Latest / Our Community, Our Mission / Ep #231 – Innovative Partnerships for a Healthier Community with Bill Persinger

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Ep #231 – Innovative Partnerships for a Healthier Community with Bill Persinger · Our Community, Our Mission

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Father, you're good to us.
• 0:00
  Speaker 1: God, we're just so thankful for this time, for the listeners.
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: God, for what you're revealing to us and what you'll continue to reveal.
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: God, I'm thankful for the partnerships here today.
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: God, I'm thankful for just everything you've given us.
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: God, I pray that we just keep you in our hearts and in our minds as we go forward throughout our days.
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: It's in Jesus' name we pray.
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: Amen.
• 0:21
  Speaker 2: Hello everybody.
• 0:22
  Speaker 2: You're listening to our Community, our Mission, a podcast of the Topeka Rescue Mission.
• 0:25
  Speaker 2: This is your host, barry Feeker, here on Wednesday, july 17th 2024, podcast number 231.
• 0:33
  Speaker 3: I know 231.
• 0:34
  Speaker 2: 231.
• 0:35
  Speaker 2: What have we been doing all these years?
• 0:36
  Speaker 2: I don't know.
• 0:36
  Speaker 2: We're not that old, we're not.
• 0:38
  Speaker 2: I am, maybe we are.
• 0:39
  Speaker 2: We have one honest person here.
• 0:42
  Speaker 2: That's right.
• 0:42
  Speaker 2: That we have one honest person here in the room today, that's right.
• 0:44
  Speaker 2: That's right Marion Crable, who is Deputy Director here at Topeka Rescue Mission, and we have our guest.
• 0:49
  Speaker 2: We're going to introduce him because we want to pull him into our Q&A today.
• 0:53
  Speaker 2: Okay, in regards to our special, highly researched research department on what's special about July 17th, I spend days doing this.
• 1:00
  Speaker 2: Yes, we can tell, and we're so grateful.
• 1:05
  Speaker 2: We have not only a great guest today, we have a great friend, and that's Bill Persinger, who is CEO of Vallejo.
• 1:10
  Speaker 2: Welcome, bill, thank you friends.
• 1:12
  Speaker 2: Yeah, so we're going to talk about your career and it's getting ready to change here pretty soon.
• 1:20
  Speaker 4: Once you burn up the first 60 seconds, what are you going to do with the rest of your?
• 1:23
  Speaker 2: time We'll make up stuff Bill.
• 1:25
  Speaker 2: We'll make up stuff We've got a lot of stuff to talk to you about.
• 1:27
  Speaker 2: That's right.
• 1:27
  Speaker 2: But, Bill, you've been on the podcast here at Our Community, Our Mission, before and you know we have some very important things that we have to do to get out of the way first and that's what is special about today, and so Miriam, this first going to talk about.
• 1:45
  Speaker 2: July 17th it's National.
• 1:46
  Speaker 2: What Day?
• 1:46
  Speaker 2: Well, it's National Hot Dog Day, and this is a repeat.
• 1:48
  Speaker 2: This is a repeat.
• 1:48
  Speaker 3: You think we've done this one before.
• 1:49
  Speaker 3: I'm confident.
• 1:49
  Speaker 2: Well, after 231 episodes, we might have done that, yeah.
• 1:53
  Speaker 3: I am just so confident because I think you made fun of me.
• 1:56
  Speaker 2: So why would I make fun of you?
• 1:58
  Speaker 3: I don't know, but I don't remember that much you just remember it was Hot Dog Day.
• 2:03
  Speaker 2: Well, maybe it's because we had a discussion about the way you prefer to eat hot dogs.
• 2:08
  Speaker 2: That might be it, and you love them boiled in a pan, right?
• 2:11
  Speaker 3: Oh gosh, that just makes me kind of Get the bucket Exactly, exactly.
• 2:15
  Speaker 3: No, that's a terrible, horrible, awful memory Cold from the refrigerator.
• 2:20
  Speaker 4: No no.
• 2:21
  Speaker 2: Burned on the grill, yeah me too, I know, so, bill, you do some camping and you probably have hot dogs every once in a while.
• 2:29
  Speaker 2: We do, maybe, s'mores and those kind of things.
• 2:31
  Speaker 2: So is open fire hot dog cooking the best?
• 2:35
  Speaker 4: Oh, it's the best.
• 2:36
  Speaker 4: It is the best, you know.
• 2:37
  Speaker 4: A thing slides off the end of that poker, though.
• 2:39
  Speaker 4: You've got to be careful.
• 2:40
  Speaker 4: You've got to hold them at the right angle.
• 2:42
  Speaker 3: That's exactly right, right, right Before you burnt marshmallow.
• 2:45
  Speaker 3: Exactly, but didn't you ever have to do it like with a hanger, a wire?
• 2:50
  Speaker 2: hanger.
• 2:50
  Speaker 2: Oh yeah, my wire hanger.
• 2:50
  Speaker 3: And you always wanted that little curvy part because it kind of holds the hot dog better and what's really good is when you started eating, it was real crunchy on the inside from all the paint that came off the hanger, and that's why we have the health issues.
• 3:01
  Speaker 4: Yeah, you don't want the first hot dog.
• 3:04
  Speaker 3: There's three of us here that have made it quite a while with all that kind of stuff.
• 3:07
  Speaker 2: Burn that paint off before you stick the hot dog on there.
• 3:09
  Speaker 2: That's right.
• 3:10
  Speaker 2: No, I actually prefer the new fangled hot dog way, and that's microwave.
• 3:14
  Speaker 3: Yep, we do that.
• 3:15
  Speaker 3: Oh no, no, no, that's just one step away from boiling.
• 3:20
  Speaker 2: So, bill, miriam, what kind of hot dog do you like?
• 3:24
  Speaker 2: Not the way it's cooked, but what kind of hot dog, since this is National Hot Dog Day.
• 3:29
  Speaker 4: Love me some brats.
• 3:30
  Speaker 4: I'm going to put that in a hot dog family.
• 3:31
  Speaker 4: A brat Good, overcooked brat.
• 3:32
  Speaker 3: Oh well, that's a sausage though, bill.
• 3:34
  Speaker 3: That's not a hot dog.
• 3:35
  Speaker 3: Oh, I thought he was talking about LaManda, a brat?
• 3:38
  Speaker 2: No, not a brat.
• 3:39
  Speaker 2: Oh, that's right.
• 3:40
  Speaker 2: She's not here today, by the way, and she's probably listening, and so you know she's going to come for you we want to include you, lamanda, even though you're not here with us today, so I'm sure this will give you a chuckle and probably you'll talk to me about it later.
• 3:52
  Speaker 2: So there is chicken hot dogs oh no, there's pork hot dogs no boy.
• 3:59
  Speaker 2: There is beef hot dogs All beef, all beef.
• 4:01
  Speaker 2: There is tofu hot dogs.
• 4:03
  Speaker 3: Nope, that's not even.
• 4:04
  Speaker 3: That can't even be a thing.
• 4:05
  Speaker 3: And then there's mystery hot dogs.
• 4:08
  Speaker 4: I think, they're all a mystery, yeah.
• 4:10
  Speaker 2: All beef would be the way, though.
• 4:11
  Speaker 2: Okay, all right, so I go for the all beef too.
• 4:14
  Speaker 2: Just at least tell me that's what's on the label and we'll go from there.
• 4:17
  Speaker 2: All right, we have 17th.
• 4:20
  Speaker 2: One is World Emoji Day.
• 4:23
  Speaker 2: Bill, you know what an emoji is?
• 4:24
  Speaker 2: I know what an emoji is, I do.
• 4:26
  Speaker 2: Yeah, you remember when they came out?
• 4:28
  Speaker 4: Yep, I do, do you Sure?
• 4:29
  Speaker 4: I remember when email came out.
• 4:35
  Speaker 3: Like early 90s.
• 4:35
  Speaker 3: I'm like what do I need this for?
