2023 - Flipbook - Page 11
SUBSTANCE USE DISORDER SUPPORT
Our certified addictions counselors and peer recovery coaches support clients individually
and in groups. Non-clinical, wraparound support for client-partners striving to
overcome addictions is a thread that runs through all of our programming.
“Partnering with Second Chance Center has given me
an awesome and rewarding opportunity to serve the
community. I feel so rewarded after working with the
staff and participants of SCC!”
– Corey Brown, Owner, Natural Flow of Life Acupuncture
and Herbs
SCC does not conduct drug tests. This is a requirement of parole, but we see it as
an adversarial – and therefore ineffective – way to provide treatment. Our goal in
promoting health equity is to build trust and allow client-partners to set their own
goals and timetables for healing. We assure them that even when they fall short
of their health goals, we are always here for them with second, third and as many
chances as they need.
MENTAL HEALTH – A LOOK INTO 2023 AND BEYOND
Even when mental health care and substance use disorder treatment is readily available,
there is significant resistance among our formerly incarcerated client-partners
to acknowledge a need for help, as well as fear of opening up to those seen as
authority figures, especially if treatment is a condition of parole. In 2018, we
began a partnership with Aurora Mental Health Center to bring clinicians onsite
so that mental health care could be treated as just another SCC service. The
pandemic put an end to the fledging initiative, but we have now launched the
Community Care Collaborative, a bigger and bolder mix of onsite and close by
mental health care. Partners include: the Don’t Look Back Center; Darren Connor,
LAC III; Santa Fe Counseling; Therapists of Color; and WellPower.
“It has been incredibly rewarding partnering with
SCC and their clients to offer yoga to a wide array
of individuals. I look forward to continuing the
partnership with this amazing organization!”
– Jessica Smith, Facilitator, Yoga for the People
As we expand the care collaborative,
we are integrating mental health care
into all aspects of SCC programming,
including training and employment,
in our drive to remove the stigma
of mental illness and addiction and
reframe it as a focus on wellness and
a positive aspect of life, rather than
an individual failing.
9
