[00:00:07] Speaker A: Well, good morning or good afternoon. This is Philip Clark with just say something. And welcome to our weekly podcast. Today, I want to welcome James Campbell. Some of you may recognize that name, may not, but James says, been working in this field of education, prevention and treatment for many years and has been a great partner with just say something, even back to Greenville family partnership. And I believe Greenville family's in action. So, James, welcome, welcome.
[00:00:44] Speaker B: Thank you for having me on.
[00:00:45] Speaker A: So tell our listeners who maybe don't know you a little bit about your past and where you are today, and then we'll just go from there.
[00:00:57] Speaker B: Absolutely. At this point. I've been working in human services realm in the upstate for about 29 years. About the first nine of that were primarily on the mental health side with high management, group homes, psychiatric, residential, that sort of thing. But the last 20, I really sort of found my niche a little bit of, and have been focused on prevention, treatment and recovery of substance use disorders and addiction. So that's really been my heart and where I've been for the past couple of decades.
[00:01:26] Speaker A: Okay, well, our paths have crossed multiple times.
I won't say how long I've been here, but it's a little bit longer, but not by much. So today you're here with us representing the well being partnership here in Greenville county. Tell our listeners what the well being partnership is and how was it formed.
[00:01:50] Speaker B: Wellbeing Partnership is a coalition of organizations. Some of those are nonprofit, some of them are for profit, and some of them are specifically in the human Services arena. Some are just businesses, all of whom have a heart and a vested interest in seeing people achieve optimum mental health and wellness in Greenville county. So that's really been at the heart and the focus of what we do as a coalition. We try to pull together people to have a greater collective impact than they might otherwise be able to have individually and to tackle some of those issues that have been around forever that we hear about at meetings, but we don't always see the progress that we might like to on.
[00:02:30] Speaker A: Right. And so as we look at mental health and substance use and abuse, they're definitely hand in hand.
So some of the things that I know a lot of the wellbeing partnership talks about, how do we get our services out, make our community aware?
How do we work to reduce the stigma of what mental health and addiction is? So I know those are two of the big questions that are that even those of us in the arena have.
Tell us some of the opportunities that are out there to where we can work on, you know, and tell us how. Why is it so important to remove stigma? And then, you know, about letting our community know the resources that are out there, what are some of the things that are going on within the well being partnership to help with those?
[00:03:31] Speaker B: Sure. Well, when you think about stigma, it actually comes from a greek word that means to mark out as different or other. And so, unfortunately, when you tell somebody, you know, I have a brother who had a heart attack, people are very gracious. They're like, oh, my goodness, you know, can we put them on a prayer chain? Let's bring you a casserole by all that sort of thing. But if you say to that same group of people, I have a brother who overdosed, or I have a brother who's struggling with addiction, they may say, bless your heart, they're probably not going to be on the prayer chain, and I would not recommend holding your breath for that casserole.
Oftentimes, people who struggle with substance use are dehumanized. They're treated as other.
And anytime you ever want to treat a group as less than human, the quickest way to do that is by referring to them as something other than human. So rather than calling someone a person with a substance use disorder, they call them addict or a junkie or a crackhead or whatever else, pejorative or derogatory term you might want to insert there, well, that's not real endearing. So when folks are struggling, it makes them less inclined to reach out for support. So much so that we know that only about one in ten people who could benefit from support and treatment and things like that ever grace the door of any type of formal supports at all.
[00:04:54] Speaker A: Yeah, it's, you know, we were real quick to put labels, people. And in this line of work, we hear all the bad labels.
[00:05:05] Speaker B: Right?
[00:05:06] Speaker A: And so we're trying to change that conversation to. Because it is, you know, addiction, mental health is passed down from generation to generation, just like heart disease is, just like diabetes is, and it's an illness. And so our community needs to become more comfortable one talking about it. So I know that's one of the. One of the pieces that the wellbeing partnership is helping to do is helping people have greater conversations or more conversations about it to reduce that stigma. What are some of the resources that are out there for our community? If someone's listening to this and they. They have a spouse or a child, a neighbor or a friend, what's some of the options for them to do? As far as reaching out?
[00:06:03] Speaker B: What I find is that oftentimes people who need the services don't always know how to connect with the services.
