WICHITA, Kan. (KSNW) – The recovery community has built a sturdy foundation throughout the state, and a western Kansas mental health facility is seeing that addressing both mental health and addiction simultaneously in young people can help prevent future battles.
Compass Behavioral Health in Dodge City is utilizing its employees to help people start their journey.
“There was an opening for a peer support specialist, so I was like, you know, I’m going to get into that field and give back to people,” Seth McGinnes, a peer support specialist, said.
He says a walk down the hallway of CBH is like a walk down memory lane.
Wichita bike shop helps people ride into better circumstances “It’s all still somewhat fresh to me. Sometimes, I feel like I’m still learning a lot about life and the things that recovery offers you,” McGinnes said.
He has a connection with recovery that also links him to clients at Compass Behavioral Health in Dodge.
“When I show them and tell them I’ve been, I’ve felt, what you’re kind of feeling right now, and this is how I’ve been able to start moving forward, I think that has a huge impact for a lot of individuals,” McGinnes said.
The facility provides support for mental health and addiction and aims to give young people a jump start on knowing their minds and body.
“If I could get people to realize the signs of kids that are struggling in the earlier ages, they would not go to hospitals, and they would not get in trouble with the law, and they would not have addiction problems if we could get them in early,” Richard Falcon, program manager at Compass, said.
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“The suicides that we have in our community are kids that never stepped foot in my facility, and if those kids would just come in, they would be alive today,” said Falcon.
Seth says working with people struggling or in crisis is a reminder of his time on the other side.
“A lot of time in active addiction and a lot of pain and misery that I kind of inflicted upon myself in my own actions,” said McGinnes.
Seth says that lifestyle drained him.
“Active addiction for me started when I was about 13 years old, and it lasted until I was about 30 years old,” said McGinnes. “I just broke down completely and was like, you know, something’s got to change. So I started reaching out for help and got set up with a treatment facility.”
Through rehabilitation, he faced the old Seth head-on, then released him.
“Addiction cost me many friendships. It cost me relationships and my family. I burned a lot of bridges.”
Today, he’s restoring those bridges and becoming the man he always wanted to be.
“A great career, great company, amazing girlfriend, we have a family together,” said McGinnes.
Seth is giving back by helping people with the same struggles he once had.
“They’re able to see that they’re not alone, and we want to say I’ve been there. I’ve been addicted myself, I’ve struggled with my mental health, I survived my own suicide attempt,” said McGinnes.
Today, he’s putting less emphasis on the time it’s taken him to get to this place and more on the arrival to his destination.
“So I think for a lot of people they have a hard time getting sober and staying sober and finding long-lasting recovery in their hometown, and for me, I feel like if they watched me falling and struggle, I feel like they can also watch me stand back up as well,” said McGinnes.
Compass Behavorial Health also has transitional housing, which connects people with local providers or therapists before they need to be fully admitted to a hospital.
Officials say that, typically, people stay between 24 and 72 hours, but every case is different.
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