen and I know you and I and
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  you just are such a great example of, you know, something
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  out of the doctor's opinion a little bit without getting too
• 14:25
  into the literature, but somebody who completely
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  transformed himself. And so 'cause I mean, you know,
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  I've known you for a few years now and, and heard some of your
• 14:33
  story. So I mean, I always like to know
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  how people ended up getting better and getting into this
• 14:39
  field. So will you just kind of go back
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  in time a little bit and talk about your own journey?
• 14:43
  A little bit? No.
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  Absolutely. I'd love to, it's something I
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  talk about a lot. You know, it's a, it's a big
• 14:48
  part of who I am. I wouldn't give it up for
• 14:50
  anything. The life that I have today, I,
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  you know, I owe to that struggle that I went through.
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  And I, I think that's, it's such an important piece of this and
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  something that we, a message we really try and give off to our
• 15:06
  clients is that, yeah, this is, this is nothing to to be ashamed
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  of. You can, there can be a time
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  where you wear this is a badge of honor and you can, can grow
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  from actually, I'll, I'll back up just a second.
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  I want to get into my story, but the, the name Longleaf and where
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  that came from Longleaf, the Longleaf pond is, is, is the,
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  the state tree of Alabama. And one of my passions on the
• 15:29
  side is Wildlife Conservation. And so I've, I've spent a fair
• 15:33
  amount of time working with land and transforming land to in
• 15:37
  terms of conservation. And I learned, what I learned
• 15:39
  about the Lone Leaf pond is that it does better after fire.
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  It comes back stronger, it grows faster, it's more resilient,
• 15:49
  which I think draws a lot of interesting parallels to
• 15:51
  recovery of people who go through that journey and, you
• 15:56
  know, on. And then on top of that, I, I
• 15:58
  think the, the most fearless hearts of the individuals who,
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  who walk through that fire and then come back with a bucket of
• 16:04
  water. And, and, and, and so that,
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  that's just something that, you know, again, and back to my
• 16:10
  personal story, it's something that, that I'm, I'm proud of.
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  There's things that, you know, to this day, I, I, I, you know,
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  I'm very aware of we're, we're not, we're not, there's a lot of
• 16:27
  changes that I have made, but I'm All in all, I'm very, very
• 16:33
  proud of, of the fact that I am a person in recovery.
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  And my, my, my journey started really in my, my teens.
• 16:39
  I always had this sense of, of a feeling that I, that I didn't
• 16:43
  belong, even though I was, I had a lot of friends and, and I'm
• 16:47
  sure everyone from the outside looking in would have, would
• 16:50
  have thought that was a, a crazy statement, but I just had the
• 16:52
  sense of, of, of not belonging. And, you know, eventually I, I,
• 16:59
  I went to college at Auburn and that's where I started to kind
• 17:02
  of really, things got a little bit more serious in terms of
• 17:07
  trying some, some different drugs.
• 17:08
  And for some reason I had this idea that if I could make it to
• 17:12
  Charleston, SC, that everything would be OK.
• 17:15
  This geographical change, even though mind you, I had never
• 17:18
  been to Charleston, SC, but I eventually moved there and that
• 17:22
  was where I discovered heroin and I was off to the races from
• 17:24
  there. And that's really where a 10
• 17:27
  year journey began of, of me being pretty deep into addiction
• 17:31
  and, and going in and out of treatment, in and out of
• 17:33
  treatment. And I, I look back on that note,
• 17:36
  a lot of seeds were planted along the way.
• 17:39
  And in terms of people that I interacted with, facilities that
• 17:43
  I, I went to that really had some amazing people.
• 17:46
  I also experienced, you know, the, the, the not too good
• 17:51
  facilities, you know, the ones that, you know, might not
• 17:53
  necessarily be this in the right, be in this for the right
• 17:55
  reasons. And that's something we really
• 17:57
  bring to long leaf today of trying to help people navigate
• 18:01
  this world and figure out what works for them.
• 18:03
  I, you know, really in 2017 is when everything kind of came to
• 18:08
  a head for me. I, I was in a, involved in a, a,
• 18:13
  a, a drug deal gone bad situation in Birmingham.
