Category: Q&A

The Nature Conservancy gets a new director

Meet Rachel Rouillard, the new state director of The Nature Conservancy in New Hampshire.

What is your background conservation work?

I’m a New Hampshire native. I grew up in Keene. My parents were teachers — science teachers, specifically — so I was definitely raised in a home where they helped us cultivate a real appreciation and wonder for the natural world. We went to a lot of state and national parks. That was just part of our home life. … I followed that through school and into my career. … I got an internship in the town planning office in Milford, and that’s where I got my first taste of thinking about natural resource protection and land use. I also worked for the City of Manchester, doing some economic development and historic preservation work. … I was appointed as the first executive director of the Land and Community Heritage Investment Program. … Then, I was running a National Estuaries Program, which is an EPA Clean Water Act Program, here on the coast, and I did that for a little over a decade.

What led you to The Nature Conservancy in New Hampshire?

The mission of protecting land and water for people — of being both a steward of our natural resources and of our human communities — is something that’s really central to who I am and everything I’ve done over the course of my career. Thinking about the intersection of our natural world and people, how natural resources support our communities and sustain us, and how people can both use and value those natural resources, is something that is really interesting to me and really drives me.

What does your job as state director entail?

It’s thinking a lot about partnerships, about how we can bring the creativity, resources and innovations that we have at TNC into those partnerships and how we can work collaboratively. … We work with other land trusts and state agencies to protect the lands and waters that we rely on and that are most critical to our future. These are the lands that are producing our clean drinking water. How can we improve public health outcomes while protecting biodiversity? … We also think about new ways that places can be used for recreation, how we can create more recreation opportunities for people and make them accessible to as many people as we can. Having opportunities to be in nature is really important to people’s well-being and to an overall society that’s healthy, vibrant and equitable.

What are some of the long-term goals you’re working on?

We’re thinking a lot about climate change and what we’re doing with our partnerships to really prepare for the impacts of climate change. We’re working to develop new solutions to help us address the aging infrastructure that we have when it comes to increasing storm events so that we can minimize the risk to public health and to public investment in infrastructure going forward. As our climate warms, we’re also facing an increased threat from new pests that are coming north and affecting our plant and animal species, so we have to think about how to build resilience in our ecological communities. We’re thinking about carbon and how we can help ensure opportunities for adequate carbon storage in the environment that we’re protecting and investing in. Lastly, we’re looking at clean energy and how we can work with our partnerships in the state to advance clean energy policies.

What do you find rewarding about your work?

On a personal level, I want to be part of something that is bigger than myself. I think we all feel that way. We all want to do something that we feel has deeper meaning and connection and benefit to others. I take that really seriously and appreciate the opportunity to be a steward of resources for our future. … In this line of work, you have to be really open-minded and always adapting the way that you’re thinking and working. I love the creativity and the challenge that’s associated with that.

Featured photoRachel Rouillard. Courtesy photo.

New program for mental illness, substance use disorder

WestBridge, a mental illness and substance use disorder treatment service in Manchester, has announced a new intensive outpatient program (IOP) set to open the first week of January. Stacie Lucius, chief of clinical services, talked about the program and how it addresses the need for varying levels of mental illness and substance use disorder treatment in the state.

What is WestBridge?

Our mission is to compassionately provide mental health and substance use treatment to individuals and their families. … We are a family-founded nonprofit, and the “family-founded” part is definitely important because it really speaks to who we are; we were actually started by a family who experienced the need for truly integrated co-occurring disorder treatment, meaning treatment for mental illness and substance use done simultaneously. They couldn’t find a treatment center like that for their loved one, so WestBridge was born out of that need. They also wanted an experience where family was involved in the treatment. They had experienced being left out of — or sometimes even blamed for, unfortunately — the experience that their son was going through. Having a family involved in treatment became a really essential part of our foundation. … We have our flagship services — residential and outpatient programs — in Manchester. … We incorporate evidence-based practices to promote resiliency and lifelong recovery. Historically, our outpatient model has been ACT, which stands for assertive community treatment. It’s an evidence-based practice that works with participants primarily in their own homes and communities instead of having the participants come into an office for the majority of their services. There’s a multidisciplinary team that works with participants to provide wraparound services and is available 24/7. There’s a lot of research on this model that shows that people are able to reduce or avoid hospitalization when they receive this wraparound, community-based care.

What is the concept behind the new program?

The new program is an intensive outpatient program, or IOP, which is an intermediate level of care for people who live in the community but need more structure and support than traditional outpatient therapy can provide. It’s not the same level of intensity as a hospital or residential program, but it’s more intensive than traditional outpatient therapy and psychiatry. … IOP often allows people to maintain other obligations in their lives, whether it be family, work or other things, while still receiving treatment, and, hopefully, that will prevent them from needing a higher level of care.

Who will this program serve?

It’s going to serve both men and women [age] 18 and up who are experiencing mental illness with or without a co-occuring substance use disorder. … We anticipate that we will get some people who just identify with the mental illness but not the substance use, but if they do [have a substance use disorder] then we are certainly equipped to treat that. … This is the first time we’ve formally expanded our services to include women as well as men. We initially only served men [age] 18 and over [in WestBridge’s existing programs]. We put a lot of dedication into really excelling at gender-specific treatment for men over the years, but it’s always been our goal to reach more people who can benefit from our services, and we’re really excited to expand our services to include women in this IOP.

Do mental illness and substance use disorders often co-occur?

There’s a very high correspondence. Many people who have mental health disorders also have a co-occurring substance use disorder and vice versa. People who don’t have a substance use disorder but have a mental health disorder are at a higher risk for developing a substance use disorder. A preventative approach is really important, to provide people who don’t have a substance use disorder with preventative education, resources and support.

What will IOP treatment look like?

First, we would do an intake assessment to determine what their needs are. … It’s typically three hours a day, three days a week, and the length of treatment ranges from 12 to 16 weeks on average. It offers primarily group therapy … with different groups geared toward topics like recovery and coping skills … but also [offers] individual therapy and case management. Family therapy and psychiatric consultations are available for those who need those services. … Some people may also need additional support in their community as far as housing and benefits and those types of things, or [assistance with] getting connected to additional resources in their community.

What need is this program helping to address in New Hampshire?

There’s always a need for different levels of care. Recovery is not linear and is not one-size-fits-all. It’s an individualized process. It’s really important to have varying levels of intensity of care to meet the varying needs of those seeking recovery, and we believe that our mission and core values can be applied to this different level of care.

Featured photo: Stacie Lucius. Courtesy photo.