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Speaking with John Lica of Journey Mental Health Services · Ask The Experts

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Hey thirty nine, thirteen to ten Wiba and Madison in
• 0:04
  Speaker 1: the morning. Joined in studio this morning by a familiar face,
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: although he's been a bit of a stranger in the
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  Speaker 1: past few years. A busy, busy man John, Like John,
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  Speaker 1: Welcome back to the station. Good to see you, good
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  Speaker 1: to be here, Thanks for having me. You are with
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  Speaker 1: For folks that don't know you are now with the
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  Speaker 1: Journey Mental Health Center, maybe folks remember you previously were
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  Speaker 1: with the Goodman Community Center. Going from one great organization
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  Speaker 1: to another. Can I ask, by the way, for folks
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  Speaker 1: that want to what what spurred you to make that
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  Speaker 1: make the change and join Journey.
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  Speaker 2: Oh well, I had a terrific run at the Goodman
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  Speaker 2: Community Centers there for ten years, you know, just needed
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  Speaker 2: to advance my career in a different way and just
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  Speaker 2: got linked up with another organization that's committed to helping
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  Speaker 2: folks in the community.
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  Speaker 3: And so that's a good fit for me.
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  Speaker 1: It's and it's a really it's a great organization. And
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  Speaker 1: of course it's no coincidence that you're here this month
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  Speaker 1: because May is Mental Health Awareness month. Let's talk about
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  Speaker 1: Journey and kind of just like a broad overview of
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  Speaker 1: the organization and when it comes to the mental health center,
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  Speaker 1: what it is and why this month is so important.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah. Absolutely, So.
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  Speaker 2: Journey's been around in Dane County for over seventy five years.
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  Speaker 2: We're providing mental health and substance use recovery services for folks.
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  Speaker 2: We have a ton of different programs. There's over twenty
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  Speaker 2: different programs that Journey. We do a lot of crisis work,
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  Speaker 2: so we manage the Dane County Crisis Center. We also
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  Speaker 2: have a couple of culturally specific programs, so we have
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  Speaker 2: black and brown clinicians supporting folks from those communities. We
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  Speaker 2: do a lot of great work in schools. We're in
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  Speaker 2: seven different school districts in the county, over twenty different schools,
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  Speaker 2: and we're supporting young people with suicide risk, depression, and
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  Speaker 2: traumatic stress.
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  Speaker 3: We also do a lot of you.
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  Speaker 2: Know, substance use for recovery, so whether it's medically assisted
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  Speaker 2: treatment or just you know, outpatient therapy or ow I rehab.
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  Speaker 2: And then there's some programs for folks with persistent mental illness,
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  Speaker 2: so we do a lot of case management work. There's
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  Speaker 2: over three hundred folks in the community who we help
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  Speaker 2: remain in community and out of all those different programs,
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  Speaker 2: we're serving about ten thousand people, and about ninety percent
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  Speaker 2: of them have really limited resources. That means they're using Medicaid, Medicare,
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  Speaker 2: or they don't, or they're even uninsured to pay for
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  Speaker 2: these services.
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  Speaker 1: Are we seeing people get better about acknowledging and understanding
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  Speaker 1: mental health. It feels like we've put a high and
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  Speaker 1: for really good reason, whether it's you know, talking about
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  Speaker 1: mental health, understanding what an importance. You know, we used
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  Speaker 1: to think like physical health, we would definitely I'm on
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  Speaker 1: a diet or I'm doing these things to improve my
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  Speaker 1: life or my better being. It seems like the last
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  Speaker 1: decade or so we've really started to also acknowledge the
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  Speaker 1: importance of overall mental health and mental wellness. Are we
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  Speaker 1: seeing that convert as far as just maybe a more
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  Speaker 1: open nuttinness of folks to talk about their being any
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  Speaker 1: talk about their journeys, and talk about their their challenges.
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  Speaker 1: I mean, do we do we see more of that
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  Speaker 1: little more openness in this in this realm?
