Ep26 Addiction Treatment Supporting Seniors

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[00:00:00] Boom, boom, boom, boom, boom.

Chris Langley: Hi, welcome to Addiction Recovery Place Podcast, the podcast championing addiction treatment professionals around the world.

I'm your host, Chris Langley, and I'm very pleased to introduce today's guest, Christine Martinek, a Licensed Drug and Alcohol Counselor from the Senior Recovery Center in St. Paul, Minnesota. The Senior Recovery Program is a state licensed outpatient substance abuse clinic that's been providing recovery service for seniors for 47 years.

Welcome to Addiction Recovery Plays podcast, Christine. It's great to have you here today.

Christine Martinek: Thank you. Thank you for having me. I feel very blessed that you called and asked us to be a part of

Chris Langley: this.

Oh, I really appreciate that. And, I was very excited when you accepted the invitation as well, because as soon as I saw what you do, I thought I've gotta, I've gotta speak to these people and I'm so glad that you accepted the invitation, and we're gonna tell our audience about the wonderful service that you provide your clients today.

So first of all, Christine, tell us about yourself and how you became a counselor and working at Senior Recovery [00:01:00] Center.

Christine Martinek: I grew up in a family where, we had a lot of addiction issues, from grandparents down to my mother, so I've, seen a lot of issues, and, I experienced a lot. As I got older, around my thirties, I started to develop some addiction issues myself that were overwhelming, overwhelming and I needed to get some support. So I actually entered treatment services, at St. Joseph's hospital, and I decided that I needed to do something with my life to move forward and to make changes. I decided after I graduated from treatment that I wanted to help other people that were just like me. I'm sure you hear that a lot, so then I entered into the Associate in Human Service Program program at Inver Hills. [00:02:00] I went on to, Metro State University where I got my LADC license. license. I had done my internship at Senior Recovery Center, so when I came here I really developed a connection with the older adults. I have always had a passion for wanting to work with older adults because I did work for an assisted living home for many years, as a resident assistant and I passed medications. I just love older adults and seniors, so they asked me to stay on and be a counselor here. And I'm still here. I haven't left. So here I am. So that's how I

Chris Langley: congratulations for everything you've achieved so far. That's, an amazing story, and it's something unique as well on what you've done is pretty [00:03:00] remarkable.

Christine Martinek: Thank you.

Chris Langley: Definitely big congratulations for that. Christine, I love the quote on your website and I'm going to read this to, to, to the audience.

"We practically wrote the book on seniors and addiction." Wonderful. Can you tell us about the history of the Senior Recovery Center, please?

Christine Martinek: Oh, definitely. want to say that, Senior Recovery Center is one of the only older adult treatment centers, in Minnesota. There's a couple more. There's one more that I can think of but their not a licensed 245G program, so they have different paperwork and have different approaches. For us, it started probably about in the late 70s. And what happened was in St. Paul, there was a lot of high rises going up, and so a lot of seniors, they started St. Joseph's, which was a [00:04:00] staple to the community, the hospital, and they are one of the oldest hospitals here. So they started to see an increase of seniors coming in, with substance use disorder, so alcohol mostly. They contacted a gentleman by the name of Tom Garens. He decided. He was a counselor, and he decided to work with St. Joseph's and he started the Senior Recovery Program. So what they would do is they would go out and they would visit these seniors that they were seeing in the hospital. They would visit them in their homes or their apartments.

They would invite them to AA groups. And so that's where it all started. It just developed from there. And I believe in the early eighties, it turned into a nonprofit. Then they started to just bring people in. The seniors were becoming so involved, and they felt a real [00:05:00] connection at Senior Recovery because one of the main things that sets us apart from everyone else is that our seniors or older adults are in group, they're sitting with people their own

age.

Chris Langley: Yes.

They're connecting with people that grew up like the same music, the same era, the same, a lot of the same beliefs, because if you think about it, 70 years ago, church was very important. There were a lot of, things that were, going on at that time that all of these people grew up with. There was the war, there was, a lot of different things. So when they're sitting in group together, they can really connect with each other. And it's, it's a lot different than the culture nowadays. Yes.

Christine Martinek: So I'd say pretty much that's the main. The camaraderie that they have [00:06:00] and, I believe that's why Senior Recovery has made it so long. Yes.