• 4:36
  Speaker 3: Why?
• 4:37
  Speaker 2: would we ever use that?
• 4:38
  Speaker 2: They use that.
• 4:38
  Speaker 2: So why do we have a National Emoji Day, miriam?
• 4:41
  Speaker 2: I mean really Because we don't have to spell anymore, because we don't have to talk anymore, because we're going back to the Egyptian hieroglyphics.
• 4:48
  Speaker 2: I think that's it, okay, all right.
• 4:49
  Speaker 3: Everything old is new again, right.
• 4:52
  Speaker 2: Oxford Dictionary's word for the year of 2015 was the crying emoji.
• 4:57
  Speaker 2: Light up your friend's phones with all the emojis you want.
• 5:00
  Speaker 2: Today.
• 5:00
  Speaker 2: It's a healthy obsession, according to our research and development department, and anyway, while sometimes they may seem silly, according to various psychologists and researchers, bill, this would be your area.
• 5:16
  Speaker 4: they may play a vital role in the way we communicate today.
• 5:18
  Speaker 4: Is that correct?
• 5:18
  Speaker 4: You know what?
• 5:19
  Speaker 4: I agree, and you know picture's worth a thousand words.
• 5:22
  Speaker 3: Okay, there you go A hug a smile.
• 5:25
  Speaker 4: You get emails from me all the time.
• 5:27
  Speaker 4: I'll bet half of them end up with a smile or a thumbs up.
• 5:30
  Speaker 4: Right that emoji.
• 5:31
  Speaker 3: That's very true.
• 5:31
  Speaker 3: I mean why not.
• 5:32
  Speaker 4: We need some kindness in the world.
• 5:34
  Speaker 3: I agree with you.
• 5:35
  Speaker 3: And words can sound so abrupt even when you don't want them to.
• 5:38
  Speaker 3: That's right.
• 5:42
  Speaker 1: That's right text conversation with me.
• 5:43
  Speaker 1: There has to be an emoji, otherwise there's a problem.
• 5:45
  Speaker 2: Agreed.
• 5:45
  Speaker 2: It's like you really don't care yeah.
• 5:49
  Speaker 3: I'm angry if there's no emoji.
• 5:50
  Speaker 3: She's mad yeah.
• 5:51
  Speaker 2: Just the fact.
• 5:52
  Speaker 2: Well, I like emojis because they save a lot of time.
• 5:54
  Speaker 2: They do.
• 5:54
  Speaker 3: Anyway.
• 5:55
  Speaker 2: I'm glad they invented that thing.
• 5:56
  Speaker 2: I don't know where it's going to go in the next millennia, but maybe we won't need emojis anymore.
• 6:01
  Speaker 2: Maybe we'll just go.
• 6:02
  Speaker 3: Maybe we won't even speak to each other anymore, maybe we'll just grunt, grunt Exactly, and AI will know exactly what we meant Probably how we started.
• 6:09
  Speaker 2: All right One more have National Hot Dog Day, world Emoji Day and, oh, this is the best part.
• 6:13
  Speaker 3: This is one of my favorites National.
• 6:16
  Speaker 2: what kind of ice cream day Peach.
• 6:19
  Speaker 4: Oh, my favorite Black walnut.
• 6:22
  Speaker 2: Black walnut.
• 6:23
  Speaker 2: Oh, we have to do Another day on that one Another day.
• 6:26
  Speaker 3: That's a good one.
• 6:27
  Speaker 2: So why do you like Peach ice cream, maryam?
• 6:30
  Speaker 3: Because?
• 6:30
  Speaker 3: Because Peaches are special.
• 6:32
  Speaker 4: They're special.
• 6:32
  Speaker 4: I just I just finished a half gallon Of peach ice cream, did you Like last night?
• 6:37
  Speaker 3: But was it?
• 6:37
  Speaker 2: homemade?
• 6:38
  Speaker 2: No, it was not, hey, you were a day ahead, so anyway.
• 6:40
  Speaker 3: Okay, yeah, you were a day ahead, yep.
• 6:42
  Speaker 2: That's right.
• 6:42
  Speaker 2: Well, these were very important things, bill, it's really good having you here today.
• 6:45
  Speaker 2: I hope that you do well and we're out of time.
• 6:49
  Speaker 4: See y'all later.
• 6:50
  Speaker 2: Now Bill Persinger, as we talked about before, ceo of Vallejo Behavioral Health here in Topeka, kansas, used to be, years ago, the Shawnee Community Mental Health Center.
• 7:00
  Speaker 2: It did Way back when I remember kind of the beginnings of that whole thing.
• 7:05
  Speaker 2: And so, bill, you are getting ready to retire.
• 7:10
  Speaker 2: Step down and, believe me, having been there, done that, we'll see a lot of you, that's right, you just think you're going to retire.
• 7:17
  Speaker 2: That's right.
• 7:18
  Speaker 2: But, bill, so talk to us about your time with Alejo.
• 7:22
  Speaker 2: When did you start?
• 7:23
  Speaker 2: Just some kind of highlights.
• 7:25
  Speaker 2: And then, before that, even I know that you've been helping people, I believe, since about 1974.
• 7:33
  Speaker 2: Seventy-four Well, that dates us, doesn't it?
• 7:35
  Speaker 4: I was an undergrad at Emporia State and sitting there in philosophy class and was going to major in psychology and special education.
• 7:44
  Speaker 4: Of course I was cooking down the street downtown at a place called the Red Lion.
• 7:49
  Speaker 4: Philosophy professor says well, if you guys you know, are studying psychology or criminology, social, any of that behavioral stuff, you know, the Hetlinger Developmental Center south end of Commercial Street in Emporia is looking for college kids to work with adults who have developmental disability and other problems.
• 8:10
  Speaker 4: I thought, oh, I probably ought to go do something like that.
• 8:13
  Speaker 4: So I went down and worked then.
• 8:15
  Speaker 4: That's the start of my career in fall of 1974.
• 8:16
  Speaker 4: And, you know, preceded by carrying groceries, playing in a rock band, doing construction work, mowing lawns, all that stuff.
• 8:25
  Speaker 4: I've been working since I was 11.
• 8:26
  Speaker 4: Well, maybe about 11.
• 8:28
  Speaker 4: Delucia used to deliver TV guides to your house.
• 8:31
  Speaker 3: I got to keep a nickel, I got to keep a nickel.
• 8:33
  Speaker 4: That was 1967.
• 8:35
  Speaker 2: So, Bill, are you from Kansas originally.
• 8:37
  Speaker 4: Well, you know, I was born on Bermuda Island in 1955.
• 8:43
  Speaker 4: My dad was in the Navy and they stationed him in Texas when I was two and they came back to Kansas when I was three.
• 8:49
  Speaker 4: So I've been here ever since, not maybe a native, but all of my relatives, everybody on both sides from Osage County going back about five generations.
• 8:58
  Speaker 4: So my grandkids are, I think, a sixth generation.
• 9:02
  Speaker 4: Seventh generation of Kansas kids are, I think, a sixth generation, seventh generation of Kansas.
• 9:06
  Speaker 2: So you kind of got your feet wet working with developmentally disabled individuals, and when did it shift over into what would be called behavioral health or mental health?
• 9:16
  Speaker 4: You know, behavioral health is a relatively new term on the scale of things.
• 9:21
  Speaker 4: Some states have been using that term for many, many years.
• 9:25
  Speaker 4: Here in Kansas it's a more recent thing the last 15, 20 years where we try to refer to what has to do with mental health psychiatry, addiction, adjustment problems, family.
• 9:39
  Speaker 4: So if somebody has a behavioral health problem, that can mean a lot of things.
• 9:43
  Speaker 4: And then we start to break that down between addiction, mental health problems, mental illness.
• 9:48
  Speaker 4: You know that kind of.
• 9:49
  Speaker 4: You know the everyday stuff that we all experience and try to deal with every day Anxiety, depression, personal problems, problems with daily living.
