From the Executive Director's Desk

Progress House continue to put the safety of our clients first and we are all still wearing our masks and adhering to our new medical directors direction - Masks, Social Distancing, washing hands, disinfecting our areas and testing for those who may have been at risk.

We have some announcements - Christian O'Neil is our new Medical Director, he comes to us with many years of experience and we are please to have him.  Welcome Dr. O'Neil!

As of last week, we have a new Programs Director, Christina Harris.  Kristina has been an employee of Progress House since 2012. She started with Progress House as a client in treatment in 2011. Kristina had decided to begin an advanced college degree in Social Work/Human Services. In 2012, she applied for an internship for a SUD Counselor and volunteered at one of our facilities for several months. Kristina excelled in her internship and was ultimately hired later that year. Kristina has since worked at all of our facilities (with the exception of our now-closed Yolo facility) and absorbed the myriad responsibilities that come with the different modalities of treatment.

Kristina landed at Outpatient Services at the Counseling Center at the end of 2013. This would become largely her “permanent home” for treatment services. Again, Kristina excelled in her responsibilities and was ultimately promoted to Program Manager in 2014. It was in this position that Kristina really began to shine. She accepted the management piece, staff training and following the ever-changing rules and regulations that are required for funder compliance. She became the “Go-To” person for all things regulatory. 

Her ability to absorb, recall and implement this knowledge was invaluable, especially when the DMC -ODS Waiver came into play. With more individuals able to get access to treatment with state Medi-Cal insurance and the unending list of regulations, policies and procedures that must be in place for compliance, it was clear that Kristina was the natural choice to move on into the Program Director position.

Kristina completed her AA in Social Work/Human Services as well as an AA in Behavioral Sciences. She continues to pursue her Bachelors in Social Work with the career goal of becoming a Licensed Clinical Social Worker.

We welcome Kristina to this important position on our team and look forward to watching her take this on with her trademark professionalism and attention to detail.

We would also like to give a shout out to our Garden Valley Woman's Treatment Facility!  They have been training for excellence for over a month and today I was notified they've hit their target of excellence!  Great job team!  We are all very proud of you.  

Garden Valley also has a new Program Manager, Crystal Coury!  Welcome to your new post Crystal!  We know you've got the skills, and we support your dedication and hard work.

We would like to let you know that we're making upgrades to all our locations and we'd like to thank our hard working maintenance staff for making that happen.  Great job Dave Rush, we could not have done it without your hard work and dedication.

Progress House is putting together welcome packages for our new clients and there is an opportunity for you to get involved.  The welcome packages include these items:  water bottle

notebook

calendar/agenda

shampoo

lotion

deodorant

shaver

pens

body soap

toothbrush

toothpaste

all these items in a simple bag helps our new clients who come to us with nothing but the clothes on their back - if you're interested in providing the package for our men and women in recovery, please contact Merethe Dyer at 530-306-0761.  

We are also gathering new or gently used body towels and wash clothes with hand towels that we can provide our clients when they come in.  And these items can be collected by groups or individuals - please note we DO NOT accept random donations at our locations any more - please contact Merethe if you're interested in donating any of the items we need.

Make a financial donation - Now, more than ever, we need support from community members like you to continue providing everything that recovering men and women in our region need. Your financial support allows us to continue to provide critical services like our telephone counseling services, urgent response programming and also provide free items that our clients need such as blankets, nutritious meals, disinfectant wipes, clean clothing (under-garments for men/women), and more.  Our donation link is on the front of our web page.

Respectfully,

Reyna Schlichter

Executive Director