Announcer: The views and opinions expressed in To The Point are those of the host of the program and its guests.

They do not necessaril reflect the views or opinions of WGTE Public Media.

Doni: To the casual observer, Dani Leedy had it all.

Raised in a loving family, she was professionally successful.

She was bright and beautiful.

A closer look into her life, however, which show a young woman struggling with crippling depression and anxiety.

Rounds of treatment followed.

Each lacking the vita support of post hospitalization and mental health rehabilitation.

Early 1st February morning in 2019, the disease won at the age of 33.

Dani Leedy ended her life but her dream of helping others maneuve the challenges of mental illness lives on in the creation of Dani's Place.

Today, I'm discussing that project with Sena Mourad Friedman, chair of the Mental Healt Recovery Board of Lucas County, and its executive director, Scott Syiak.

I'm Danny Miller, and welcome... To The Point.

You can connect with us on our social media pages.

You can also email me at doni_miller@wgte.org.

For this episode and other additional extras.

Please go to wgte.org/to the point.

We are talking this morning about a topic that is, really important to me.

As it is to many other folks in our community, we're talking about mental health and ensuring that we are addressing head on the myths and other challenges including the gap in services.

And that's particularly what we're going to focus on this morning that make this journey, for those folks going through issues with mental health so very difficult.

So I'm talking to, Sen Mourad-Freeman, who is a board member of the Mental Health and Recovery Board of Lucas County and it executive director, Scott Sylak.

You guys are developing this amazing project called Dani's Place.

But before we talk about that, I want to give Scott, would you give us an overvie of exactly what the situation is in Ohio that causes Dani's place to be necessary?

Scott: Sure.

Well, what we know is that, you know, like a stroke or a broken hip or a broken knee, you know, you would go to a rehabilitation facility, correct?

You want to go directly home?

Well, mental health conditions, people coming out of the hospital, they don't have that level of care here.

And so and that's all across Ohio.

And what we've seen over the last five years is that, that gap has been recognized.

And there is actually a facility that Dani's place is modeled after, called the Ada Amanda House in southern Ohio.

And we in Lucas County committed to being the second program here in northwest Ohio.

Doni: Yeah.

You know what most people don't understand about medications and and some of you might be able to help shed some light on this is that folks who are going through their challenges with mental illness are given medication.

And but only allowed to stay hospitalized while that medication is bein monitored for like 3 to 5 days when medication takes weeks to actually kick in.

Sena: Yeah.

From what I understand, the way the medical professionals have explained it to me is that it can take a period of time, you know, some medications, obviously might have immediate effect.

Other medications from from what I've been told can take as long as 90 days.

So if you're in the, if you're hospitalized and you're in the hospital for 3 to 10 days, you still have this period of time where the medication haven't fully taken their effect and you're released back into your situation.

That could have brought on the.

Doni: Crisis to begin with.

So what happens to people during that time?

Scott: Yeah.

So typically, you know, they would be released back into, an adult care facility, you know, a group home that we see, or maybe they go back to a loved one, their, their, their pre pr hospitalized living arrangement.

And unfortunately, sometimes they're just released back out into an emergency shelter.

And so you know we need to think abou what the hospitals are there for right there.

They're there to address an acute issue.

So they're not there for long term housing or long term support.

You know, beyond the, the acute event.

And that's where Dani's Place steps in.

Doni: Yeah.

Sena: You know, what's exciting is that now an individual can have the opportunity to stabilize, but what's super exciting is the wraparound services that they're going to experience during their stay at Dani's Place.

And it gives, us as a community the opportunity to expose them to resources they may no realize are available to them.

And that is really, important, you know, throughout my work with nonprofits over, over my lifetime.

I'm always amazed at how little people, know regarding about regarding the resources that are available to them.

And the organizations that provide these different services.

Doni: Yeah.

You know, what else always surprises me too, is the lack of knowledge that people have about how widespread mental illness actually is.

1 in 5 Americans.

1 in 5 Americans.

I read your, your introduction was wonderful, by the way, to the to the pamphlet on, Dani's Place.

1 in 5 Americans.

And you make the point in that introduction that every one of us knows somebody.