• 9:57
  Speaker 4: So behavioral health care kind of catches the whole thing and tries to summarize for the consuming public that it's okay, we've all been there.
• 10:08
  Speaker 4: And behavioral health problems can be small, large, temporary, ongoing, challenging Would there be a difference between that and developmental disability.
• 10:17
  Speaker 4: You know, only in the sense that a person, anybody, can have a behavioral health problem, from mild to severe, you know, short-term to chronic.
• 10:28
  Speaker 4: So a person who is physically disabled or who has a developmental disability, you know, can also have a person who has an addiction or an alcohol and drug dependence.
• 10:40
  Speaker 4: Maybe it's not a full addiction.
• 10:41
  Speaker 4: They can also have anxiety, depression, family problems or some of the more serious mental illnesses like bipolar disease and schizophrenia.
• 10:50
  Speaker 4: And when I say serious I mean okay, yeah, those do need focused treatment but the recovery rate is good, the hope is good, and I don't want anybody to think that because we might use the term serious mental illness that people are are doomed to a lifetime of whatever might come their way that there's a lot of hope for recovery.
• 11:08
  Speaker 4: We see people recover every day from some pretty serious addictions as well.
• 11:13
  Speaker 2: Bill Vallejo is a community mental health center.
• 11:16
  Speaker 2: We are.
• 11:16
  Speaker 2: And so how many are in Kansas?
• 11:17
  Speaker 2: And this is not your first mental health center that you've worked with.
• 11:22
  Speaker 4: There are 26 licensed community mental health centers in the state of Kansas.
• 11:25
  Speaker 4: Most have been around since the early to mid-60s, right after President Kennedy signed the Federal Enabling Act creating community mental health centers all across the country.
• 11:34
  Speaker 4: Our counties in Kansas were actually the first level of government to step up and become community mental health centers.
• 11:44
  Speaker 4: So prior to coming here I was the chief executive officer at the mental health center in Emporia.
• 11:50
  Speaker 4: It eventually served seven counties.
• 11:52
  Speaker 4: They started with one or two.
• 11:54
  Speaker 4: A few people got together, created a board, got the endorsement from the county in Hiawatha where I came from.
• 12:02
  Speaker 4: Before then, same thing.
• 12:03
  Speaker 4: It started out as the Brown County Mental Health Clinic in 1963.
• 12:07
  Speaker 4: A local physician and a couple three other people got together and formed it and brought a psychiatrist up from Topeka on Saturday mornings at an office in the, I think, the basement of the courthouse in Hiawatha.
• 12:19
  Speaker 4: So they started pretty small beginnings but they've been around since the early 60s, a couple of them even before that.
• 12:25
  Speaker 4: So yeah, all across the state, emporia.
• 12:27
  Speaker 4: I was at Emporia, hiawatha before that and Greensburg before that, so this is the fourth of the 26 mental health centers that I've worked at since 1977 or 8.
• 12:39
  Speaker 2: Vallejo, prior to that, was called Shawnee Community Mental Health.
• 12:42
  Speaker 2: That's correct.
• 12:42
  Speaker 2: A lot of people thought it was county.
• 12:43
  Speaker 2: Was it ever under the county?
• 12:45
  Speaker 4: Yeah, there was.
• 12:46
  Speaker 4: It was never a county department in my recollection.
• 12:49
  Speaker 4: At one point it was called Shawnee County Community Mental Health Center.
• 12:53
  Speaker 4: Then I think it was shortened I'm not sure formally, but at least informally shortened to SCMHC Shawnee County Mental Health Center.
• 13:00
  Speaker 4: Then, I believe in 2002, it acquired the name Vallejo Behavioral Health Care.
• 13:05
  Speaker 4: So same mission and purpose, just kind of a name to make more people feel welcome and to also reflect the fact that we also provide alcohol and drug abuse treatment services.
• 13:17
  Speaker 4: So mental health care with addictions care, you get behavioral health care.
• 13:22
  Speaker 2: I know I've told you this before, bill, but way back when I worked at Topeka State Hospital going to college and then did my internship with then Shawnee Community Mental Health for a year, it was a way smaller organization than it is today.
• 13:36
  Speaker 2: But still one of the biggest in the state at that point.
• 13:38
  Speaker 2: At that point, is that right?
• 13:39
  Speaker 2: We had a day treatment program that I did work with, with 11 staff, and so a lot has happened over the years, even prior to your coming here, but there's been a lot of expansion.
• 13:49
  Speaker 2: So how many staff does Vallejo employ today?
• 13:54
  Speaker 2: You know?
• 13:54
  Speaker 4: if we were fully employed with individuals, not FTEs.
• 13:59
  Speaker 4: I think that number's around 325, 330.
• 14:02
  Speaker 4: The vacancy rate right now is running oh, I haven't looked it's 8%, 9%, 10%, but it's been as high during and right after the COVID as 16% or 18%.
• 14:11
  Speaker 4: So at any given time we have 12, 15 openings.
• 14:15
  Speaker 4: Human resources are even more precious these days.
• 14:18
  Speaker 4: They've ever been before.
• 14:20
  Speaker 4: It's hard to hire and retain and it's taking on a new level here keeping and retaining good staff.
• 14:27
  Speaker 2: How many properties does Vallejo manage?
• 14:31
  Speaker 4: We operate an administrative facility on Southwest 7th.
• 14:35
  Speaker 4: We have two let me use the word group homes.
• 14:37
  Speaker 4: We call them transitional living centers and they're located in the north central part of town and we have two buildings at 3rd and Oakley and another building at about 6th and McVicar and another one just down the street toward the west from there.
• 14:52
  Speaker 4: So we operate.
• 14:53
  Speaker 4: I can't count that all of a sudden two, four, six, seven facilities, seven facilities.
• 14:58
  Speaker 4: Did I say I was retiring?
• 15:02
  Speaker 2: It'll all come back to you someday.
• 15:03
  Speaker 4: Yeah, someday Two o'clock in the morning yeah yeah, Bill.
• 15:06
  Speaker 2: when did you come to Vallejo?
• 15:07
  Speaker 4: My first day was November 5th 2015.
• 15:10
  Speaker 4: I had my dream job at Emporia.
• 15:13
  Speaker 4: I was the mental health director there, although I loved Hiawatha and Greensburg as well, so I don't mean to diminish my time there at all, but I was from near Emporia.
• 15:22
  Speaker 4: I was a graduate, got my first two college degrees there and a second master's from University of Minnesota, but it was like going home.
• 15:29
  Speaker 4: I did my internship at that mental health center in 1978.
• 15:37
  Speaker 4: Asked them for a job as a therapist.
• 15:38
  Speaker 4: Well, they didn't have any, I guess.
• 15:39
  Speaker 4: So I went to Greensburg five and a half years out there at the mental health center as a therapist.
• 15:48
  Speaker 4: But you know, it was a great opportunity to go back after 28 years and be the chief executive.
• 15:50
  Speaker 4: And not that I had to be the big boss or anything like that, because I see us all on the same plane and just partners from everybody in the organization, but it was great fun to come back and be the executive director at a place I did my internship 28 years earlier.
• 16:03
  Speaker 4: A couple, three of the same people were still there, great people, and I always thought, oh man, I really wanted a job in Emporia and finally got it.
• 16:09
  Speaker 4: So I was there about 10 years and the opportunity came up in Topeka, in Shawnee County, and, just you know, the opportunity to see a full program in operation.
• 16:21
  Speaker 4: You know, and even at the smallest of mental health centers we're able to do things and parts of things and do this and do that.
• 16:30
  Speaker 4: So maybe you know, miriam, if you were an hour at Greensburg you'd probably be wearing two, three hats.
• 16:34
  Speaker 4: I'd be wearing two, three hats and that's all good.
• 16:36
  Speaker 4: That's how you do it in a rural area.
• 16:37
  Speaker 4: But in a larger mental health center you could see teams of people, the hope team that that helped work alongside you folks for helping the unsheltered and supported employment and crisis care.