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  Speaker 2: Yes, and we are still so far behind that we
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  Speaker 2: cannot keep up with demand. Okay, so I think the
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  Speaker 2: the needle is moving in terms of people being more
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  Speaker 2: open being more vulnerable, admitting that they're not perfect and
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  Speaker 2: needing help, and be able to have some of those
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  Speaker 2: important conversations with people who are close to them or in.
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  Speaker 3: The workplace or just wherever.
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  Speaker 2: And I think there's a little bit of it just
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  Speaker 2: being a buzzword and being trendy too, like there's you know,
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  Speaker 2: of course there's a little bit of that, and some
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  Speaker 2: of it feels like it's for show. But ultimately, I
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  Speaker 2: think I think we're we've we've made some progress, and
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  Speaker 2: there's still a long long way to go because the
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  Speaker 2: amount of services that are available for people has not
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  Speaker 2: caught up with that demand, and it's not always easy
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  Speaker 2: to get linked up to those services too. There can
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  Speaker 2: be some barriers in the Wayolks who have limited resources
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  Speaker 2: might have a tougher time accessing the care that they
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  Speaker 2: need for mental health and substance US recovery.
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  Speaker 1: And we talked about talk about making that contact and
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  Speaker 1: and and starting that conversation. And I know one of
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  Speaker 1: the things that makes it very easy these days to
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  Speaker 1: get more information and to start that that journey is
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  Speaker 1: simply going to a website. And I know you guys
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  Speaker 1: have a journey m HC dot org that's Journey MHC
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  Speaker 1: dot org. A lot of great information about Journey Mental
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  Speaker 1: Health Center, but also contacts there for scheduling, appointments, referrals,
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  Speaker 1: folks that are may have been having a mental health
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  Speaker 1: emergency contact information there. That's got to be a great
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  Speaker 1: resource and tool as well to help people find those
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  Speaker 1: find those resources where I think for a lot of
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  Speaker 1: folks to say, well, where.
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  Speaker 3: Do I go?
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  Speaker 1: How do I start this process? How do I start
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  Speaker 1: that journey?
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, the the website that we have is a is
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  Speaker 2: a great place to get started.
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  Speaker 3: And when I was talking earlier.
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  Speaker 2: About all those different programs we have, how it's primarily
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  Speaker 2: folks with limited resources. One thing that people don't know
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  Speaker 2: about Journey because I think generally we're this safety net
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  Speaker 2: organization for folks in the community. We also have just
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  Speaker 2: traditional outpatient you know, therapy and prescribing services for folks
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  Speaker 2: with you know, a standard commercial HMO, right, so if
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  Speaker 2: you've got courtz Ordan or you know that kind of stuff.
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  Speaker 2: We have clinicians who do not have full caseloads, so
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  Speaker 2: you can get in if you need a therapist. You
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  Speaker 2: don't have a six to twelve month wait with Journey,
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  Speaker 2: I know that's the case in a lot of other places.
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  Speaker 3: If you need help with.
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  Speaker 2: Your med management, you can actually get into Journey quite soon.
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  Speaker 2: So that's an important thing that I want folks to
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  Speaker 2: know if they need how Journey has therapy and prescribing
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  Speaker 2: services available.
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  Speaker 1: And talk this morning with John Laiko with with Journey
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  Speaker 1: Mental Health Center. That website Journey MHC dot org. That's
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  Speaker 1: Journey MHC dot org.
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  Speaker 3: John.
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  Speaker 1: I know, obviously with this month being Mental Health Awareness Month,
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  Speaker 1: you guys have some events going on with Journey, and
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  Speaker 1: let's talk about some of the things that folks can do,
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  Speaker 1: different ways that folks can get involved and help out
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  Speaker 1: and really help get the word out and other things
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  Speaker 1: to help Journey and mental health.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah.
