Nichol Wienkes, LPC, ICS, IDP-AT, Unit Manager

Lana Hilbert, MA, LPC, Clinical Therapist

Kate Meyer, BSW, CLTS/CCS Coordinator

Wes Shemanski, MSW CAPSW, CCS Service Facilitator

Jason Wickstrom, Crisis Coordinator

Brooke Zank, MA, LPC-IT, CSP Professional/Crisis Case Worker

Jason Fairweather, LPC-IT, SAC-IT, Dual Diagnosis Clinical Therapist

Mabel Plueddeman, CLTS Case Manager

Kassondra Gillingham, RN

“Your present circumstances do not determine where you can go They merely determine where you start.”
-Nido Qubein

As a state-certified crisis intervention provider, the Behavioral Health Unit continues to collaborate with schools, local law enforcement, and area hospitals to provide the most appropriate level of community-based crisis treatment. The Behavioral Health Unit provides crisis counseling on a walk-in basis or go mobile to the most appropriate location to provide crisis assessment, safety planning, and response 24/7.

The Behavioral Health Unit adheres to the philosophy that often hidden in a crisis is an opportunity. The Behavioral Health Unit provides in-depth crisis follow up including case management, outpatient treatment, and wrap-around services post-crisis for individuals on community based safety plans or who are transitioning from a hospital setting back to their home.

To access crisis services for yourself or someone you love, please call:

Monday-Friday (8AM-4:30PM)—(920)294-4070 (ask for a Behavioral Health Intake Worker)

After Hours and Weekends—(920) 294-4000 (ask for a Crisis Worker)

Walk-in appointments with crisis intervention workers are also available Monday-Friday 8AM-4:30PM. There may be a short wait for a walk-in appointment, however walk-in crisis appointments are seen on a same-day basis.

The Crisis Intervention team promotes a variety of suicide prevention activities within the community including Mental Health First Aid and Youth Risk Behavior Surveys which support early detection of mental health issues in youth.

You are not your illness. You have an individual story to tell. You have a name, a history, a personality. Staying yourself is part of the battle.
– Julian Seifter

The CSP program serves people with chronic, severe, and persistent mental illnesses that are at the greatest risk for admission to mental health hospitals. The CSP program utilizes the services of psychiatrists, a psychologist, nurses, and social workers to implement and oversee treatment.

The program offers a variety of services including:
-Medication monitoring
-Assistance with activities of daily living
-Linkage to community resources
-Supported employment activities
-Socialization skills
-Symptom management
-Coping techniques
-Case management for co-occurring medical and substance use concerns

The CSP program is a Medicaid-funded treatment option. If you feel this program may benefit yourself or someone you love, you may call (920) 294-4070 for further information or to schedule a screening.

Wellness Group
The focus of the wellness group is to provide opportunities for socialization, improve the participants’ overall health and wellness and to provide participants with activities that they can use in the future as coping skills. Participants learn about a health related topic from a public health educator, participate in a 20 minute exercise and have a healthy snack with their peers.

“When ‘I’ is replaced by ‘we’, even illness becomes wellness”

The CCS program is a strength-based consumer driven psychosocial rehabilitation recovery program that is community based. This program utilizes the consumer’s identified strengths to support their goal-directed recovery process. The program serves adults and children with a mental health or substance use disorder who may benefit from services in addition to or outside of the traditional office-based outpatient psychiatric care model.
In the CWHP Region, CCS is a voluntary, community-based program funded by the State of Wisconsin and operated by Adams, Green Lake, Juneau, Marquette, Waupaca, and Waushara County Departments of Human Services.

The CCS program offers a wide array of psychosocial rehabilitation services. These are services and supportive activities that assist CCS clients with mental health and/or substance use conditions to facilitate recovery and to achieve their highest possible level of independent functioning and stability.

Some of the key features of the CCS program include:
a. Assessment: Staff from one of the 6 CWHP counties will meet with you to determine if you are eligible for CCS services, and to begin the assessment process.
b. Recovery Team: You will identify a Recovery Team that will provide ongoing assistance to identify your strengths, needs, goals, desired outcomes, priorities, preferences, values, and steps to achieving goals.
c. Recovery Plan: You will participate in the development of a Recovery Plan to achieve your recovery goals, hopes, and dreams.
d. Choice: You will have a choice in services and service providers.
e. Change: Your Recovery Plan is a document that can and will change over time as your needs and goals change and as you move towards recovery

Service Array

The CCS program can provide many services you need and want. Services that fall under the Service Array and are part of your approved Recovery Plan are fully covered at no cost to you.

The CCS Service Array includes the following areas:
 Screening and Assessment – Screening and assessment includes the completion of the initial comprehensive assessment and ongoing assessments as needed.

 Service Planning – Service planning includes the development of your Recovery Plan.

 Service Facilitation – Includes the activities undertaken by the Service Facilitator to guide you in your recovery path and to make arrangements for services that will help you achieve your goals.

