MISHAWAKA, Ind. (WNDU) – It’s been just over two weeks since 40-year-old Robert Card stormed into a bowling alley and a restaurant in Maine and began shooting his assault-style weapon.
What does this have to do with us here in Michiana? Well, we had a big discussion about mental health during our morning editorial meeting here at The WNDU Studios.
We talked about how local police in Maine knew Robert Card was scaring those around him earlier this fall. We also talked about how difficult it is to get help when you’re in a dark place, often resulting in self-medication and addiction problems.
Here in Michiana, we are asking what resources are available to people dealing with mental illness and addiction.
“I learned early on that the way that you deal with everything is to use or drink,” said Zachary Stults at the Indiana Center for Recovery.
Stults has been clean for four years. But before that, he was saved 32 times with emergency Narcan treatments.
Now, Stults is a jack of all trades resource at the Indiana Center for Recovery. Having been through it, he knows how to help patients in the throes of addiction.
“Having that person with firsthand experience and knowledge of what you’re going through and being able to show them what you did and how you did it to get through. I think it’s essential,” he said.
At the Indiana Center for Recovery’s state-of-the-art facility in Mishawaka, many staffers have dealt with addiction and co-dependence themselves.
Dawn Johnson is a mental health nurse practitioner at the center. Her late husband was a military veteran, a veterinarian, and an addict. When he was cut off from opiates, he began treating himself with animal meds.
“And he wound up in 2013, he died from complications of his addiction, and I went back to school to try and still save him I suppose,” Johnson said.
Working here, though, Johnson can help save others.
Patients reside here as they are treated for addictions and mental health issues. That inpatient component is key, and Johnson sometimes finds insurance companies are unwilling to pay — even when a patient is a clear danger to themselves.
“I even had one insurance company tell me, after I told them this kid had five plans to kill himself; one was suicide by cop, one was jumping in front of a train, one was going and starting a bar fight,” she explained. “The psychiatrist on the other end for the insurance company actually said to me, ‘Oh, so he’s not planning to take his life by his own hands?’”
The insurance company never got off their wallet. But the Indiana Center for Recovery gave the young man what it calls a “scholarship.” In other words, the center footed the bill for his inpatient care.
Johnson acknowledges that there are a lot of obstacles to getting help, but she encourages anyone needing help to reach out to family, or their church, a trusted friend, or counselor to get help navigating mental health resources.
The Indiana Center for Recovery is located at 215 W. 4th Street in Mishawaka. For more information, head to the center’s website.
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