In this episode, we are talking with Rick Hubbard. Rick is the Executive Vice President of Professional Relations at Origins. Rick shares about his journey from the commercial banking industry to being the Executive Vice President of Professional Relations. He shares his struggles with alcohol and drugs and finally surrendering to God. He shares how he found and surrendered to go in the ditch. Show Notes: [00:37 We are excited to welcome Rick Hubbard. Rick is the Executive Vice President of Professional Relations at Origins.[01:29] Rick serves as the leader of the Origins professional relations team. Their team is responsible for serving as a liaison between their facilities and the outside world. He builds relationships and those relationships facilitate healing. [03:41] Through that process of listening they can determine the extent of which the patient is suffering, the patient’s immediate family, and loved ones. Then they are charged with the responsibility of identifying what a solution can be. [04:31] Rick shares his journey from working in commercial banking to where he is now. There are many similarities between what he was doing in the banking industry and what he is doing now. [06:56] Part of the action was to take the home buyers out to dinner and happy hour and he found himself caught up in problematic drinking. [08:12] He always lived in a certain amount of fear and anxiety and the alcohol helped to treat that for him but eventually it became such a burden that he found himself engaged in behavior that he never thought he would. [09:43] He got deeper and deeper into alcohol and drug use. It wore him down and eventually he found himself in a treatment center for the first time in 2000. [11:32] When he went to the addiction center for the second time they told him that they could help him but they would need to change everything about himself but if he was not willing nothing would change. [13:23] He learned that there were things in his life that were more important to him and if he would give up those things and find a God of my understanding that his life would get better, but he would have to surrender. [15:33] His mom's words to not come back until he got it right haunted him and motivated him to get it right. [17:01] Rick shares his experience about getting a construction job. [19:45] He found himself praying as he was digging the ditches. After a while he surrendered and asked God to give him the perseverance for the work. [21:08] He was literally in a ditch and he found God in a ditch in Abilene, Texas. He learned that no matter what he thinks he needs, God’s plan is always much better and a greater plan than anything he could devise. [22:29] His sponsor told him that he knew what to do and now you need to do it. [24:01] His faith grew more and more as he was better able to put his trust in the God of his understanding. The evidence was true that there was a power greater than him working in his life and if he would just surrender everything was going to be okay and get better. [26:07] Doing God’s will sometimes means accepting where we are and doing the next right thing and the best we can. [28:05] One year and three weeks after he took that construction job, he got a call from the treatment center CEO saying he had a job for him. He realized that everything in his life had prepared him for that moment and he realized that is why he suffered. [30:29] None of us can avoid suffering. Our suffering can either be something that clings on and keeps us sick or that is transformed into something that has meaning and value. [33:03] He is seeing things today that he didn’t see forty years ago in the inner cities and communities of color. The degree to which he sees people suffering from various levels of mental health disorders has seemed to increase drastically in the past three to four years. Many are also struggling with substance abuse. [34:56] We have to decide as treatment providers that we are going to be deliberate and focused on a strategy to provide the specialized outreach needed to reach these communities. As providers we have to begin to look at how we deliver treatment services. [36:24] We have failed and that failure has been misassociated with a lack of funding. There is truly a lack of funding but there is also a lack of effort. [38:49] Ask the questions and have the dialogue. We can change the way we exist if we will just listen and talk to each other. Links and Resources: Something More PodcastOrigins WebsiteOrigins on FacebookOrigins on Instagram