Chris Langley: Amazing. Absolutely amazing. Can you tell us about your team that you have at Senior Recovery Center and their roles as well? That'll be great to hear.

Christine Martinek: So we're a smaller treatment center, but Mary Selski is our CEO and Director. She's been with Senior Recovery for many years. I believe it's 16 years now. So she's seen a lot of changes, but she's helped really keep this program program going. Because a lot of people don't know this, but once, someone turns 65 years old, their insurance turns to Medicare. Now, Medicare does not, does not really focus on substance use disorder. So there's not a lot of support for our seniors. So once they turn 65, Medicare does not cover the cost of treatment [00:07:00] services. Yes, it's insane. Yep. Unless you, yes, It's no one knows horrible that is for somebody who calls up and says, "I need help" and they're 65 plus and Medicare won't cover the cost. None of the treatment centers are accepting Medicare. A lot of these seniors that are on a limited income have to, be private pay.

A lot of people don't have that kind of money to pull out of pocket to pay for treatment services when you're trying to buy food or pay bills. Yeah. It's hard just for us, the working, person, let alone somebody who's older. So my Director takes the cost of our treatment program, and she cuts it down to one third. That's how passionate she is about our clients getting the services. She'll take the total cost, and she'll cut it [00:08:00] into one third. She allows them to make payments to Senior Recovery, so that they can get the help they need instead of one lump sum. That's how passionate Mary Selski is about our program, our and she's tried to keep this going for many years. So I'm very happy to have her as

my boss.

Chris Langley: Oh, I'm sure. Yep.

Christine Martinek: Yeah, Emily Peterson. She's our financial person. She's the one that does all of our billing, and she organizes our outings and things like that. Yep. Lynnae Shansberg, she's our counselor. She's new, but she's very passionate about counseling and older adults. That makes her a good asset to Senior Recovery because she really cares about older adults too. We have a wonderful board of [00:09:00] directors. I better name them just so that, yeah. So there's Nancy, Tom, Lorraine and Graham. They're wonderful. They're very supportive of senior recovery. Anytime that we have issues, or we need support or even just, show up to a speaker meeting, they're always very supportive. All of them. Yeah. And we do have volunteer drivers, which is huge for senior recovery. Older adults really struggle with transportation. Some of them have lost their license. Some of them have never drove. Some don't have a car, and so our volunteer drivers will go out and pick everyone up, they'll bring them in, and then they'll take them home when treatment services are over.

And that's huge for them. So many older adults would not be able to come to treatment if they didn't have the transportation.

Yeah.

Chris Langley: Definitely.

Christine Martinek: Yeah.

Chris Langley: That sounds an incredible [00:10:00] organization and set up that you have. And what really, touched me then was when, you said that Medicare, it just stops. It just stops all drug treatment. That's.

Christine Martinek: It does.

Chris Langley: I didn't realize, I didn't realize this wouldn't continue past the 65 age range and that must have a huge issue,

Christine Martinek: It is a huge issue.

It is. A lot of the treatment centers don't have to deal with that because they don't have too many 65 plus. But once, if they're not low income, if the client is low income, they may qualify for county insurance, like the Rule 25 program or some type of county funding, but if they are over the age of 65 and let's say they have a little bit of money in the bank, but not a lot. Those are the clients that are struggling because that's a lot of money to come out of pocket, [00:11:00] with paying you're looking at programs that are $20, 000, $15, 000 that's a lot.

Chris Langley: Oh, definitely.

Christine Martinek: yeah,

Chris Langley: Wow. The fact that, your CEO takes things down to a third as well, that's incredible. That, just shows a lot of passion and a lot of commitment to the clients. That's incredible.

Christine Martinek: it is.

Chris Langley: Wow. I'm

Yep

Your CEO sounds like an amazing person. That's for sure.

Christine Martinek: Yeah.She is.

Chris Langley: Christine, what programs do you and your team offer, as well as some of the other services that you offer the older community in your state?

Christine Martinek: We are a 12-Step program. however, we incorporate other things into our program also, not just the 12-Steps. We do have onsite AA. So on Mondays and Tuesdays, our clients can come in, and the community, our community can come in and participate in our AA groups. [00:12:00] We have a wonderful AA leader, Skeeter.

