Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: Foreign.
Hello there, and welcome back to another episode of Just say Something podcast. Be sure to, like, share, subscribe, and comment.
As always, we have a very special guest. All of our guests are special. And so Cal Byard is. Is with us today.
And Cal, there's no way that I can introduce you just because every time we meet, which has been a few times since you and your wife Chris have moved to. To Greenville, we just end up talking about so much with prevention and everything that we do. So if you will let our listeners know who. Who Cal buyers is and what Cal does.
[00:01:00] Speaker B: Wow. Thank you so much. And, Phil, you've been a big part of our welcoming here to Greenville. I tell people all the time in my work, you've rolled out this red carpet, and everywhere I go, people have been introduced to me. Thanks to you. You're a great ambassador. You're a great ally. I've considered you a great friend already. And it's just been three months. Thank you.
[00:01:22] Speaker A: Oh, just wait till the next three months.
[00:01:23] Speaker B: I can't wait. I think we're just starting.
I always leave with this anticipation of what's next.
[00:01:29] Speaker A: Right.
[00:01:30] Speaker B: So I love the work that I do. I currently work for national nonprofit SAFE Project.
It stands for Stop the Addiction Fatality Epidemic.
And we work to collaborate with other nonprofits and for profit and social service agencies across the country.
We work in key areas concentrated in veterans and caregivers communities, college campuses, and workplaces.
I'm the senior director for Safe Workplaces.
I joined this team two and a quarter years ago, but I partnered with Safe Project for almost three years previously when I was doing work in the construction industry around workplace mental health, substance use, suicide prevention, and overdose prevention. And I partnered with SafeProject because the way they closed gaps, the way they joined in and met people where they were at, it was much like what I see with you and your team at. Just say something.
You're here to serve a role. You're here to help, and you're here to help helpers, and. And that's a power multiplier that you just can't deny. Right? It works every time.
[00:02:47] Speaker A: Yeah. Yeah, it really does. And we've got a very committed team. And so this has been almost a lifelong journey for you, from what I understand.
So tell our listeners a little bit of your background and what brought you and your wife to Greenville, South Carolina.
[00:03:08] Speaker B: Yeah. Yes. And it is a long life because I've got 35 years of work experience.
I started as a dedicated risk management and safety professional. So the tie to prevention Is ingrained. It's what I do. But it starts earlier.
I grew up in a family that was open about mental health. And in my generation, that was rare. My parents sat me down when I was 12 and talked about mental health and substance use challenges in our family, both sides of the family tree, and that help was available and that there would be no shame, no stigma. It's amazing. It took six years to find another peer that had a similar story that they could share.
I come at this work with lived and living experience.
Three knee operations as a young teenager, prescription pain medication use, misuse, and even abuse. And it took courage to talk to a physician and my surgeon that I needed help. And they said, now we have to tell your family. And my family supported me. There was a medically supervised withdrawal. I was told never to talk about it, that I dodged a bullet, and that I should feel fortunate to have a clean slate and a fresh start.
But those days gave me dark thoughts, Phil. And it made me feel that I could help other people.
So the biggest lesson I learned was never judge anyone, because if it could happen to me, it could happen to anyone.
[00:04:42] Speaker A: Right.
[00:04:42] Speaker B: And the second main lesson was I could help other people.
[00:04:45] Speaker A: Yeah. Yeah. That's really powerful, because so many people out there that that won't happen to me. That just happens to those other people.
[00:04:55] Speaker B: Yeah. In my work, I was drawn to being a helper. I always called it doing the people work, and then I would catch up on the paperwork.
But I had the privilege of working with public safety agencies the first eight or nine years of my career. And I ended up happening upon a need for a suicide prevention project in municipal lockups in my home state of Wisconsin.
And what I learned was a person with the right vision, surrounded by the right team, focused on doing the right activities, could make a difference in the world.
And that project changed the trajectory of my career, and it led me ultimately, years later, to launch a mental health and suicide prevention initiative in the construction industry.