• 16:49
  Speaker 4: We wanted a transitional living facility in Hiawatha as early as the 1980s.
• 16:56
  Speaker 4: I got there in 84.
• 16:57
  Speaker 4: We were thinking, man, if we could just get an older home and kind of fix it up and have a boarding home and have a few people live there, we could support them.
• 17:04
  Speaker 4: But we just never had enough of a population base to do that.
• 17:08
  Speaker 4: The will was there.
• 17:09
  Speaker 4: So here in Topeka we were able to have transitional living facilities, have open 24 hours a day, offering crisis care and detox.
• 17:17
  Speaker 4: It was just the opportunity to see a lifetime of things kind of come together for me, so it was great timing.
• 17:23
  Speaker 4: I hope I've served well.
• 17:25
  Speaker 2: I've tried.
• 17:25
  Speaker 2: What would you say are the biggest changes in your tenure here at Vallejo, and maybe what you're most?
• 17:33
  Speaker 4: proud of Well, you know the notes I took Barry to prepare for the day over the last couple three days were the partnerships.
• 17:39
  Speaker 4: That is what I've seen change dramatically in the 50 years that I've been helping people and we've always been partnerships.
• 17:46
  Speaker 4: But the partnerships that I see coming together here in Topeka and Liberal and Hutchinson are broader in scope and deeper.
• 17:55
  Speaker 4: So you used to throw the word coalition partnership.
• 17:59
  Speaker 4: You know joint things.
• 18:01
  Speaker 4: You know that.
• 18:02
  Speaker 4: You do Not that we paid lip service to it, but it was just something we talked about and did some things, but it really has developed.
• 18:11
  Speaker 4: You know a lot of sinew and bone and strength here in the last few years, particularly as concerns nonprofits and faith-based, the opportunity to work with government and business all on the same project.
• 18:26
  Speaker 4: We're talking about addiction or homelessness or any of the problems that we're trying to address and the other thing that's taken on a lot of significance.
• 18:34
  Speaker 4: So partnerships really do mean something, because you can't, there isn't enough money, even if there was to do it alone, you just can't say we're going to do this alone or to go it alone.
• 18:45
  Speaker 4: It could be done, but it'll be missing something.
• 18:48
  Speaker 4: It'll be missing energy and drive.
• 18:50
  Speaker 4: So the thing that we have really, I think, focused on here well, I know for sure we focused on, at least in my time and even before my time is public safety.
• 19:00
  Speaker 4: How does behavioral health care, mental health and addictions relate to public safety?
• 19:07
  Speaker 4: We're all concerned about suicide rate, all concerned about substance abuse, all concerned about children and families who are vulnerable and adults who are vulnerable for all kinds, especially as maybe they lose some cognitive function, and we're all concerned about suicide rate.
• 19:28
  Speaker 4: And what can we do to reduce or eliminate homelessness?
• 19:32
  Speaker 4: So you find it.
• 19:33
  Speaker 4: Well, you can't just do that through mental health or the rescue mission or the county health department or the police department or a group of local businesses getting together to decide what are we going to do.
• 19:44
  Speaker 4: It takes that partnership.
• 19:45
  Speaker 4: It takes that partnership, and I've been amazed at how that word partnership has taken on almost a soulful meaning for me and drives us.
• 19:54
  Speaker 4: I think.
• 19:55
  Speaker 4: How would you describe that, bill?
• 20:00
  Speaker 4: Well, you know, so there are.
• 20:01
  Speaker 4: I'll give you an example.
• 20:02
  Speaker 4: We formed a coalition between us and three other agencies to pursue grant money.
• 20:08
  Speaker 4: So it allowed us to serve the lifespan of individuals, you know, particularly as concerns, you know, substance abuse prevention and education and intervention in the community.
• 20:18
  Speaker 4: You know the partnership that we enjoy with you folks and right alongside with Topeka Police Department, the County Sheriff, county Health Department, mobile Access Partnership.
• 20:27
  Speaker 4: Yeah, we're talking now.
• 20:29
  Speaker 4: You know we created the Intersection Coalition about two and a half three years ago.
• 20:34
  Speaker 4: That's the intersection between the criminal justice system, all of it courts, probation, parole, you know, law enforcement and behavioral health, which I expand even to social programs and other things like that.
• 20:48
  Speaker 4: So you know we've got 30 or 40 member agencies and we're a coalition.
• 20:53
  Speaker 4: We work on things like competency to stand trial.
• 20:55
  Speaker 4: We work on, you know, what can we get to?
• 20:58
  Speaker 4: You know, help people adjust who are, you know, coming out of the criminal justice system and maybe facing a homelessness or addiction.
• 21:05
  Speaker 4: So we and actually got, you know, some things logged in in the community and got some work done.
• 21:10
  Speaker 4: It's just those partnerships are so valuable.
• 21:13
  Speaker 4: They really mean something these days because they turn into programs for people.
• 21:16
  Speaker 4: And you do have to do that unselfishly.
• 21:18
  Speaker 4: It's like, oh, let's create a partnership so we can get some more money for X or Y or Z, but you really do that to strengthen your community and leave it in a better place than you found it.
• 21:28
  Speaker 4: What's the key to developing those partnerships in your opinion?
• 21:31
  Speaker 4: You know, I tell you, if I go to a meeting or a gathering or an event and I look around the room and I'm like the only kind of mental health guy there, I'm like I'm in the right place.
• 21:43
  Speaker 4: That's good you think about.
• 21:46
  Speaker 4: Think about food.
• 21:47
  Speaker 4: I mean, vallejo's mission is not food.
• 21:50
  Speaker 4: We have let's Help.
• 21:51
  Speaker 4: We have others to do with that.
• 21:54
  Speaker 4: But in as much as people are concerned about food and food insecurity and their family budgets and that relates to some of their stress and anxiety, that could be a pathway to getting people help, so that, a little bit selfishly, that's where that comes in.
• 22:08
  Speaker 4: So think about housing and food and work and safety and family relationships and even childcare, daycare.
• 22:16
  Speaker 4: So I've found it's particularly been enlightening to me in the last eight and a half nine years here is that we always thought about a pathway to behavioral healthcare as, oh, you get a referral from your pastor, your physician, your family and we do all the time.
• 22:30
  Speaker 4: Hospitals, you know.
• 22:31
  Speaker 4: But out beyond that, in that outer perimeter, is where people live Housing, food safety, child care, relationships, work, all those things and you use that as a way to, you know, be a part of the community and open the door for people, which increases access, and that's what it's all about these days.
• 22:52
  Speaker 2: Bill.
• 22:53
  Speaker 2: We had a big shift that gradually occurred in the country in regards to how we approach mental health challenges, eventually came to Kansas and it's almost like we don't even remember what it was, but it was originally termed mental health reform.
• 23:07
  Speaker 2: The institutionalization, the institutionalization the institutionalization that's right.
• 23:12
  Speaker 4: We had Topeka State Hospital here in Topeka, by the way one of the finest public mental health hospitals in the nation at one time.
• 23:20
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, I had an experience there a couple of different times to be able to learn there pre-graduation, post-graduation and from college, and so your opinion in regards to the shift to community-based mental health support programs away from the institution how did you see that?
• 23:44
  Speaker 2: How do you see it today?
• 23:47
  Speaker 2: How do you see it today?
• 23:48
  Speaker 2: And in some regard, you've created another kind of little state hospital on the former state hospital grounds all these years later.
• 23:57
  Speaker 2: So help us to get it from your perspective.
• 24:00
  Speaker 2: I know that it was very controversial.
• 24:03
  Speaker 2: There was a shift in significant dollars.
• 24:05
  Speaker 2: We closed down a state hospital.
• 24:07
  Speaker 2: It really changed the way we work with individuals experiencing severe and persistent mental illness and how we could access services for them.
• 24:17
  Speaker 2: It really had an impact on Topeka Rescue Mission and we have a lot more people in the streets today, many of which have mental health challenges.