 Diagnostic Evaluations – These are specialized tests to determine your needs.

 Medication Management – Services may include: diagnosing, prescribing and monitoring medications; increasing understanding of the benefits of medication; monitoring changes in symptoms and side effects.

 Physical Health Monitoring – The focus is on activities related to the monitoring and managing of your physical health.

 Peer Support – Peer Support services are offered by persons with lived experience who can help you and your family negotiate the mental health and/or substance abuse systems. These services promote wellness, self-direction, and recovery.

 Individual Skill Development and Enhancement – These services include training in communication, interpersonal skills, problem-solving, decision-making, conflict resolution, and other specific needs identified in your Recovery Plan.

 Employment-Related Skill Training – These services address problems in finding, securing, and keeping a job.

 Individual and/or Family Psychoeducation – Psychoeducation services include: skills training, problem solving, providing information and education resources about mental health and/or substance abuse issues, social and emotional support, and ongoing guidance about managing and coping with mental health and/or substance abuse issues.

 Wellness Management and Recovery/ Recovery Support Services – Includes helping you to manage your mental health and/or substance abuse issues, to develop your own goals, and to give you the information and skills necessary to help you make informed treatment decisions.

 Psychotherapy – Includes the diagnosis and treatment of mental, emotional, or behavioral disorders, conditions, or addictions.

 Substance Abuse Treatment – This includes day treatment and outpatient substance abuse counseling services.

There are some services that the CCS Program can not cover. Your CCS Service Facilitator will address those services if needed.

***If you are receiving outpatient psychotherapy, these services must be provided through the CCS program*** We will make an attempt to contract with your current provider. If your current provider chooses not to contract with CCS, you will have the choice to change service providers to a CCS contracted provider or not enroll in CCS services.

Getting Started

1. Meet with a CCS Representative in your county: The CCS Representative will meet with you, and if appropriate, your family, guardian, or other person(s) you select to explain the CCS program and the application process.

2. Determine Eligibility: The CCS Representative will use written information, a personal interview, and the results of a State functional screen to decide if you are eligible for the CCS program. The functional screen looks at risk factors and things you may need help with such as managing your symptoms, medications, or health; assistance to obtain benefits; assistance with work or school; and other factors. You may be asked to sign releases of information so that other persons may be contacted to obtain information.

Basic Eligibility:
• County resident.
• Eligible for Medical Assistance.
• Mental health or substance use diagnosis.
• Functional limitation in one or more major life activities caused by mental health or substance use issues as measured by the State screen.
• Need for psychosocial rehabilitation services.

3. Complete an Application and Admission Agreement: Eligible persons interested in applying for CCS will complete a brief application and sign an Admission Agreement that will give basic information on the program.

4. Review Client Rights and Grievance Procedures: You will receive a Client Rights brochure and your rights and the grievance procedures will be explained to you.

5. Determine Any Immediate Needs: The Service Facilitator will determine with you whether you have any needs that must be addressed immediately and make arrangements for those needs to be met until such time as CCS services can begin.

Wellness Group
The focus of the wellness group is to provide opportunities for socialization, improve the participants’ overall health and wellness and to provide participants with activities that they can use in the future as coping skills. Participants learn about a health related topic from a public health educator, participate in a 20 minute exercise and have a healthy snack with their peers.

“There can be no keener revelation of a society’s soul than the way in which it treats its children.”
— Nelson Mandela

The Children’s Long-Term Support (CLTS) Waiver Program is a Home and Community-Based Service (HCBS) Waiver that provides Medicaid funding for children who have substantial limitations in their daily activities and need support to remain in their home or community. Eligible children include those with developmental disabilities, severe emotional disturbances, and physical disabilities. Funding can be used to support a range of different services based on an assessment of the needs of the child and his or her family.

Beginning in 2017, the state of Wisconsin budgeted $39 million, allocated across all counties, to work towards elimination of waiting list periods for children.  Green Lake County continues to work towards reducing the waiting period for waiver-funded services.

For children under the age of three, Birth-3, provides many essential services and children may be transitioned to the waiver after their 3^rd birthday.  Please see the Public Health Department information for more details on Birth-3.

For children over the age of three, please contact the Children’s’ Long Term Support Waiver coordinator at (920) 294-4070.

Make a difference with children’s long-term support services

The Children’s Long-Term Support (CLTS) Program provides assistance to children with disabilities or complex medical needs across Wisconsin. Program providers—direct care workers, mentors, carpenters, medical equipment suppliers, and others—deliver these services and supports to children and their families to help them live their best lives.

The CLTS Program is serving more children and families now than ever before, which means more providers are needed to keep up with demand. The Wisconsin Department of Health Services (DHS) invites all interested service providers to become providers with the CLTS Program.

There are several ways to become a CLTS Program provider, depending on what kind of services you deliver.

