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Weaving
Resources Interstate to Establish a Deaf
Alcohol and Drug Treatment Center
Jackie
Hyman,
Northwest Deaf Addiction Center
>>Jackie:
I'm going to go ahead and get started and
I'll try hard not to sign. My name is Jackie.
Come on up a little bit.
>>
We have to get up our back hurts to the point
we have to be able to get up and walk --
>>Jackie:
You know what? I totally understand. That's
fine. My name is Jackie Hyman and I'm the
director of Northwest Deaf Addiction Center
are which is an alcohol and drug treatment
program that's just opening up finally opening
its doors in Vancouver, Washington. I'm here
to tell you a little bit about the history
of this program.
This
history of this program -- I'll tell you a
little bit about myself first. I have been
in the field of deafness or deaf-blindness
for many, many years. I think starting back
in the '70s, I was involved with deaf individuals
in Florida, going to school to become a teacher
but then I got married and moved to Texas,
kind of dropped my career for a while. And
then moved to Seattle, Washington, and finished
up my master's in deaf education, worked as
a teacher for a while but really part of my
passion was deaf-blind and I was very involved
with the deaf-blind community there for many
years especially working with people who are
deaf-blind and developmentally disabled. Did
a lot of the stuff Jennifer White was showing
in this room before I came in here.
Then
I became, in 1990, I -- 1991, I became sober
myself. I was, had been alcoholic and a drug
addict in recovery and after I became sober
there were several people who said, you should
go back to school and become an alcohol and
drug counselor. There's no alcohol and drug
counselor in the whole state of Washington
for the deaf. And I'm like, okay, you know.
I can do that. I'll do that. Because I had
this settlement from this car wreck that I
was in so okay, I'll go back and become an
alcohol and drug counselor and I went to work
in a place called Virginia Mason, an outpatient
chemical dependency treatment program and
I worked there for about, let's see, four
or five years. And became very frustrated
with the system there. Because I could only
accept people who were had insurance or a
lot of money. Well, you know, that didn't
-- that just kept excluding a lot of people.
And I would get really frustrated.
Then
one day I had actually three people who were
deaf on state coupons who came in and -- actually
literally came to my place of business that
day wanting treatment and I'm having to say,
no, I'm sorry, I cannot serve you. This agency
doesn't -- doesn't have it set up so I can
serve someone with coupons. That was the day
I said, okay, I can't work here anymore. I
have to find a place where I can have coupons
accepted and a sliding scale because my goal
and my passion is to serve people who are
deaf and need alcohol and drug treatment.
So I found another agency in Seattle, Recovery
Centers Of King County, that was willing to
take my deaf program, small version it was,
and set it up there. Because they had contracts
with the state and the county so that I could
take literally anyone who needed therapy.
And was deaf and hard of hearing.
I
worked there for a few years. And then I heard
about this program that they were trying to
set up for inpatient treatment in Vancouver.
And I was invited to be on a treatment planning
committee. That was about two years ago. I
was invited to be on this committee. And inpatient
treatment for the deaf was something I had
had a passion for because there's so many
people that are not best served in outpatient
treatment. They need that structure and stability
of being in an inpatient setting.
I
had visited the Minnesota Deaf Treatment Program
and had spent a week there. And, you know,
knew that it could be successful. But knew
that that program, the state of Washington
would not pay for anyone to go to Minnesota
because of the enormous cost of that program
because it is a hospital-based program. A
hospital-based inpatient treatment program
is extremely expensive because you're not
just paying for your counselors, you're paying
for dieticians, physical therapists, doctor,
all the overhead so the cost of an inpatient
treatment program that's based in a hospital
is exorbitant. It runs anywhere between $700
and $1200 a day for treatment. So I thought
this program, you know, idea of having an
inpatient program that was not hospital-based
in the Vancouver area was a wonderful idea.
So
I drove every month to Southwest Center For
The Deaf And Hard Of Hearing for about a year
and was part of this committee of people from
both Washington and Oregon states. There was
a passion there from both states wanting to
have this program set up. And I came down.
I drove the three-hour drive down from Seattle,
and stayed for a two-hour meeting and drove
back to Seattle and usually did a group that
night, too. So you could see I really wanted
this to happen. There was a lot of people
involved both from the state levels and from
just local grass roots deaf individuals, Steve
And Mark Azure, Bob, Alley Joiner, some people,
local from the local area were also very involved
with this.
It
wasn't just a bunch of hearing people telling
deaf people they needed treatment. We were
trying really hard to involve the people who
were going to be serving in this. These planning
committee meetings were something else. I
mean, we were like, we would argue about the
color of the walls. And what carpet was going
to be there and what kind of lighting was
going to be there. At the same time we had
a commitment of funding from both the Division
Of Alcohol And Substance Abuse, which is DASA,
Washington state's alcohol and drug program,
and there was a financial commitment from
Oregon's -- I'm trying to get the right acronym
here. It's Office Of Alcohol And Drug Abuse
Programs, ODAP, the Oregon equivalent. And
there was a commitment for money from both,
for both sort start-up and for ongoing support.
We
had the original site of where Northwest DAC
was supposed to be was at the V.A. Hospital
ground in Vancouver. They have an old building
there that is not been used for many, many
years. I actually know for a fact this building
was built in 1922 because I had to find that
out for insurance purposes. We hired an architect
to look at how could we remodel this facility
to be deaf-friendly? We figured out how to
make the rooms, we were trying -- you got
to work with an existing room so we're trying
to make it so that you can have all that roundness
that people were talking about yesterday in
the Native American meeting. The roundness
so that people could actually have good visual
from everywhere they were in a room. We looked
at making sure that the staff station was
rounded so that there weren't all those squares
that sometimes is just not real deaf-friendly.
We
looked at how to wire that place for lots
of computers because as I will talk about
later, computers are going to be a very important
part of this treatment center. We were involved
with how the windows, the glare of the windows,
all of those things were very much taken into
account when we were looking, working with
this architect. And the architect we were
working with actually had been to Gallaudet
for some training and had done some work at
the school for the deaf. So he was very aware
of all of these issues also. The V.A., I don't
know if there's anyone in here that works
for the V.A.. The V.A. it's a very slow moving
machine. It runs slower than molasses on a
cold winter day. And they change players a
lot. They change who's doing what often. And
therefore, things got lost. Like I said, the
V.A. was contacted almost three years ago
with this idea, this plan. The V.A. would
say, we have -- the concept of having the
deaf treatment center there had been accepted.
Give me a business plan. We give them a business
plan. Supposedly it went to Washington, D.C.,
and was accepted. But it wasn't. And there
was a lot of frustrations. You know, we're,
you know, doing all these things and we're
told to do but we're not getting any headway
on the site of where we wanted to have this
treatment center.
Then
about exactly a year ago, in April, we had
gotten to the point in this planning committee
-- now again, this is all people who are volunteers.
There's no paid positions in this place, in
this treatment idea yet. So last April, I
had been asked several times before that,
don't you want to move from Seattle and become
the director of this program? And I kept saying,
no way! I am not leaving Seattle. I love my
program there. You know, I love Seattle. My
daughter was -- just graduated from high school.
She was in college there. Not leaving Seattle.
One day in April a year ago, the traffic got
to me. I had a bad traffic day. It was a two-hour
commute for what should have been taken at
most a half an hour. And that was it. I came
home that night and said, sweetie, how about
let's move to Vancouver. How does Vancouver
sound? And some of you may know my significant
other, now my fiance as of last night, is
-- yes! I became officially engaged last night.
[ applause ] is an interpreter, sign language
interpreter. And so being a male interpreter
he can work just about anywhere. So it was
pretty easy for us to make the decision to
move to Vancouver.
I
came here to Vancouver actually moved here,
myself, in July to start working on this process.
And our goal in July was that we were going
to open that treatment center January 2nd,
2001. Many of you may have heard that date
around because that was our goal. That was
the time line that we were working on with
support from Washington and Oregon. Last summer
when I wrote the abstract for this presentation
today, that was the time line. That was the
plan. Part of this presentation is supposed
to talk about the history and the process.
Well, that's what I'm here to tell you is
that the process doesn't always work the way
you want it to work. Again, we're still having
these struggles with the V.A. about the site.
All
this time I'm working with the Department
of Health, you know, licensing to get everything
in place so that the moment we have the contract
with the V.A. for that site is ours, and get
this point we're about this time we're agreeing
to -- we will agree to anything that the V.A.
says at this point. We have never told them
we wouldn't agree to anything. We have been
open and ready to agree to even the cost of
the rent. We would agree to anything because
we wanted to get this treatment center open
so passionately. And they're paying me and
I'm not, you know, getting -- I mean I have
no way of controlling the V.A. no one has
a way of controlling the V.A. and so I'm about,
let's see, October, there's a new set of people
that came in to the V.A. and again had to
be reeducated about what we were doing, what
the process was, and we thought it was all
good. Actually, we were standing in the parking
lot at the Bank of America on the cell phone
with the guy from the V.A. and him saying,
yes, it was accepted in Washington, D.C. and
I'm like, I want that in writing, please.
So that I have that in writing. This was in
December.
And
then some things go along and he will say
we will have a contract for you in the next
few weeks to sign. This was December. Now,
obviously now I'm not going to be able to
open January 2nd because there's going to
be about two months of remodeling that needs
to be done to the V.A. site. But again, we're
having our monthly meetings and we're planning
and we're talking about, you know, staff and
the treatment program and what's going on,
you know. I'm still, I'm getting more involved
with seeing people. I'm seeing people on an
individual basis, some in Oregon, some in
Washington. Doing all this just for free,
just to kind of get the process rolling, you
know, so that people know that this is going
to be happening. January, second week or so
of January, find out that that wasn't true
what the V.A. said and that it has not been
accepted in Washington, D.C. and so the process
starts again with all this paperwork for the
V.A.. Going along, I called sometime the end
of January, I'm putting together my budget
stuff to make sure that I'm, because I'm having
faith that the V.A.'s really going to happen.
And so I'm putting together my budget. And
I'm writing three budgets. I'm writing one
budget that's for the money I've already spent
so that we can try to recoup that from the
State of Washington.
I'm
also putting together a budget for if I open
the treatment center in April, on April 1st,
how much money would I need from April 1st
until June 30th which is the I understand
of the biennium. And then how much would I
need for the next two years in the new biennium
for Washington and Oregon? So I'm busy with
all these numbers. And I learning how to run
Excel because I've never used that Excel program.
