It's Where I Am with Zandra Polard

Wesley Knight 0:00
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Zandra Polard 0:44
Good morning Las Vegas. It's Zandra Pollard. It's where I am, right here on 91.5 jazz and more. Today we have a special guest. You may remember who he is. It's Dr G y'all. He's back.

Dr. David Gennis 1:07
I'm so excited to be joining you, Zandra this morning, and it's awesome just to be back and to be back in the studio with you and having this opportunity just to touch base and catch up with each other and to talk more about severe mental illness. Severe

Zandra Polard 1:26
mental illness, y'all so if you remember, last week, we were talking about when mental illness results into a crime. Now, Dr G works with patients who have severe mental illness,

Dr. David Gennis 1:43
yes, so it's such a privilege for me to have the opportunity to support individuals who are diagnosed with severe mental illness and have overcome significant impairment and challenges throughout their life to get to where they are today and at great mind counseling and Wellness Center here in Las Vegas, we really do approach providing treatment where We believe that every human being, every individual is capable to achieve and is capable to make positive change and to work or move towards direction where their daily level of functioning is Higher that they are not putting themselves in as many risky situations they're presenting with safer behaviors. And ultimately, I hope that all this work that we're doing is really helping individuals to experience more joy and happiness in their everyday lives.

Zandra Polard 2:57
Awesome. So your agency has expanded so you're not only in Las Vegas.

Dr. David Gennis 3:05
Yes, yes. Thank you so much for for bringing us up. Zander, due to our efficacy and success in helping those community members that have severe mental illness, we've decided to open our second clinic, and it's in San Bernardino, California. Yes, you know this is an area that we identified as having high need for the community to have access to more resources, and we're very proud to have opened our doors official, officially on this past Saturday, which was March 1, okay, yes, Yes. And we hosted a community wellness rally, if you will, to just formally introduce ourselves as being a new provider in that community. Okay? And you know we're same name, right? Yes. So, so a little a little nuance has was changed. It's a great mind counseling and skill building center, because we really want to focus on the skill coaching component and helping individuals learn basic skills that everyone needs to really be successful in and getting by on a daily basis.

Zandra Polard 4:42
Okay? So you help them learn how to do a resume, resume writing, maybe, and

Dr. David Gennis 4:48
yeah. So, so I'm going to even any jobs. Well, that's so important people, people need activities in which they have the opportunity to look forward to. Something that's right. Having a schedule, we find, is really imperative to helping individuals increase their mental health in a positive way, by knowing what to anticipate, knowing what to expect. You know, having something to look forward to having the opportunity to socialize with other adults that that may present with similar characteristics, where these adults who have severe mental illness feel not so isolated, they don't feel so different from everyone else and and that they their needs are normalized.

Zandra Polard 5:47
Okay, so, what is severe mental illness? What is that? Yeah, like, what are some of the diagnosis that would

Dr. David Gennis 5:56
fall so we're looking at individuals who may present with bipolar disorder, borderline personality disorder, major depressive disorder, it could be that the adults have multiple diagnoses that have really challenged them in their ability to function on a daily level. So one of the interventions that I am really proud of is that at great mind counseling and Wellness Center here in Las Vegas, we developed a wrap around program specific to adults that have severe mental illness. And so what we were seeing Zandra is these individuals go in and out of the emergency room, yes, and kind of clogging up, if you will, the admissions process in med surg hospitals, and then there that causes a delay, these individuals would be taking a bed that would historically be for someone that is medically very ill and may may need that bed, then the individual who has the mental health impairment, once they're medically cleared in a med surg hospital, they would be transferred to an inpatient Behavioral Health Hospital. Okay? So we have so many community members that were going in and out of these hospital settings. It's recidivism, right? Yes, yes. So it was a revolving door, if you will, yes and, and in some cases, these individuals that we provide clinical services to were going into the ER and being admitted into inpatient, especially in the summertime. Yes, yes. I mean, this was almost weekly, yeah, so multiple times per month and and. So if you think about from a financial cost perspective, the amount of money that these insurance companies were paying to cover services that were essential, that were needed. You know, it just kept growing and growing. So we developed a program where at the outpatient level of care, which we always strive to, provide clinical services where we're matching the need to the least restrictive, most appropriate level of care based upon medical necessity. Yes, and so our wraparound program for adults who have severe mental illness is at the outpatient level of care. So outpatient meaning you don't have beds, correct? So they're not they're not staying with us, so they they arrive at great mind counseling to provide transportation. We do. We do. So that's a huge piece that was identified as being a challenge and a barrier, yes, for these individuals to actually access care, right and and because we recognize that, and we recognize the need that we decided to Hey out of pocket, because this is a service that's not reimbursed by managed care or by health insurance. However, we realized, though, it was really essential to assist these individuals and having support and transportation to get to and from where they're receiving clinical services.