And when we look back 10 years later, now it's almost 12 years later.
There are so many groups doing this work.
What we need to do, Phil, and you know this in prevention, is break the stigma around substance use, Empower and equip and educate leaders to bring safe solutions to their workforce.
[00:06:08] Speaker A: Right.
[00:06:08] Speaker B: And not rely on the regulatory business requirements, but to do things with empathy and compassion, to help people navigate toward recovery.
[00:06:19] Speaker A: To do things with empathy and compassion.
That.
That'd make a great bumper sticker.
[00:06:26] Speaker B: We should work on that.
[00:06:27] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:06:28] Speaker B: It'll be one of our next Projects.
I can see it coming.
[00:06:32] Speaker A: Oh, so construction industry.
You know, like me, you. You think of construction.
Construction industry. And so the guys with the tool belts and their welding, I mean, you don't think of those guys as having mental health issues, because, again, that's not the picture that's been drawn for us all these years.
[00:06:59] Speaker B: Yeah.
Men in tough industries had elevated rates of substance use, of mental health, suicide, and as it turns out, even overdose.
There was a fear of seeking help because it would look like a sign of weakness.
And so what kept this industry vibrant and functioning so well for so long probably hurt the workforce in the long run.
Now people say, well, the workforce is broken. No, the system was broken.
[00:07:35] Speaker A: Right.
[00:07:36] Speaker B: There are many things about this work. It's demanding. It's physically, emotionally, mentally exhausting.
And there's a mindset that we are tougher than the job and we were afraid to ask for help.
But I think equally important, if we're not at work, we're not getting paid, and then we're not able to provide for our families.
[00:08:03] Speaker A: Right, right. We see that a lot in our programming. Especially recently, we've been getting more dads involved in our programming. And so then we.
We send those dads off to school and let them learn, and so they can influence other dads. It's hopefully that chain reaction and to help reduce that stigma, because it is very, very prominent in. In men, and it's how our young men are growing up to feel that same way.
[00:08:37] Speaker B: Most people that I meet who have had a successful career had one or more mentors that helped them.
So the idea of role models, I think, is really powerful. And what you do at just say something with your parenting and then your peer support and your community outreach programs really is a great model for showing people how everyone has a role to do this work and then connecting them to other people of need.
[00:09:08] Speaker A: Right.
[00:09:08] Speaker B: It's powerful. That's what I love about prevention.
[00:09:10] Speaker A: Yeah. So. And we were talking earlier, you know, again, a lot of.
For parents, you know, they don't know what they don't know is one of the things that we say to them.
And we were talking earlier, too, about. I was in a conversation with a mother a while back, and she says, you know, when I found out that my kid was smoking marijuana, I'm like, well, you know, it's just a little pot.
And she says, looking back on that, she wished that she had been very more reactive to do something because that little bit of pot has turned into so much grief and strife for their family.
And I think it goes to. Well, it won't happen to us.
[00:10:04] Speaker B: Things can start pretty innocently.
And I think we always caution parents.
One, you can be the leading protective factor for youth and young adults in your life.
Number two, the world is different than it was when we were growing up.
And I hear that phrase often in the workshops that I lead. Thank goodness it's only marijuana. Thank goodness it's only cannabis. But people aren't aware of the concentrations. They're not aware of the delivery vehicles. And vaping high concentrations of cannabis can really have an adverse impact on the development of. Of a child and an adolescent.
[00:10:46] Speaker A: Right.
[00:10:47] Speaker B: Becoming educated, I think, is really important, and that's what I really appreciate about the podcasts you do. You're making this information accessible to everyone and digestible, and you do it in small bits. And you're always in the community educating. And parents, please take advantage and to learn so you can help protect your family.
And whether it's your grandchildren or your children, everyone has a role to play in this work.
[00:11:16] Speaker A: Absolutely. Absolutely. We can't work in silos.