And so I'm trying to learn how to do all this
stuff. And I call the State of Oregon. I could
probably look up the exact date but it was
probably sometime about the end of January,
beginning of February and I called the State
of Oregon and said, I just needed to clarify
my numbers for my budget as to your commitment
to the start-up cost for this program because
we're getting really close. And for the daily
bed rate, what it will be for the next biennium.
And I get this person says, well, we reallocated
that money for your start-up. We didn't think
this was really going to happen.
No
one's called me! No one's called the Division
Of Alcohol And Substance Abuse players here
in the State of Washington who have been very,
very wonderful. And I'm like, oh, okay, so
but do we still have the daily bed rate in
there for the next biennium? No, it's not
at all in our budget for the next biennium.
I'm like, oh. Thank you. He says you don't
sound like you're happy with my information
and I'm like, I would rather know than not
know and I was very polite and thanked him
for the information and asked was there anything
that I could do to put this back in the budget?
Because I have been seeing people in Oregon.
I know there's lots of people in Oregon who
want this to happen. And I was told that the
no input to make any changes in the new biennium
budget would be able to be -- would be able
to happen until May, at least May 15th because
everything's been done and is being blessed
somewhere by some legislature people right
now, and that after May 15th, then, they'll
be able to kind of like manipulate and move
numbers around-maybe. So thank you very much.
And
called my boss at Pacific Crest Consortium,
the agency who's been like absorbing all of
this loss of, you know, paying my salary and
the little bit of money I've spent since I
started last July. And informed her of this.
And she was not happy, to say the least. But
was still willing to see how we could figure
out how to have this program with just Washington
State funding. Talked to people at the Division
Of Alcohol And Substance -- substance abuse,
DASA in Olympia, they said we'll still fund
it and be part of. So I had to like change
all that budget to reflect one income, one
source, one state, Washington money. And but
I'm still, you know, my passion is to get
this place opened so I negotiating, doing
everything I'm asked to do as far as money
goes. The third week of March, my boss says,
if we don't have a contract with DASA by the
end of March, or at least a strong commitment
by the end of March, I'm going to have to
lay you off because, you know, her agency
is just been absorbing this cost without any
reimbursement since last July. I mean I'm
not getting paid that much but it's still
a lot of money to keep losing.
And
I'm like -- okay. I moved here, you know,
anyway, so I'm going -- I guess this means
I can look for another site, if I found another
site that's not the V.A. that I could probably
do this because at this point, division of
alcohol and substance abuse is being supported
but they're saying, if you don't have a guarantee
of a site of where this is going to be, we're
not going to give you any money. So I'm being
pulled, you know, in all these different directions.
And so my boss, because at this point I had
been told the V.A. was it. We were only going
to be committed to do V.A. and we spent $15,000
already on the architect and it was going
to be the V.A. so I'm like, that day in her
office after I got over my initial thoughts
of being laid off, I said, so I guess this
means I can look for another site. And she
says, sure. What have we got to lose? So me,
I went out, I don't know Vancouver at all.
But
I went to a real estate person and went and
called every person I knew, and talked to
our county coordinator, Cleave Thompson and
he said don't worry, Jackie, I'll find you
a job. But it's not a job I want, it's this
treatment center I want. So we found a place.
So that we can get the treatment program open.
I have to -- it's creative semantics is how
we're doing this. Very creative wording that
we're using for this because we're still,
the V.A. is still being held on to. Supposedly,
it's coming in writing that it's been accepted
in Washington, D.C. I will believe that when
I have that piece of paper in my hand.
>>
or the check.
>>Jackie:
when I have that piece of paper that says
it's been accepted, you know, I'll believe
that. But for now, this is what we're doing.
And we are opening what is called -- we have
a home -- we have this huge place that used
to be like a group home in Vancouver. It's
out in the, you know, kind of out, not really
-- I don't know what the area is called. Steve,
what has that area called where this is the
house is?
>>
Neighbor St. John.
>>Jackie:
in the St. John area. Kind of near highway
500, near the mall. It's a really nice house
and we can put eight people there. And it
has space for some offices and has a beautiful
living room. It's already furnished. It used
to be what was used for the HIV AIDS Project
for the last your so it's just being used
for offices. So the people who are in the
offices there are going to move out into real
offices and I'm going to take over this place
as of April the 14th I will be there. And
it is not going to be called inpatient treatment
because of the fact that if I wanted to make
that an inpatient treatment program I would
have to go through major stuff with the neighbors
and, you know, all of that. And this is only
going to be temporary so I'm not going through
all that process. We're calling it group living.
With a group care enhancement contract from
the Division Of Alcohol And Substance Abuse.
>>
that's creative semantics.
>>Jackie:
I also have with the Division Of Alcohol And
Substance Abuse a contract to provide treatment.
Right now it is called intensive outpatient
treatment. Even though with all this creative
semantics I am still going to get to serve
eight deaf individuals 24 hours a day seven
days a week with staff, counselors, interpreters.
So I'm getting my program. I'm just getting
on a small version, and I'm getting it with
creative ways I have to call it. But the nice
thing, too, is that I'm getting it for this
first four months -- April, May, June--- three
months of the biennium, the last part, this
past biennium, I'm getting it as a grant which
means I don't have to do any billing for this,
for people in the State of Washington. I can
take virtually anyone who needs alcohol and
drug treatment. For people who are from out
of the state of Washington, for example, Alaska
or Idaho has approached me, or Oregon, Idaho
and Alaska -- I'm pretty sure Idaho but I
know Alaska will pay for out of state treatment.
Oregon at this point refuses to cooperate!
To pay for out of state treatment. I have
one of the papers I'm going to hand out today
-- this is my little grass roots discussion.
And I'll deny that I gave any of you this.
[ laughter ] it says "important contacts if
you want alcohol and drug treatment for deaf
and hard of hearing in Oregon." I'm giving
you the address and phone number. I don't
have the e-mail for Barbara Cimaglio. But
I have all of the rest of her numbers. If
you call these numbers they'll give you an
e-mail for her. Because their e-mails you
have to know their middle initial. I don't
know what they are middle initial is. She
is the person at the Oregon alcohol and drug
program that needs to know that people in
Oregon want this. E-mail her. Write her. Fax
her. Tell her that -- give examples. Make
this human. That's my thing. Is we have to
put a live human face to this. You don't have
to identify any. These are the situations
that I find the clients in who need treatment.
Let them know. Give them statistics. Give
them numbers. Give them -- how many on your
caseload that are deaf that need this. They
need to hear from every person. Gives this
to deaf people to bug her. They need to know
that this is a very important.
The
other person that you can contact, I suggest
you contact all these. Is at the Oregon Disabilities
Commission, Mark has been -- Azure has been
a great advocate for this. And all his information
is there. Also last night, Oregon Health Plan,
you know, I'm new. I don't live here but Oregon
Health Plan has been real resistant to doing
anything out of the ordinary. Oregon Health
Plan will pay for someone to be deaf, to pay
for them to be an outpatient treatment in
the state of Oregon and they will pay for
interpreters for them being outpatient treatment.
Just think if you look at the cost of paying
for interpreters versus the cost of my program,
there's just like no comparison.
The
other thing here is if a person is in inpatient
treatment, and this is use these facts when
you're writing your letters, if a person is
in inpatient treatment in the State of Oregon,
the State of Oregon is not OHP that pays for
it. It's the county funding that pays for
it. But they will only pay for interpreters
for group process.
>>
Whoa!
>>Jackie:
In an inpatient treatment program, group process
is supposedly about a two-hour group. All
the educational stuff, all the recreational
stuff, all the 12-step meetings that go on,
the community things, they're refusing to
pay. I have someone that I'm fighting with
this about right now. They're refusing to
pay for that. The other point is, you know
how much they pay interpreters? They're willing
to pay interpreters? Someone want to give
a guess?
>>
$15 an hour.
>>Jackie:
A little higher than that. $25 an hour. Interpreters
in this area charge usually between $40 and
$50 an hour. For interpreting. So that means
that program has got to take on that extra
cost. The program that I'm working with right
now in Portland area that did take on a deaf
woman in treatment, they have like a $12,000
interpreter bill at this point because Oregon
is refusing to pay. You know how many people
I could serve for $12,000? That's a lot of
people I could serve for $12,000 for a month.
I mean, it is ridiculous that people think
that that is a better thing to do. So I encourage
you, I plead with you to please contact these
people. The OHP complaint department is the
number I put down here. The ombudsman department
of DHS here, which is Department Of Human
Of Health Services in the State of Oregon.
So I put down all their information.
-- that's just my spiel about, let's get this
done. And I can't do it. I have no control.
I'm just this person in Washington. And they're
tired of me. But you can -- I am giving you
the power to do this. Let me tell you a little
bit about the program itself. It is -- it's
going to be really cool. We serve, and this
is all written on this piece of paper.
In
fact, I know I'm not supposed to ask interrupters
--
>>
I'll volunteer. Why don't you go ahead and
give out those. Okay.
>>Jackie:
It is a program that's going to have either
the staff are either going to be deaf themselves
or they sign. We're going to have counselors.
Right now I still part-time counselor and
I'm looking for more counselors. But the counselors
have to be certified in alcohol and drug programs.
If they're out of state and they need to get
into, you know, a certification in our state
I can work that out. But if they have some
alcohol and drug certification, we'll make
that work. I'm also going to be having what's
called residential facilities counselors which
is basically the line staff and they are people
who have either -- they have to have a minimum
after year in recovery. And this is an alcohol
-- this is a drug-free workplace. So part
of employment is you have to go through a
pee test before you start because I really
want this to be a program where people can
feel comfortable in knowing that the people
that are working with them also are drug-free.
If they are an alcohol abuser they need to
have a minimum of a year of one year of recovery.
We're also --
>>
How come your asking for only one year of
recovery when the certification programs requires
two and these poem don't have training?
>>Jackie:
But they're not going to be counselors.
>>
I know but they're going to be around clients.
And if they don't have the training and they
don't have two years of sobriety, aren't you
putting them at risk?
>>Jackie:
The state of Washington doesn't have that
same requirement that Oregon does.
>>
Yeah, they do.
>>Jackie:
No, the State of Washington you can have one
day of sobriety and be a counselor. The new
DOH laws changed all of that when they changed
them to CDPS, the chemical dependency professionals,
they changed all of that.
