CEO George Joseph Among 2009 Behavioral Health Champions

The following is reprinted from Behavioral Healthcare, November 2009

There are a lot of terrific people working in the community behavioral health field, often under demanding or trying circumstances. Beyond the needs of consumers and clients, there's a continuing backdrop of funding cuts, uncertainties about reform, and the need to understand and apply an ever-growing, ever-changing body of professional knowledge. It's not a field for the faint of heart. Our 2009 Champions have “come up” through the field of behavioral healthcare with all of its challenges, difficulties, and occasional rewards. This trajectory has enabled them to blend a thorough understanding of clinical, client, community, and social issues with the unique, often intangible, qualities required to take on leadership roles.

Please join us in honoring our fifth annual group of Behavioral Health Champions, whose organizations and impacts have been felt in the lives of toddlers and children, teenagers and young adults, troubled and homeless veterans, and all who struggle with serious mental illness or substance addiction:

• John Van Camp - President and CEO, Southwest Solutions, Inc.
• Elizabeth “Betsy” Pfromm, MS, MPA-President and CEO, Los Angeles Child Guidance Clinic
• George P. Joseph, LCDC-CEO, The Right Step/Spirit Lodge
• J. Michael Armstrong, MA, MBA-CEO, Community Hope, Inc.
• David W. Hillis, FACHE, FACATA-President and CEO, AdCare Hospital of Worcester, Inc.
• Anthony Zipple, ScD, MBA-CEO, Thresholds

To a person, these six individuals deeply appreciate the importance of mentors, colleagues, board members, civic leaders, friends, and family in their work. The appreciation these Champions have earned in return is reflected not only in the many nominations and comments we received on their behalf, but, we hope, in the all-too-brief profiles that follow.

2009 Behavioral Health Champion: George P. Joseph, LCDC Position: CEO, The Right Step/Spirit Lodge

George Joseph's path to 28 years of sobriety and recognition as a 2009 Champion began on a dark day in 1981. Following a cocaine arrest, his attorney suggested he enter the Baton Rouge Chemical Dependency Unit, an adolescent inpatient program, and the Power House Extended Care program. At Power House, the counselors noticed Joseph's ability to confront peers in an impactful way and suggested he read a book on becoming a counselor. “I remember thinking, ‘Man, they must really be hard up for help.’ I didn't realize it then, but a seed had been planted.” Two years later, as a college student, Joseph returned to Power House as a chemical dependency counselor technician. Later, he entered a new counselor training program in Houston, linked to the Parkside Lodge treatment center. He loved the work.

He later joined Parkside Lodge as a counselor and program coordinator for over five years until it closed. Joseph was recruited to The Right Step, a one-location treatment center in January 1994. There, he formed a team that found growth by understanding the needs of an important new payer: managed care. “People fought them, adapted to them, or opted out. We chose to adapt,” he explains, noting that managed care providers preferred treatment organizations with four ingredients: excellence, value, multiple levels of care, and multiple locations. To these, Joseph added another vital ingredient: assurance. Noting that “the first year of recovery is very difficult,” The Right Step announced that any self-pay patient who relapsed after completing a 30-day inpatient program could return, as often as needed for one year, “to get back on their feet again.” This ingredient has helped sustain growth for The Right Step (now 20 locations) and spawned Spirit Lodge, which attracts patients seeking a more exclusive and personalized treatment experience.

Joseph says that all Right Step/Spirit Lodge patients can count on a large helping of respect. “Coming in, they're so ashamed. Or, they're in denial. So, you've got to build a relationship to get your point across-give them hope and build them up, or work hard at confronting them.” Put another way, “with some you're huggin', with others you're kickin' butt. The key to being a good counselor is to find out which is needed when.” Beyond the joy of his own recovery-“I didn't know life could be so good!”-Joseph and his team are sustained by “people who call every year for 20 years to thank us for helping them get sober.” Of course, there are the other calls, too: “When we hear about those who don't make it, we remember that recovery is a difficult, sometimes dangerous thing.”

Read about the other five 2009 Champions here.

20 Convenient Right Step Locations

The Right Step conveniently offers a variety of drug and alcohol treatment programs throughout the following Texas metropolitan areas:  Houston, Dallas/Fort Worth, Austin, San Antonio, and Beaumont.