And, you know, and I've said it once, I'll probably say it a thousand million more times, the issues and the problems that our families are facing are larger than any one entity can help provide them.
So it's incumbent upon us as the community, the nonprofit community, to work together to help provide those different resources that those families need.
[00:11:47] Speaker B: Well, you're practicing what you teach there and maybe sometimes preach as well.
It's powerful. When I was introduced to you by our mutual friend Dennis Gillen, who I'd known for many years. 2015, I believe I was living in Washington state, working for a contractor launching that mental health and suicide prevention initiative.
And Dennis and I connected, and we've stayed in touch all these years. When I finally met Dennis in person at a Panera in Pleasantburg Road in Greenville, he said, I got to connect you to a dear friend. His name is Philip Clark.
And he sent that email. Within two days, I sent you a reply. And within two or three days, I was in your office.
And then multiple times, you connected me to people.
That is how you build impact, Right? One person at a time, one relationship at a time. But you made me feel like a valued partner.
And all we've done is shook hands two times.
[00:12:47] Speaker A: Right? Right. And, you know, it's that thing. When we first met, we felt that connection with each other, and the sky's the limit.
[00:12:57] Speaker B: It's scary when you can finish each other's sentences.
[00:13:01] Speaker A: I've only known each other for a few months.
[00:13:05] Speaker B: But it showed me this connection was so real. You asked earlier, how did my wife and I end up in Greenville? We've raised five children. We're empty nesters. The closer it got to retirement, we said, where are we going to live?
I had visited Greenville way back in the 2000 teens.
A business partner had asked me to visit him and do work here on some accounts. And we ended up driving to Charleston on a couple of occasions from Greenville. But he made it a point one day to show me the community. And when I went to the waterfalls at the park and to see the way this town has been constructed, to see nature, to see the mountains, I was so grateful. But I put Greenville on my list.
And then one of my kids did the Flat Stanley project. And I asked him, and he said, in Greenville. I said, well, I remember when we took that trip, and I would love to have my family experience this and to have others see Greenville. We were living in Minnesota at the time, and so many parents commented, boy, that Greenville, where your daughter's Flat Stanley went, that was beautiful.
And in our heads, I locked in. This would be a place for us to consider at retirement.
We decided Asheville had too much snow. Nashville had too much floods.
So here we are. And there's other reasons we chose here, but we feel comfortable with the faith community. We feel we're just enamored with the hospitality.
As we look for homes and we drive into communities, everybody waves.
And I still have Washington plates on my vehicle, so it says something. People are open.
[00:14:53] Speaker A: Right.
[00:14:54] Speaker B: And we're just excited to be part of this community.
[00:14:56] Speaker A: Well, and we're happy to have you as part of this community. I know y' all moved here back in March, and so you've been able to spend your, so far, your first summer here with us in Greenville. And all I can say is wait till August.
[00:15:17] Speaker B: Oh, nuts. Everyone has told us July might be the worst.
[00:15:21] Speaker A: Oh, wait till August.
[00:15:23] Speaker B: I must not have been ready to handle that news two months ago.
[00:15:26] Speaker A: Okay. All right.
[00:15:27] Speaker B: I feel more resilient. I'm hydrating constantly.
[00:15:30] Speaker A: Yep, yep. Don't leave home without it. Absolutely without it.
So I know you just came back from a speaking opportunity not long ago in Nashville, and so share with our listeners some of what that was about, and maybe just a tip of some of the things that we talked about, of what you brought to share with me today that I have in my office.
[00:15:58] Speaker B: Yeah.
One area that I've been passionate about because of that lived experience with opioids is opioid risk reduction and opioid safety.
The conference at Vanderbilt University was the Workforce Health Opioid Summit.
And it was part of the opioid abatement dollars that Tennessee had invested in an organization that I've partnered with since 2020.