>>
Regardless of Washington's law, aren't you
putting your clients at risk?
>>Jackie:
We've had that discussion. And I think I'm
just going to have to look at it on an individual
basis. If a person has a year of recovery
and they are working a good program and, you
know, have the skills, the training I can
provide. The training that we can provide
there on site. My pool is not as big as in
the hearing world of who to gather from as
far as staff goes. I'm just going to have
to look at that. But it's a good point, believe
me. There are people that have less than a
year of recovery that desperately want to
work in the treatment center and that's where
we put the line at a minimum after year. But,
yeah, it is something I may end up changing,
you know? But at this point that's what we
discussed as a team as to what we thought
was a minimum that we would wanted.
>>
I would think that -- sorry. I would think
that you can tell the difference from people
with one year of sobriety that are actually
working a program to people that have one
year of sobriety and haven't even opened the
book. I've been around enough to know the
differences. So I understand that the fear
of putting your clients at risk but I've seen
people with a year of sobriety that know and
are more appropriate than people with 13 years
of sobriety and that's just my personal opinion
on that.
>>Jackie:
Yeah, yeah. I think it's really something
you have to look at on an individual basis.
Again because my pool is going to be smaller
than what the hearing treatment centers have
access to. But I have had people e-mail me
from all around the United States so we'll
see who I actually get. But the other thing
is, the other positions are, I'm going to
have a position for an interpreter/office
manager. This is something who is a certified
interpreter and has -- and/or has equivalent
skills. Maybe someone who has never bothered
to go get certification but is a very good
signer, has good boundaries but is very organized.
That's what I'm looking for. Someone who can
organize that office. I'm not organized. It's
not my strong skill. I have a lot of passion
but organization is not one of them. And I
know it's a character defect that I work on
on a daily basis. And I need someone who can
help me with that.
And
then we also have another .5 position for
an interpreter which will probably end up
being I'm going to use for free lancing because
that person will be mostly doing 12-step meetings
and family sessions and stuff like that. So
how that works out I'm not really sure yet.
So those are the positions.
The
program itself, the way it will look is that
you have to be 18 years and older to be, to
have accessibility there. They will have daily
groups and the groups will, you know, all
be done in ASL. We will be using some of the
materials from the Minnesota program but important
thing that's going to be different than a
hearing group is that we're not going to depend
on the written or reading English as the main
way of getting things done. Those that can
will. Those that can't will have other alternative
ways of dealing with that. A lot of art therapy,
a lot of, you know, creating things that will
help you then to be able to use that to express
what's going on and looking at your history.
We're
also going to be doing a lot of getting out
in the world. We're going to be doing hikes
every Saturday is going to be for those that,
you know, can, take long hikes. We'll be going
on some really ...I've been discovering the
areas of walking. They have something here
called AA -- it's like our OSAT. In Seattle
we had OSAT, one step at a time which was
an outdoor club. But they have something like
that in the Portland area that we're going
to get connected with. Learning how to have
fun in recovery.
The
other thing that we're going to be doing which
I think is very different than a lot of treatment
centers is that people are going to learn
how to access 12 step meetings on line. Because
no matter what you're reading and writing
skills are, most people can do chat rooms.
And a let of these people are going to be
going home to places where they don't have
he is accessible -- accessibility to 12 step
meetings. If you go back to a busy metro area
list Portland or Seattle there will be meetings
but we're going to learn how to access 12
step meetings on line. So that you can go
to any library and get on a computer and get
into a chat room or an AA meeting or NA meeting.
You can go to, a lot of people have computers
or have friends who have computers or maybe,
you know, in some areas their VR counselor
may help them get a small computer and it
just has that accessibility for e-mail. There's,
some people that do a lot of on-line stuff
now that are very excited about the possibility
of helping with getting that whole process
going so I talk with people in recovery that
are deaf in Boston and Rhode Island and all
over the place. So that is going to be an
important part of this program is to how to
help people access resources while they're
in treatment so that they can have that when
they go home to their communities.
We
will also be coordinating hopefully in the
state of Washington, I'm kind of discovering
who in different regions are the people who
are going to be able to be the after care.
We hope to be able to at some point have the
ability to train after care sites in different
places. I know there's someone in Salem who's
interested. There's a place they can go in
Seattle. I know somewhere in Tacoma. And someone
in -- one of the other eastern Washington
cities contacted me last week about how can
I help you with after care for this program?
So it's going -- that's a process that's going
to be really important piece of this. But
even without the after care program, they
would go away from treatment hopefully with
tools that will help them to have access via
the computer. We got to use in technology
that we have in the 2001.
We're
going to have a family, the family program
is going to be limited right now because of
the funding. But right now the way the family
program is going to look is there is going
to be a group that's going to meet not at
the treatment center but elsewhere once a
week for family and friends of people who
are in the treatment program. And getting
some accessibility to Al-Anon in the Vancouver,
Portland area. There's a speaker meetings
in Portland that has a speaker from both AA
and Al Anon that is going to be funding an
interpreter themselves starting this month
or next month. I don't remember which month.
But we're going to get that more accessible
so that people can have support for their
family members so they can learn how not to
keep enabling again and again and again and
again.
In
the future we would like to be able to have
like a Saturday once a month where we do a,
like a family intervention kind of family
investigations with the family all the family
members there having the family counselor
there and the cd counselors there and you
actually do some pretty heavy sharing about
how this has all affected you and then having
like barbeque or something like that afterwards
so there is that reunion and people realize
that it's not all about them.
So
those are just a few of the high points of
the treatment center. You know, and I was
hoping that I would be standing here when
I wrote this last summer standing here today,
saying this is what we're doing and all this
kind of stuff. It's very different but you
know what? It's closer than it ever has been
to opening. I know those people are moving
out of my space on April 13th. I know that
there is a contract that has been signed in
Olympia at the Division Of Alcohol And Substance
Abuse and it's been sign by every person that's
supposed to sign it. So that I have my funding
from the state of Washington from April 1st
through June 30th. I know that's a fact. So,
you know, the other things are going to fall
into place. It's going to happen. It's going
to be a program. How it works out for other
people, you to participate, especially the
Oregon residents, that's up to people in this
room to be able to push for that.
>>
I'm curious. In your budget do you have for
Hispanic families? Because where I live, in
the community that we serve, there's a huge
Hispanic population. And the family members
that you would be working with would be Spanish
speaking only. So do you have that in your
budget considering those issues?
>>Jackie:
yes, at this point that's not in there but
you know what? My belief from Division Of
Alcohol And Drug Abuse nothing is in in concrete
and if I found I had a need for that I would
go back to DASA and say I need this. There's
actually a person I know that needs closed-captioning
in order to participate in treatment because
that person doesn't sign. You know, I was
told when that, you know, when I'm ready to
talk about that, then you go back to them
and say this is something. Right now the program
is being set up for people who are hard of
hearing and deaf who use sign language as
their first communication. In the future,
I hope that we can have people who are hard
of hearing who don't sign and all these other
things but right now, it is the treatment
planning committee learned from other treatment
programs that wanted to do everything, wanted
to serve everybody that they shut down. So
we made a decision as a team to focus on people
who use American Sign Language as their first
language. You know?
>>
The deaf population uses American Sign Language
but it's just the after care with the family
if you're wanting to work with the family
after they're out of recovery. Then you need
to have Spanish speaking interpreters to be
able to facilitate that.
>>Jackie:
Right. I think there's ways that can happen.
The Division Of Alcohol And Substance Abuse
is pretty flexible about that issue. If you
look at Division Of Alcohol And Substance
Abuse spent over $200,000 in a 15-month time
period last year on interpreters putting deaf
people in treatment around the State of Washington.
That's a lot of money. That could fund me!
You know, so if you look at comparing that,
I have no idea what Oregon spends. They won't
give me any statistics. But I'm sure that
it's pretty, it's probably not that expensive
because the State of Washington, if you need
an interpreter, you can, if -- they will fund
pretty much from the time you get up until
the time you go to bed now. Used to be they
could fund only a couple hour group here or
there but they learned that doesn't work.
They had people like me just jump down their
throats with things like that and other people
saying I need, I demand while I'm in treatment.
I want all these things that what's what is
takes and now the Division Of Alcohol And
Substance Abuse will fund just about anything
in you ask for it nicely. She will fund just
about anything. She is a great resource.
>>
Are you going to be set up to self medicate
-- medicaid? Idaho.
>>Jackie:
I have not talk to do Idaho yet. The
State of Alaska I know will -- they will pay.
But their Medicaid will stay for out of state.
Do you know if your Medicaid will pay for
out of state?
>>
It pays for the Minnesota treatment.
>>Jackie:
They would save money -- nothing against Minnesota
but it's a hospital-based. We would love to
do that. We would negotiate it on a case by
case basis. I, Steve, there's other people
that I know have gone there and had training
from them. But they are a hospital-based program.
And being hospital-based program, it cost
a lot of money. It's a minimum of for a person
to stay there is $700 a day their daily rate
up to if they're involved in the detox process
it's like 1200 a day. That's a lot of money.
Versus if you, you know, my program is not
going to -- depending on if you're out of
state it's a little more expensive for your
daily rate because of the long distance stuff.
But it's less than $200 a day, which is a
good deal. You know? And the staff are being
the counselors and residential facility counselors
are being paid a little bit higher than some
treatment centers. And we fought for that.
Steve was very much part of the pilot for
getting higher salaries because of the level
of expertise that we're asking for in signing.
>>
I'm from Alaska and there's been clients that
have had alcohol problems and they go to AA
meetings but they don't understand the 12
steps. They have never understood that and
that's been kind of a block for them so they
have to find other options, spiritually or
just other options, more concrete ways to
deal with it or ways to understand the 12
steps.
>>Jackie:
and I think that some of the things that I've
learned from both Cathy and Deb from the Minnesota
program is that in a conjunction with the
12-step model you have to look at things like
mentorship in the deaf community. That for
not the 12 steps does not work for everyone.
And everyone may not have accessibility when
they go back to their community. But maybe
they can find a deaf person that they admire
that they have some kind of connection with
and develop that relationship as a support
person for them. I will encourage anyone who's
in treatment to get involved with the 12 steps.
And we have, the 12-step program is broken
down the way the Minnesota program is, and
we will break it down as in languagewise however
a person needs it.