We may be minimizing what we see, but we absolutely know someon who is going down that journey of of significant depression and, anxiety, which is becoming more and more an issue, a recognized issue.

Sena: Yes.

Yes.

That's the part that's the blessing.

I think coming out of Covid is the awareness of how important socialization is.

Connection.

Being able to hav just a simple conversation with someone can be healing sometimes, you know, and, Covid really shed light on that and made, our community as a whole really aware of the importance of mental wellness.

Yeah.

And, you know, we're so grateful that our, our voters passed our levy.

And I think a lot of it had t do with the level of awareness.

And also, you know, the stigma.

I'm so excited to say that I feel like the stigm and being able to speak openly, like I'm not having a good da or this is not been a good week.

Doni: That's right.

Sena: Is.

is going away and lifting it.

Absolutely right.

And all of a sudden peopl are coming forth with compassion and connecting and saying, hey, if there's anything I can do, and just hearing that can make you feel connected.

And even if a complete stranger saying.

Doni: That's right.

Sena: It's like, oh, I'm no as alone as I'm feeling right.

And you recognizing that the aloneness might be a feeling and not a truth.

Doni: Right?

Sena: Which is.

Doni: Oh, that's so good.

Sena: It's so amazing.

Doni: That's so good.

And then Danny's story and Scott, I se you're about to say something, so just hold that thought for a second.

But Danny's stor I found particularly compelling because from the outside, she was managing it look like to the world she was managing.

Yet she had tried to take her life on three occasions.

Three occasions.

And the the spiraling continued.

Although she appeared to be managing, her parents had so, so few options to manage.

Their daughter.

How heartbreaking.

Scott: Yes.

I mean, you know, the story is, you know, similar to any one of our stories, right?

I mean, as you stated before, we we all have a family member somewhere, some some way, shape and form that's impacted by by mental health and mental illness.

But you look at Danny's story in particular.

She had all the resources that, were available to her.

But for this type of facility and, it is the one thin that the family points to when, they, they say, you know that could have benefited her.

And but for this, maybe, you know, things would have turned out differently.

And so, you know, they totally committed themselves to developing, a program like this.

And thankfully, this collaboration, gave them the opportunity to, you know, come to Toled and say, hey, this is something that we want to get our name behind.

Sena It was, it was very inspiring.

It's something that, many members of the, mental health Board were looking at.

One in particular that comes to mind is Jim Stengel.

Yeah.

He was very much behind this and very much interested in how do we begin?

Where do we get the money and, and, how do we make this a reality for northwest Ohio?

Doni: Yeah.

Scott: You know, I've heard them, say on their websites that, Jeff and Donna hack Danny's parents.

Doni: Parents?

Yeah.

Scott: They've turned pain into purpose.

And, you know, this collaboration, is beyond Lucas County as well.

We need to we need to make sure that we, recognize that this is a northwest Ohio collaboration.

So, yes, Lucas County is leading it.

Our board is leading the charge.

And but but the money that is coming to develop, you know, from the ground up build is, a collaboration of northwest Ohio boards, the Ohio Department of Menta Health and Addiction Services, Nami, Ohio.

We we received funding from the congressional district, ninth Congressional District.

Congresswoman Kaptur was spearheading that as well as private donations to to make this $12 million project, a reality, which will, be completed at the end of June.

Doni: And who' actually operating the facility?

Scott: So we, we ran a request for proposal process and selected Unison Health as our operator.

And we're just bringing them on board now, to help us, kind of fine tune the facility, you know, particulars now.

You know, the vision for the facility is twofold.

We we have a residential component.

It's a 16 bed residential built in the shadow of the Northwes Ohio behavioral Health Hospital.

Huron, Detroit and Arlington.

Yeah.

And so the vision is that, individuals that are, being discharged from the state hospital can stay at Danny's place for 90 days, simply just walking acros the courtyard.

Doni: Courtyard?

What a great idea.

Yeah.

Okay.

I want to talk a little bit more about that.

We have to go to break, though, right now, so don't lose your train of thought there.

Right.

It's important we're going to go away, but we will be right back.

Doni: You know that you can connect with us on our social media pages.

And please take a moment t email me, doni_miller@wgte.org.