So there are a number of ways that you can do that. One is through the wellbeing partnership website. We have a community resource directory there that can be helpful to some folks. But most people, when they're in crisis or when they're struggling, aren't looking to do a Google search and thumb through pages of resources. So more often than not, people reach out directly to someone they know who's involved in that realm. That may be pastoral, that may be a coach, that may be a wide range of people and resources that they may have contacts with. Some of those that we know often get used. Now, thankfully, we now have 988, which is one resource that's there in the community. Just as 911 is for physical health, 988 is for mental. And you may not immediately know the number to the sheriff's office, but you know 911 if you're in crisis. Likewise, you may not know the number for mental health, you may not know the number for the Phoenix center. But if you're suddenly in crisis, you know where to reach out, where to get some support through 988. There are certainly others around that are good resources on the recovery side or family side. If you have someone struggling with substance use, you might reach out to faces and voices of recovery upstate or favor upstate. On mental health. It may be Nami here locally. Tiffany Parker is the director there, and they have some great resources there. So fortunately, in Greenville county, we are kind of resource rich compared to many of the more rural counties. But oftentimes there's not an easy understanding of how to navigate those systems. How do we access those and where do we go from there?
[00:07:47] Speaker A: Yeah, those systems that are out there can be very difficult, especially for the ones that probably need the services the most. It's just like, I don't even know where to start.
[00:08:02] Speaker B: Right? Absolutely.
[00:08:04] Speaker A: As we look at the wellbeing partnership, and I know there's so many partners within that, is someone, say, if a church or business or even a school, we're looking for mental health training.
Is that something that's available through the wellbeing partnership?
[00:08:31] Speaker B: Well being partnership itself doesn't provide training, but we can certainly put you in contact with a wide number of people locally who do. Some of those who, it's part of their, their job and position. So some of those services they can provide at no charge to the requester. If there is any sort of charge related to that, we would, of course, let the person know their options so that they can make the best informed decision possible. But there are a lot of different speakers and a lot of different presenters who have a heart for this work and are willing to come and speak at churches, speak at organizations, civic organizations, speak at businesses, by all means. We want to be a part of connecting those dots and helping the community access the resources that are there.
[00:09:09] Speaker A: Okay, great. Now, on your website that you mentioned earlier, the wellbeing partnership focuses on three main roles. Data and learning, advocacy and public policy, and solutions and innovation.
Can you tell our listeners a little bit about each one of those and how those three came together?
[00:09:37] Speaker B: Yes. In fact, those are really the three main strategies that we use to try to make an impact collectively.
The first of those that we mentioned is data. And it's not because most people in human services get excited by data. It's just a matter of being able to identify where the needs are. If there's parts of the county where there are more resources and less need or less resources and more need, how do we even that out so that we can best utilize what resources we do have?
What are the real issues that we're seeing locally? Because we may be seeing things on a state or regional level that may not really apply in the same way to what we're seeing specifically in our communities here in Greenville. So in those regards, we want to be sure to provide and inform the information and the initiatives that we take on so that we don't try so hard to do everything that we do nothing, and also to be able to demonstrate impact. When we do something, does it make a difference? And if not, then maybe it's time to quit doing that and go do something else to reinvest those resources and energy and effort. So that really speaks to the data side of that.
The solution side of that is really where I like to speak next. And it's really focused on thinking through, how can we address the issues that data points to? Okay, if we see that there's an issue around adolescent suicide rates, how do we collectively begin to impact that? How can we pull together people who are concerned about and trying to address that in our community, to have a conversation that are outside of our silos, that really are pulling together all the players who have a heart for that work?
And that sort of often leads us to advocacy, because we may have a great idea, but we have no ability to impact regulation locally to make a difference, or we have no impact, no ability individually to make an impact on the legislative side of things or to seek out funding. Wellbeing partnership does not, by itself seek out funding, necessarily. And that's something that's very intentional. We're not our own nonprofit, but when there are things that need to be done, we can try to pull together who may work together toward pursuing a grant or pursuing a funding opportunity that could be of benefit. We use those three strategies to try to address our four priority areas that really are the focus for wellbeing partnership.
[00:12:10] Speaker A: All right.