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  I was, I was living back here and I ended up getting, getting
• 18:20
  shot, which is just a crazy thing to say.
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  And you know, that, that, but the craziest part about that,
• 18:29
  that situation was that I, I, I got shot in my side and I, I
• 18:35
  started racing to the hospital and then decided that I was
• 18:38
  going to wait and kind of assess this myself and get this my own
• 18:41
  professional opinion as to whether or not I was OK.
• 18:44
  And, and decided that I was fine.
• 18:46
  Went back to my apartment that I was living in at the time and
• 18:50
  wrapped myself in paper towels and Saran wrap in a little bit
• 18:54
  of Neosporin because that, that was going to fix it.
• 18:57
  And, and then I, I went back out to another dope man because the,
• 19:03
  the drugs that I had gotten were fake.
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  And if that's just, you know, that's not insanity.
• 19:09
  I, I, I don't know what is. And from there, you know, that
• 19:15
  situation ended up putting me in, in a detox facility in
• 19:18
  Atlanta and I ended up at a really great facility that's not
• 19:23
  around anymore. It was a kind of a sober living
• 19:26
  slash 12 step immersion hybrid program and was there for a
• 19:31
  little while, was also in outpatient treatment and got
• 19:35
  plugged in with an incredible Home group in Atlanta, ACA group
• 19:40
  in particular. And I, you know, after being on
• 19:44
  that journey for, for 10 years, I think it was a, a collection
• 19:49
  of things that all kind of came together at once, You know, a
• 19:52
  really, really great program that I was in with some
• 19:55
  incredible therapist who started doing some deep trauma work with
• 19:59
  me. On top of an incredible 12 step
• 20:02
  community that I got plugged into really just by the grace of
• 20:05
  God. And, and also I, I, I found a
• 20:10
  purpose. I, I've come to this place in,
• 20:13
  in my recovery journey today where I, I really think one of
• 20:16
  the single most important things is motivation and purpose.
• 20:20
  What, what that is for you. And then once you feel like you
• 20:23
  figure that out, it's been practicing this awareness around
• 20:27
  how that's constantly evolving, because I know for me it, it, it
• 20:31
  changes, you know, it, it was, it can start out one thing like,
• 20:38
  I know for me, it became this, this purpose of coming back to,
• 20:41
  to Alabama and, and really providing the service that I
• 20:45
  felt like was, was missing. And then, you know, then, then
• 20:50
  it, it can, I've got to watch the fact that I now I'm now I'm
• 20:54
  a dad with, with two little girls and, and the, the purpose
• 20:57
  and the motivation that they give me.
• 20:59
  And it's I'm constantly trying to practice this awareness
• 21:02
  around what that is today because I feel like that's
• 21:04
  really what keeps me going. Man, well, that's.
• 21:07
  Amazing. Yeah, and thank you.
• 21:08
  For sharing that story I I heard you I heard you talk about this
• 21:11
  one time, you know, and this isn't the kind of thing where
• 21:14
  you're like, hey, listen to this.
• 21:15
  You know, you know people kind of have to get it out of you,
• 21:17
  but you know, but you're like you said, it's part of your your
• 21:20
  past and what made you who you are today and brought you to the
• 21:23
  rock bottom you needed to hit. But what I was thinking about
• 21:26
  this time when when I heard you talking about it was just how it
• 21:30
  was such a perfect metaphor for active addiction.
• 21:36
  And you know this, I got it. I'll fix this thing.
• 21:39
  Wrapping yourself after being shot with paper towels and Saran
• 21:44
  wrap in your own apt. I mean, that just speaks volumes
• 21:47
  about how it is. It's like nothing to see here.
• 21:50
  I'm I mean, it's just unbelievable.
• 21:52
  So I mean, and you know, and the one other thing I was thinking
• 21:56
  about too, and another guest on our podcast said this being
• 21:59
  serious, but I, I thought it was funny the way he said it was
• 22:01
  talking about his intervention is talking about, you know, what
• 22:04
  happens when you know, a professional doesn't get
• 22:07
  involved and somebody needs help.
