Page 50 - BusinessWest January 10, 2022

Goodwin House
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a group therapy session, recreational therapy, dinner, chores, another clinical group, maybe a local recov- ery meeting with Alcoholics Anonymous or Narcotics Anonymous, then phone calls, down time, and bed.
The weekends are similar, with school replaced by recreational activities in the community, such as bowling outings. That is, as long as they’re eligible to go. The program operates on a motivational ‘level’ system, and clients progress from orientation to level 5, with more privileges the higher they go.
“If you work the program, the program works for you,” Grimaldi said. “What you’re willing to put in is what you’ll take out of it.”
Often, the residents aren’t serious about the pro- gram for the first month, she noted. “I call it the hon- eymoon period, or the adjustment period. Often, the work doesn’t start until 35 or 40 days in, and a lot of times that’s when you see kids really struggle with themselves and their internal issues, and they’re ask- ing, ‘can I do this without substances, or can I not?’
“Sometimes we see kids have to return,” she added. “But a lot of times, those are the kids who are actually more successful. At first they didn’t get it, but they try it again, and it works for most of them.”
“If you work the program, the program works for you. What you’re willing to put in is what you’ll take out of it.”
Goodwin House also encourages family engage- ment and involvement during the client’s stay, Grimaldi said. In fact, last month, all the families were invited to the house for Thanksgiving dinner, each family seated in a separate area so they could have a meaningful holiday together.
“A lot of times, a client will come to Goodwin House and will have a poor relationship with their parents. ‘Oh, my parents are mean because they put me here. My parents don’t care about me.’ We hear that all the time. So we try to work on that family rela- tionship. We rebuild that through family therapy as well as family engagement and involvement.”
By the time clients leave, Grimaldi and her team want them to have a sponsor, be able to work their recovery, and also to have success academically. The center’s after-care coordinator keeps in touch with clients for a month after they leave, helping connect them to outside resources they can call upon to sup- port their continued recovery.
“I’ll give them my business card, and a lot of them call me,” she added. “They’re interested in what’s
This apt message recently greeted people at the entrance to Goodwin House.
happening. Sometimes it’s the kid who had the worst behaviors who wants to call back and say thanks. The one who was 399 days sober, he had a lot of inci- dents while he was here, but he turned it around and did what he needed to do and realized his life was worth living. And once you realize your life is worth living and there’s something to live for, your mindset changes.”
Breaking the Stigma
While stigma around mental health and substance abuse has lessened in society in recent years, it’s still an issue for many, especially parents of struggling teenagers — and it’s one factor keeping some families from seeking help, Grimaldi said.
“Stigma is always going to be there. But I tell par- ents, ‘it’s not what people think about you, it’s what you do to help your kid’ you’re the one bothered by your son being in a drug program, not him. He’s here to get the treatment he needs.”
Part of that is building life skills, she explained.
“We’re not just a substance-abuse and mental- health program. We teach them a lot of independent- living skills, all the different skills they haven’t learned at home. A lot of kiddos, when they come to us, they don’t know how to do basic chores. They were never taught.
“Or they’ve never done dinner as a whole, like we do here,” she went on. “They’re like, ‘why are we all eating together?’ They’re not used to it. It’s sad because you think, at their age, they would be used to having dinner with their family, but they’re not, so we teach them how to exist within a big, cohesive family.”
Grimaldi has some advice for families whose kids may not necessarily be struggling with addiction: talk to them before they get to that point. Because, again, it can happen to anyone.
“So many people wait until their kid gets into the worst point, when they’re in the hospital, getting stomach pumped, getting Narcan, but we shouldn’t wait until it gets to that point. We should be able to help our kids from the start, realizing there’s small changes that can happen, and those small changes lead to the bigger things.”
For example, a teenager might suddenly stop hanging out with long-time friends or engaging in a sport they’ve loved all their life.
“Instead of waiting until the school calls and says, ‘hey, your kid was caught with a cigarette,’ or ‘your kid was smoking pot up on the hill,’ be more attentive right now. There’s more to life than the busyness.”
It often starts with the most basic questions to get communication flowing between parent and child — and lessen the chances of those signs being missed.
“Ask, ‘how was your day? What did you learn today? What did you have for lunch today?’ These are basic questions parents don’t ask. I’ve seen parental visits where they just stared at each other because they don’t know how to talk to each other. They never took the time to get to know their kid. And I think it’s because people are so busy doing busy things.”
Goodwin House keeps Grimaldi plenty busy, and she loves seeing clients progress through the levels — and, more importantly, progress into sobriety and independence.
“I love my job. I love being able to work with so many different youth in such a short period of time,” she told BusinessWest. “You’re able to work with them and see where their struggles are. I love what I do because I think we make a difference, in the sense that we’re able to support them and help them gain sobriety. Even if it’s just 90 days, it’s 90 days they didn’t have before.”
Which then becomes 399 days — and counting. u
Region
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inflation index that are really driving up prices. And the Fed has taken the words ‘temporary’ or ‘transitory’ out of their projections, meaning the Fed believes it’s real inflation.”
But while there are challenges, there are opportunities as well, said those we spoke with, noting that 2021 brought some positive signs when it comes to interest among both individuals and businesses alike to come to Western Mass. to take advantage of its quality of life and lower overall cost of living.
As for individuals, many have decid- ed they can live in the 413 and work essentially wherever they want, said Sullivan, adding that this dynamic cer- tainly impacted the local housing mar- ket, driving prices higher as inventory levels fell, following the laws of supply and demand.
And on the business side, there
has been an uptick in activity when it comes to site selectors inquiring about the 413.
“We currently have more than 40 site searches going on, and that num- ber has been pretty consistent for us
over the past year or two,” he said. “And that’s a healthy number; it’s at the high end of what we’ve traditionally seen. It doesn’t mean that everyone is going to come here, obviously, but it does mean that people are out there looking.
“And the big difference this year, as opposed to perhaps few years ago, is that this interest comes in different sec- tors,” Sullivan went on. “We’ve always been historically attractive to the trans- portation and logistics companies because we’re at the crossroads of New England, and businesses can easily serve the Northeast given the Turnpike,
I-91, and the other highways here, and rail and the airports. But we’re seeing the sectors increase, everything from manufacturing, which we had not seen a lot of, to cybersecurity and Big Data, such as the proposal for Westfield.”
Overall, Sullivan and others said the trends, both positive and negative, will continue into 2022, which should — and COVID will obviously have a lot to say about this — provide more than just a glimpse, or taste, of better times. u
— George O’Brien
50 JANUARY 10, 2022
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