Richard Jones, co-founder and Chief Clinical Officer of Youturn Health, joined the America’s Work Force Union Podcast to discuss what their organization does for people, especially those working in the construction industry.
Youturn was hired to provide professional help to HFIAW members and their families who battle with mental health and addiction issues. Jones works closely with Insulators Labor Management Cooperative Trust (LMCT) Executive Director Pete Ielmini.
Youturn’s website is all about mental health awareness and suicide prevention and all staff members have experienced some sort of mental health issue or addiction, so they fully understand what people in need are going through.
Jones is a licensed counselor and a master's level therapist who is also in long-term recovery from an opioid and alcohol use disorder and has been for almost 24 years.
To allow listeners to fully understand what Youturn Health does, Jones gave AWF host Ed “Flash” Ferenc an example and said if you took the 40 million people in the world who are dealing with an addiction issue, only 6 percent would get help, leaving 37,600,000 people not getting help.
“That’s the problem we’re trying to solve for people who are not getting help, and the solution is Youturn Health,” Jones said. “What we do is fill in all the gaps in the behavioral health system, which, unfortunately, there are a lot. We do this through coaching, early intervention and education services.”
Jones added that the reason people don’t seek help isn’t because they don’t think they need to, but because they’re scared.
“A person cannot get better if they’re not getting help,” Jones said. “It’s not like you’re just going to wake up one day and be struck sober. You’re going to have to reach out.”
Perspective and IMAP
Jones then talked to Ferenc about their partner organization, Perspectives, that also helps the HFIAW. Perspectives provides employee assistance programming, while YouTurn provides early education and coaching services.
The companies combined forces to form the Insulators Member Assistance Program (IMAP) for the Insulator Union and its members.
“We need to pay as much attention to what we call safety on the inside as we do safety on the outside. Safety on the inside is all the stuff that you’re thinking and feeling. In construction, it’s extremely dangerous to be dealing with these issues because you can’t concentrate at work.”
Youturn and Perspectives recently started conducting conference-level training with HFIAW leaders and have seen a substantial increase in engagement.
Jones ended the interview by saying the stigma surrounding mental health is better today than it was 24 years ago, but there is still a lot of work that needs to be done. Youturn’s goal is to keep people talking about and normalizing mental health.
“The people who work for us and take the calls from the Insulators Union are all construction workers themselves,” Jones said. “They’ve been through this and now they are trained and certified to help other people.”
Listen to the full interview:
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