Zandra Polard 9:49
Wow, that's a lot. So what about those because when you first told me, I'm thinking like, Oh, are you dealing with criminals? I. So, because we have, like, state hospitals, they deal with criminals, right? Yes, so,

Dr. David Gennis 10:04
so I don't want to give a bad name, though, to individuals that admit into one of our state behavioral health hospital settings, because, you know, mental health impacts everybody and to the degree in which based upon need is and health insurance sometimes, but there's

Zandra Polard 10:33
a difference. You're dealing with people who know they have a diagnosis, yes, and they need services, yes. Sometimes there are people who have mental illness that don't realize that they have mental illness, that's that's true, and they need to be committed into a state hospital. Yes,

Dr. David Gennis 10:48
because they are at risk of potentially, they're viewed as as being a risk to harm themselves or to harm someone else, yes, and or they could be assessed as being gravely disabled, so so they can't take care of themselves, okay, their ability to communicate effectively their needs is so compromised that they Need to be admitted somewhere, where that their general, basic safety needs are being met by a team, okay, of service providers. And

Zandra Polard 11:27
then also, I don't have the stat, but I know that individuals with mental illness are not likely to commit crimes, right? A person who has mental illness who is taking medication is less likely to commit a crime.

Dr. David Gennis 11:50
Yeah, absolutely. So, you know, there's, I think, a lot of unique and interesting and creative ideas or thoughts about individuals who have mental illness, the stigma, the stigma, yeah, absolutely, and that's something that you and I have really challenged over years to just provide information to individuals, to communities, to our state and helping people just recognize that all of us are on our own individual journeys. That's right. All of us are working on something, and life is really challenging for all of us, and you know, it's okay. I hope that you know when people hear you speak Zandra and and hear me talk about mental health services, that they're feeling less concerned about accessing care if it's needed for themself or within their family system. Yes,

Zandra Polard 13:00
great mind counseling and Wellness Center, yes, right here in Las Vegas. And if you're listening from California on the podcast, great mind counseling, Skill Building Center, yes,

Dr. David Gennis 13:13
yes. And and we're just really excited to share, share our success. Share our model with another community where the need presents as as being high and and that, you know, just to be another resource in that community where individuals can have choice now

Zandra Polard 13:39
the agencies, how much do How many does each of them take? As far as patients?

Dr. David Gennis 13:46
Yes, so at great mind counseling and Wellness Center here in Las Vegas, Nevada, we have, on a daily basis, we could have as many as 85 patients participating in services per day. So the number is pretty robust, and the individual needs associated with each patient is high, but we do a really good job at containing the level of intensity based upon the patient's needs, we really wrap them with the services that are appropriate for each individual. You know, we don't.

Zandra Polard 14:30
You find that out through assessments. Yeah, that's how you get to know you got, like, your starting point, right? Yes,

Dr. David Gennis 14:36
and and just really paying attention and remaining curious and always asking questions and partnering with with outside referral partners who are potentially recommending or sending their loved one to us. You know, getting as much information as we can so that we can really understand. What the need is, what is it that? Or how can great mind counseling be asset and be helpful to the individual and to the family?

Zandra Polard 15:11
And what about San Bernardino? How many patients are you seeing there? Yeah,

Dr. David Gennis 15:15
so we are. We literally just opened doors on Saturday. Oh my gosh. And we do have some patience, which is very exciting. So this, I mean, we have, right now, our first five patients, okay, and so we're just grateful. Well, that's a good start. Yeah, we're excited, yeah. So it's only been a week, it's only been a week, but how many, potentially will you be able to hold as many as you do here? Yeah, yeah. So that's our goal. I mean, eventually, as we and

Zandra Polard 15:46
I hope, another goal is to open more agencies. Because, yes, although you take a lot, we need much more Absolutely, absolutely. So I want to thank you again for coming, but you need to give us some contact information, yeah,

Dr. David Gennis 16:01
yeah. So, you know, Zandra has been such an enormous supporter of highlighting mental health as a relevant topic for conversation, and I just want to acknowledge you, because you really have supported me and supported the topic of mental health to decrease and work towards decreasing the stigma associated with how people think about accessing services to help them manage mental Health, which is something we all deal with. This isn't something that's specific to any any population or you know, this is something that we that hits all of us. So for our listeners that may be interested in accessing care at great mind counseling and Wellness Center here in Las Vegas, the number is area code, 702-208-2194,