• 24:24
  Speaker 2: So throwing all that out there, Give us a perspective on it.
• 24:27
  Speaker 4: Yeah well, perspective goes back to the middle or the end of the Second World War, which, from the history I understand about psychiatry and psychopharmacology and mental health, is that the antipsychotic drugs, the phenothiazines, came on about that time to help soldiers adjust after the war.
• 24:45
  Speaker 4: And then, of that caught, psychiatry discovered that certain um biochemistry in the brain could reduce or eliminate some of the most, not cure, most troubling symptoms of severe and persistent mental illness delusions, hallucinations, agitation.
• 25:03
  Speaker 4: You know um, uh, you know that, that kind of um, uh, you know those things that would really keep people from living and enjoying life, work, family home, recreation, peace of mind.
• 25:14
  Speaker 4: And so along came, you know, with standard psychiatry, some pretty effective, you know psychiatric medications.
• 25:25
  Speaker 4: And then we discovered that, oh my gosh, somebody who had been living in an institution for months or years with these chemicals could, you know, make a transition out.
• 25:38
  Speaker 4: So that process began all around the country.
• 25:41
  Speaker 4: Deinstitutionalization is the broad term.
• 25:42
  Speaker 4: It came here to Kansas really over time and of course the Community Mental Health Center Act helped that, because then it took some piece of inpatient care, a piece of it in the 60s, 70s and 80s, and put it in the community.
• 25:57
  Speaker 4: Great Ben, liberal Beatrice, oklahoma City.
• 26:02
  Speaker 4: I mean just it put it there so that therapists and prescribers and people to do crisis intervention and so forth, people to go out and give talks to the community in the 60s, 70s, 80s about stress and opening people's awareness of that.
• 26:18
  Speaker 4: That all began to develop as a part of kind of pre-deinstitutionalization in Kansas.
• 26:25
  Speaker 4: Now some other states the 60s, 70s, 80s were way ahead, some behind, but basically here in the Midwest that process started formally, at least here in Kansas in 89, 90.
• 26:54
  Speaker 4: Emporia and Hayes and Baxter Springs that we could actually help individuals, adults and children who'd been in institutions for months or years, live in the community.
• 26:58
  Speaker 4: So you saw some residential care facilities pop up, expanded crisis care.
• 27:04
  Speaker 4: Medications have improved greatly over the last 70 years or so Some very specific, very awesome psychiatric medications.
• 27:14
  Speaker 4: If we assigned a peer to someone, someone with lived experience who could walk alongside that person.
• 27:21
  Speaker 4: If we provided attendant care, maybe while a child was in the classroom, additional help in the classroom.
• 27:27
  Speaker 4: If we provided services in the home, if we helped people find a job, if we helped, you know, heal some broken family relationships, a lot of people, a lot of people don't need to live in an institution for months and months, years and years downsizing our state psychiatric hospitals in Kansas, and alongside that were places like Storm Out Vale offering inpatient care, and there was an inpatient facility in Great Bend and Garden City and options for people who needed a short.
• 28:00
  Speaker 4: So we moved away from long-term psychiatric hospital care to short-term, episodic, come in back on your feet, followed up by outpatient care, and that's always been done, I mean, for many, many decades.
• 28:15
  Speaker 4: But we got better and better and better at it.
• 28:18
  Speaker 4: And then along came the question well, how many beds?
• 28:21
  Speaker 4: How far does this go?
• 28:22
  Speaker 4: So Governor Hayden I think it was in 91 or 2, appointed a mental health reform council.
• 28:29
  Speaker 4: I was the chief executive at the mental health center in Hiawatha at the time.
• 28:33
  Speaker 4: I was appointed to that served and part of our job was to identify okay, what's in the community, what is needed, what are the right size for our state hospitals, and that's the process that that went through.
• 28:44
  Speaker 4: Came to Topeka State Hospital.
• 28:46
  Speaker 4: There was a lot of conversation about, well, let's keep a few beds open.
• 28:49
  Speaker 4: People disagreed with that.
• 28:51
  Speaker 4: Just that, one thing and another.
• 28:52
  Speaker 4: But we've come to the system.
• 28:53
  Speaker 4: We have now and I will speak specifically here in Topeka our three emergency rooms and Stormont-Vales Behavioral Health Unit.
• 29:03
  Speaker 4: We all pull together to get people the care they need.
• 29:05
  Speaker 4: So we do rely on the state hospital at Osawatomie to help some people never more than a handful of people there from this area.
• 29:18
  Speaker 4: But we work with them, we follow them and visit with them, help them prepare for their discharge.
• 29:22
  Speaker 4: You know back home and I'm sure what the average length of stay is a few days, a few weeks, maybe longer in some unusual circumstances.
• 29:31
  Speaker 4: But the whole idea is that the various parts of the community have integrated.
• 29:35
  Speaker 4: So right back to those partnerships, this would not work at all if it wasn't for partnerships kind of brick by brick or unit by unit or building by building, sort of taken the old institutional system apart, which had a lot of strengths, by the way, I'm not at all speaking against it, it's just that we could downsize it, take those pieces, put them in a community from Troy, kansas, to St Francis, kansas, and put those pieces in the community where the people are.
• 30:09
  Speaker 4: So that's one of the things that the last seven or eight years you probably heard me talk about Vallejo we just try to put ourselves out there where the people are, people almost.
• 30:16
  Speaker 4: So people will almost trip on us, you know, metaphorically speaking.
• 30:20
  Speaker 4: So that's really what deinstitutional was was taking those pieces apart, put it out there in a community where the people are, and so in a small town like pick a town, you could have a therapist that goes to the school three or four days a week.
• 30:34
  Speaker 4: Wow, you know, in a town of 2,000 or 3,000 people and we did that at Emporia and so to me it's been a long process.
• 30:43
  Speaker 4: The deinstitutionalization was one of those kind of peak experiences with, you know, good and bad as we look back over the last seven or 80 years.
• 30:52
  Speaker 4: But it was a considered process.
• 30:53
  Speaker 4: So kudos to former Governor Hayden for putting that together, and he and his wife Patty were, and still are, great advocates for mental health care.
• 31:03
  Speaker 2: So here a few years ago, you saw a need to create a crisis center for people to be able to come to 2012, I think Weren't necessarily going to go to Osawatomie Right or Launderd Right For a different kind of situation there.
• 31:16
  Speaker 2: So what was that was part of your time?
• 31:20
  Speaker 2: Why was that created and what is its function today?
• 31:23
  Speaker 2: Sure.
• 31:24
  Speaker 2: It's on the old Topeka State Hospital grounds.
• 31:26
  Speaker 2: It is yeah, and it's a lot of people say well, here we go again, we're going back to the state hospital system In a way yeah, I guess in a way.
• 31:31
  Speaker 4: So what's similar?
• 31:32
  Speaker 4: What's different?
• 31:32
  Speaker 4: So the whole idea is diversion.
• 31:38
  Speaker 4: So if we think about an individual who's hurting, and in 1957, what were their options?
• 31:48
  Speaker 4: You know, family physician maybe could administer some medication.
• 31:49
  Speaker 4: That's good.
• 31:49
  Speaker 4: Probably institutional care In Topeka it would have been in Topeka State Hospital, menninger's so and good care.
• 31:57
  Speaker 4: But so what's happened over time is that the options have grown and people have so many more choices about care.
• 32:10
  Speaker 4: But think about diversion.
• 32:11
  Speaker 4: What can we do to help ensure that inpatient hospital care is the treatment of best choice and last choice?
• 32:24
  Speaker 4: And not to say anything negative about inpatient care, because what we try to do with screening and intervention and diversion is get people to the right level of care.
• 32:33
  Speaker 4: So what you want to do is assess the individual, their situation, their environment.
• 32:37
  Speaker 4: You know what brought them here, how long it's lasted, you know what their level of motivation is.
• 32:41
  Speaker 4: Then you try to get them to the right level of care.
