Meet+Your+Neighbor+-+Brena+Benoir,+Preferred+Family+Healthcare

[8:53] Brena Benoir: Good Morning Everyone [8:53] Penguin Kuhn: Brena! [8:53] Brena Benoir: I am here for Meet the Neighbor this morning to introduce you to my organization. I work with Preferred Family Healthcare (PFH), a comprehensive behavioral health non-profit organization established in 1979 providing substance abuse treatment/prevention and mental health services throughout Missouri, Kansas, and Texas. Preferred Family Healthcare Continually Strives to be a Dynamic, Caring Organization United to Assist Others in Achieving Their Potential. [8:54] Brena Benoir: We are the largest provider of substance abuse treatment services in the state of Missouri, which is the headquarters of PFH and our founding grounds. Substance abuse treatment services are available to adolescents and adults depending upon the program. We provide services on a residential and outpatient basis dependent upon the location. [8:54] Penguin Kuhn: Mr. Coughran Mayo works there as well [8:54] Brena Benoir: PFH provides other services as well including: Judicial Support Services-for those who have received DWIs, MIPs, and other driving related drug offenses Assisted Living/Residential Care Programming-either long-term or short-term housing as well as other support services including 24-hour supervision, meals, transportation to local doctor's offices, employment, and religious worship, medical oversight and drug administration, as well as recreational activities and outings. [8:55] Brena Benoir: Behavioral Health Services-Counseling for individuals, couples and families - grief and loss counseling - Psychological testing - Employee Assistance Programs - Psychiatric assessments and treatment - Conflict resolution - School counseling. CPRC - Community Psychiatric Rehabilitation Center. The focus of the program is to avoid hospitalization and develop stable, productive lifestyles. Professionals, including a psychiatrist, coordinate community support, crisis intervention, medication services, and rehabilitation Prevention Programs-school and community based [8:55] Brena Benoir: Achieving Recovery Through Creativity (A.R.T.C. -- pronounced "Artsy") began as a program to provide substance-abusing adolescents the opportunity to tap into creative talents and convey emotions through the arts. Having experienced great success providing this service to our adolescent substance abuse consumers, PFH has begun implementing A.R.T.C. within select adult substance abuse treatment programs, and recently initiating an independent A.R.T.C. program funded by the Franklin County Children and Families Community Resource Board and being provided to high risk youth in Franklin County in Missouri. A.R.T.C. uses visual arts, music, and creative writing to encourage the expression of difficult emotions and provide consumers with an opportunity to explore activities that can serve as a means of healthy recreation as they strive to remain drug-free, let go of high risk behaviors and cope with difficult situations. Currently A.R.T.C. is offered within 15 PFH programs that serve youth and families across the [8:55] Brena Benoir: state of Missouri and 5 PFH adult substance abuse treatment programs. [8:56] Brena Benoir: PFH has a goal in-world to help educate people about substance abuse, addiction, alcoholism and mental health issues. Contacts for our program in world are Coughran Mayo or myself. We have the ability to provide real world resource contact to persons if they should need that assistance. [8:57] Brena Benoir: And lastly a little about me and my role in virtual worlds [8:57] Brena Benoir: I am currently a Virtual World Therapist. I provide substance abuse treatment services in The Portal, our virtual world program, on a private host server to provide for confidentiality, to adolescents who have completed one of two residential programs. I will start my fifteenth year with PFH in January and can honestly say I have worked from the ground up. I started out working on the adolescent residential unit as a direct care staff and have provided case management services, individual and group counseling services, supervision of direct care staff, and family counseling services. I currently hold certifcations through the Missouri Substance Abuse Professional Credentialing Board as a Certified Substance Abuse Counselor II, and Internationally Recognized Alcohol and Drug Counselor, and a Certified Co-Occurring Disorder Professional. [8:58] Zinnia Zauber: Rah Brena!!! [8:58] Brena Benoir: Feel free to visit our website for more information: [] [8:58] Penguin Kuhn: wow! [8:58] Buffy Beale: nice going