Zandra Polard 17:10
okay, but we also have listeners in California, so let us get that information. Yes,

Dr. David Gennis 17:15
yes. So again, we are so, so excited to be opening doors for our second location, and specifically, you know, we're just so wanting to immerse ourselves into San Bernardino in that community. So right now, in regards to referring or receiving new referrals, we are just using the main the main number that we have right now that you know when you call this number, we'll take all the information and we will determine the service provider in our San Bernardino office who's best fit to handle the needs specific to the referrals that we received. So the number that you can call right now is 702-208-2194,

Zandra Polard 18:11
awesome. Thank you for that. So I want to talk about my last show last week. I kind of started off talking about it, but then we had to get into great mind counseling, right? Because it's such an important agency, and we also needed to talk about barriers and stigmas of mental health. I want to talk about someone that I know that was recently shot, and we don't know if the person is diagnosed with anything, but they have their story coming out on ID network. So it's called residential rage. It's the first season. You can find it on HBO, Max Pluto, the Discovery Channel. This was such an interesting story that I had to put out there, because this couple has not received any justice, but yet their story is being told all across America, and for them, I would say, you still need services, yes, because you have to deal with that stuff, right? Absolutely, we can't just point the finger that the other person, the shooter, is crazy, right? Something's wrong with him. I don't know. I wasn't there. I only know one side of it, yes, and I am a supporter of that side. I. Uh, but they've got to know it's okay to get support to go through this long journey. Hey, they're going to be dealing with this stuff for a long

Dr. David Gennis 20:16
time. Absolutely, absolutely. And you know, it touches my heart Zandra, because just the the intimacy associated with with their story, and the courage I think, that it takes to share share their experience and how I think about what you just shared with with your listeners, is that, having been shot, just just the trauma, yeah, associated with that act

Zandra Polard 21:01
and in their story, they dealt with something with their neighbor. Was their neighbor, and they dealt with incident after incident after incident for years, and then it boiled down to being shot and waking up in a hospital bed. So for someone like that that's dealing with trauma. Where would they go?

Dr. David Gennis 21:26
Yeah, so trauma is something unfortunately that impacts all of us, and oftentimes, individuals will say to me that they really don't want to touch too closely and process and make sense out of the trauma, because it's just too heavy, yes, and that they really want to stuff it, stuff it down, and almost pretend like It didn't ever happen to me. That's right, that's right, but just because of the emotional feeling of just being so overwhelmed and and not knowing really how to, how to hold the intensity associated with the traumatic event.

Zandra Polard 22:18
You know, I've even had someone on the show that was saying how your body will react, yes, right, when you're bringing up trauma, that's

Dr. David Gennis 22:27
right. That's right. I never recommend that individuals stuff it, where they continue to push it and push it and push it down in an effort not to have to deal with it, or not to have to think about it, because it's going to come up. It's going to come up when the individual least expects it to. It's going to catch the individual off guard. Something is going to trigger a release of emotion and and thoughts, flashbacks, memories, physiological sensations, yes, and it can become crippling. And so I absolutely encourage all individuals that may have been or experienced some level of trauma and which they have not made sense out of it, where they need to take a moment to assess. So

Zandra Polard 23:33
we're saying there's different types of therapy. Yes, and how to know which one you need? Yeah, because what you do, it's not a one size fit all No, right? So this is where you start. Pull out that insurance card, yes, and call that number that says mental health.

Dr. David Gennis 23:51
That's right, that's right. Okay, that's

Zandra Polard 23:53
where you start,

Dr. David Gennis 23:54
absolutely. And I love the fact that Zandra, that's really where it starts. And for individuals who are covered by health insurance, I always encourage them to start there. And if you can utilize your health insurance coverage to pay for mental health services, I highly encourage it.

Zandra Polard 24:16
And a lot of places they do a sliding scale, yes, yes. So take care of you. Absolutely. It's worth the investment. I agree 100% thank you for coming on the show again. That's always my pleasure. Sandra, Hey, you're the baddest co host. There is, we're two peas in a pie. Thank you. Dr G, this is Andre Pollard. The show is, it's where I am. I'm here every Saturday at 7:30am thank you for tuning in. We'll talk to you next week. And if you've missed any portion of this broadcast, you can find it on all your major podcast platforms, Apple, Spotify, Google, you can find. Me, it's where I am with Zandra. Talk to you next week. Bye. You.