• 32:44
  Speaker 4: In some few instances, topeka State Hospital Stormont-Veo for a few days might be Vallejo's overnight three-day crisis support center.
• 32:55
  Speaker 4: People can come and stay voluntarily for two or three or four days just to get back up on their feet, it might be three or four outpatient services that we can assign to an individual.
• 33:05
  Speaker 4: So the whole idea is diversion from a level of care that the person really doesn't need right now, so to divert them into the right level of care.
• 33:16
  Speaker 4: And that started here in 2012.
• 33:18
  Speaker 2: In 2012, it was created to kind of fill in that gap between the crisis and-.
• 33:25
  Speaker 4: And the hospital and trying to divert from the hospital.
• 33:28
  Speaker 2: So it's voluntary.
• 33:29
  Speaker 4: And we call it the residence Residence.
• 33:31
  Speaker 4: Yeah, it's a place where people can find stability, some peace of mind, some support, a plan going forward, for after they leave, they stay a few hours or a few days.
• 33:39
  Speaker 4: People leave with an idea of what will help them going forward.
• 33:43
  Speaker 2: Miriam, Bill and I are on a roll over here, so I don't want you to be a little jumpy.
• 33:47
  Speaker 2: I'm fine.
• 33:47
  Speaker 3: Okay, all right, I'm not feeling left out.
• 33:51
  Speaker 3: Okay, all right, but if I do get depressed, I'm in good hands.
• 33:54
  Speaker 2: Okay, all right, because I get some peach ice cream today.
• 33:59
  Speaker 3: We'll divert you away from what I'm going to do to go home today and have peach ice cream.
• 34:03
  Speaker 2: So, Bill, we talked about the reform, the shift, kind of deinstitutionalization, trying to avoid that if we can still leaving room for those.
• 34:14
  Speaker 2: Has it worked?
• 34:16
  Speaker 2: What's the pros and cons?
• 34:20
  Speaker 2: What are the gaps?
• 34:20
  Speaker 2: What do we need to do better?
• 34:22
  Speaker 4: Well overall.
• 34:23
  Speaker 4: Yes, it has worked, but there are some gaps and we're looking at filling those gaps with the enhanced crisis care.
• 34:30
  Speaker 4: Quicker access Can we get people in even more quickly than we are now?
• 34:35
  Speaker 4: State policy on housing for individuals with mental illness.
• 34:40
  Speaker 4: Options for people such as Oxford House who need support during their substance abuse recovery.
• 34:47
  Speaker 4: The funding that's available during their substance abuse recovery the funding that's available.
• 34:54
  Speaker 4: And I will tell you, since probably the last three or four years, for the first time in my career, I have seen city, county, state and federal government stacked up, moving in the right direction regarding at least public behavioral health funding.
• 35:06
  Speaker 4: So we've always had a hero in our counties or maybe the state would do something, you know, but to see them line up and, at every level of government, step up and provide enhanced funding.
• 35:20
  Speaker 4: You know policies that work well for people.
• 35:24
  Speaker 4: That kind of thing has been very, very encouraging here in the latter part of my career and I know that that will continue.
• 35:30
  Speaker 4: We've got the right people at the right place.
• 35:32
  Speaker 4: So what do we got to do to fill the gap?
• 35:33
  Speaker 4: What are the gaps?
• 35:34
  Speaker 4: So the gap would be there are some gaps in crisis care.
• 35:37
  Speaker 4: We could always use more substance abuse treatment beds.
• 35:40
  Speaker 4: You know, with the addiction problem growing and the connections to other public safety issues that we see there, the connections to other public safety issues that we see there.
• 35:54
  Speaker 4: You know, and I see schools developing enhanced services with their mental health centers for services at school with the child, things that we can do to support the family in the homes, things that we can do to support our senior citizens.
• 36:04
  Speaker 4: Some of the mental health centers used to have like a senior care, like a senior, a person who was a licensed therapist who had a caseload of older individuals who need counseling.
• 36:13
  Speaker 4: You know more specific programs for that would be great.
• 36:16
  Speaker 4: But I tell you, I think if people know what their needs are, what the community's needs are, if they have a body of people they can communicate that to city, county, state, nonprofit, faith-based those things will be put into place.
• 36:27
  Speaker 4: I have a lot of people they can communicate that to city, county, state, nonprofit, faith-based, those things will be put into place.
• 36:32
  Speaker 4: I have a lot of hope for that.
• 36:34
  Speaker 4: But you know, for Vallejo right now we need more detox beds.
• 36:37
  Speaker 4: We could use some more substance abuse 28-day treatment beds.
• 36:40
  Speaker 4: We have a fair number of individuals who are uninsured and underinsured some more help with that and we see a lot of hope for that.
• 36:51
  Speaker 2: Certainly has been a growing partnership.
• 36:55
  Speaker 2: As you mentioned earlier, it's not just this organization over here, that one over there.
• 37:01
  Speaker 2: Occasionally we come together Giving lip service to partnerships.
• 37:04
  Speaker 4: It's an easy word to throw around.
• 37:06
  Speaker 2: Of course, Miriam has been in that space for a long time of living united.
• 37:09
  Speaker 4: There you go.
• 37:10
  Speaker 2: Coming together.
• 37:10
  Speaker 2: Being former director of the United Way, One of the things that created a opportunity for us to go further apart or come more together was the pandemic Yep, and so, thanks to just a lot of really great relationships that were going on, we saw some great conversation begin to happen.
• 37:31
  Speaker 2: We did United Way took the lead on the communication Brett Martin, which hosted our community.
• 37:37
  Speaker 2: Our mission last week was able to create something, Miriam, that still goes on today, even post-pandemic, once a week with agencies.
• 37:46
  Speaker 3: Every Tuesday, every Tuesday, every Tuesday, yeah, every Tuesday at three, and it's really pretty remarkable that it's still going every week.
• 37:55
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean, that's just not a common thing.
• 37:58
  Speaker 4: And it's fresh.
• 37:59
  Speaker 3: And it is.
• 38:00
  Speaker 3: And it's not that any of us feel obligated to be there.
• 38:04
  Speaker 3: I think it's a real desire to know that there is more than just me out there.
• 38:11
  Speaker 3: What's the purpose?
• 38:12
  Speaker 2: What's the purpose of it?
• 38:12
  Speaker 2: It was a pandemic.
• 38:13
  Speaker 2: It was like we've got to figure out what to do because things were shutting down, Right.
• 38:16
  Speaker 2: Um, people are becoming homeless.
• 38:18
  Speaker 2: Hunger is arising.
• 38:20
  Speaker 2: Um, what's the purpose today?
• 38:23
  Speaker 3: Well, the purpose is still the same not around that same issue, right, but it is about what are the new and emerging needs that we're seeing, or what needs or situations are really prevalent right now, and who all of us are dealing with it and how can we do better together.
• 38:41
  Speaker 3: It could even be looking at the Department of Labor and the salary changes that came, so it isn't just about services that we provide, but also just how we function together and how we can share information with each other.
• 38:58
  Speaker 3: I think, barry, the most important piece of this for me is that it does break down territorial barriers right.
• 39:05
  Speaker 3: We all still have our roles.
• 39:07
  Speaker 2: We still have to take care of a home.
• 39:09
  Speaker 3: Right, we still have to do that, but we don't have to do it in such a way that it excludes someone else, right?
• 39:16
  Speaker 3: It is about how do we do better together, and that might mean that I don't get X because somebody else really needs X more, and that could look like any number of things, but the calls have been incredibly beneficial to TRM.
• 39:33
  Speaker 3: I think most organizations on there would say that at one point or another over the last four years.
• 39:39
  Speaker 3: If you can believe that, that they have taken something away, and that, to me, is obvious because they wouldn't keep coming back if it wasn't that way.
• 39:49
  Speaker 2: People are willing to take risk of maybe losing this to gain something greater for everyone.
• 39:52
  Speaker 2: So the greater good the village, the community coming together.