He's been with us forever. Everyone loves him. So that's, huge. They can really connect with him. We do an open speaker meeting at the end of every month, which is open to the community. The intergroup does post that in their AA pamphlet, and we provide some food, and we do a potluck, which they love.

So we'll have a speaker come in and talk about strength and hope. And then we'll, eat some good food. And they just love that. Cause that, that they bond over that, we do have therapeutic activities also. That's very important for our seniors where we go out and we do things in the community, like we'll volunteer, or we'll go to museums.

They love going to museums. We go fishing. We have barbecues, just a lot of fun things. Movies. A lot of [00:13:00] them haven't been to movies for 40 years, and so they really love to do things like that. Yeah.

Chris Langley: Goodness me.

Christine Martinek: Those the things that we do in our program. And then we do connect with other programs, too, that offer other support, groups and

Chris Langley: Yeah,

We'll definitely delve into that later, Christine. What I love, absolutely love about your service is you're helping a very almost forgotten demographic in the community. Can you explain to us some of the main issues that the older community faces when they're experiencing addiction?

Christine Martinek: Oh, definitely. Some of the main issues that we see come through are health issues. Older adults are having a lot of health issues; once you reach a certain age, if you've neglected, yourself, or even if you haven't, genetics, or whatever it is, we see a lot of people that are, struggling with like high blood pressure [00:14:00] or diabetes, just to name a few. Some have neglected their teeth or their eyes for all these years, some are having memory issues, pain is a huge one.

Chris Langley: yes.

Christine Martinek: Think about, knees, back, shoulders. Yeah. that's

Chris Langley: Oh, yeah.

Christine Martinek: So, you got, it's hard sometimes to get out of bed, right? So we see a lot of this and mental health is huge, too.

Chris Langley: Yes, of course.

Christine Martinek: We see a lot of depression and, undiagnosed depression.

People who have never been to the, had a diagnosis, to find out what's going on, anxiety, things like that, we see a lot of grief. Grief is huge.

yes. Yeah, I'm going to be moving on to that soon, because obviously that's a huge issue for your clients. I just want to briefly touch on something. So what are the main [00:15:00] drugs of choice or substances that you find that your clients are using more than others?

Sure. So we see a lot of alcohol. So at our treatment center, alcohol is probably 80% of what we see. It's a huge. It's huge. So you got to think about the age of these people that when they were young, That was a lot of what was available to them. We'll hear a lot of stories about at age five, I was trying alcohol or age 10.

My parents were having parties, and I was sneaking alcohol. And so that's what we see mostly. Alcohol is so readily available now in Minnesota. The liquor stores are open on Sundays now where before they weren't. And yeah, and now Target has liquor stores too. So our clients go to Target. And there you go. There's the liquor [00:16:00] store. gets to be, it's, readily available for this age group. so we don't see of other drugs, like we may see methamphetamines here and there, cocaine, marijuana. Yep, those are like the main drugs I'd have to say.

Chris Langley: But mostly alcohol. When did the, when did the rules change about Sunday shopping for alcohol?

Christine Martinek: It's been now, I want to say maybe two

Chris Langley: Only two years.

Christine Martinek: Yeah.

Chris Langley: Have you, seen an increase, would you say, or more, has this been more problematic? This has been more problematic, right? Okay.

Christine Martinek: It has been. Yes.

Chris Langley: Okay. Most

Christine Martinek: They don't have to drive to Wisconsin anymore to get alcohol. And then one of the things too that we see that is very problematic now is, you can order alcohol in. The liquor stores deliver now. Yeah, and it's, you can call up and have food delivered, and now you can have alcohol delivered too.

[00:17:00] And so that's a huge, we're seeing this more and more all the time. So many clients are saying, "Oh, I just made a phone call and they dropped it off." So it makes it more accessible.

Chris Langley: Most definitely. you offer a very holistic approach to treatments. So what are the, some of, the programs you offer for mindfulness, which is a clearly a vital component of recovery.

Christine Martinek: Yeah. So for us, mindfulness, we do offer stress, like relaxation techniques, like deep breathing. We offer like mindfulness eating, and that's a popular one. A lot of people don't do that. Yeah. Meditation's huge. Um, yoga, but it's age specific yoga. It may not be, you're doing a downward dog on the floor, but we may be standing at our chairs and doing yoga there, [00:18:00] something that, they're able to do.