• 22:09
  And he says they, you know, the, the identified patient will
• 22:11
  often recommend a higher, I'm sorry, recommend a lower level
• 22:15
  of care for himself. And it sounds like that's what
• 22:17
  you did there. You were, you know, you're on
• 22:19
  the way to the hospital and then you recommended a lower level of
• 22:22
  care for yourself being your apartment with your Saran wrap,
• 22:25
  Neosporin and paper towels. Oh, yeah.
• 22:27
  When I finally made it to the detox facility in Atlanta, that
• 22:30
  was about four or five days later.
• 22:32
  And I'm, I'm doing the kind of nursing assessment.
• 22:35
  They've, they've got me in a, you know, an exam room and the
• 22:38
  nurse is walking me through all these questions and she's like,
• 22:40
  do you have any? Oh, and also let me say I'm, I'm
• 22:43
  at the time, I think I'm wearing like a white golf shirts, salmon
• 22:47
  shorts and like some driving shoes.
• 22:49
  Like I'm, I'm the least intimidating kid ever.
• 22:52
  And you know, she's, she asked me, do you have any open sores
• 22:56
  or wins? And I'm like, well, I got, I got
• 22:58
  shot four days ago and it's just this like, wait, what?
• 23:01
  And they're rushing, you know, nursing staff in and get me to
• 23:05
  the hospital. At that point, everything was
• 23:07
  OK, but it's it, it was I, I had just gotten to such a place
• 23:12
  where nothing was going to. Nothing was going to stop me,
• 23:16
  nothing was going to get in the way.
• 23:17
  Nothing was. I had no choice in the matter.
• 23:22
  The power of choice was completely, completely gone for
• 23:25
  me. And yeah, at the same time, you
• 23:29
  know, I look back on that. You mentioned rock bottom and I,
• 23:34
  I, I wouldn't necessarily say that at that point in time that
• 23:38
  was really a rock bottom for me. And I'm I'm.
• 23:43
  I'm in this. Place right now where I don't
• 23:44
  necessarily know if I like, like, like before that things
• 23:47
  have been way worse at times. And I'm, you know, I know
• 23:51
  there's kind of this, this thought process and this
• 23:53
  ideology around like someone has to hit rock bottom or they have
• 23:55
  to want help before we can help them.
• 23:58
  And I, I, I reject that to a certain degree.
• 24:00
  I, I'm, you know, in terms of, of long leaf in our, our
• 24:03
  facilities. If someone shows up at our door,
• 24:05
  whether it's, you know, because a judge sent them or because
• 24:08
  their mom dragged them, or it's by their own choice, like we're,
• 24:12
  we're going to help them. You know, someone in people in
• 24:15
  early recovery, they, they, they, they don't, a lot of times
• 24:18
  I feel like they don't even believe in themselves or they
• 24:20
  don't feel ready. And, and that's OK.
• 24:23
  I think in a lot of instances it's it's our job to to spark
• 24:27
  that hope and and show them that a better life is possible, even
• 24:31
  if they can't see it yet. Yeah, we completely share in
• 24:36
  that that train of thought as well.
• 24:38
  And that's exactly what you're saying, Colin.
• 24:41
  I mean, like, no matter where somebody's at mentally,
• 24:44
  physically and all the other, you know, if they if the phone
• 24:47
  rings or if they show up at our door, like, yeah, we're going
• 24:50
  to, we're going to meet them exactly where they are.
• 24:52
  And we're going to, you know, love them and get them the the
• 24:55
  help that they need and provide the appropriate suggestions
• 24:58
  about what we think might be helpful for them as they take
• 25:01
  their next step. But yeah, prerequisite for any
• 25:05
  of that is definitely not a, you know, a willingness or, or high
• 25:08
  level of motivation to change. Like you just got to just be
• 25:11
  willing to start moving your feet and hopefully to some
• 25:14
  things will happen. But I think it can be, you know,
• 25:18
  and we can talk about this for a long time, but you know, whether
• 25:21
  it's the, the, you know, the identified client or whether
• 25:24
  it's the family, you know, sometimes you get that right,
• 25:27
  this idea that like, well, you know, we can't, we can't make
• 25:29
  them, which is, you know, true most of the time, or that, you
• 25:34
  know, nothing's going to change if they're not ready to change.
