RIVER CROSSING

Lesson in Hope –Minchow a champion of mental health

By Craig Howard Current Contributing Editor

May is Mental Health Awareness

Month but for Gabe Minchow, the quest to promote emotional wellbeing is a year-round priority.

Minchow works as outreach specialist for Imagine by Northpoint, a treatment center that provides support for youth experiencing mental health and/or behavioral challenges. Imagine’s office is located on Pines Road in Spokane Valley and offers evidence-based, integrative outpatient treatment for adolescents 12 to 17.

For Minchow, the effort to help kids dealing with mental health and co-occurring substance use issues rings personal. Just over nine years ago, he arrived in Spokane seeking treatment for substance use disorder after family and friends held an intervention. He found his way to a sober lifestyle in the Inland Northwest with help from a variety of reliable sources and has never left.

At Imagine, Minchow works with a wide variety of local organizations that step up to the plate on behalf of at-risk youth. In addition to regular collaboration with entities like Inland Northwest Behavioral Health, Juvenile Probation and Providence Health & Services, Minchow is part of Community Engagement Boards at Central Valley, East Valley and West Valley school districts, collaborating with school social service workers on ways to not only keep kids in school but to thrive.

Growing up in the Rogue Valley of Southern Oregon, Minchow recalls an adolescence characterized by ambition and high achievement – yet lacking in self-awareness and self-care. He is classically trained on the cello and as a vocalist and participated in the Youth Symphony of Southern Oregon during high school.

“I was uncomfortable in my own skin,” he said. “So it became a good distraction to throw myself into academics and extracurricular activities.”

In 2013, after working a series of restaurant jobs, Minchow had four Grand Mal seizures. Prior to his attempts at getting sober, he was throwing up at work. His sister tried to intervene first and later his dad. Further intervention from family and friends led to his pledge to try treatment in Spokane. A 12-step recovery program proved to be the solution.

“I noticed my life, instead of getting worse and worse, was getting better,” Minchow said. “There’s something magical about a 12-step program. You don’t have to give your buy-in immediately, you just have to go. The meetings are where people gather, but the magic it happens outside the room.”

Creating an exit plan in environments where alcohol and drugs may appear was vital for Minchow on his long-term road to sobriety. Last month, he celebrated nine years of being sober.

Once in long-term sobriety, Minchow reached out to a friend who was working in a Spokane-based rehabilitation center. He applied for a front-desk position but was hired as a group facilitator.

“It had meaning,” he said. “I was up there sharing the message of recovery.”

Minchow also returned to school, completing an undergraduate degree in Interdisciplinary Studies at Eastern Washington University he had started at Southern Oregon University and Portland State University. Later, he earned a Master’s in Business Administration at EWU.

In his role at Imagine, Minchow works to help youth and families find the same level of long-term mental health calm that now defines his own life.

“I’m engaging the community to better address its needs, and to elevate interagency collaboration,” he said. “The contagious nature of recovery is a marvel and one I see myself instigating for as long as I possibly can.”

Imagine Northpoint is located at 924 S. Pines #101 in Spokane Valley. For more information, call 509-4104081 or visit www.spokaneimagine. com. Another resource for youth and parents is Youth Mental Health Project (www.ymhproject.org). Northpoint Washington also offers drug detox and rehab for adults at its Seattle facility that can be reached by calling 425-906-3925.

Q: May is National Mental Health Awareness Month. Do you feel society is talking more about conditions like depression, anxiety and other conditions in a way that provides to those who may have felt marginalized in the past?

A: Yes, I would say that mental health is less stigmatized than it was 30 years ago and it seems we are on a nice trajectory. The problem lies now in access, I believe. We can celebrate mental health awareness all we want but since healthcare equity is more of an ideal than a standard it means we have another challenge: It is undeniable that people with fewer resources have less access to the care they need and they are arguably the ones who need the care the most. So, although we are making progress, there is still a great deal of work to do.