But
I understand if I was a deaf person and I
went into an AA meeting and I just sat there
and listened to what was being said and then
left the meeting without having any contact,
you know, AA would not work for me or NA,
whatever. It wouldn't work. It's not just
understanding what the 12 steps are about
or understanding what AA's about. It's the
fellowship. It's the fellowship is a very
big part of the triangle of how recovery works
for people. And so again, my belief and my
hope is that if I get people hooked up with
people who are in recovery via e-mail or whatever
they will get that language. They will get
to hear what people in recovery are doing.
So that when they go to a 12-step meeting
they will have a little bit more of an understanding.
But it is -- it's difficult. It's difficult
for hearing people to understand those 12
steps! My whole first year of recovery, I
just like -- like what the heck are you guys
talking about? Because it takes time for your
brain to clear, you know, it takes a minimum
of a year before your head's clear enough
to understand some of that stuff. Back here
and then.
>>
In Portland area, I believe there's only one
interpreted AA meeting, if that. In the Salem
area, I believe that we got now we got three
AA meetings.
>>Jackie:
I have the schedules up here.
>>
Oh.
>>Jackie:
I will talk about that in a minute. Hold that.
You're getting ahead of me.
>>
Sorry.
>>Jackie:
That's okay.
>>
I have three questions. First of all, congratulations
on what good hard work you have been putting
into this and really overdue. I hope this
happens soon. This is very, very important
work your doing. And I realize you're talking
about culturally deaf people. And is it, do
you have the capability or already in the
planning thinking about deaf-blind deaf-blind
culturally deaf-blind people.
>>Jackie:
83. I have that here.
>>
So if it comes up --
>>Jackie:
Then I'll address it as it comes up because
one of my -- you know my passion and my background
is with deaf-blind. So yes. Art at Gallaudet
-- I can't remember his last name. He and
I had some discussion about that a few years
ago about how we're going to -- because I
know there's a lot of deaf-blind people sitting
in the closet or whatever and who need this
service very much so.
>>
And then I'm sorry I missed the beginning
of the presentation. You might have already
addressed this. For folks who may not have
good diagnosis diagnose but be diagnosed with
some mental health issues are you collaborating
with a medical staff somewhere that will sort
those things out to other kind of venues?
>>Jackie:
There's a couple of programs we're going to
be working with. Columbia River which has
deaf counselors. They're in the Vancouver
area. And actually, one of the parts of this
program that I forgot to mention, Rebecca
would probably shoot me, is I have hired and
am supervising a alcohol and drug co-occurring
disorders for the school of the deaf and she
would be available for some of that also.
So state school for the deaf has never had
this one, Washington state school for the
deaf has never hood an alcohol and drug counselor.
They didn't have a problem! Being someone
who has had a lot of -- anybody's that's ever
been in a problem that's come from WSD, I
knew there was a problem at WSD with alcohol
and drugs. It's been greeted very warmly.
The staff there have been wonderful. And we've
had kids that are coming up to us without
referrals. They're just coming in saying,
this is what I'm doing. I think I need some
help. So it's process in the future we want
to have about six-bed inpatient youth deaf
program is what we're shooting for. That's
kind of in the five-year plan but it would
not be mixed with the adults. It would be
separate. Third question.
>>
And my last question is would you consider,
you know, in AA there are speakers meetings
and then those speakers meetings are audiotaped
and people can buy those audiotaped so if
they live in isolated places they can listen
to inspiration without being there. Would
you consider making videos of deaf role models
to take back in those rural areas?
>>Jackie:
Yup. In Arkansas they have actually done that.
AA has sanctioned it in Arkansas where they
actually have a speaker speaking and they
have the video camera on the interpreter is
one thing and then the other thing is to have
deaf speakers that are willing to be videotaped.
And Portland has fib school so I plan on going
like somebody wants a school project? You
know, school project for you. I already have
it all lined out for you. That you can get
some people to volunteer that because videotaping,
it's got good quality takes, it's that money
thing but, yes, that is something that already
there. Yes, because if you're deaf you want
to just like pop in a videotape of someone,
it's a great idea.
>>
Just so you know I happen to know a deaf-blind
person who has a company, limit the vision
and limited hearing, who does videotaping.
Please let me know. When you're ready to do
that.
>>Jackie:
Yes, yes, yes. Okay. You know, Jennifer and
I used to work together way, way back when.
So we have a lot of history there.
>>
I can still harass her.
>>Jackie:
What's happening now, you kind of gotten the
update what's happening with the treatment
program. Our goal right now is that we're
going to try to open by the last week of April.
We'll see. I'm doing interviews next week,
hoping to be hiring people getting things
going. Pardon?
>>
Say again when you're going to open?
>>Jackie:
Last week of April.
>>
This April?
>>Jackie:
Yes. Like three weeks. Part of it's because
I don't have to buy very much because the
program the house we're going to be moving
into has mostly everything there. I just have
got to get some sheets and mattresses and
things like that. 12 step stuff that's happening
around the state of Washington and Oregon.
I have and I'm just going to leave them up
here because if you want them you can come
get them. This one that looks like this at
the top here is from Seattle area. One of
the nice things about this is that on this
here is the website that will direct you towards
treatment programs and who's accessible for
deaf all over the United States for alcohol
and drug treatment. Allene is a wonderful,
wonderful person to get on her mailing list
because she gives you all the information
about the deaf sites.
So
this is Seattle. And Tacoma area. here's the
Salem, Oregon, Corvallis. There's actually
not an interpreted meeting in Portland yet
but there will be soon. And on the back of
this if you happen to know anyone who wants
to go to a meeting tonight in Vancouver, just
exit 1c which is literally you can see practically
from here. There's a deaf meeting tonight.
This calendar is -- this is what's going on
in Vancouver this month. And then some stuff
on the back. There's some N.A. meetings, A.A.
meetings. These are not necessarily the meetings
that will be interpreted all the time. This
is my effort to explore meetings, see, you
know, which ones the deaf individuals like,
which ones the, you know, like us, you know,
who are opening and warm, this is, theirs
is being funded some by volunteer interpreters.
One of the things I do is teach a workshop.
I have done it several times with Bob Lamons,
an interpreter from Seattle. He and I have
taught some workshops and we did a two-part
one for interpreters who want to learn more
about 12 step language and A.A. and CD and
all that stuff and we did a two-part one in
Portland recently. Part of their homework
was they had to volunteer for a bunch of 12
step meetings that they wanted to get their
CEUs. My way of getting some interpreters
for free. So this is all about the Vancouver
ones. Having accessibility for deaf individuals
for a 12 step meetings for AA has always been
an issue. It has been one of those things
that I have been part of since I came into
recovery. Allene from the state of Oregon,
deaf woman, and I are going to present a workshop
to members of AA from the Portland-Vancouver
area about how to make things more accessible.
What we are trying to do is get the groups
to each one kind of put into a fund that will
be somewhere, this fund of money, and 23 you're
deaf and you want to go to a meeting you just
contact in fund, the person who's got this
fund and you will be able to go to any meeting
you want to.
>>
In the state of Washington?
>>Jackie:
That's in Oregon. We're trying to get something
like that, you have to do it by city by city.
But there are people from Seattle, there's
a whole group of deaf people coming down for
this workshop at the end of April. So if you
know anyone in your area that wants to come
to us, she has researched the traditions,
to the max. You know, and can come back with
a line for everything that AA members want
to say, well, you can't do in. She's got an
answer for it all. So we will be presenting
on that on April 28th. And if you -- I can't
say this in public but I have open my home,
backyard with tents, whatever for anyone that's,
deaf that's coming from out of the area that
wants to come to stay with me to come to this
workshop. So then I've already talked about
the job announcements and this is all the
Oregon information. Take more of the Oregon.
Pass it out to everybody you can possibly
pass it out to. Questions.
>>
I'm curious if not knowing much about programs
such as this so this might be a naive question.
>>Jackie:
There's no wrong questions.
>>
Okay. What about, is there going to be something
that you will need to exclude where they cannot
become eligible? And I'm talking about maybe
domestic violence accompanied with drug and
alcohol. Sexual assault cases relate to do
drug and alcohol. Court-ordered kind of inpatient
programs. Will you be accepting individuals
with that kind of history or not?
>>Jackie:
Okay. The DV issue is going to be done on
an individual basis because a lot of alcohol
and drug abuse does lead to domestic violence
and there will be be men and women at this
treatment center. I will look at that on an
individual basis. I want to protect the safety
of the people that I'm serving. As far as
sexual offenders, at this point, I'm not going
to be able to accept anyone who has a class
-- it's in the -- I can't remember the classes
and stuff. But right now I will not be able
to have them in the house sexual offenders.
Doesn't mean that I wouldn't be willing to
work with someone on an outpatient basis.
Doesn't mean that I wouldn't be willing to
-- because this program, people can come that
live in the community. You do not have to
live in this treatment center to be participate
in the treatment process. You can actually
live in the community if you are in a safe
environment and come to the groups and stuff.
So if a person is a sexual offender, I would
-- I would have to look at it on an individual
basis but I don't see any why reason why they
couldn't be served on the outpatient. The
in part, the home, has to be safe.
>>
How would you deal with outpatient if it's
Eastern Washington?
>>Jackie:
We would have to look -- if there is a halfway
house that they could live in that was for
offenders. Because I know that there -- those
do exist and we would have to look at getting
them transferred, their probation transferred,
that kind of stuff.
>>
So you would could consultation?
>>Jackie:
Yeah. We would have to figure out how to do
that. And the other thing that I can't accept
anyone with severe mental health issues that
is not under control of some type. Someone
called me the other day about someone who
is paranoid schizophrenic and violent in his
own home and refusing to take his meds. You
know, I'm sorry. I can't take someone who'll
be a threat to the people that are living
there. You know, get that person on his meds
and stable then we will have to look at whether
or not that's a possibility. But I can't have
someone -- it's got to be a safe place for
people to come.
And
the other -- the other issue is, someone said
about confidentiality, one of the native sessions.
