BROOKINGS Today at 4 p.m. the Ivy Center, with a grand opening and ribbon cutting, becomes more than ever ready to serve the behavioral health and wellness of the greater Brookings Community. What has become the Ivy Center started in 1964 as the East Central Mental Health and Chemical Dependency Center. It has remained an accredited community behavioral health center with the state of South Dakota since that time.
Were accredited as both a mental health treatment provider and a substance use treatment provider, both under one roof, said Mary Beth Fishback , Ivy Center CEO, Weve always been an independent non-profit organization operated by a board of directors.
In the beginning the organization worked out of two residential buildings at the present site. In 1990 a 6,000 square foot building dedicated to housing the organization was constructed. It had about 15 offices in this original building. Fishback took over the post of chief executive officer in 2018, bringing with her credentials that include: Master of Science in Physician Assistant Studies and a Master of Public Health. The organization was re-branded as Brookings Behavioral Health and Wellness. And today the Ivy Center occupies about 21,000 square feet.
That slight shift in name was really important for us, adding the wellness component, the CEO said. That was really important to our mission, thinking not just about mental health treatment and substance use treatment but let us focus on the whole person.
How do we make sure that individuals in our community are supported and that their basic needs are being met? Were addressing a lot of different life types of challenges in addition to their mental health challenges. So we wanted to bring in the whole person.
During Fishbacks time at the helm, the Ivy Center staff and services have grown. That was really the driving force to the need for a new building, she noted. At the time of re-branding and the need for building expansion consideration was given to a separation of the buildings name (the Ivy Center) from the services it provides.
We did that for a couple of reasons, she explained. We really wanted to create a space where people can come, not just active clients, but people in our community can receive support. We also wanted to make it a little easier, for example, if we have a college student come to us for an alcohol class: its a lot easier for that individual to say, Im going to take a class at the Ivy Center than it is to say say, Im going to get services at Brookings Behavioral Health and Wellness. So separating it that way helped to remove some of the stigma about receiving services and making it more an open and inviting building.
And we wanted to make sure other community entities were able to use our space as well.
Taking on the stigma
Stigma around mental health services and substance use services has been going on for ages, Fishback said. For a long time it has been very difficult for people to talk about the need for treatment or to openly express that Im struggling with something and I need help. Its not like saying I broke my arm and I need to go to the doctor, even though as treatment providers a mental health disorder is the same as a medical condition and is something that need care and treatment.
Would the expansion of the Ivy Center in terms of space and numbers of personnel be indicative of a greater need for behavioral health and wellness services in the Brookings area community?
The short answer to that question is yes, she said. We are seeing an ongoing increasing need for behavioral health services. Some of it is due to people facing greater challenges; people are experiencing symptoms of a mental health disorder as they face these challenges and theyre needing treatment.
The other component is that as a community and as a society we have really started to work on that stigma and weve really started to raise awareness about the availability of services and encourage people to reach out for help sooner.
Were starting to focus on things like prevention and early intervention, identifying challenges early on and getting people in for services and support so that they dont reach a state of crisis. Its OK to reach out for help when they need it right away. Its OK to access those services.
Services available to all
Queried about socio-economic status being a factor tied to the role of services provided by the Ivy Center, the CEO replied: It certainly can be. So as a community mental health center, we are the designated center in Brookings County to provide services to any individual who walks through our doors, regardless of ability to pay. We dont refuse service to anyone. We have access to state contract dollars that help pay for services for individuals in our community who are lower income. A significant portion of our clientele are individuals in our community that are low or no income.
If you think about our basic needs food, housing, financial security you take any of those problems away, financial challenges are huge stressors for people, Fishback noted. Individuals who are at risk of losing their housing or have inadequate housing, individuals who dont know where their next meal is going to come from, those create significant stressors in an individuals life and in a family dynamic. When those things are put at risk, we do see an increase in things like substance abuse and mental health symptoms.
Continuing, she explained such stressors can be harder to deal with for people who are at a lower socio-economic status. She explained that those needs should be addressed with a view of the whole person in terms of wellness: If we can help get that stabilized with their basic needs, we have a much better opportunity to successfully address their mental health or substance abuse challenges. If we try to just start at the top and work only on those symptoms theyre experiencing or their substance use, were going to miss everything thats happening underneath. So its really important to make sure their basic needs are stabilized so we can work on everything else. While the Ivy Center cant per se address those basic socio-economic needs, it can assist its clients in finding agencies and programs that can.
As a community, Brookings has incredible resources in those areas, Fishback noted.
As to the age of their clients, the youngest is 3 years old. We see people across their lifespan, she added. Obviously, with a 3-year-old, talking therapy is not going to be appropriate. So we can provide play-based services. At every age we want to provide care that is appropriate for that age or that individual.
Contact John Kubal at [email protected].
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