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  Speaker 2: Well, like I was describing all the different things we do,
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  Speaker 2: we took a varied approach to our Mental Health Awareness
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  Speaker 2: Month campaign too, So there's going to be a handful
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  Speaker 2: of different things that you can do to get involved,
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  Speaker 2: to help us have these critical conversations, to help reduce stigma,
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  Speaker 2: and to also raise money for the important programs and
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  Speaker 2: services that Journey offers. So tomorrow the whole campaign kicks
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  Speaker 2: off with a drag Bingo fundraiser out at Delta Beer Lab.
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  Speaker 2: So that's going to be a fun time. You'll get
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  Speaker 2: to learn a little bit about Journey, win some cool prizes,
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  Speaker 2: raise money for our organization. And on Friday, we have
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  Speaker 2: a Youth Mental Health CE and luncheon. So the morning
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  Speaker 2: is going to be a professional development opportunity for clinicians
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  Speaker 2: and educators and it's immediately followed by a lunch and
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  Speaker 2: where we're talking all about that school based mental health program.
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  Speaker 2: We're gonna have our team that goes out into the
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  Speaker 2: schools and you know, conducts these surveys and supports all
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  Speaker 2: those staff and children and families. They're gonna do a
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  Speaker 2: deep dive on their program. But then we also have
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  Speaker 2: a great community panel discussion. We have someone from the
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  Speaker 2: Office of Children's Mental Health, a practitioner, and a team
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  Speaker 2: themselves who are gonna be talking about their unique experiences
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  Speaker 2: around youth mental health.
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  Speaker 3: So that's that's this Friday.
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  Speaker 2: And then next Wednesday, or excuse me, two wednesdays from
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  Speaker 2: now May fourteenth, we have a really intimate live interview
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  Speaker 2: experience with former Badger now College Football Hall of Famer
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  Speaker 2: Monte Ball Nice yeah, yeah. And then Kristin Brian from
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  Speaker 2: as goes Wisconsin, so she's also kind of on the
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  Speaker 2: radio scene. Yeah, so they're gonna do this cool event
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  Speaker 2: in the upper level of Cooper's kind of tell Monte's story.
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  Speaker 2: You know, he's had a long, a long journey. And
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  Speaker 2: by the way, those puns just cannot escape down when
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  Speaker 2: you work for journey and you're talking about, you know,
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  Speaker 2: your mental health recovery.
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  Speaker 3: It's just we we say it every day.
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  Speaker 1: And it's it makes it nice and memorable as well.
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  Speaker 1: For I speak of Monte ball and other do you
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  Speaker 1: get I mean, and I know Madison and Dane County
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  Speaker 1: is a just a great community as a whole. And
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  Speaker 1: I you know, when you and I used to talk
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  Speaker 1: about Goodman and all the great things and that you know,
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  Speaker 1: the community coming together. You think about about folks like
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  Speaker 1: like Monte, who's just an icon in this community and
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  Speaker 1: there's been very open about his challenges, about his struggles.
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  Speaker 1: Do you guys, do you see that kind of support
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  Speaker 1: and openness from the business community as well? Do you
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  Speaker 1: get are you able to get some supporters and others
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  Speaker 1: that are saying, you know what, this is something that's
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  Speaker 1: important to us, that we're gonna that we're gonna tie
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  Speaker 1: in and help work with you guys at journey.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah.
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  Speaker 2: Absolutely, We've had a great showing from the business community.
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  Speaker 2: You know, the list of sponsors that we.
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  Speaker 3: Have have is is really impressive.
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  Speaker 2: I think there's a lot of folks right now who
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  Speaker 2: are trying to encourage more wellness in the workplace and
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  Speaker 2: try to support the mental health of their employees and
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  Speaker 2: their families. And so, I mean, I know, in my
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  Speaker 2: experience in connecting with Monte, it has it has felt like,
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  Speaker 2: you know, you can you can relate to someone that
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  Speaker 2: you had no idea you could. The way he you know,
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  Speaker 2: talks about his story, it sort of helps normalize what
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  Speaker 2: you're what you're feeling, and yeah, it's it's it's going
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  Speaker 2: to be a special evening and so I hope folks
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  Speaker 2: are able to come out and join us.
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  Speaker 3: And that's a great perspective.