Confidentiality is a very important thing
to remember. But again William Moyer, not
Bill Moyer but William Moyer, Jr., Bill Moyer's
son, and I have done a lot of things recently
with and we have both been in the same room
together and he is in recovery. And he is
very proud of that and so am I. And my belief
is very strong that I don't have to tell you
that I'm a member of A.A. or N.A. or M.A.
or anything like that but I think it's important
that you I announce that I am in recovery
and talk about what solutions I have for people
in recovery. And as far as confidentiality
of deaf individuals saying I don't want people
to know I'm in recovery, they all knew you
drank and drugged! They knew what your behavior
was like when you were using. So I hope that
people leave treatment and that they're proud
of the fact that they are now in recovery
and that they're changing their behaviors
and that they can then share that and have
pride in the fact that they are changing,
you know, who they are and what their lives
look like.
Because,
you know, some of the people that will probably
come into treatment, I drank and drugged with,
you know, way back when because I hung out
in the deaf community. You know? But I'm not
the same person I was then. I am a very, very
different person. I have compassion and I
care about people now. You know, I had a really
bad attitude about life back then, you know?
As the same is with a lot of deaf individuals.
And it's just going to keep changing. But
I am proud that I am in recovery and I have
no problem telling anyone that asks me, you
know. So how, you know, how did you change?
You know? It's very important part of recovery
in my opinion. And so the confidentiality
thing is that hopefully the deaf gossip will
be, wow, did you know they're changing? They're
in recovery? They're doing cool things? That
they're having different, they're back together
and why? Because we have changed your life.
So if you have any other questions please
feel free to ask me. Please take as much as
you want of the stuff that's here. If you
need low vision print out of the descriptions
low vision up here. And thank you very much.
Evaluations.
>>
Please fill out the evaluations and give them
to me when you're finished.
>>Jackie:
thank you and thank you to the interpreters
and the captioner.
Weaving Resources Interstate to Establish a Deaf Alcohol and Drug Treatment Center
>>Jackie: I'm going to go ahead and get started and I'll try hard not to sign. My name is Jackie. Come on up a little bit.
>> We have to get up our back hurts to the point we have to be able to get up and walk --
>>Jackie: You know what? I totally understand. That's fine. My name is Jackie Hyman and I'm the director of Northwest Deaf Addiction Center are which is an alcohol and drug treatment program that's just opening up finally opening its doors in Vancouver, Washington. I'm here to tell you a little bit about the history of this program.
This history of this program -- I'll tell you a little bit about myself first. I have been in the field of deafness or deaf-blindness for many, many years. I think starting back in the '70s, I was involved with deaf individuals in Florida, going to school to become a teacher but then I got married and moved to Texas, kind of dropped my career for a while. And then moved to Seattle, Washington, and finished up my master's in deaf education, worked as a teacher for a while but really part of my passion was deaf-blind and I was very involved with the deaf-blind community there for many years especially working with people who are deaf-blind and developmentally disabled. Did a lot of the stuff Jennifer White was showing in this room before I came in here.
Then I became, in 1990, I -- 1991, I became sober myself. I was, had been alcoholic and a drug addict in recovery and after I became sober there were several people who said, you should go back to school and become an alcohol and drug counselor. There's no alcohol and drug counselor in the whole state of Washington for the deaf. And I'm like, okay, you know. I can do that. I'll do that. Because I had this settlement from this car wreck that I was in so okay, I'll go back and become an alcohol and drug counselor and I went to work in a place called Virginia Mason, an outpatient chemical dependency treatment program and I worked there for about, let's see, four or five years. And became very frustrated with the system there. Because I could only accept people who were had insurance or a lot of money. Well, you know, that didn't -- that just kept excluding a lot of people. And I would get really frustrated.
Then one day I had actually three people who were deaf on state coupons who came in and -- actually literally came to my place of business that day wanting treatment and I'm having to say, no, I'm sorry, I cannot serve you. This agency doesn't -- doesn't have it set up so I can serve someone with coupons. That was the day I said, okay, I can't work here anymore. I have to find a place where I can have coupons accepted and a sliding scale because my goal and my passion is to serve people who are deaf and need alcohol and drug treatment. So I found another agency in Seattle, Recovery Centers Of King County, that was willing to take my deaf program, small version it was, and set it up there. Because they had contracts with the state and the county so that I could take literally anyone who needed therapy. And was deaf and hard of hearing.
I worked there for a few years. And then I heard about this program that they were trying to set up for inpatient treatment in Vancouver. And I was invited to be on a treatment planning committee. That was about two years ago. I was invited to be on this committee. And inpatient treatment for the deaf was something I had had a passion for because there's so many people that are not best served in outpatient treatment. They need that structure and stability of being in an inpatient setting.
I had visited the Minnesota Deaf Treatment Program and had spent a week there. And, you know, knew that it could be successful. But knew that that program, the state of Washington would not pay for anyone to go to Minnesota because of the enormous cost of that program because it is a hospital-based program. A hospital-based inpatient treatment program is extremely expensive because you're not just paying for your counselors, you're paying for dieticians, physical therapists, doctor, all the overhead so the cost of an inpatient treatment program that's based in a hospital is exorbitant. It runs anywhere between $700 and $1200 a day for treatment. So I thought this program, you know, idea of having an inpatient program that was not hospital-based in the Vancouver area was a wonderful idea.
So I drove every month to Southwest Center For The Deaf And Hard Of Hearing for about a year and was part of this committee of people from both Washington and Oregon states. There was a passion there from both states wanting to have this program set up. And I came down. I drove the three-hour drive down from Seattle, and stayed for a two-hour meeting and drove back to Seattle and usually did a group that night, too. So you could see I really wanted this to happen. There was a lot of people involved both from the state levels and from just local grass roots deaf individuals, Steve And Mark Azure, Bob, Alley Joiner, some people, local from the local area were also very involved with this.
It wasn't just a bunch of hearing people telling deaf people they needed treatment. We were trying really hard to involve the people who were going to be serving in this. These planning committee meetings were something else. I mean, we were like, we would argue about the color of the walls. And what carpet was going to be there and what kind of lighting was going to be there. At the same time we had a commitment of funding from both the Division Of Alcohol And Substance Abuse, which is DASA, Washington state's alcohol and drug program, and there was a financial commitment from Oregon's -- I'm trying to get the right acronym here. It's Office Of Alcohol And Drug Abuse Programs, ODAP, the Oregon equivalent. And there was a commitment for money from both, for both sort start-up and for ongoing support.
We had the original site of where Northwest DAC was supposed to be was at the V.A. Hospital ground in Vancouver. They have an old building there that is not been used for many, many years. I actually know for a fact this building was built in 1922 because I had to find that out for insurance purposes. We hired an architect to look at how could we remodel this facility to be deaf-friendly? We figured out how to make the rooms, we were trying -- you got to work with an existing room so we're trying to make it so that you can have all that roundness that people were talking about yesterday in the Native American meeting. The roundness so that people could actually have good visual from everywhere they were in a room. We looked at making sure that the staff station was rounded so that there weren't all those squares that sometimes is just not real deaf-friendly.
We looked at how to wire that place for lots of computers because as I will talk about later, computers are going to be a very important part of this treatment center. We were involved with how the windows, the glare of the windows, all of those things were very much taken into account when we were looking, working with this architect. And the architect we were working with actually had been to Gallaudet for some training and had done some work at the school for the deaf. So he was very aware of all of these issues also. The V.A., I don't know if there's anyone in here that works for the V.A.. The V.A. it's a very slow moving machine. It runs slower than molasses on a cold winter day. And they change players a lot. They change who's doing what often. And therefore, things got lost. Like I said, the V.A. was contacted almost three years ago with this idea, this plan. The V.A. would say, we have -- the concept of having the deaf treatment center there had been accepted. Give me a business plan. We give them a business plan. Supposedly it went to Washington, D.C., and was accepted. But it wasn't. And there was a lot of frustrations. You know, we're, you know, doing all these things and we're told to do but we're not getting any headway on the site of where we wanted to have this treatment center.
Then about exactly a year ago, in April, we had gotten to the point in this planning committee -- now again, this is all people who are volunteers. There's no paid positions in this place, in this treatment idea yet. So last April, I had been asked several times before that, don't you want to move from Seattle and become the director of this program? And I kept saying, no way! I am not leaving Seattle. I love my program there. You know, I love Seattle. My daughter was -- just graduated from high school. She was in college there. Not leaving Seattle. One day in April a year ago, the traffic got to me. I had a bad traffic day. It was a two-hour commute for what should have been taken at most a half an hour. And that was it. I came home that night and said, sweetie, how about let's move to Vancouver. How does Vancouver sound? And some of you may know my significant other, now my fiance as of last night, is -- yes! I became officially engaged last night. [ applause ] is an interpreter, sign language interpreter. And so being a male interpreter he can work just about anywhere. So it was pretty easy for us to make the decision to move to Vancouver.
I came here to Vancouver actually moved here, myself, in July to start working on this process. And our goal in July was that we were going to open that treatment center January 2nd, 2001. Many of you may have heard that date around because that was our goal. That was the time line that we were working on with support from Washington and Oregon. Last summer when I wrote the abstract for this presentation today, that was the time line. That was the plan. Part of this presentation is supposed to talk about the history and the process. Well, that's what I'm here to tell you is that the process doesn't always work the way you want it to work. Again, we're still having these struggles with the V.A. about the site.
All this time I'm working with the Department of Health, you know, licensing to get everything in place so that the moment we have the contract with the V.A. for that site is ours, and get this point we're about this time we're agreeing to -- we will agree to anything that the V.A. says at this point. We have never told them we wouldn't agree to anything. We have been open and ready to agree to even the cost of the rent. We would agree to anything because we wanted to get this treatment center open so passionately. And they're paying me and I'm not, you know, getting -- I mean I have no way of controlling the V.A. no one has a way of controlling the V.A. and so I'm about, let's see, October, there's a new set of people that came in to the V.A. and again had to be reeducated about what we were doing, what the process was, and we thought it was all good. Actually, we were standing in the parking lot at the Bank of America on the cell phone with the guy from the V.A. and him saying, yes, it was accepted in Washington, D.C. and I'm like, I want that in writing, please. So that I have that in writing. This was in December.