• 25:37
  And it's like, well, you know, well, if it's like a medical
• 25:40
  emergency, like maybe let's worry about that first.
• 25:43
  And then, you know, for example, if we're if we have a gunshot
• 25:46
  wound or something like that, or, or you know, if you're at
• 25:48
  high risk of experiencing some potentially life threatening
• 25:52
  withdrawal or something like, let's just worry about that
• 25:54
  right now, you know, and then everything else, we can kind of
• 25:56
  figure that out. And maybe, you know, maybe
• 25:59
  miracles happen and they become willing and then and then, you
• 26:02
  know, the rest of the possibilities going to open up
• 26:03
  at that point. Yeah, I completely agree that
• 26:07
  that is basically a myth that somebody's got to be ready.
• 26:11
  I need help. Help, help.
• 26:13
  Tell me what to do. I'll do anything.
• 26:14
  You know, that kind of thing. I mean, I'm sure it happens
• 26:17
  sometimes. Probably not very often, but
• 26:18
  yeah, probably. Probably fewer than right.
• 26:21
  Totally. I mean, I think most people will
• 26:23
  need to need, in most cases need some consequences, whether
• 26:26
  that's getting shot or you know, with me.
• 26:29
  Hopefully not Hopefully. Not or, you know, in, in my
• 26:33
  case, just family was kind of closing in on me, like, OK, all
• 26:36
  right, don't leave me alone. I'll go to treatment.
• 26:38
  And then just, you know, going through, going through the
• 26:40
  motions and doing, you know, putting 1 foot in front of the
• 26:42
  other and getting a little bit of, of relief that way and
• 26:45
  seeing that things are getting better.
• 26:46
  And that's what it I think in my observation, that's typically
• 26:49
  what happens is maybe get sober or go to treatment for somebody
• 26:54
  else or some other reason and then kind of stay on that path
• 26:57
  for ourselves. Yeah, I couldn't agree.
• 27:00
  I mean, I've seen it happen too many times where they're, you
• 27:02
  know, especially I feel like I see it a lot in, in, in young
• 27:06
  men where, yeah, there's, there's some other factor that's
• 27:09
  that's pushing them to go to treatment, whether it be their
• 27:12
  parents or legal issues. A girl, you know, we've seen
• 27:17
  that happen before. But it, it's, you know, that I'm
• 27:21
  in this place where it's like, I don't care what gets you there.
• 27:23
  I don't care what gets you in our doors.
• 27:26
  You know, if you got to do it for somebody else for a little
• 27:28
  bit, Are are, you know, our goal is going to be to turn that, you
• 27:32
  know, within two weeks, 3 weeks that there's a shift in that,
• 27:36
  wow, you're getting something out of this and you're starting
• 27:38
  to, to have an experience. It's starting to, to do
• 27:42
  something for you. And then that that shift
• 27:44
  happens. And then you're on the path of
• 27:45
  doing it for yourself. And I've just seen it happen too
• 27:48
  many times. Yeah, I agree.
• 27:51
  Well, if you don't mind, will you tell us a little bit about
• 27:55
  this next project you're working on?
• 27:57
  Yeah. You know, we've, we've been 90
• 27:59
  to nothing here because it's, you know, like I said, there's a
• 28:03
  huge need here and there's, there's, there's some serious
• 28:05
  gaps and we're, we're trying to fill those.
• 28:08
  And our next, our next project is, is going to be a A-60 bed
• 28:13
  residential facility here in just South of Birmingham and
• 28:17
  Shelby County. It's a, it's going to be 150
• 28:20
  acres. It's currently 150 acre horse
• 28:22
  farm. And oh wow, this is, it's a, a
• 28:27
  beautiful location, rolling hills, lots of trees, It's very
• 28:31
  peaceful. It's secluded.