• 39:57
  Speaker 3: It's about the relationships right.
• 39:58
  Speaker 3: You can be very safe when you know people.
• 40:02
  Speaker 3: That's right and build it.
• 40:04
  Speaker 3: Whether it's with the people that we serve, whether it's the partners that we want to work with, whether it's organizations that we really never will potentially work with, it is still about building that relationship because it makes all the difference in the world.
• 40:17
  Speaker 2: Well, bill, I want to commend you for being one of those guys that we knew we could have a great relationship with early on, when you started.
• 40:26
  Speaker 4: Like my second day here, I think you and Frank and I had lunch At the Globe.
• 40:30
  Speaker 2: At the Globe?
• 40:31
  Speaker 2: Yes, and so one of the things that was important in that relationship is because of the consequences of Topeka Rescue Mission having to become smaller in its bed space because of CDC regulations, we said what are we going to do?
• 40:47
  Speaker 2: Because we're seeing people go to the streets.
• 40:49
  Speaker 2: There were some great programs that were started.
• 40:52
  Speaker 2: Part of that was birthed out of these collaborations collaborations Topeka Rescue Mission took on a program with the city that still continues today, with or without city support on that.
• 41:04
  Speaker 2: As far as funding, called rapid rehousing, miriam oversaw that and has housed a lot of people.
• 41:10
  Speaker 2: That's just one benefit out of that whole thing, which is amazing, of getting people rehoused.
• 41:14
  Speaker 2: But still people were going to the streets, not just out of the rescue mission, but we weren't able to take as many people in.
• 41:19
  Speaker 2: So we thought about you know how do we take services that might be in shelter outdoors, and so I remember one of the first calls that I made was to you because we had envisioned sometime back about a mobile shower unit.
• 41:35
  Speaker 4: So, Bill, when we talked that started here, by the way, at the rescue mission.
• 41:37
  Speaker 4: I know it was out the back door.
• 41:38
  Speaker 2: Back door.
• 41:39
  Speaker 2: Yeah, we were going to Tent City and saying how can we take?
• 41:42
  Speaker 2: We were walking along, there was Misty Bosch-Hastings.
• 41:44
  Speaker 2: She was working for K-Dads at the time.
• 41:45
  Speaker 2: She said, yeah, we could probably come up with funding.
• 41:48
  Speaker 4: Now, vallejo owns a shower trailer.
• 41:49
  Speaker 2: You do, a mental health center owns a shower trailer heard that I'm like what I'm like, oh, but the thing about it.
• 42:02
  Speaker 2: You said, yeah, we can do that.
• 42:02
  Speaker 2: So you got a hold of the funders um kansas housing resources corporation resource corporation and because you had relationships over there and got that thing built, um, you were working with um at that time.
• 42:12
  Speaker 2: Josh clam, who was on the board, who was topeka police department sergeant, was also a head of behavioral health.
• 42:18
  Speaker 2: So part of those relationships were building up.
• 42:20
  Speaker 2: Miriam and I we tried to make an appeal to Kansas Housing Resource to maybe fund a mobile kitchen and they said nope, and so we found it other places, so we did so we said, okay, god you supply.
• 42:36
  Speaker 2: And I think less than a week later later, the money came in for that and so we have a mobile kitchen.
• 42:40
  Speaker 2: Another organization here in town that provided the mobile supply trailer, stormont Vale, got their mobile medical unit Kansas.
• 42:50
  Speaker 2: State already had their mobile veterinary unit and Dr Allison Crowe, veterinarian, came along with Street Dog because she went out with Rescue Mission Outreach as well as Vallejo.
• 42:59
  Speaker 2: She got in the homeless camps, saw the pets, saw the people, started this whole thing on a national, connected with a national thing called Street Dog Coalition and three years later we have Mobile Access Partnership today, which is partnerships.
• 43:13
  Speaker 4: Wow, yes, and with that sinew, that bone and sinew and muscle and strength, that partnership word really ought to mean.
• 43:22
  Speaker 4: You know, I call MAP probably one of the worst chief executive decisions you could make.
• 43:28
  Speaker 4: It's a program that has an expense budget only.
• 43:32
  Speaker 3: Absolutely.
• 43:34
  Speaker 3: The Bureau of Revenue is pretty used to that.
• 43:35
  Speaker 3: What are you?
• 43:35
  Speaker 2: going to do yeah.
• 43:37
  Speaker 4: And so it's like what are you doing that for?
• 43:38
  Speaker 4: Well, you know, it's the what I always credit Rescue Mission, with the beginning conversation of that, and you know, teresa and some of the others at Vallejo picked up on that, but I think it was the summer of 2018.
• 43:53
  Speaker 4: It was just hotter than the Dickens and over here on the river we'd had a pretty, a pretty significant, you know, growth and the unsheltered living in certain areas of town you know picking down the street here and what can we do?
• 44:05
  Speaker 4: I remember we set up a.
• 44:06
  Speaker 4: You guys took the lead on this big tent.
• 44:08
  Speaker 4: We had some, everybody brought supplies.
• 44:10
  Speaker 2: Sleep called a block party, and there was, we called it a block party, that's right and we.
• 44:15
  Speaker 4: And then that led to, um, uh, linda, oaks and some of the others, us and you all setting up some hand-washing stations over there and some porta-potties.
• 44:24
  Speaker 4: What can we do to improve the health and the hygiene?
• 44:26
  Speaker 4: And then the COVID came and we learned that we could do some things for people on the street that we've been doing.
• 44:33
  Speaker 4: Bits and pieces of Credit to you guys.
• 44:34
  Speaker 4: So that's when this word like oh, okay.
• 44:38
  Speaker 2: That's what that really means to me.
• 44:39
  Speaker 4: That's when it word like oh okay, that's what that really means to me.
• 44:40
  Speaker 4: That's when it really sunk in like my gosh, look what we can get done when we do it unselfishly.
• 44:45
  Speaker 3: And that's the thing.
• 44:46
  Speaker 3: Nobody said no.
• 44:49
  Speaker 3: Everybody's just said we'll figure this out.
• 44:52
  Speaker 3: That's right.
• 44:52
  Speaker 3: Right, and money was not the barrier Right.
• 44:54
  Speaker 3: If there's anything I've said for my whole time being at United Way and whatever, if we don't start the conversation with money, we will be able to achieve great things.
• 45:04
  Speaker 3: When we start conversations about what it's going to cost this, that or the other thing, it's an immediate stop because it all seems too overwhelming.
• 45:12
  Speaker 3: But nobody in this group with MAP and it's just kept growing ever said no.
• 45:18
  Speaker 4: They just said we'll figure it out, that's what we'll do it and the supporting the funders United Way, topeka Community Foundation, sunflower.
• 45:26
  Speaker 4: You know, our state and city county grant makers had before that with a lot of notable exceptions but had been funding a program here and a program here, all good stuff, but maybe disconnected, like we'll just go fund this, okay, let's do that.
• 45:41
  Speaker 4: But now they're looking at how does this fit in the context of partnerships and what's the wider community impact?
• 45:51
  Speaker 4: So we could say, well, let's start a program X to get X done, to get Y done, but let's start a program now what they'll fund is let's start a program XYZ to circle back and get ABC done.
• 46:01
  Speaker 4: I mean they're looking at that broader community impact when they spend their dollars.
• 46:04
  Speaker 3: And now they have a model Right, because we've talked about true collaboration and partnership for years.
• 46:10
  Speaker 4: Yes.
• 46:11
  Speaker 3: For years and years and years, but MAP is a visible model of what partnership really means, what this really looks like and the impact then that it can have right beyond just outputs.
• 46:24
  Speaker 3: But what are you know?
• 46:25
  Speaker 3: Can we start to measure some of the outcomes for the individuals that we're serving and to me, that's incredible.