And if you want to see this episode again or any of the others that we've had, please go to wgte.org/to the point.

If you're just joining us, you'll really want to see this episode, on our website, Sena Mourad Friedman and Scott Sylak have been giving us such important information about how we help this journey through mental illness be better, be more effective, be more connected, be more intentional.

Not that we're not doing the best we can right now.

But as I've read that you've written, we can do better and we must do better.

And Dani's Place is an example of that innovation that looking forward, that what are we missing i this process that will help us do better?

You were talking, Scott, we went to break about exactly what the facility looks like.

16 beds.

Sure.

Scott: Yeah.

16 beds.

Residential on one side.

We envision it being a licensed by the Departmen of Mental Health and Addiction Services as a class one residential facility.

So we'll have onsite mental health treatment services.

We also built i the built building on two sides.

So the one side's residential, where individuals will live and receive treatment while they're living there.

But the other side is can also function as an outpatient provider.

So individuals from the community, as well as those that would b discharged after Danny's place, can come back and continue to receive treatment.

There.

And the reason we did that is because, you know, these facilities are expensive to run and we need to maximize revenue where we can.

Absolutely.

And, unfortunately, in Ohio, the mental health system does not have a medicaid reimbursement rate for residential treatment services.

And it's the only type o service, you know, mental health residential that, doesn't mirror that of like, substance use.

You know, you have a substance use deto and you have 30 day residential, and, you know, on the physical health side, that's routine, right?

Doni: Right.

Scott: Other areas mental health doesn't have that.

And so board contributions mainly generated through our levies will will help fund this as well as other communities.

You know, other boards in our region will also pay their fair share as well.

Doni: But even having said that, people can still contribute.

Scott: Absolutely.

Doni: We're going to talk about that before we go.

They can buy a brick.

Scott: Absolutely.

They can buy a brick by brick.

Doni: Right.

What has been some of the most what has been the most enlightening and positive thing for you during this process?

Sena: The probably the most precious to me is just knowing tha the help is going to be there.

That is something that is important, because so many times somebody can call you with an issue and you're like, oh, I don't know how to help you, but I'm here.

If I can do anything, let me know for sure.

Doni: Yeah.

Sena: Now I get to answer that question in a very clear way.

Right.

And I know where to point people to.

And that's very rewarding because you only learn about these things by being out in the community and doing things and making a difference.

And that's so important.

Is, you know, I always think about that saying, you know, one person can't change the world.

But but then I think about people like Martin Luther King and Gandhi.

Jackson.

Doni: That's right.

Sena: That's right.

Thank one person can change.

Doni: Absolutely, absolutely.

Sena And I just live to that.

Yeah.

You know that whatever I do I hope that it changes my community for the better.

Right.

And that and to be a part of this projec is just an incredible blessing.

But at the same time, we all have to be willing to step up to it, right?

Doni: Absolutely.

Sena: So I'm grateful for that.

Doni: That's such a great point, because these things don't these issues don't get addressed.

Nothing changes unless you have that push that says, my voice matters and I can make a difference, and I will I will make a difference.

I read somewhere that, Jim Stengel said, we're going to do this.

And you said we're going to absolutely.

We're going to get this done.

Yeah.

Look at where you are.

You're even on time.

It looks like in terms of opening.

Scott: Yeah, we are we are within schedule, slight, you know, 1 or 2 weeks behind, but not terrible.

Doni: Oh, that's on time.

Scott: Absolutely.

Yeah.

And our, our general contractor has done an amazing work.

The facility is you know, a class facility from, you know, from the get go, 100% handicap accessible.

We've been able to coordinate, you know, the furniture the color schemes, the artwork.

It is going to be a place that, you know, you're going to want to send your loved ones if they need it.

You're not going to be ashamed to to have them stay there.

People are going to, you know residents are going to be proud to to live there.

It's what you would want for your family.

And so, you know, that's what we want for the the individuals that are staying.

Doni: You know, that raises a question for me.

You mentioned earlier that, it would certainly be easy for folks at the hospital to transition.

Is that the only way that people can use the services of Dani's Place?

Scott: So what we're looking at right now is, yes, a direct connection from the state hospital to Dani's Place.

