Restoring 'the heart' of Heartland one step at a time

By Ben Holman

Nevada Herald

At a luncheon held Thursday at Heartland Behavioral Health Services in Nevada, Mike Ham, CEO, announced that after being at the facility for seven months he feels it is time to move into phase two in his effort to turn the business around.

"Since I came to Heartland in June, one of my main things is to let the community know what's going on out here," said Ham, who explained that he feels Heartland is a part of the community and that the community could help in the treatment of their kids.

He also explained that the hospital is ready to move forward in its own recovery process.

"This new year is the beginning of phase two. The focus of phase one was on the stabilization and financial situation of this hospital," he said. He explained that phase two would build on the fundamentals laid down by phase one. "It is now time for the hospital to mature, to find our expertise and our specialty."

He said that in order to define the facility's specialty, Heartland will look at the needs of the community, the needs of the patients and what is best for the hospital. Ham said that he would like to see Heartland become a place where kids come for a short period of time to receive treatment.

"We're changing from a facility that tried to generate a profit by housing kids," he noted.

He said that while there will still be a residential care program, he would like to see Heartland become a place where kids can come to learn the basics and move back into the world for further treatment.

"We're going to be a facility that takes kids without a lot of potential for success in life and give them the skills to achieve success," he said.

"In seven months my focus primarily has been internal survival, a process of trying to get things right. We are now truly at the point of having community involvement," said Ham. He said that he wants to get to a point where if there's a kid with a problem out in the community, people will think, "Heartland can help."

He said that the kids want to be involved in the community. He said that he meets with a resident council comprised of a representative from each of the programs on a regular basis and they are continually asking to get out in the community and do some service projects. Upon hearing of the kids' enthusiasm, Craig Hubler, Nevada city manager, said that in the spring, police officers with take-home cars do a spring cleaning and invited the Heartland kids to come and wash the cars with the officers.

Ham said that he wants to help the community realize that the kids in his facility are no different than their own children. "A lot of these kids have never had love, care or understanding."