It's a lot, you know, the mental health component, again, as we look at that, and it's, unfortunately, it's just hand in hand with substance use disorder.
There's just so, so much out there, and it's kind of.
It doesn't take much for my wheels to start turning. And so I'm always, what if we do? What if we do? What if? What if? But I know a lot of what we do has to be driven by the numbers.
As far as the locally, within the community, whether it's Greenville or the upstate, are there some, I don't want to say trends, but is the data showing us some things that the everyday mom or dad out there may not be aware of, or mister businessman may not be aware of that might be affecting his employees?
[00:13:21] Speaker B: I'll try not to get lost in data on that and translate that into human speak. Yeah, but what we know in terms of, for instance, the substance use side is that according to the National Institutes of Health, one in three people are going to struggle with an alcohol use disorder at some point in their lives.
[00:13:41] Speaker A: Wait a minute, say that again.
[00:13:43] Speaker B: One in three people are going to struggle with an alcohol related disorder at some point in their lifetime. That's if you're a family of four, the odds are not in your favor where that's concern.
And in addition to that, one in ten are going to struggle with a non alcohol addiction of some sort. Put that together. What you're looking at is if you're in a place of worship, for instance, with 100 people in the congregation, 30 to 40 people in that congregation are going to struggle with the substance use disorder at some point. If you're in a civic group and you have 100 members, 30 to 40 of those are going to directly struggle with substance use themselves. That's not including the impact on the family. That's trying to be supportive and hopefully help them on their path to recovery. So it's ubiquitous, it's everywhere, and it's more than any one organization or institution has the capacity to meet.
[00:14:41] Speaker A: That's 100%. I always say the issues that our community faces is larger than any one entity.
We have to come together, and the wellbeing partnership is one of those ways for those of us that are working like boots on the ground to come together, to share resources and opportunities to partner with each other. So if someone wanted to get involved with the wellbeing partnership, how would they go about doing that?
[00:15:12] Speaker B: Probably the easiest way. Certainly you can check on the website and see what's there and see if it looks like it's a good fit. But if you would rather have a more personal touch, if you would rather to communicate directly with a person, please just email me directly. My email address is WBP as in wellbeing partnership, wbpencr.org dot. I'm more than happy to follow up with that and to connect any dots to try to be a support in the community as well.
[00:15:38] Speaker A: Okay, great. So James, as we bring this addition to or this particular podcast to a close, is there something out there that we haven't touched on that you would like for our listeners to know about?
[00:15:55] Speaker B: I would love to mention just two events and they sort of speak to the stigma issue that you mentioned earlier.
[00:16:01] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:16:01] Speaker B: The first of those is called unifying mental wellness and is scheduled for September 28 from 10:00 a.m. to 01:00 p.m. at Unity park here in Greenville.
The focus of that really is on letting the community know what resources are there, on trying to combat stigma, to let people know that yes, many people struggle with mental health disorders, many people struggle with substance use disorders. And there are resources and people who care about addressing those right here in our community. So it really does serve to try to connect the dots to bridge that gap between the need and those who stand ready to try to meet those needs here locally. So I would certainly encourage people to save that date. The other is if it is more of a treatment provider or someone who's interested in how do I provide services or get good information related to behavioral health. We also have the upstate Behavioral Health and wellness Forum that's scheduled for November 14 from 09:00 a.m. to 03:00 p.m. that's actually at the Prisma campus, the main Prisma campus here in Greenville at the medical auditorium. We would love to have folks come out and be a part of that. We do provide CME, so there are hours available if people need those for licensure, etc. But we also always welcome anybody in the community who has a heart for this really to come alongside to learn as much as you can so that we can all be more effective in helping those in need.
[00:17:26] Speaker A: Right. Right. All right, James, if you could give us one more time. Website and your email address.
[00:17:35] Speaker B: The email address is WBP, as in wellbeing
[email protected].
all right.
[00:17:46] Speaker A: Well, James, I appreciate you being here with us today.
And so if you're out there and you're interested and you have a passion to help others in your community, then James is looking forward to hearing from you again. This is Philip Clark with just say something. You can always reach us at area code 864-467-4099 and then through our website at just say somethingsc.org. thank you for listening and look forward to seeing you next time.