And then some things go along and he will say we will have a contract for you in the next few weeks to sign. This was December. Now, obviously now I'm not going to be able to open January 2nd because there's going to be about two months of remodeling that needs to be done to the V.A. site. But again, we're having our monthly meetings and we're planning and we're talking about, you know, staff and the treatment program and what's going on, you know. I'm still, I'm getting more involved with seeing people. I'm seeing people on an individual basis, some in Oregon, some in Washington. Doing all this just for free, just to kind of get the process rolling, you know, so that people know that this is going to be happening. January, second week or so of January, find out that that wasn't true what the V.A. said and that it has not been accepted in Washington, D.C. and so the process starts again with all this paperwork for the V.A.. Going along, I called sometime the end of January, I'm putting together my budget stuff to make sure that I'm, because I'm having faith that the V.A.'s really going to happen. And so I'm putting together my budget. And I'm writing three budgets. I'm writing one budget that's for the money I've already spent so that we can try to recoup that from the State of Washington.
I'm also putting together a budget for if I open the treatment center in April, on April 1st, how much money would I need from April 1st until June 30th which is the I understand of the biennium. And then how much would I need for the next two years in the new biennium for Washington and Oregon? So I'm busy with all these numbers. And I learning how to run Excel because I've never used that Excel program. And so I'm trying to learn how to do all this stuff. And I call the State of Oregon. I could probably look up the exact date but it was probably sometime about the end of January, beginning of February and I called the State of Oregon and said, I just needed to clarify my numbers for my budget as to your commitment to the start-up cost for this program because we're getting really close. And for the daily bed rate, what it will be for the next biennium. And I get this person says, well, we reallocated that money for your start-up. We didn't think this was really going to happen.
No one's called me! No one's called the Division Of Alcohol And Substance Abuse players here in the State of Washington who have been very, very wonderful. And I'm like, oh, okay, so but do we still have the daily bed rate in there for the next biennium? No, it's not at all in our budget for the next biennium. I'm like, oh. Thank you. He says you don't sound like you're happy with my information and I'm like, I would rather know than not know and I was very polite and thanked him for the information and asked was there anything that I could do to put this back in the budget? Because I have been seeing people in Oregon. I know there's lots of people in Oregon who want this to happen. And I was told that the no input to make any changes in the new biennium budget would be able to be -- would be able to happen until May, at least May 15th because everything's been done and is being blessed somewhere by some legislature people right now, and that after May 15th, then, they'll be able to kind of like manipulate and move numbers around-maybe. So thank you very much.
And called my boss at Pacific Crest Consortium, the agency who's been like absorbing all of this loss of, you know, paying my salary and the little bit of money I've spent since I started last July. And informed her of this. And she was not happy, to say the least. But was still willing to see how we could figure out how to have this program with just Washington State funding. Talked to people at the Division Of Alcohol And Substance -- substance abuse, DASA in Olympia, they said we'll still fund it and be part of. So I had to like change all that budget to reflect one income, one source, one state, Washington money. And but I'm still, you know, my passion is to get this place opened so I negotiating, doing everything I'm asked to do as far as money goes. The third week of March, my boss says, if we don't have a contract with DASA by the end of March, or at least a strong commitment by the end of March, I'm going to have to lay you off because, you know, her agency is just been absorbing this cost without any reimbursement since last July. I mean I'm not getting paid that much but it's still a lot of money to keep losing.
And I'm like -- okay. I moved here, you know, anyway, so I'm going -- I guess this means I can look for another site, if I found another site that's not the V.A. that I could probably do this because at this point, division of alcohol and substance abuse is being supported but they're saying, if you don't have a guarantee of a site of where this is going to be, we're not going to give you any money. So I'm being pulled, you know, in all these different directions. And so my boss, because at this point I had been told the V.A. was it. We were only going to be committed to do V.A. and we spent $15,000 already on the architect and it was going to be the V.A. so I'm like, that day in her office after I got over my initial thoughts of being laid off, I said, so I guess this means I can look for another site. And she says, sure. What have we got to lose? So me, I went out, I don't know Vancouver at all.
But I went to a real estate person and went and called every person I knew, and talked to our county coordinator, Cleave Thompson and he said don't worry, Jackie, I'll find you a job. But it's not a job I want, it's this treatment center I want. So we found a place. So that we can get the treatment program open. I have to -- it's creative semantics is how we're doing this. Very creative wording that we're using for this because we're still, the V.A. is still being held on to. Supposedly, it's coming in writing that it's been accepted in Washington, D.C. I will believe that when I have that piece of paper in my hand.
>> or the check.
>>Jackie: when I have that piece of paper that says it's been accepted, you know, I'll believe that. But for now, this is what we're doing. And we are opening what is called -- we have a home -- we have this huge place that used to be like a group home in Vancouver. It's out in the, you know, kind of out, not really -- I don't know what the area is called. Steve, what has that area called where this is the house is?
>> Neighbor St. John.
>>Jackie: in the St. John area. Kind of near highway 500, near the mall. It's a really nice house and we can put eight people there. And it has space for some offices and has a beautiful living room. It's already furnished. It used to be what was used for the HIV AIDS Project for the last your so it's just being used for offices. So the people who are in the offices there are going to move out into real offices and I'm going to take over this place as of April the 14th I will be there. And it is not going to be called inpatient treatment because of the fact that if I wanted to make that an inpatient treatment program I would have to go through major stuff with the neighbors and, you know, all of that. And this is only going to be temporary so I'm not going through all that process. We're calling it group living. With a group care enhancement contract from the Division Of Alcohol And Substance Abuse.
>> that's creative semantics.
>>Jackie: I also have with the Division Of Alcohol And Substance Abuse a contract to provide treatment. Right now it is called intensive outpatient treatment. Even though with all this creative semantics I am still going to get to serve eight deaf individuals 24 hours a day seven days a week with staff, counselors, interpreters. So I'm getting my program. I'm just getting on a small version, and I'm getting it with creative ways I have to call it. But the nice thing, too, is that I'm getting it for this first four months -- April, May, June--- three months of the biennium, the last part, this past biennium, I'm getting it as a grant which means I don't have to do any billing for this, for people in the State of Washington. I can take virtually anyone who needs alcohol and drug treatment. For people who are from out of the state of Washington, for example, Alaska or Idaho has approached me, or Oregon, Idaho and Alaska -- I'm pretty sure Idaho but I know Alaska will pay for out of state treatment. Oregon at this point refuses to cooperate! To pay for out of state treatment. I have one of the papers I'm going to hand out today -- this is my little grass roots discussion. And I'll deny that I gave any of you this. [ laughter ] it says "important contacts if you want alcohol and drug treatment for deaf and hard of hearing in Oregon." I'm giving you the address and phone number. I don't have the e-mail for Barbara Cimaglio. But I have all of the rest of her numbers. If you call these numbers they'll give you an e-mail for her. Because their e-mails you have to know their middle initial. I don't know what they are middle initial is. She is the person at the Oregon alcohol and drug program that needs to know that people in Oregon want this. E-mail her. Write her. Fax her. Tell her that -- give examples. Make this human. That's my thing. Is we have to put a live human face to this. You don't have to identify any. These are the situations that I find the clients in who need treatment. Let them know. Give them statistics. Give them numbers. Give them -- how many on your caseload that are deaf that need this. They need to hear from every person. Gives this to deaf people to bug her. They need to know that this is a very important.
The other person that you can contact, I suggest you contact all these. Is at the Oregon Disabilities Commission, Mark has been -- Azure has been a great advocate for this. And all his information is there. Also last night, Oregon Health Plan, you know, I'm new. I don't live here but Oregon Health Plan has been real resistant to doing anything out of the ordinary. Oregon Health Plan will pay for someone to be deaf, to pay for them to be an outpatient treatment in the state of Oregon and they will pay for interpreters for them being outpatient treatment. Just think if you look at the cost of paying for interpreters versus the cost of my program, there's just like no comparison.
The other thing here is if a person is in inpatient treatment, and this is use these facts when you're writing your letters, if a person is in inpatient treatment in the State of Oregon, the State of Oregon is not OHP that pays for it. It's the county funding that pays for it. But they will only pay for interpreters for group process.
>> Whoa!
>>Jackie: In an inpatient treatment program, group process is supposedly about a two-hour group. All the educational stuff, all the recreational stuff, all the 12-step meetings that go on, the community things, they're refusing to pay. I have someone that I'm fighting with this about right now. They're refusing to pay for that. The other point is, you know how much they pay interpreters? They're willing to pay interpreters? Someone want to give a guess?
>> $15 an hour.
>>Jackie: A little higher than that. $25 an hour. Interpreters in this area charge usually between $40 and $50 an hour. For interpreting. So that means that program has got to take on that extra cost. The program that I'm working with right now in Portland area that did take on a deaf woman in treatment, they have like a $12,000 interpreter bill at this point because Oregon is refusing to pay. You know how many people I could serve for $12,000? That's a lot of people I could serve for $12,000 for a month. I mean, it is ridiculous that people think that that is a better thing to do. So I encourage you, I plead with you to please contact these people. The OHP complaint department is the number I put down here. The ombudsman department of DHS here, which is Department Of Human Of Health Services in the State of Oregon. So I put down all their information. -- that's just my spiel about, let's get this done. And I can't do it. I have no control. I'm just this person in Washington. And they're tired of me. But you can -- I am giving you the power to do this. Let me tell you a little bit about the program itself. It is -- it's going to be really cool. We serve, and this is all written on this piece of paper.
In fact, I know I'm not supposed to ask interrupters --
>> I'll volunteer. Why don't you go ahead and give out those. Okay.
>>Jackie: It is a program that's going to have either the staff are either going to be deaf themselves or they sign. We're going to have counselors. Right now I still part-time counselor and I'm looking for more counselors. But the counselors have to be certified in alcohol and drug programs. If they're out of state and they need to get into, you know, a certification in our state I can work that out. But if they have some alcohol and drug certification, we'll make that work. I'm also going to be having what's called residential facilities counselors which is basically the line staff and they are people who have either -- they have to have a minimum after year in recovery. And this is an alcohol -- this is a drug-free workplace. So part of employment is you have to go through a pee test before you start because I really want this to be a program where people can feel comfortable in knowing that the people that are working with them also are drug-free. If they are an alcohol abuser they need to have a minimum of a year of one year of recovery. We're also --
>> How come your asking for only one year of recovery when the certification programs requires two and these poem don't have training?
>>Jackie: But they're not going to be counselors.
>> I know but they're going to be around clients. And if they don't have the training and they don't have two years of sobriety, aren't you putting them at risk?
>>Jackie: The state of Washington doesn't have that same requirement that Oregon does.
>> Yeah, they do.
