'Best kept secret in Fremont'

For 30 years the Omaha-based nonprofit mental health agency Community Alliance has had a satellite office in Fremont to help residents get the help they need and no one seems to know that the organization exists here.

"I think we're the best kept secret in Fremont," caseworker Chris Legband said. "People don't know who we are, what we do, where we are and how we can help them."

Legband said she knows Community Alliance has needed more of a public presence and now that the Fremont office, located in Parkview Center at 1900 E Military Ave No. 278, has a second caseworker in the office, it seems like as good a time as any.

Community Alliance was founded in Omaha in 1981 with a mission to help people with mental health or substance use disorders "achieve their unique potential and to live, work, learn and contribute in a community of mutual support," according to the organization's website.

The nonprofit has a number of different programs designed to help people with whatever situation they find themselves in, like helping them find housing or a job.

"This program, they could do mock interviews, work on a resume," Legband said. "(Caseworkers) have gone to interviews with (clients). They've even, if the company's open to it and the client wants it, then they may be there for the interview, they maybe stay and check in (to make sure the client is successful)."

Legband's caseload currently consists of about 10 people, many of whom suffer from various levels of trauma, "whether it be physical or even some sexual trauma that have resulted in major depression and high anxiety to where they can't leave their home."

"They can't even call the doctor," Legband said. "They're too afraid to even pick up the phone and they want someone there to give them support while they do it, so we work on things and our goal is for people to be independent."

Ensuring that someone has the necessary support system to be successful can be a difficult task, one that Legband says is made easier by having different organizations within the community working together.

"We get referrals," Legband said. "Some of our folks have been in therapy and they get referred from, therapists will refer. The hospital. We just started working with Head Start and we work with LifeHouse. There's just so many people that need us, we just need to get to them."

Legband said that the stigma of mental health issues still keeps some people from seeking the help that they need, particularly in adults.

"Mental health (issues) can be something that comes later in life and it can be something that has just been there for a person's whole life, but we see a lot of folks with untreated, undiagnosed mental health symptoms that resulted in a lot of self-medication ... being homeless is a big part of it," Legband said. "And then one of the biggest things is no support system. The families are gone, they either have passed on or they couldn't deal with it when it was first happening and they just cut them out of their life. That's why we give support. We're not their family, but we are their support in whatever their goals (are)."

When a client first seeks help with Community Alliance there is an intake process in which caseworkers do a needs assessment to help determine what the client's underlying issues are, like a need for better housing or being able to get medication consistently.

"It's whatever daily living skills are determined from the assessments ... and they're included in what we do," Legband said. "We don't just say this is what we think you need to do based on what you said. They are part of what we do and what we decide to work on them with."

Legband stressed the need to "meet (clients) where they are, wherever they're the most comfortable," whether that means seeing people in their homes or elsewhere in the community.

"I've had clients who are hoarders — that doesn't bother me in the least bit — and some are OK if you come in and some would prefer you not see that," Legband said. "And then they may want to come (to the Community Alliance office). We like to go to their home or in the community somewhere."

Community Alliance will also help clients determine things like Medicaid or Supplemental Security Income eligibility so that money or lack thereof is not a deterrent to people who want to seek help.

"A lot of folks don't know that they are eligible for Medicaid or some other kind of insurance that's out there," Legband said. "So that's where we would start, because whatever they need, there's so many things that fall under that umbrella, not just the mental health services if they're eligible for that. And if they don't have any resources, especially if they're homeless or even not homeless, we work to find them something to cover everything."

To help break the stigma of mental health disorders, Community Alliance hosts an annual educational and awareness event at the Holland Performing Arts Center in Omaha that brings together businesses, behavioral health professionals, elected officials and philanthropic leaders for "a communitywide effort to talk openly about mental illness and further access to services and support for those most directly affected," according to the event website.

This year's event is taking place on Thursday, Oct. 10, with keynote speaker Ginger Zee, chief meteorologist for ABC News and bestselling author who has detailed her own mental health journey in a series of memoirs, including her lifelong battle with depression.

Tickets for the event are $125 and can be purchased at community-alliance.org/breaking-the-silence/purchase-tickets .