Art. Art is huge. We like to incorporate art, mindfulness. We did mosaic art recently. Also we did addiction masks. So there's a lot of therapy in that, stuff. So yeah,

Chris Langley: You've, you certainly cover all the bases. That's for sure. It's just amazing to hear this. It really is Christine. hn we first met, when we first spoke, you explained some of the other issues that you help your clients with, such as completing paperwork and using computers. Do you work with other agencies in the local community that can help if a client presents with a problem that you don't specialize in, such as housing, financial difficulties, or do you help them directly with other issues in their lives too?

Christine Martinek: So we definitely help with those things. we help to, within our scope of [00:19:00] practice, but if a lot of times we refer out to like county agencies. There's case managers, Radius Health, The Guild. We also work with peer specialists now. I, are you

familiar those? So we work with the recovery connection, and we have a onsite; he comes in quite often.

His name is George Green, and he's wonderful. So he does support our clients where if, depending on what they need, let's see someone needs to fill out some paperwork, for the county or social security, he will sit down with them and help them with that. So that's wonderful. all. Yeah, so we do.

We do figure out what the client needs and we help them. If we can't do it here, we definitely connect them with somebody that can. Yeah, that's very

important.

Chris Langley: Definitely.

Christine Martinek: Computer use for older adults. A lot of them like zoom meetings and things, they shy away [00:20:00] from that. They're more old school. I would say where they like more personal one on one. So they do struggle with, having appointments over the computer. So for, the most part, as much as we can, we schedule in person. We do that for them. So we may get someone to come in and visit them here and we always provide a space for them to meet with the clients. yeah,

Chris Langley: Something that you mentioned earlier and obviously something that we talked about when we first met was helping your clients through grief, which is sadly a bit more of a current occurrence due to your client group. Would you say that grief can be a trigger for addiction when someone has not previously really had a history of problematic alcohol or drug use?

Yes,

Christine Martinek: Yes. you have to think about the fact that, people have, it can be grief over the loss of a loved one, being with somebody for 40 years [00:21:00] and they pass away, and then also the grief over the loss of being retired, your sense of purpose, who you were, your, your independence. A lot of there's grief over the loss of, "I used to be a person that can make my own decisions and now I've got my children stepping in", or, I used to, like saying that, the, older adults used to be the caregivers, they were the ones that were the one helping people. And now, Now they're having to be helped. And so that's very hard for them. plus, the loss of being, having the same friends for all these years, and you're starting to see them pass away. It's a very scary thing for them. And it's very sad, but we do partner with a lot of places that offer, [00:22:00] grief counseling or grief support. Therapy is huge for, grief support. So we do make sure that our clients are connecting with the proper therapists, that will support them and through, the grief. Yeah.

Chris Langley: Very, important. And it's something I've never really thought about before, but obviously, this is such an important time in someone's life, and they're going through these changes, such big, changes and addiction must surely creep in there somehow. And it's just,

Oh,

it's just wonderful hearing that your service is available for

your clients in your, state, it really is. I've not actually come across a service that specializes in this. And, it's just wonderful hearing the work that you're doing. It really, is.

Christine Martinek: It is and I, really wish that people would, doing stuff like this with your podcast and getting the word out there, [00:23:00] about these issues, there's a lot of focus on fentanyl and, things like that and, the things that are going on, with the younger generation and we're losing, losing sight of the older generation and the things that they need help with and resources for

them.

Chris Langley: most definitely. you, obviously said that not many of your clients are using opioids, but what, how's, St Paul dealing with this, crisis anyway? Cause it seems to be the whole country is experiencing it now, sadly.

Christine Martinek: yeah, actually for us, so St. Paul is in Ramsey County. That's what county we're in right here is experiencing a lot of opioid deaths, fentanyl. I believe it was 79 deaths in the past six months, I think it was. So that's

Chris Langley: In your county,

Christine Martinek: [00:24:00] Yep. And just in my county, not in and think about all the counties there are in the, in Minnesota.