>>Jackie: No, the State of Washington you can have one day of sobriety and be a counselor. The new DOH laws changed all of that when they changed them to CDPS, the chemical dependency professionals, they changed all of that.
>> Regardless of Washington's law, aren't you putting your clients at risk?
>>Jackie: We've had that discussion. And I think I'm just going to have to look at it on an individual basis. If a person has a year of recovery and they are working a good program and, you know, have the skills, the training I can provide. The training that we can provide there on site. My pool is not as big as in the hearing world of who to gather from as far as staff goes. I'm just going to have to look at that. But it's a good point, believe me. There are people that have less than a year of recovery that desperately want to work in the treatment center and that's where we put the line at a minimum after year. But, yeah, it is something I may end up changing, you know? But at this point that's what we discussed as a team as to what we thought was a minimum that we would wanted.
>> I would think that -- sorry. I would think that you can tell the difference from people with one year of sobriety that are actually working a program to people that have one year of sobriety and haven't even opened the book. I've been around enough to know the differences. So I understand that the fear of putting your clients at risk but I've seen people with a year of sobriety that know and are more appropriate than people with 13 years of sobriety and that's just my personal opinion on that.
>>Jackie: Yeah, yeah. I think it's really something you have to look at on an individual basis. Again because my pool is going to be smaller than what the hearing treatment centers have access to. But I have had people e-mail me from all around the United States so we'll see who I actually get. But the other thing is, the other positions are, I'm going to have a position for an interpreter/office manager. This is something who is a certified interpreter and has -- and/or has equivalent skills. Maybe someone who has never bothered to go get certification but is a very good signer, has good boundaries but is very organized. That's what I'm looking for. Someone who can organize that office. I'm not organized. It's not my strong skill. I have a lot of passion but organization is not one of them. And I know it's a character defect that I work on on a daily basis. And I need someone who can help me with that.
And then we also have another .5 position for an interpreter which will probably end up being I'm going to use for free lancing because that person will be mostly doing 12-step meetings and family sessions and stuff like that. So how that works out I'm not really sure yet. So those are the positions.
The program itself, the way it will look is that you have to be 18 years and older to be, to have accessibility there. They will have daily groups and the groups will, you know, all be done in ASL. We will be using some of the materials from the Minnesota program but important thing that's going to be different than a hearing group is that we're not going to depend on the written or reading English as the main way of getting things done. Those that can will. Those that can't will have other alternative ways of dealing with that. A lot of art therapy, a lot of, you know, creating things that will help you then to be able to use that to express what's going on and looking at your history.
We're also going to be doing a lot of getting out in the world. We're going to be doing hikes every Saturday is going to be for those that, you know, can, take long hikes. We'll be going on some really ...I've been discovering the areas of walking. They have something here called AA -- it's like our OSAT. In Seattle we had OSAT, one step at a time which was an outdoor club. But they have something like that in the Portland area that we're going to get connected with. Learning how to have fun in recovery.
The other thing that we're going to be doing which I think is very different than a lot of treatment centers is that people are going to learn how to access 12 step meetings on line. Because no matter what you're reading and writing skills are, most people can do chat rooms. And a let of these people are going to be going home to places where they don't have he is accessible -- accessibility to 12 step meetings. If you go back to a busy metro area list Portland or Seattle there will be meetings but we're going to learn how to access 12 step meetings on line. So that you can go to any library and get on a computer and get into a chat room or an AA meeting or NA meeting. You can go to, a lot of people have computers or have friends who have computers or maybe, you know, in some areas their VR counselor may help them get a small computer and it just has that accessibility for e-mail. There's, some people that do a lot of on-line stuff now that are very excited about the possibility of helping with getting that whole process going so I talk with people in recovery that are deaf in Boston and Rhode Island and all over the place. So that is going to be an important part of this program is to how to help people access resources while they're in treatment so that they can have that when they go home to their communities.
We will also be coordinating hopefully in the state of Washington, I'm kind of discovering who in different regions are the people who are going to be able to be the after care. We hope to be able to at some point have the ability to train after care sites in different places. I know there's someone in Salem who's interested. There's a place they can go in Seattle. I know somewhere in Tacoma. And someone in -- one of the other eastern Washington cities contacted me last week about how can I help you with after care for this program? So it's going -- that's a process that's going to be really important piece of this. But even without the after care program, they would go away from treatment hopefully with tools that will help them to have access via the computer. We got to use in technology that we have in the 2001.
We're going to have a family, the family program is going to be limited right now because of the funding. But right now the way the family program is going to look is there is going to be a group that's going to meet not at the treatment center but elsewhere once a week for family and friends of people who are in the treatment program. And getting some accessibility to Al-Anon in the Vancouver, Portland area. There's a speaker meetings in Portland that has a speaker from both AA and Al Anon that is going to be funding an interpreter themselves starting this month or next month. I don't remember which month. But we're going to get that more accessible so that people can have support for their family members so they can learn how not to keep enabling again and again and again and again.
In the future we would like to be able to have like a Saturday once a month where we do a, like a family intervention kind of family investigations with the family all the family members there having the family counselor there and the cd counselors there and you actually do some pretty heavy sharing about how this has all affected you and then having like barbeque or something like that afterwards so there is that reunion and people realize that it's not all about them.
So those are just a few of the high points of the treatment center. You know, and I was hoping that I would be standing here when I wrote this last summer standing here today, saying this is what we're doing and all this kind of stuff. It's very different but you know what? It's closer than it ever has been to opening. I know those people are moving out of my space on April 13th. I know that there is a contract that has been signed in Olympia at the Division Of Alcohol And Substance Abuse and it's been sign by every person that's supposed to sign it. So that I have my funding from the state of Washington from April 1st through June 30th. I know that's a fact. So, you know, the other things are going to fall into place. It's going to happen. It's going to be a program. How it works out for other people, you to participate, especially the Oregon residents, that's up to people in this room to be able to push for that.
>> I'm curious. In your budget do you have for Hispanic families? Because where I live, in the community that we serve, there's a huge Hispanic population. And the family members that you would be working with would be Spanish speaking only. So do you have that in your budget considering those issues?
>>Jackie: yes, at this point that's not in there but you know what? My belief from Division Of Alcohol And Drug Abuse nothing is in in concrete and if I found I had a need for that I would go back to DASA and say I need this. There's actually a person I know that needs closed-captioning in order to participate in treatment because that person doesn't sign. You know, I was told when that, you know, when I'm ready to talk about that, then you go back to them and say this is something. Right now the program is being set up for people who are hard of hearing and deaf who use sign language as their first communication. In the future, I hope that we can have people who are hard of hearing who don't sign and all these other things but right now, it is the treatment planning committee learned from other treatment programs that wanted to do everything, wanted to serve everybody that they shut down. So we made a decision as a team to focus on people who use American Sign Language as their first language. You know?
>> The deaf population uses American Sign Language but it's just the after care with the family if you're wanting to work with the family after they're out of recovery. Then you need to have Spanish speaking interpreters to be able to facilitate that.
>>Jackie: Right. I think there's ways that can happen. The Division Of Alcohol And Substance Abuse is pretty flexible about that issue. If you look at Division Of Alcohol And Substance Abuse spent over $200,000 in a 15-month time period last year on interpreters putting deaf people in treatment around the State of Washington. That's a lot of money. That could fund me! You know, so if you look at comparing that, I have no idea what Oregon spends. They won't give me any statistics. But I'm sure that it's pretty, it's probably not that expensive because the State of Washington, if you need an interpreter, you can, if -- they will fund pretty much from the time you get up until the time you go to bed now. Used to be they could fund only a couple hour group here or there but they learned that doesn't work. They had people like me just jump down their throats with things like that and other people saying I need, I demand while I'm in treatment. I want all these things that what's what is takes and now the Division Of Alcohol And Substance Abuse will fund just about anything in you ask for it nicely. She will fund just about anything. She is a great resource.
>> Are you going to be set up to self medicate -- medicaid? Idaho.
>>Jackie: I have not talk to do Idaho yet. The State of Alaska I know will -- they will pay. But their Medicaid will stay for out of state. Do you know if your Medicaid will pay for out of state?
>> It pays for the Minnesota treatment.
>>Jackie: They would save money -- nothing against Minnesota but it's a hospital-based. We would love to do that. We would negotiate it on a case by case basis. I, Steve, there's other people that I know have gone there and had training from them. But they are a hospital-based program. And being hospital-based program, it cost a lot of money. It's a minimum of for a person to stay there is $700 a day their daily rate up to if they're involved in the detox process it's like 1200 a day. That's a lot of money. Versus if you, you know, my program is not going to -- depending on if you're out of state it's a little more expensive for your daily rate because of the long distance stuff. But it's less than $200 a day, which is a good deal. You know? And the staff are being the counselors and residential facility counselors are being paid a little bit higher than some treatment centers. And we fought for that. Steve was very much part of the pilot for getting higher salaries because of the level of expertise that we're asking for in signing.
>> I'm from Alaska and there's been clients that have had alcohol problems and they go to AA meetings but they don't understand the 12 steps. They have never understood that and that's been kind of a block for them so they have to find other options, spiritually or just other options, more concrete ways to deal with it or ways to understand the 12 steps.
>>Jackie: and I think that some of the things that I've learned from both Cathy and Deb from the Minnesota program is that in a conjunction with the 12-step model you have to look at things like mentorship in the deaf community. That for not the 12 steps does not work for everyone. And everyone may not have accessibility when they go back to their community. But maybe they can find a deaf person that they admire that they have some kind of connection with and develop that relationship as a support person for them. I will encourage anyone who's in treatment to get involved with the 12 steps. And we have, the 12-step program is broken down the way the Minnesota program is, and we will break it down as in languagewise however a person needs it.
But I understand if I was a deaf person and I went into an AA meeting and I just sat there and listened to what was being said and then left the meeting without having any contact, you know, AA would not work for me or NA, whatever. It wouldn't work. It's not just understanding what the 12 steps are about or understanding what AA's about. It's the fellowship. It's the fellowship is a very big part of the triangle of how recovery works for people. And so again, my belief and my hope is that if I get people hooked up with people who are in recovery via e-mail or whatever they will get that language. They will get to hear what people in recovery are doing. So that when they go to a 12-step meeting they will have a little bit more of an understanding. But it is -- it's difficult. It's difficult for hearing people to understand those 12 steps! My whole first year of recovery, I just like -- like what the heck are you guys talking about? Because it takes time for your brain to clear, you know, it takes a minimum of a year before your head's clear enough to understand some of that stuff. Back here and then.