Brena! [8:58] Ninlil Xeltentat raises hand [8:58] Brena Benoir: thank you everyone [8:58] Brena Benoir: yes Ninlil [8:58] Zinnia Zauber: Thank you Brena! [8:58] Ninlil Xeltentat: how does ARTC compare with other treatment methods, from your experience? [8:59] Ninlil Xeltentat: i live in a state where arts therapy is not given the credit it deserves, and i want to learn some pointers about defending it as very valuable therapy. [8:59] Brena Benoir: with ARTC, we see kids actually be able to let feelings out that are otherwise much to painful to discuss for a lot of people [8:59] Brena Benoir: It works really well for trauma victims [9:00] MacZ Urbanowicz: there's plenty of research to support [9:00] Ninlil Xeltentat: excellent. :) i'm a huge fan of art therapy. your program sounds amazing. [9:00] Brena Benoir: I find with adolescents in particular, since that is my area, it's often difficult for them to talk about things and so helping them release the feelings and being able to cope with those things is vital to help them recover from their substance use [9:01] Penguin Kuhn: raises hands [9:01] Penguin Kuhn: flipper [9:01] Brena Benoir: If you visit PFH Island here in SL you will see artwork created by our consumers [9:01] Brena Benoir: yes Penguin [9:02] Penguin Kuhn: I was curious, how has the rest of your org. responded to PFH's work in SL? Y'all have really pioneered the way in using SL for recovery purposes [9:03] Brena Benoir: Our Senior Management staff is very supportive of the work here and are looking at ways to use virtual world based services to access other populations and issues in the future. I foresee us taking a very active rol, even more so than what we have now in the virtual world. [9:04] Penguin Kuhn: The org. seems very supportive which isn't always the case for people so i was wondering about that [9:04] Penguin Kuhn: That is awesome. That puts them high up there in my estimation! [9:04] CJ27 Jigsaw: Raises hand - how do you find the time for SL, that's our staffing issue. [9:04] Brena Benoir: It helps to have C captaining our boat lol [9:04] Veri Oddfellow: Ha ha .. beat ya to it .. LOL [9:05] Zinnia Zauber: You guys shine here! [9:05] Brena Benoir: Most of my day is spent on our our virtual world, but I find coming in here and socializing helps me winddown and I get the opportunity to meet lot sof people and learn about other things that I can refer families and parents to inworld. [9:06] Brena Benoir: any other questions? [9:06] Brena Benoir: thank you so much [9:06] Penguin Kuhn: that's terrific [9:06] Zinnia Zauber: Yay! [9:06] Zinnia Zauber: Thank you Brena! [9:06] Penguin Kuhn: Thank you Brena and keep up the great work [9:06] Veri Oddfellow: Yeah Brena! [9:07] Dusty Artaud: Brena have you been getting any real world press? [9:07] Dancers Yao: thanks great work [9:07] Veri Oddfellow: We're happy you "art" with us .. lol [9:07] Serene Jewell: What a great project. I love the title, Virtual World Therapist! [9:07] Dusty Artaud: for what you are doing here I mean [9:07] In Kenzo: Avatars need therapy too ;) [9:08] Brena Benoir: Actually C does a lot of PR for us and I know that our organization was part of a presentation that Mark Linden presented at a conference or workshop in Japan I believe [9:08] Brena Benoir: or China [9:08] Veri Oddfellow: Yes, but how do you feel about that In K? [9:08] Smash Lane: And the anoyominity in SL helps too [9:08] Veri Oddfellow: *wait you 'll get my bill later .. * [9:08] Brena Benoir: lol Veri [9:08] Veri Oddfellow: *grins the former RL therapist* [9:08] Veri Oddfellow: Great stuff, Brena, I just wonder about insurance coverage and liability issues [9:09] Veri Oddfellow: But I'm sur ey'all have that all figured out .. [9:09] Brena Benoir: the clients we serve currently in our own environment right now are part of a grant based program and so they have no charge unless they damage equipment [9:10] Dusty Artaud: Brena and anyone else if you are getting peal world publicity for anything that you are doing in virtual worlds, please let me know. [9:10] Penguin Kuhn: For any of you that get press about your org's SL work, please let us know and we can add it to the press page of the wiki: http://npsl.wiki.techsoup.org/Press+Coverage+ [9:10] Dusty Artaud: real* [9:10] In Kenzo: Good to note,t hanks Dusty & Penguin [9:10] Brena Benoir: almost all clients are still plugged into mainstream outpatient sites where they still check in face to face as well [9:11] Brena Benoir: thanks everyone [9:11] Penguin Kuhn: we use the npsl tag for any pictures, articles, etc. about our work [9:11] Penguin Kuhn: Thanks Brena [9:12] Ninlil Xeltentat: thank you Brena!