Yeah. And so that's quite high. And but there are a lot of outreach, community outreach programs right now and a lot of, medication management. We recently had a class on, for Narcan and our clients learned so much from the gentleman that came in. His name was Justin, and he really provided a lot of education for our clients and he actually brought along, Narcan kits and we all got, kits and he taught us how to use them and everything.

Yeah. And so there are a lot of outreach programs in Minnesota like that. yeah. And I know that they're reaching out in the community, like with Catholic charities, the homeless population and giving them kits [00:25:00] also.

Chris Langley: It's such vital work. It really is. I spoke to a gentleman, last week, who's in your state, who started doing Narcan kits, around his community, and it's just amazing hearing how, what an impact just these can make alone, just, you were saying about the, chap who came in to do the training. That's vital.

Christine Martinek: Amazing.

Chris Langley: really is. Yeah,

Christine Martinek: And it's very scary because we learned a lot from him about other drugs that are are coming into the scene now. I think it's a horse tranquilizer, That is something that our older adults didn't hear about, and they were amazed and sad at the same time because it's like, what are these, this younger generation dealing with, all of these things, and it's very scary. So it's not only scary for us but extremely scary for them because you never know one use might be the last time.

Chris Langley: It does, seem the risk of drug taking has [00:26:00] increased significantly, even in the last 10 years alone. I think really things have just stepped up, and we've now got fentanyl. We have, you were saying, the other opioids that are coming in and my goodness me. It's good to know that people are reacting to this and have been in a way to help people as well, which is nice to hear. 

Christine Martinek: And I think the education is so important.

Chris Langley: That's a vital component to any of this. That's for sure. Christine, I ask all my guests this question because I, always get very interesting and very varied answers, but can you tell me your opinion of harm reduction and how it plays a pivotal role in recovery?

Christine Martinek: So for harm reduction, I do believe in harm reduction. I am looking to help the person move towards a better quality of life. If whatever we can do to [00:27:00] start out with doing that to minimizing the damages that are happening, even up to death, I am willing to try. I'm looking to meet the client where they're at and. the, the end goal would be abstinence. That's what I would like to see, but it's not about me. It's about the client. My purpose is to help, try to do whatever I can to support them in any way that I can. And, we'll set some goals. And we'll move towards them. And hopefully we can continue to keep doing that and moving towards less and less. That's, how I see it.

Chris Langley: Yeah, I love what you just said. Meeting people where they're at. That's, the key. I think with harm reduction, that's for sure. That's for sure.

Christine Martinek: It is definitely.

Chris Langley: Thank you for that. [00:28:00] Last couple of questions. Christine, do you have a message for anyone listening to this podcast who's going through addiction or experiencing mental health trauma?

Christine Martinek: Sure. My message would be please don't give up. It's so important. If you do have a relapse, if you've had some sobriety and you have a relapse, please don't give up. I feel like these treatment centers and these support groups are where you need to be. A lot of people want to just throw away what they have achieved, and, in one day. If you have a relapse, please come back. Give us a call. Give your sponsor a call. Don't give up. You can, you will be able to, you will be able to get through this. And I think it's so important that, [00:29:00] you just really stay focused on, on getting help.

Chris Langley: Last question, can you tell our listeners how to best contact you to find your service online?

Christine Martinek: Sure. So our website is SeniorRecoveryCenter.org, and also our phone number, is 651-773-0473. My email is Christine@seniorrecoverycenter.org and I will be happy to help anybody that needs help, or even if you just want to talk and look for other resources, I would be willing to help you with that. other treatment centers, we do provide assessments here for all ages. And I would do an assessment for somebody and if somebody needed to do an inpatient or residential program in another treatment center, I would be happy to do that [00:30:00] also. It's not just about senior recovery. It's about helping the community no matter what age you are. Yeah, so that's why we're here. But you gotta make that

phone call. You gotta call us.

Chris Langley: That's right. That's right.

Christine Martinek: Yeah.

Chris Langley: Christine, it's been so interesting and a real honor for me to speak to you and to find out about your amazing service that you're providing. It really is. And thank you so much for your time to join me today. And, I look forward to speaking to you again in the future.

Christine Martinek: Yes. Thank you so much, Chris. I really am happy that you gave me a call and I'm very grateful to

you.

Chris Langley: Me too. thank you very much, Christine. Take care.

Christine Martinek: Okay. You too. Bye.

Do, do, do, do, do.