Become a provider through a third party
If you provide direct care services and aren’t registered as a business or sole proprietor, you can work through a fiscal agent or get hired through an agency to provide services in the CLTS Program. Find more information on this process and contact your local county human services department.

Register directly with the CLTS Program
If you are a tradesperson, product provider, or direct care worker registered as a business or sole proprietor, you can register directly with the CLTS Program. Registration is free, and you’ll be listed in the new searchable, statewide, online provider directory available to the general public at no charge. Once you’re approved to provide services, you’ll work with local counties and DHS to reach children with disabilities and their families.

Whether you work directly with children to deliver mentoring, daily living skills training, or counseling services, or work to provide accessible homes and communities by remodeling homes, procuring medical equipment, or supplying adaptive aids, you can make a difference. Become a CLTS Program provider today!

“I am not afraid of storms for I am learning how to sail my ship.”
-Little Women, Louisa May Alcott

If you or someone you love are seeking help for feeling emotionally overwhelmed and/or living with a mental health or substance use disorder, our outpatient clinic may be able to help. The outpatient clinic strives to make psychiatric services and therapy services available to adults and children. The clinic serves individuals who are uninsured through the use of a sliding fee scale as well as accepting Medicaid, Medicare, and many private insurance plans.

At the outpatient clinic, intake appointments with a licensed professional therapist or clinical social worker are typically available within two weeks. The therapist will discuss the specific mental health and/or substance use concerns that the individual and will take a whole-person approach to learning about their lifestyle preferences and situational factors. They will then review appropriate treatment options with the individual and assist them in developing an individualized treatment plan tailored to the situation. Children should be accompanied by a caregiving adult for this initial visit.

The outpatient clinic is staffed by an adult psychiatrist (2 days per week), a child psychiatrist (one day every other week), a full-time psychiatric nurse, and 4 outpatient therapists. The clinic also has a consulting psychologist on staff.

Treatment options may include:
• Brief counseling and psychotherapy
• Longer term supportive psychotherapy for people with longstanding and persistent problems
• Medication prescription and management

Each of the therapists brings a unique skillset and clinical perspective to the therapy office including trauma-focused counseling, cognitive behavioral therapies, dialectical behavior therapy (DPT), mindfulness training, play therapy, narrative therapy, group models, and more.

The clinic has a school-based satellite office located in the Berlin Middle School which serves middle and high school students 1 ½ days per week.

Additionally, the clinic offers DBT Group. Dialectical Behavioral Therapy (DBT) is a therapeutic approach that encompasses the principles of Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy while placing an emphasis on validation and acceptance. DBT started in 1991, by Dr. Marsha Linehan. DBT has been extensively researched for individuals with a wide range of mental health conditions.

Goals and Benefits of the DBT Group:

• Learn ways to cope with a situation and/or solve problems
• Helpful to relieve symptoms of self harm, suicide, experiences of crisis, and intense emotions.
• Helps people to understand and  manage overwhelming emotions and reduce emotional instability and/or impulsiveness.

“The opposite of addiction is connection.” -Gabor Mate

Substance Use Group Services:

Seeking Safety

Integrated treatment of trauma and substance misuse.  This open-ended group setting treatment is based on five central ideas: safety as the priority of this first-stage treatment; integrated treatment of PTSD and substance abuse; a focus on ideals; four content areas-cognitive, behavioral, interpersonal, and case management; and attention to therapist process. There are 25 total session with groups being held on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 3-4:30pm. For more information contact Green Lake County Department of Health and Human Services at 920-294-4070.

Moral Reconation Therapy (MRT)

MRT is the premiere cognitive-behavioral program for substance abuse treatment and criminal justice defendants.  It is an intensive group therapy program designed to restructure thinking patterns. MRT seeks to decrease recidivism by increasing moral reasoning.  This open-ended group is compiled of 12 steps and meets twice per meet on Mondays and Wednesdays from 11:00am – 12:15pm. For more information contact Green Lake County Department of Health and Human Services at 920-294-4070.

Comprehensive Community Services (CCS) Program

Comprehensive Community Services (CCS) Program is a team-based, consumer-drive program for children and adults who are struggling with a mental illness and/or substance abuse disorder.  The mission is to reduce the impact of mental health illness and/or substance abuse issues that may impact an individual, attain the best possible level of function, stability and independence for individuals, facilitate recovery, match client’s needs with appropriate services, and promote collaboration within systems using a team approach to accomplish the individuals goals.  For more information contact Green Lake County Department of Health and Human Services at 920-294-4070.

Intoxicated Driver (IDP) information

Assessors provide services for Green Lake County residents required to comply with IDP assessment related to intoxicated driving offenses such as OWI or DUI.  Fee is $275 and is $65 if required for amended plan or extension.

Primary Prevention Services

Staff trained in Lifeskills and Prime for Life curriculums able to provide services for groups in school or community settings.  These groups provide early intervention and prevention for various age groups around preventing substance misuse and promoting positive mental health in youth.