By Sherry Larson
People’s Defender
We all need hope, a fighting chance, and sometimes a new start. The Work Experience through the Adams County Health Department and Ohio Means Jobs provides all those elements for Shayla Tumbleson.
Tara England, Peer Recovery Supporter, explained that when meeting with Tumbleson, she communicated a desire to be a Chemical Dependency Counselor Assistant (CDCA). She had lived the experience and was a good fit for peer support. In the Work Experience Program, Tumbleson can shadow her mentors, experience their roles, assist upon request, and learn. At the same time, she can work on the various certifications she desires to hold.
The Health Department partners with Ohio Means Jobs, and OMJ pays participants for work experience and certifications. OMJ also offers support with transportation if necessary.
“They give you hope,” said Tumbleson, explaining she once had an open Children Protective Services case that is now closed. There was an order through the courts and participants go to the Health Department for mental health and substance abuse counseling. “That’s how Shayla ended up with us,” noted England.
Tumbleson said, “My CPS case is closed now, and I get my youngest every weekend, and I get my oldest every other weekend and one day through the week.” Her children stay with family, and Tumbleson feels secure about the future. She shared, “They’re bonding very well, and I’m working here.” She continued sharing about the hopelessness in her past and the challenges that plagued her. Tumbleson wants folks to know that the Work Experience Program has brought hope, appreciation, and validation to her life.
The Defender asked what specifically made Tumbleson feel hopeful about this program. She was transparent and willing to share the woundedness she felt when CPS took her oldest son when he was three. She describes him begging her to stay with him and her promising to come back the next day. But she was denied seeing him, including phone visitations. She said, “I couldn’t see him at all or talk to him, and I was a stay-at-home mom with him for like three years – I was totally cut off from him.” She described hitting rock bottom “real hard.” Tumbleson attended rehab twice, ran away twice, and became pregnant. She went to and stayed at The Counseling Center in Portsmouth in a house with 24 other women.
When Tumbleson met with England, she was working minimal hours and needed to make more money to support herself. She knew she wanted to obtain a CDCA but also realized it would take loans, which meant debt. Tumbleson felt like it was a never-ending cycle of bad news until she came to the Health Department, and her world started to change.
Tumbleson lays out what it feels like to be heard and seen. She said, “I didn’t have my higher power. I knew I couldn’t control my life because my decisions weren’t working. So, I was just rolling with it, but God spoke to me through Tara.” She continued that she felt led to listen to England, work the program, and follow everything in full force to a tee and beyond. She said, “I took every opportunity and ran with it. Every tool I can learn is a tool in my belt against my addiction. Your addiction is always in your brain, waiting for you to let your guard down. If I have a bad day, I can talk to anybody. I have the best support system that I could have.” Heather Dickens, Director of Behavior Health for ACHD, interjects, “We enjoy having you here. You do excellent work.”
What’s next? Tumbleson would love to stay at ACHD, but funding is always a consideration. She does have a backup plan, and Dickens helped her with her resume. Her utmost desire is to work out a plan that gives her a balanced schedule with her children. Tumbleson recently started a Narcotics Anonymous meeting in Manchester listed on NA.org. One thing is clear, Tumbleson, who was once quiet and standoffish, is now confident in her connections and experience and presents herself with professionalism. When Tumbleson arrived, Dickens said, “She literally wouldn’t look at me or talk to anyone. Look how far she’s come.”
England said, “This is why we do what we do. She’s alive, and not just alive but ‘ALIVE’. She is prospering and so smart and wonderful. And it just took someone to believe in her.” Dickens added, “If someone walks in here, a person from the behavioral team will talk to them before they leave. People can feel we genuinely care about them – that’s the whole team.”
“I lived in a garage – in a tent- and couldn’t talk to or see my kids. I was doing the same thing every day and expecting a different outcome.” Tumbleson has a message about the adage “good things come to those who wait,” – don’t wait! Hard work is what caused her CPS case to close, gave her a place to live, the opportunity to be with her children, a car to drive, and the ability to plan for a job and home. She said, “I don’t have to fear the future. I no longer have to put on a fake face because I’m happy.”