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  Speaker 1: And I don't think we often think enough about that,
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  Speaker 1: is you know, we we've we've seen Monte as a player,
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  Speaker 1: as an athlete, as a star, and you think that
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  Speaker 1: that everything is just you know, this is somebody we
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  Speaker 1: have up on a pedestal that is an amazing talent.
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  Speaker 1: Everything in life must be perfect for everybody and Monte included,
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  Speaker 1: and then you discover that just like the rest of
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  Speaker 1: us Monteses, a normal person with normal issues, normal struggles,
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  Speaker 1: normal battles to be fighting, and that that fireside chat Wednesday,
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  Speaker 1: May fourteenth, tickets, How does that? How does that event?
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  Speaker 3: Uh? How does that work?
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  Speaker 2: Sure? Just go to our website or you can find
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  Speaker 2: it on event bright and tickets are ety five dollars.
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  Speaker 2: You're gonna get to meet this you know, Badger legend.
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  Speaker 2: There's gonna be some snacks and drinks and it's gonna
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  Speaker 2: be a really great time to raise money for journey.
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  Speaker 1: I was gonna ask you too, John funding obviously doing
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  Speaker 1: these these type of events city, county, state are they
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  Speaker 1: do you guys have partnerships with them?
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  Speaker 3: Or how does that?
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  Speaker 1: Because that's one of my my naivetes in this area
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  Speaker 1: is like, well, stuff like as important as mental health,
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  Speaker 1: there's got to be plenty of funding, like the county
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  Speaker 1: must be in the state and not necessarily the case,
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  Speaker 1: it's probably not enough to do all that needs to
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  Speaker 1: be done.
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  Speaker 3: Er or what's that? What's that for? Yeah, it's a
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  Speaker 3: complicated process. Sorry to put you on the spot. No,
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  Speaker 3: it's okay. And like I told you we walked in.
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  Speaker 2: I'm still a few months into my new role, so
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  Speaker 2: still learning lots.
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  Speaker 3: But we do get a lot of support from the county.
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  Speaker 2: I'd say, you know, over half of our funding comes
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  Speaker 2: from government contracts. So we're grateful to partner with Dane
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  Speaker 2: County Health and Human Services on on lots of our
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  Speaker 2: programs and offerings, and we can and we can't do our.
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  Speaker 3: Work without it.
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  Speaker 2: Like there's there's so much support that we get from them,
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  Speaker 2: and it's still not enough, right, And that's why I
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  Speaker 2: have a job as a fundraiser for.
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  Speaker 3: A Journey mental health center.
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  Speaker 2: So we need to grow, you know, philanthropic support from
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  Speaker 2: the community, and and that's part another part of the
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  Speaker 2: reason why I joined Journey is because this is an
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  Speaker 2: important story to tell. Obviously, this is a much needed
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  Speaker 2: service for for folks in our community, and we see the.
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  Speaker 3: Effects that it has.
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  Speaker 2: The ripple effects are it can be crippling, right, Like,
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  Speaker 2: I think it's like one in four Americans will have
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  Speaker 2: a mental health crisis in any given year. And if
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  Speaker 2: you think about what it has felt like if you
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  Speaker 2: know someone whose teenager is suicidal, right, Like, what does
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  Speaker 2: that do to that family and to their village if something.
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  Speaker 2: I mean, we look at what happened at Abundant Life, right,
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  Speaker 2: you know, you could go down the list of like
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  Speaker 2: if you don't have to look very far to find
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  Speaker 2: someone who's been deeply affected by a mental health crisis, right,
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  Speaker 2: and that just can really be harmful to your community.
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  Speaker 2: And so we really are trying to bring folks together
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  Speaker 2: and rally them around this and just galvinie some more
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  Speaker 2: support so we can make this you know, not just
• 12:54
  Speaker 2: you know, getting folks the mental health support they need,
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  Speaker 2: not just.
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  Speaker 3: Possible, but prioritized.
