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Updated Jun 25, 2016
As she looks forward to her upcoming wedding, Vanessa Gray is not only grateful that she has made it to this point in her life, but that she is alive at all.
“I really think if I had kept going like I was going I would be dead by now,” she said. “I probably would have overdosed or something.”
Gray, 46, has dealt with depression and substance abuse since she was a teenager, getting clean at the age of 41.
She attributes much of her improved life to the mental health services she has received over the last five years, including the care she currently receives from Daymark Recovery Services in Henderson.
“[Daymark] helped me with not getting back on drugs, not smoking cigarettes, alcohol, my depression, my anxiety,” said Gray.
One of the highest volume providers of mental health services in the Vance County area, Daymark helps both adults and children cope with a wide range of conditions.
Ed Munt, a Daymark therapist, can attest to the range of issues they see at Daymark.
“We really do see the full array of issues here,” he said. “Primarily, we treat a lot of depression and anxiety, also a fair amount of bipolar disorder and schizophrenia. We also see a lot of people with substance abuse. Another thing I think we do see a lot of here is PTSD — more from abuse, not only childhood abuse but also domestic violence, sexual abuse and things of that nature.”
A large part of Daymark’s treatment method focuses on individual and group therapy sessions.
Daymark is able to serve so many patients because of a partnership with Cardinal Innovations Healthcare, which is a specialty health plan provider. This partnership helps steer individuals in need of mental health care towards Daymark.
The Daymark-Cardinal partnership also provides an alternative to often overburdened emergency rooms, which aren’t always properly equipped to deal with mental health issues to begin with. This goal is accomplished through Daymark’s Henderson clinic and also through its mobile crisis service.
The mobile crisis service assist anyone within Henderson who is experiencing a crisis related to mental health, substance abuse or developmental disability concerns.
Will Woodell, chief operations officer at Cardinal Innovations, said the mobile crisis service is all about patients being seen in the environment that is easiest for them.
“Mobile crisis service sends officials to the homes of people who are having a crisis,” he said. “They see [patients] at home, work, anywhere.”
The mobile crisis service and the Daymark clinic in Henderson helped to treat more than 800 patients in 2015 who would have otherwise have ended up going to the emergency room.
The primary goal of both Cardinal Innovations and Daymark is to improve the lives of their patients and remove the stigma that surrounds mental health.
“The changes I hope to see will be the ongoing normalization of having mental health issues and treatment for them — where people feel more comfortable in getting treatment,” Munt said.
Woodell said he wants people to be able to live their best lives.
“What we are trying to do is provide folks recovery, resiliency, the ability to live independently and to have meaningful relationships,” he said.
For Gray, who met her future husband in one of her group therapy sessions at Daymark, her life has drastically improved from where she was just five years ago.
“I would say I’m a walking miracle,” she said. “That is what my sister calls me, a walking miracle. I have done a whole 180.”
Article Reference: Mental Health Serices Help People Live Healthy Lives