That organization is called Goldfinch Health and they optimize surgical outcomes. And the day I met them was very similar. Phil. We could finish each other's sentences and they gave me the confidence that I knew enough to talk intelligently about opioid risk reduction. We started writing articles and we started brainstorming on ideas and helping connect them to people with employee benefit plans, both labor and employer sponsored health plans. So at this conference, the CEO and I talked about of SafeProject, our national nonprofit. We spoke about opioid first dose prevention strategies and as we were sitting at the airport several hours later, received several messages from medical professors who were in teaching roles saying, the way you spoke so clearly about opioid risk reduction really shows how much we can learn.
So what you and I have been talking about is how can we educate employers to safely communicate to employees about opioid safety, Opioid risk reduction.
And the tool that I brought for you to see today was a prepared for surgery kit from Goldfinch Health.
And the second tool is called a one box and it's from an organization known as Rapid Risk Reduction.
And they gave me five demo boxes to share with people in the state of South Carolina as I'm new in town, to help break the ice, to teach people that naloxone has a place in every workplace and every work site.
[00:18:18] Speaker A: Right.
[00:18:19] Speaker B: So I loved what you told me about going to banks and credit unions.
I'm looking for restaurant leaders, I'm looking for lodging and hospitality. Someone who wants to say we should have naloxone to be prepared for a medical emergency.
[00:18:34] Speaker A: Right.
[00:18:35] Speaker B: Because an overdose can happen anytime.
[00:18:37] Speaker A: Oh, any, Anytime, yeah. What you were referring to. We were at an event and there were a good many banks and credit unions were set up as exhibitors. And you know, I just took over a couple of little boxes of naloxone and said, you know, you don't know who's going to walk in to your branch on any given day when that door is unlocked. You have no idea.
And so I'm all about being, trying to be proactive.
[00:19:09] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:19:09] Speaker A: And so for our business community, it's incumbent upon them to also be proactive and to see opioids, that there is a way that they can help their employees. There is a way they can be proactive. There is a way they can support their employees and their families.
[00:19:34] Speaker B: It is so important.
What got me involved in that work was sharing with employees and then industry leaders helping people in recovery, saying if they have a standard surgical experience, they're going to be prescribed opioids upon discharge. Cal, what do you tell people? And when I was introduced to Goldfinch Health, they helped people on that path.
And there are methods for opioid sparing and opioid free surgery using established global medical protocols. They've not been broadly adopted in the US like they have been in Europe, but this organization, Goldfinch Health, really helped me propel that message.
And the CEO at SafeProject, he and I had been talking about opioid first dose prevention.
So many muscular skeletal injuries in those tough industries, even with automation.
And frequently those workers would get prescribed opioids. And so what started as innocent pain management could for some people, spiral into an addiction.
[00:20:49] Speaker A: Right, right.
[00:20:50] Speaker B: So we needed to educate those workplace leaders that we can do more.
[00:20:55] Speaker A: And so for the business people who are listening to this, you know, there are resources out there. And if you've been thinking of or, or even if you haven't, it's incumbent upon you as a leader in your business, in your industry to be able to put that first foot out and that hand out to provide that additional support for your employees.
I know there's so many small businesses within our community and a lot of them are how, how I feel, how we are here. Just say something that we're a family within a family and just know that there are resources out there for you as a, as a business person, for you and your company, but also for the companies, the employers that have thousands and thousands and thousands of employees, there are additional resources out there for them.
You know, our, one of our struggles is getting people to realize that prevention is so important.
We hear a lot about treatment, we hear a lot about recovery, but we don't hear a lot about prevention. Can you talk a few minutes or a little bit about the importance of prevention? We can't prevent, we can't prevent it all, but we can prevent some of it.