• 28:33
  We, we intentionally chose a, a, a natural serene setting for
• 28:38
  this campus because again, an environment is a huge part of
• 28:40
  healing. And you know, this is going to
• 28:44
  be, this is something that Alabama desperately, desperately
• 28:49
  needs. You know, it's going to, it's
• 28:51
  going to have a, a medically supervised 24/7 10 bed detox
• 28:57
  facility on site. We're, we're going to construct
• 29:01
  A6 cabins on the property, a big dining hall and fitness center.
• 29:05
  And you know, where I, I really look at this is, is that this is
• 29:11
  what I've wanted to do the entire time.
• 29:13
  There's a, a lot of a lot of red tape in Alabama to to open a, a
• 29:18
  residential treatment facility and in particular going through
• 29:21
  the certificate of need process which we have now concluded or
• 29:25
  at the end of that we look to begin construction and thank
• 29:27
  you. We're going to begin
• 29:28
  construction on the property in February and think we'll we'll
• 29:32
  be opened probably March, April of of 2027.
• 29:36
  And we're really excited to bring this to Alabama.
• 29:40
  It's right, you know, right now there's there's really only one
• 29:42
  option for residential treatment.
• 29:44
  And you know, a lot of people go out of state and, you know, at
• 29:48
  that point, they're, they're having to pay out of pocket or
• 29:51
  their family, as you know, not able to, to get to them or visit
• 29:54
  them regularly or be a part of family programming, which is
• 29:57
  something that we, you know, we strongly believe in and do a lot
• 30:01
  of. So this is this is something
• 30:04
  we've been working on for a long time and we're excited to see it
• 30:07
  finally come to life. Man, that's awesome.
• 30:10
  Yeah, that's. Amazing.
• 30:12
  That is amazing. We we really look forward to,
• 30:15
  you know, keep us up to date on that and certainly any way that,
• 30:18
  you know, we can support and just really excited to have
• 30:22
  other high quality options for treatment.
• 30:24
  Man, that's amazing. Yeah.
• 30:26
  Well, what for now, how do our listeners and viewers find you
• 30:32
  and Long Leaf and any other thing you want any other way to
• 30:36
  to find you? Basically, yeah.
• 30:37
  No, I mean the. Best, the best way to find us is
• 30:39
  to to to go to our website, which is long leaf centers with
• 30:43
  an s.com. You'll find our phone number
• 30:46
  there. We've got dedicated people on
• 30:48
  those phones 24/7 taking those calls and, and, and this is, you
• 30:54
  know, we're, we're all across Alabama, But you know, if, if,
• 30:57
  if you do need, you know, a different level of care than
• 31:00
  what we offer, We are, we're, we try to be as much of A resource
• 31:04
  for these communities that we're in as much as we can.
• 31:07
  And so we'll help you figure out how to navigate this process,
• 31:10
  how to get to a program that's right for you.
• 31:12
  If that's not our program. And you know, that's a, that's a
• 31:16
  way to get in touch with me as well.
• 31:18
  If you, if you want to have a conversation with me and which
• 31:20
  is something that I, I, I do all the time.
• 31:22
  So we we're constantly sitting down with people, whether
• 31:25
  they're going to come be a part of our program or not, and just
• 31:27
  helping them navigate this, talking about the next step.
• 31:31
  So our website would be the best way to get in touch with us.
• 31:35
  Awesome. Colin Harris, thank you so much
• 31:38
  for being here today, man. Keep up the good work and
• 31:41
  looking forward to seeing the rez open and and seeing you when
• 31:44
  I come to Alabama. Yeah, come on.
• 31:46
  Come visit us and thank you all for taking the time to to talk
• 31:49
  with me and and let me come on this show.
• 31:52
  Absolutely. Thank you, Colin.
• 31:53
  We appreciate it, man. All right.
• 31:56
  If you liked what? You heard today or just want to
• 31:57
  know more, give us a call on 9196708119 or visit us at
• 32:03
  newwatersrecovery.com. Thank you.