James Sutton, host of Road To Recovery has guest Laurie Bombay, a Therapist and Supervisor of Mental Health at the Montgomery County Correctional Facility in Boyds, Maryland and a coworker of James. Laurie works together with a group of 5 therapist to provide for the mental health of the jail’s population. This team provides assessments and provides behavior plans and treatment plans in the mental health housing. They also provide as needed mental health services to inmates in the general population. It is a very busy environment and a lot of the inmates are really ill.
These are hard patients to take care of because most don’t believe they have a disease and they refuse treatment. Smoking weed and using opioids is not a treatment for trauma, but many self medicate in these and other drugs. Laurie believe if we worked on treating trauma in children and adolescents who have been experiencing trauma or has been exposed to trauma, we would probably see a lot less of these problems in these facilities.
This facility has 3 Mental Health Units. The Men’s Unit holds up to 40, but typically has 32-35 inmates. The Women’s Unit can only hold up to 14 and they have 21 and they are in other areas. The Step Down Unit has 20 male inmates. There is a shortage of nurses and therapists, really all support staff which creates challenges.
Montgomery County Organizations that are Great Mental Health Resources:
Montgomery County Crisis Center
Mountygomery County Health and Human Services
National Alliance on Mental Illness
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