• 46:33
  Speaker 2: We were very blessed to have a great young man who is a medical intern with UCLA, who has been doing study on MAP and he's continuing to do the interviews and one of the things that he— Local boy, he's local Medical family for doctors in the family, but he wants to do something unique and different with the homeless and, of course, he's out in California and then he's here and comparing the different situations.
• 47:01
  Speaker 2: But he has fallen in love with MAP and one of the things that he has reflected back to us with his research is you guys are saving lives.
• 47:08
  Speaker 2: You guys are saving lives.
• 47:10
  Speaker 2: You guys are saving lives.
• 47:11
  Speaker 2: I don't know how you quantify that, but he's going to figure out a way to do that.
• 47:15
  Speaker 2: Bill, you've said there's a lot.
• 47:17
  Speaker 2: You've had a lot of accomplishments since 2015 when you came to Topeka and way before that.
• 47:23
  Speaker 2: I've heard you say before that one of your most, not proudest, moments, but one of the things you've enjoyed the most, is being involved with this map thing, mobile access partnership my gosh, yeah, yeah.
• 47:36
  Speaker 2: Three years going now and then we're going to whatever that next level is.
• 47:41
  Speaker 2: City of Topeka, shawnee County Commissioners, governing body of the city has heard recommendations.
• 47:45
  Speaker 4: What's not to love about that program.
• 47:47
  Speaker 2: Yeah, about one-stop shops, which is kind of like what Mobile Access Partnership is, impact Avenues, which is a piece of that we've unpacked before on our community, our mission.
• 47:56
  Speaker 4: Credit to Kerry Higgins at the city Kerry.
• 47:58
  Speaker 2: Higgins yeah, awesome job with that, bringing those partnerships together even more in the future.
• 48:03
  Speaker 2: Bill, you're going to stay involved.
• 48:06
  Speaker 4: we hope, yeah, think about maybe not retiring now.
• 48:08
  Speaker 4: Okay, oops, can I get?
• 48:13
  Speaker 2: that back.
• 48:13
  Speaker 2: So before we end here, Bill, you've got a person that's going to come in, Chris Wills, who's been with Vallejo for many, many years.
• 48:24
  Speaker 2: She's going to come in as interim while they're searching for a replacement for you.
• 48:26
  Speaker 2: Christine knows the business very well.
• 48:27
  Speaker 2: She does what's post-Vallejo for Bill Persinger.
• 48:31
  Speaker 4: Oh gosh, you know I've kid around once in a while that so-and-so business doesn't know it yet, but they're going to hire me to work every Monday and Tuesday, so I can have an automatic five-day weekend.
• 48:43
  Speaker 4: You know, I tell you I want to find a way to stay plugged in.
• 48:46
  Speaker 4: I cannot afford to volunteer full-time but I do want to find a way to stay plugged in with you folks and the effort at MAP and just being a part of that conversation.
• 48:56
  Speaker 4: The Greater Topeka Partnership was kind of a new thing for Vallejo to join.
• 49:00
  Speaker 4: When I got here I'm like that's the first people I went to.
• 49:03
  Speaker 4: That made me feel very welcome.
• 49:04
  Speaker 4: Chamber of Commerce, if you will, and I'd like to stay away, not stay away.
• 49:08
  Speaker 4: Find a way to stay plugged in with the Greater Topeka Partnership and the various entities that belong to that.
• 49:15
  Speaker 4: They do such a great job.
• 49:16
  Speaker 4: For what we all know is the dynamic core which stretches clear up north of where we are, clear down about the judicial center, maybe a little south, east and west.
• 49:24
  Speaker 4: And you know, think and look at that neighborhood, that big neighborhood.
• 49:27
  Speaker 4: You've got a great opportunity for us nonprofits, faith-based and government to work with businesses and everybody's yearning to work together and get something done about this problem or this challenge.
• 49:39
  Speaker 4: Or you know, what can we do to make this a better community?
• 49:42
  Speaker 4: The other thing is that you know going forward, you know I'm still interested in underserved neighborhoods.
• 49:48
  Speaker 4: You know high-risk neighborhoods for, you know poor health care and poor health outcomes and social concerns, and so I want to find a way to stay plugged in.
• 49:57
  Speaker 4: But you know, step back for a few months and you know kind of see how things go and you know see where I can.
• 50:03
  Speaker 4: If I have talents or energies you know to give, I will.
• 50:08
  Speaker 2: Yeah, we're not going to hold you for the few months.
• 50:10
  Speaker 2: Some of us who have stepped out into that thing have had about 48 hours About 48 hours, mary, you're doing what now?
• 50:18
  Speaker 2: What are we supposed to do now?
• 50:19
  Speaker 2: But there's many needs, bill, there are.
• 50:21
  Speaker 2: You've got 50 years under your belt of helping vulnerable populations and so Well, call me when you and you're still only 49.
• 50:30
  Speaker 4: That reservations, and so Well, call me when you and you're still only 49.
• 50:32
  Speaker 4: That's amazing, I know, when we do the warming centers again and we will have to.
• 50:38
  Speaker 4: We know that the 300 plus people that we all got together to help during the last you know polar vortex, we know that'll happen again.
• 50:41
  Speaker 2: You rolled your sleeves up on that bill.
• 50:43
  Speaker 2: You just didn't assign your staff what your staff were involved in that warming center for two weeks for sure.
• 50:47
  Speaker 2: But you yourself came and you served and took the night shifts, and that says a lot about you.
• 50:53
  Speaker 4: Well, I'll be around for that.
• 50:55
  Speaker 2: So if I can volunteer and help out, hopefully we won't have another one, but if we will, we hope we don't have porta potties, that you have to break the ice to be able to use them.
• 51:04
  Speaker 2: Anyway, sorry, to end on, that note but anyway, we don't feel that today because we're in July, because it's hot.
• 51:10
  Speaker 2: Bill, thank you for your service, thank you for being a friend of Topeka Rescue Mission, a friend of this community, thank you for representing the issue of behavioral health concerns, mental health, addiction and so forth, very well.
• 51:22
  Speaker 2: Thank you, and Bill, while you take a little time away to play your ukulele or whatever that is, you play the banjo, the banjo, the banjo.
• 51:30
  Speaker 2: Guitar upright bass Do a little out there camping, Of course.
• 51:34
  Speaker 4: I'm known for my singing Bluegrass.
• 51:38
  Speaker 2: We'll have you back for another time on that, maybe and so, but anyway, bill, thank you for everything you've done.
• 51:43
  Speaker 2: Thank you, thank you for being here, and as we go forward with whatever God has for you, we'll maybe talk to you about your next assignment.
• 51:51
  Speaker 4: Well, whatever brought me here will keep me here.
• 51:53
  Speaker 4: If no plans to move, don't have a job lined up, good health, you know, if I can serve I will, and so I know this is an enduring friendship and an enduring connection that Vallejo has with the rescue mission, compassion strategies and other efforts.
• 52:07
  Speaker 4: But I feel like I had that personally, yeah.
• 52:10
  Speaker 2: So thank you for that gift.
• 52:11
  Speaker 2: You demonstrate that well.
• 52:12
  Speaker 2: So thank you, Bill.
• 52:14
  Speaker 2: Thank you for listening to our community, our mission.
• 52:16
  Speaker 2: You've heard from Bill Persinger, CEO of Vallejo Behavioral Health here in Topeka.
• 52:21
  Speaker 2: We kind of unpacked his history.
• 52:23
  Speaker 2: We unpacked what he's been doing since he's been here and really some bigger issues than that around the whole complicated issue of helping to serve those who are vulnerable in our community.
• 52:33
  Speaker 2: If you'd like more information about the Topeka Rescue Mission, you can go to the website at trmonlineorg.
• 52:39
  Speaker 2: That's trmonlineorg.
• 52:41
  Speaker 2: If you want to help support Topeka Rescue Mission, you can find ways to do that there.
• 52:45
  Speaker 2: If you'd like to volunteer, you can find out a way to do that there.
• 52:47
  Speaker 2: So again, thank you for listening to Our Community, Our Mission.