>> In Portland area, I believe there's only one interpreted AA meeting, if that. In the Salem area, I believe that we got now we got three AA meetings.
>>Jackie: I have the schedules up here.
>> Oh.
>>Jackie: I will talk about that in a minute. Hold that. You're getting ahead of me.
>> Sorry.
>>Jackie: That's okay.
>> I have three questions. First of all, congratulations on what good hard work you have been putting into this and really overdue. I hope this happens soon. This is very, very important work your doing. And I realize you're talking about culturally deaf people. And is it, do you have the capability or already in the planning thinking about deaf-blind deaf-blind culturally deaf-blind people.
>>Jackie: 83. I have that here.
>> So if it comes up --
>>Jackie: Then I'll address it as it comes up because one of my -- you know my passion and my background is with deaf-blind. So yes. Art at Gallaudet -- I can't remember his last name. He and I had some discussion about that a few years ago about how we're going to -- because I know there's a lot of deaf-blind people sitting in the closet or whatever and who need this service very much so.
>> And then I'm sorry I missed the beginning of the presentation. You might have already addressed this. For folks who may not have good diagnosis diagnose but be diagnosed with some mental health issues are you collaborating with a medical staff somewhere that will sort those things out to other kind of venues?
>>Jackie: There's a couple of programs we're going to be working with. Columbia River which has deaf counselors. They're in the Vancouver area. And actually, one of the parts of this program that I forgot to mention, Rebecca would probably shoot me, is I have hired and am supervising a alcohol and drug co-occurring disorders for the school of the deaf and she would be available for some of that also. So state school for the deaf has never had this one, Washington state school for the deaf has never hood an alcohol and drug counselor. They didn't have a problem! Being someone who has had a lot of -- anybody's that's ever been in a problem that's come from WSD, I knew there was a problem at WSD with alcohol and drugs. It's been greeted very warmly. The staff there have been wonderful. And we've had kids that are coming up to us without referrals. They're just coming in saying, this is what I'm doing. I think I need some help. So it's process in the future we want to have about six-bed inpatient youth deaf program is what we're shooting for. That's kind of in the five-year plan but it would not be mixed with the adults. It would be separate. Third question.
>> And my last question is would you consider, you know, in AA there are speakers meetings and then those speakers meetings are audiotaped and people can buy those audiotaped so if they live in isolated places they can listen to inspiration without being there. Would you consider making videos of deaf role models to take back in those rural areas?
>>Jackie: Yup. In Arkansas they have actually done that. AA has sanctioned it in Arkansas where they actually have a speaker speaking and they have the video camera on the interpreter is one thing and then the other thing is to have deaf speakers that are willing to be videotaped. And Portland has fib school so I plan on going like somebody wants a school project? You know, school project for you. I already have it all lined out for you. That you can get some people to volunteer that because videotaping, it's got good quality takes, it's that money thing but, yes, that is something that already there. Yes, because if you're deaf you want to just like pop in a videotape of someone, it's a great idea.
>> Just so you know I happen to know a deaf-blind person who has a company, limit the vision and limited hearing, who does videotaping. Please let me know. When you're ready to do that.
>>Jackie: Yes, yes, yes. Okay. You know, Jennifer and I used to work together way, way back when. So we have a lot of history there.
>> I can still harass her.
>>Jackie: What's happening now, you kind of gotten the update what's happening with the treatment program. Our goal right now is that we're going to try to open by the last week of April. We'll see. I'm doing interviews next week, hoping to be hiring people getting things going. Pardon?
>> Say again when you're going to open?
>>Jackie: Last week of April.
>> This April?
>>Jackie: Yes. Like three weeks. Part of it's because I don't have to buy very much because the program the house we're going to be moving into has mostly everything there. I just have got to get some sheets and mattresses and things like that. 12 step stuff that's happening around the state of Washington and Oregon. I have and I'm just going to leave them up here because if you want them you can come get them. This one that looks like this at the top here is from Seattle area. One of the nice things about this is that on this here is the website that will direct you towards treatment programs and who's accessible for deaf all over the United States for alcohol and drug treatment. Allene is a wonderful, wonderful person to get on her mailing list because she gives you all the information about the deaf sites.
So this is Seattle. And Tacoma area. here's the Salem, Oregon, Corvallis. There's actually not an interpreted meeting in Portland yet but there will be soon. And on the back of this if you happen to know anyone who wants to go to a meeting tonight in Vancouver, just exit 1c which is literally you can see practically from here. There's a deaf meeting tonight. This calendar is -- this is what's going on in Vancouver this month. And then some stuff on the back. There's some N.A. meetings, A.A. meetings. These are not necessarily the meetings that will be interpreted all the time. This is my effort to explore meetings, see, you know, which ones the deaf individuals like, which ones the, you know, like us, you know, who are opening and warm, this is, theirs is being funded some by volunteer interpreters. One of the things I do is teach a workshop. I have done it several times with Bob Lamons, an interpreter from Seattle. He and I have taught some workshops and we did a two-part one for interpreters who want to learn more about 12 step language and A.A. and CD and all that stuff and we did a two-part one in Portland recently. Part of their homework was they had to volunteer for a bunch of 12 step meetings that they wanted to get their CEUs. My way of getting some interpreters for free. So this is all about the Vancouver ones. Having accessibility for deaf individuals for a 12 step meetings for AA has always been an issue. It has been one of those things that I have been part of since I came into recovery. Allene from the state of Oregon, deaf woman, and I are going to present a workshop to members of AA from the Portland-Vancouver area about how to make things more accessible. What we are trying to do is get the groups to each one kind of put into a fund that will be somewhere, this fund of money, and 23 you're deaf and you want to go to a meeting you just contact in fund, the person who's got this fund and you will be able to go to any meeting you want to.
>> In the state of Washington?
>>Jackie: That's in Oregon. We're trying to get something like that, you have to do it by city by city. But there are people from Seattle, there's a whole group of deaf people coming down for this workshop at the end of April. So if you know anyone in your area that wants to come to us, she has researched the traditions, to the max. You know, and can come back with a line for everything that AA members want to say, well, you can't do in. She's got an answer for it all. So we will be presenting on that on April 28th. And if you -- I can't say this in public but I have open my home, backyard with tents, whatever for anyone that's, deaf that's coming from out of the area that wants to come to stay with me to come to this workshop. So then I've already talked about the job announcements and this is all the Oregon information. Take more of the Oregon. Pass it out to everybody you can possibly pass it out to. Questions.
>> I'm curious if not knowing much about programs such as this so this might be a naive question.
>>Jackie: There's no wrong questions.
>> Okay. What about, is there going to be something that you will need to exclude where they cannot become eligible? And I'm talking about maybe domestic violence accompanied with drug and alcohol. Sexual assault cases relate to do drug and alcohol. Court-ordered kind of inpatient programs. Will you be accepting individuals with that kind of history or not?
>>Jackie: Okay. The DV issue is going to be done on an individual basis because a lot of alcohol and drug abuse does lead to domestic violence and there will be be men and women at this treatment center. I will look at that on an individual basis. I want to protect the safety of the people that I'm serving. As far as sexual offenders, at this point, I'm not going to be able to accept anyone who has a class -- it's in the -- I can't remember the classes and stuff. But right now I will not be able to have them in the house sexual offenders. Doesn't mean that I wouldn't be willing to work with someone on an outpatient basis. Doesn't mean that I wouldn't be willing to -- because this program, people can come that live in the community. You do not have to live in this treatment center to be participate in the treatment process. You can actually live in the community if you are in a safe environment and come to the groups and stuff. So if a person is a sexual offender, I would -- I would have to look at it on an individual basis but I don't see any why reason why they couldn't be served on the outpatient. The in part, the home, has to be safe.
>> How would you deal with outpatient if it's Eastern Washington?
>>Jackie: We would have to look -- if there is a halfway house that they could live in that was for offenders. Because I know that there -- those do exist and we would have to look at getting them transferred, their probation transferred, that kind of stuff.
>> So you would could consultation?
>>Jackie: Yeah. We would have to figure out how to do that. And the other thing that I can't accept anyone with severe mental health issues that is not under control of some type. Someone called me the other day about someone who is paranoid schizophrenic and violent in his own home and refusing to take his meds. You know, I'm sorry. I can't take someone who'll be a threat to the people that are living there. You know, get that person on his meds and stable then we will have to look at whether or not that's a possibility. But I can't have someone -- it's got to be a safe place for people to come.
And the other -- the other issue is, someone said about confidentiality, one of the native sessions. Confidentiality is a very important thing to remember. But again William Moyer, not Bill Moyer but William Moyer, Jr., Bill Moyer's son, and I have done a lot of things recently with and we have both been in the same room together and he is in recovery. And he is very proud of that and so am I. And my belief is very strong that I don't have to tell you that I'm a member of A.A. or N.A. or M.A. or anything like that but I think it's important that you I announce that I am in recovery and talk about what solutions I have for people in recovery. And as far as confidentiality of deaf individuals saying I don't want people to know I'm in recovery, they all knew you drank and drugged! They knew what your behavior was like when you were using. So I hope that people leave treatment and that they're proud of the fact that they are now in recovery and that they're changing their behaviors and that they can then share that and have pride in the fact that they are changing, you know, who they are and what their lives look like.
Because, you know, some of the people that will probably come into treatment, I drank and drugged with, you know, way back when because I hung out in the deaf community. You know? But I'm not the same person I was then. I am a very, very different person. I have compassion and I care about people now. You know, I had a really bad attitude about life back then, you know? As the same is with a lot of deaf individuals. And it's just going to keep changing. But I am proud that I am in recovery and I have no problem telling anyone that asks me, you know. So how, you know, how did you change? You know? It's very important part of recovery in my opinion. And so the confidentiality thing is that hopefully the deaf gossip will be, wow, did you know they're changing? They're in recovery? They're doing cool things? That they're having different, they're back together and why? Because we have changed your life. So if you have any other questions please feel free to ask me. Please take as much as you want of the stuff that's here. If you need low vision print out of the descriptions low vision up here. And thank you very much. Evaluations.
>> Please fill out the evaluations and give them to me when you're finished.
>>Jackie: thank you and thank you to the interpreters and the captioner.
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