Ouachita Behavioral Health and Wellness joined with the Hot Springs Community Resource Center Monday afternoon for a ribbon-cutting to announce the start of a Wellness Day program at the facility at 109 Hobson Ave.
Susan Smith, the CEO of OBHAW, said this is a new partnership with the city.
“We are here because we are starting a day treatment program for adults who have a serious mental illness,” she said at the ribbon-cutting. “What day treatment program means is that we will probably have, eventually, around 20 clients per day, attending day treatment, where we have a therapist. We have two, basically, case managers that work with them.
“They get therapy, medication management, group therapy, lots of life skills, and then just working on social skills. And the main goal of the day treatment program, of course, is to keep them out of the hospital, to keep them in their homes, or if they don’t have a home, we will help them find a home and stay in that home,” Smith said.
Eric Huneycutt, the Wellness Day coordinator for OBHAW, said the program is a continuation of something the organization has been doing for some time.
“It’s an expansion of our adult rehab Wellness Day program,” he said. “We’ve had the rehab day program as far back as I can remember. We had one in Hot Springs when I first started working in the program in 2014, and then we consolidated them all in Malvern in 2016. We had programs at all three of our clinics, but in 2016 we chose to have all of them housed in Malvern. We have an opportunity with the Hot Springs Community Resource Center, working in partnership with them, to expand back into Hot Springs for the residents that are in Hot Springs.”
The Wellness Day program provides life skills training along with individual and group therapy. The program will operate Monday through Friday from 8:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m.
“We have licensed counselors through the state or social workers providing care, and we have qualified behavioral health providers, QBHPs, providing the adult life skills training,” Huneycutt said. “So it’s an extension or an expansion of our current program. It’s open to anybody 18 years and older who has a mental illness diagnosis, so primarily for individuals that have schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, major depression. They can also have several different diagnoses, like if they have an anxiety disorder and PTSD, or if there’s substance use or abuse, then they could also qualify.”
Huneycutt said the program offers many services.
“We have therapeutic services,” he said. “We have medication management services through our main office there in Hot Springs at 125 Wellness Way. We have a representative payee who can do money management for those that come to the program, that way they have somebody helping them budget and keep track of their bills and their payments. We mainly teach coping skills, communication, conflict resolution, self care, so we can improve their overall health and well-being.”
The program is a way to help support members of the community, Huneycutt said.
“Most of our clients from Hot Springs that have come to this program have traveled every day to Malvern for the last 10 or so years, and now we are reopening here to make it more convenient, more centrally located for those that live in Hot Springs, to come to this program,” he said. “We’re trying to meet the gaps in service for the community.
“We mainly want to foster self-advocacy. We want to empower clients to be independent and to live successfully on their own, so that’s the main purpose of our program. Not something that just is a handout, but a hand up to get them to a place where they are comfortable to live on their own and not need somebody all the time.”
The program will consist of one full-time therapist and two full-time qualified behavioral health providers, Huneycutt said.
“There’ll be three full-time staff in this program for now,” he said. “As we grow and expand, we may add more, but for now, there’ll be three full-time people. Until our therapist starts, it’ll be me covering, but we will have a therapist available full-time for the individuals coming to the program and two case managers.”
Information about the program can be found at https://obhaw.org/programs/wellness-day/. People wanting more information can contact Huneycutt at 501-332-7494 or [email protected], or they can reach out for more information through the OBHAW website.
“The CRC will also be meeting people that come here for their services, and if they identify somebody they think would be a good fit, they’re going to be sending me an email or completing our referral form for me to interview them and see if they’re a good fit,” Huneycutt said.
“So we take referrals from anywhere. … Most of those will end up going through the intake process at the Hot Springs office, through the walk-in, and then they will transfer to this program. Those that come from CRC could get their program started here by meeting with me, and we’ll determine what days they’ll attend and get them started that way.”
Members of the Greater Hot Springs Chamber of Commerce Ambassadors, known as the Red Coats, tour the Wellness Day area at the Hot Springs Community Resource Center Monday afternoon. (The Sentinel-Record/Thomas Buckman)
