: Home :
Thank you for visiting the Highlands Community Services Website
Latest progress at our new Center for Behavioral Health...completion date early summer, 2008
The Hole
One day when I was a little girl I was walking down the street in my hometown. I started to cross the street and I fell down into a hole. I checked myself over and except for a few bumps and bruises I was okay. But, I couldn’t get out of the hole. The sides were wet and slippery and I couldn’t climb out. I would get so far up the wall then I would slide back down again. I tried and I cried but no matter how hard I tried and I cried I couldn’t get out. I just knew I was going to die in that hole, lost and alone. Nobody would ever know where to come and look for me.
After I had been in the hole for quite a while a man came by. He told me he would talk to me and maybe I could get out of the hole for a little while but he couldn’t promise me for how long. He said I’d probably be in and out of the hole my whole life but if I was good I might be able to come out every once in a while.
So for years I would walk along and everything would seem like it was fine and then BOOM! all of a sudden I found myself back in the hole grasping desperately trying to climb out again. Every now and then someone would hear me hollering for help and they would stop and offer assistance but I always wound up back in the hole. Each time I was a little more desperate and a lot less hopeful that I would ever get out and stay out.
One day I was back in the hole and no matter what I tried I couldn’t get out. I yelled and yelled but nobody heard me. It felt like I was in there forever. I was completely exhausted and could hardly speak. Suddenly, a stranger appeared out of nowhere and called down to me, “What’s all that yelling about down there?” “I’m stuck down in this hole and I can’t get out,” I cried, “when I do get out I only stay out for a short time before I fall back in here again and I don’t know what to do.”
The stranger introduced himself and said, “You know, I believe I might be able to help you. I’ve been down in a hole just like this one and it took a lot of work and commitment on my part but I was finally able to get out of the hole. That doesn’t mean I’ll never fall back into the hole but I now have the tools to help me back out if I do fall in and keep me from falling back once I’m out. I’d like to share these tools with you if you interested in learning them. Then, maybe you too can stay out of the hole.”
The stranger helped me to recognize how to enjoy the times when I was out of the hole. He made me look inside myself and I found that I already had the tools to get out of the hole and stay out of it. I just didn’t know that I had them so I never used them. Then he showed me how to recognize when I was getting too close to the hole so I could avoid falling back into it again.
This stranger who had been down in the hole before finally helped me to see that I no longer had to fall in the hole but if I did I had the tools to climb back out and stay out. So, with the tools that I had, I climbed out of the hole hopefully for the last time.
For those of you who didn’t recognize the stranger he’s a peer support specialist named James. The tools to keep me out of the hole are a program called WRAP (Wellness Recovery Action Plan) and the hole is my mental illness.
Thanks to James, WRAP and God, today I’m the one that’s helping others from falling into their hole. If by chance they do fall I help show them that they too have the tools within themselves to climb out and who knows maybe even stay out of the hole forever.
Sue Eller 04-13-08
Mission Statement
Highlands Community Services, Center for Behavioral Health (HCS) is committed to providing the highest quality continuum of behavioral health care, promoting a "center of excellence" for all individuals seeking mental health, substance abuse, or mental retardation services.
Dedicated to empowering each individual "customer" to lead a healthy, independent lifestyle, Highlands shall advance a professional environment that has dignity, respect, hope, and genuine empathy as basic cornerstones.
Highlands will continue to provide services in an efficient and financially viable manner to ensure the continuation of developing new programs based on community need.
"Let us dare to read, think, speak and write."
John Adams, statesman
back to the top
MOST SEXUAL ASSAULTS ARE COMMITTED BY SOMEONE KNOWN TO THE VICTIM OR THE VICTIM'S FAMILY, REGARDLESS OF WHETHER THE VICTIM IS A CHILD OR AN ADULT.
Sexual abuse, sexual addiction, and sexual offending have become a significant clinical problem. A new workbook, Sexual Offender Therapy is a ground breaking, practical workbook to help clinicans treat this growing problem. Michael Keohane, Unit Manager of
HCS Rehabilitation/Recovery
Program is one of the authors of this important work.
Available for purchase from Haworth Press at Amazon.com.