Mt. Grant General Hospital (MGGH) proudly announced earlier this month that it is the first hospital in Nevada to be a designated Recovery Friendly Workplace.
MGGH received the authorization from the Foundation for Recovery after four of its staff members completed a training program where they learned how to give support, acquire resources, and build skills in creating a safe and welcoming environment for recovering addicts to begin or continue their careers.
“Seventy-eight percent of recovering addicts are currently employed (statewide) and we are proud to be a place of support and reassurance for them to continue their recovery,” says MGGH HR Generalist Hunter Bolanos. Bolanos joins CEO Denise Ferguson, Social Worker Julie Dempsey, and Clinical Director Tobey Morris as part of the recovery support team.
The Foundation for Recovery is based out of Las Vegas with the goal to create safe and supportive working environments for people in recovery and teach employers how to be a system of support. One of the hospital’s medical assistants pitched the idea of becoming a designated recovery-friendly workplace and then they decided to pursue it. Bolanos says that the program supports Mineral County by supplying the community with a safe and welcoming environment to work in for any position at any level, and as well as the education to be a safe space for people to come to the hospital in confidence and express themselves about their recovery without judgement.
Any open position at the hospital is available to those in recovery if the applicant can pass a Nevada State Background Check and assure that it does not meet any of the fifteen disqualifying items listed on the back of the hospital’s application.
According to a study by the University of Nevada, Reno, around ten percent of Nevada’s population does not have adequate recovery support, and there is a higher prevalence of opioid misuse and addiction in rural parts of the state. People in rural communities tend to have a harder time accessing treatment and recovery support resources because of barriers like how far away they are from clinics/hospitals and a lack of mutual aid support meetings or peer recovery coaches.
On its website, the Foundation for Recovery shares the story of Skip- a Vietnam War veteran who struggled with PTSD and addiction after coming home from the war. He says he didn’t go to the VA for 20 years after he got out of the military due to the stigma behind it and certain things would trigger his PTSD like the sound of helicopters and fireworks. He talked the blackouts he experienced and how he is now one of the 23 million Americans who are in long-term recovery, not ingesting any mood-altering chemicals since 1985.
MGGH truly is a leader by being the first hospital in Nevada to provide employment resources for those in recovery. For more information about employment opportunities at the hospital, visit https://mgghnv.org/.