But there's a specific reason for that.

What is so the reason is, is that stat hospital beds are at a premium.

It's those individuals who are, most acute in our communities that typically can't ge into a private psychiatric unit.

And we are blessed to hav several psychiatric units here.

But these individuals, are not well managed in in a private psychiatric unit.

However, the state hospita operates at about 100% capacity.

So the back door, the discharge process allows for new admissions.

So if we can take people out of the state hospital, those that are just as acute and maybe they're occupying our shelters or our jails, or emergency departments can get the care they need within the state hospital.

So it's or was intentional in what we were trying to do.

We're trying to create that churn so everybody can get the service that they need.

Doni: So what about the outpatient services?

Part of the building is dedicated to outpatient services.

Is that right?

Scott: That's correct.

And, and one of the reasons we chose unison Health is because they specialize in this population.

A lot of our community mental health centers also work with with this group of people.

But Unison Health specifically has a priority for them.

They they also work with ou not guilty by reason of insanity and incompetent to stand trial.

Folks, they have three different, assertive community treatment teams, which are the most intensive teams, the most intensive treatment you can get beyond the residential setting.

So they have a wealth o professional knowledge on this, on this, population.

And so, you know, they'll be able to take advantage of all those services, get the medications they need, get the, ongoing therapies and individual counseling.

Doni: Are these still the the patients from the hospital.

Scott: Know these, these folks will be discharged back, from the hospital.

Most of them will be on some level of, what we call forensic oversight by of various courts throughout our region.

You know, obviously, they've been deemed to be a lower risk because they're being released from the hospital, but they still maybe they're not quite ready for a release back into the community and need some additional support.

And that's what they i this place will be able to do.

Doni: Wow.

It's amazing.

Sena: It is.

It truly is amazing.

And it's again, because I believe the stigma is being, erased, so to speak, and more people are becoming more and more aware.

They're understanding that this is no different than any other disease that we would treat.

And for so lon there was such a shame attached to mental wellness, you know, it's it's it people are afraid t talk about it because it's like, you know, we hide this because we don't want people to know about it.

And now people are coming out and saying, we want to talk about this.

We want to get treatment.

And Dani' Place plays a big role in that, just in the journe of the creation of Dani's Place has been has been the setting of this, of that stigma and people being able to talk freely about it, because there's this purpos of creating a space that's safe and and supportive and enlightening in terms of allowing the residents and patients that are coming there for their outpatient services to learn about the resources that are available.

Doni: We're at a place where, it's okay to acknowledge that life is not always great and we may be having a really tough day.

I talked to a woman the other day about some postpartu depression issues, and she said, some day I just want somebody to hug me and it doesn't matter who it is, you know, just somebody come up and hug me and let me know it's going to be okay.

And that's exactly what Dani's, Dani's Place is...

It's like a big hug.

I know that sounds a little corny, but that's what I think of right now.

It's just a, a big welcome an a big you're going to be okay.

Sena: And it's so important.

Connection is what we're designed to do.

And that's how we we are created is connected to that.

Doni: You're absolutely right.

Sena: And so I'm really excited that there's this place now where, you know, an example would be somebody who is a homeless.

It's suffering because of mental crisis.

Doni: This is a great place to get that help before we go, becaus we're going to run out of time.

I want to talk about the bricks.

How do they buy the bricks?

We have about a minute left.

Scott: So we want to create an opportunity for everyone to contribute and leave a memorial.

You know, we stated everybod is, impacted by mental health.

A simple way to do that is go to Nami, ohio.org, Dani's place.

Purchase a brick.

Doni: Purchase a brick.

Thank you for that.

Please, please do that.

It's it's it's such a simple way to show that you care.

And I want to send a huge shou out to Donna and Jeff Hack for allowing us to be a part of this very important journey.

You guys, thank you for joining us.

You go out and you have a wonderful day and we'll see you next time on... To The Point.

Announcer: The views and opinions expressed in To The Point are those of the host of the program and its guests.

They do not necessarily reflect the views or opinions of WGTE public media.

To The Point is supporte in part by American Rescue Plan Act fund allocated by the City of Toledo and the Lucas County Commissioners and administered by the Arts Commission.

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