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  Speaker 1: Talking this small ring with John Leika, he is with
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  Speaker 1: Journey Mental Health Center and speaking up for example, young
• 13:05
  Speaker 1: folks and thinking about youth mental health. I know you mentioned,
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  Speaker 1: uh you've got that that training and luncheon coming up.
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  Speaker 1: That's a great opportunity for folks to learn more because
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  Speaker 1: I think also as we you know, we start talking
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  Speaker 1: a little bit about the stigma that's oftentimes associated with
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  Speaker 1: mental health is having the understanding the knowledge of.
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  Speaker 3: Of one it is.
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  Speaker 1: You know, it's it's a normal human thing that to
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  Speaker 1: have bad days, bad feeling and those type of things,
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  Speaker 1: and understanding how to how to identify them and really
• 13:35
  Speaker 1: help benefit is really obviously a great tool to have,
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  Speaker 1: but having this outreach and this opportunity to have this
• 13:42
  Speaker 1: this training and luncheon is a really great benefit to
• 13:46
  Speaker 1: to anybody that would attend.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah. Absolutely.
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  Speaker 2: Let me give you an example of how important mental
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  Speaker 2: health support is for young people in Dane County.
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  Speaker 3: There's a Dane.
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  Speaker 2: County Youth Assessment that comes out every year, and in
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  Speaker 2: the most recent one, I think it was like fifteen
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  Speaker 2: to seventeen somewhere in there, fifteen plus percent of teens
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  Speaker 2: have suicidal ideation. That means they're they're thinking about that,
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  Speaker 2: you know what I mean. That is a pretty serious number.
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  Speaker 2: Forty four percent of female students in ninth through twelfth
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  Speaker 2: grade a report living with constant anxiety.
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  Speaker 3: So that's nearly one out of two girls in high school.
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  Speaker 2: Just you know, on the verge of a panic attack,
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  Speaker 2: right like that is that's pretty that's pretty significant. And
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  Speaker 2: when Journey goes into the schools, we're you know, we're
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  Speaker 2: screening about five thousand kids every year and thirty five
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  Speaker 2: percent of them need some form of intervention, like maybe
• 14:45
  Speaker 2: they'd be a good fit for a peer processing group,
• 14:48
  Speaker 2: maybe they need outpatient therapy, and sometimes they put in
• 14:51
  Speaker 2: this screening that they're suicidal and have a plan and
• 14:55
  Speaker 2: we need to go in and intervene right away that day.
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  Speaker 2: So this is not only you know, life changing, but
• 15:00
  Speaker 2: life saving type of services that we're providing the community.
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  Speaker 3: And you can help.
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  Speaker 1: If you've got an opportunity this morning, head on over
• 15:07
  Speaker 1: to the website Journey MHC dot org. That's Journey MHC
• 15:12
  Speaker 1: dot org. Of course you can find them on Facebook
• 15:15
  Speaker 1: and social media. I get all the details on the
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  Speaker 1: upcoming events for May are on their website also, and
• 15:21
  Speaker 1: as John mentioned, an event bright opportunity there to get
• 15:24
  Speaker 1: that scheduled and get your get tickets for any one
• 15:27
  Speaker 1: of those events. John, It's always great seeing you, my friend.
• 15:30
  Speaker 1: Keep up the great work. I love seeing the new
• 15:32
  Speaker 1: things they're involved in. And they're really lucky to have
• 15:34
  Speaker 1: you over at Journey. It's good to have you along
• 15:37
  Speaker 1: this morning.
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  Speaker 3: Lucky to be here with you this morning, Sean.
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  Speaker 1: And again that website Journey MHC dot org.
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  Speaker 3: Learn more online.
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  Speaker 1: Also again if you are interested in helping out those
• 15:46
  Speaker 1: events again Monteval. Want to hang out with Monteval.
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  Speaker 3: I know what I'm.
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  Speaker 1: Doing, So check it out online. Journey MHC dot org.
• 15:54
  Speaker 1: More of Madison, The Morning comes your way. Next here
• 15:56
  Speaker 1: on thirteen ten wuib I