[00:22:36] Speaker B: Boy, you're speaking my language. And from the first time we met, I loved your passion for prevention. And then we found out that we shared common paths to people as far away as Oregon. Someone who'd partnered with your predecessor in this role, who remembered partnering with you on prevention. I've always seen, whether it's public safety or it's safety and health, occupational health nurse, or you Name it. The people in prevention have a special passion for moving upstream, looking for strategies that we can solve a problem through multiple channels, not waiting for that crisis to occur. So, yes, treatment is very important, and so is recovery. I advocate for both. But if we can move upstream and prevent the problem, we can minimize a lot of the pain and anguish that occurs with substance use that is left untreated, unresolved. And what we frequently find is that stigma is a barrier. The way we were socialized, the way we were conditioned, even derails us from our basic prevention methods.
[00:23:49] Speaker A: Right, Right.
And, you know, I mentioned earlier about the mom that I talked with that her son she found was smoking marijuana.
And so I've just had a conversation with one of our middle schools, local middle schools, that they called a number of their students vaping thc.
And so one of the things that we continue to talk about is today's THC is nowhere even close to the. The THC and the marijuana from the 60s, 70s, even 80s.
It's so much more potent now and then with kids trying it this young that it, you know, we talk about mental health, we talk about the effects of what THC can do to that undeveloped brain.
Makes my heart hurt because the kids don't know what they're doing to themselves.
[00:24:59] Speaker B: And yet the good news is when we educate parents, caregivers, or guardians about the power of prevention and them being the protective factor, it's very empowering. It's what gives me hope.
Organizations like yours I happen to be visiting on a day when Just say Something was hosting a collective community baby shower for your Hispanic parenting cohort, and you told me to go sneak a peek. And you were so excited that day. And I came in today to the same room, and you said, we just hosted another one.
That power of multiplication is where that ripple effect occurs. So it does start as a parent with one conversation, having the courage, the bravery to say, I care too much to not say something, and it might mean that we have to admit that we were wrong. I didn't overreact because I thought it was only marijuana, but marijuana is different than it was in my generation.
And as a parent, to say you didn't come with a user manual. That was one of my techniques. I found myself apologizing often to our five children.
Oops, sorry about that. I am changing my parental guidance because I've become more informed, and my parents did the same for me.
[00:26:22] Speaker A: Right.
[00:26:22] Speaker B: And more often than not, I might have gone to bed angry, but I woke up grateful that I was in one piece. And they probably did protect me from some underdeveloped brain decisions I might have made.
[00:26:37] Speaker A: No doubt. No doubt. And yeah, well, I think we could go on for a long time, but we are limited.
And so, Cal, I appreciate you being here today. I appreciate you being with us.
I'm very, very happy that you and Chris, your wife, decided to move to Greenville.
I look forward to having you all part of the community.
I look forward to having you all part of what we're doing at. Just say something.
As we all work for a healthier, safer, drug free environment and raising productive citizens that can go out and make our world a better place.
[00:27:28] Speaker B: Yeah. And we're grateful at Safe Project the way you've leaned in and supported our prevention efforts. My colleague, Senior Director of Prevention, Rana Yaplonski, she jumped into our communication and you jumped in as well.
And we just want to encourage people. You can join us as well.
SafeProject us.
And we do amplify efforts. And yours has been an easy group for us to get excited about the work you're doing here, the history you've had doing this work.
It's obvious you're a trusted partner in this community. And your recommendation to welcome me into this community and this collective is not lost on me. I am grateful.
In my 35, almost 40 years of work experience, I've never had someone roll out a red carpet like Phil Clark. So thank you for that.
[00:28:24] Speaker A: Absolutely. Well, you know, I always say my parents did a good job showing you that Southern hospitality.
[00:28:30] Speaker B: You were well raised. That was obvious.
Thank you so much, Phil.
[00:28:35] Speaker A: All right, thank you, Cal. And to our listeners. Again, we appreciate you being with us today. If you would like to have more information, then reach out to myself and, and I can connect you with Cal. And who knows, Cal and I may show up on your front door one day.
But with that, we appreciate you being with us again today. Be sure to like, follow, subscribe and share. If you think there's someone out there that can benefit from listening to our conversation today, please share this with them.
And until next time, we. We will see you then. And please stay safe.
