In a nondescript building on the north side of Eureka, recovering addicts are reclaiming their lives from substance abuse. It takes a village to support their work: kitchen crew, medical professionals, caseworkers, intake staff, technicians - and chief operations officer Jamaica Bartz.
“People like to say the sky’s the limit, but I say the sky is limitless,” she says. The former addict-turned leader in addiction recovery opens up life at Waterfront Recovery Services. From medical detox through addressing the deep-seated trauma that fuels addiction, Bartz and her team guide clients through every phase of recovery, offering hope, healing, and the belief that no dream is out of reach.
Tom Jackson:
Hi, I'm Tom Jackson with Cal Poly Humboldt, and I'm here again today with my dear friend and colleague, the president of the College of the redwoods, Dr. Keith Flamer. Good to see you, Keith.
Keith Flamer:
Good to see you too, Tom.
Tom Jackson:
We're here with Chief Operating Officer Jamaica Bartz from Waterfront Recovery Services. Hi, Jamaica.
Jamaica Bartz:
Hi.
Tom Jackson:
Can you tell us what the Waterfront Recovery Services does in a nutshell?
Jamaica Bartz:
What we do is help broken people with a disease get back on their feet. So Waterfront Recovery Services is a medically-managed detox, and we are also a inpatient residential treatment.
Tom Jackson:
I read somewhere that you're one of the first, if not the first, detox-certified program. Am I getting this correct?
Jamaica Bartz:
So, we’re the first medical detox in Northern California, yes.
Tom Jackson:
When you're walking us around earlier, it was amazing. First of all, your pride came out loud and clear. There seems to be quite a lot of individuals in this facility doing different types of work. Can you describe some of those different roles?
Jamaica Bartz:
So we have residential counselors. We also have detox counselors who work specifically with the detox clients. And we have detox nursing. We also have admissions staff. We have a case management staff who is going to help the clients get identifying documents, educational, vocational, housing, helping them build the resumes and things of that nature. And we have a full kitchen staff.
So you're going to get breakfast, lunch, dinner and, nice tasty treat.
Tom Jackson:
Well, we could smell that tonight with some pork chops and green bean casserole.
Keith Flamer:
Tell us about you. How did you get into this work?
Jamaica Bartz:
So I got into this work initially because I, too, was trying to get on my feet. And I am a recovering addict. Being a part of something that helped me, you know, getting being clean. I decided, like, “Okay, I think I'm going to keep doing this.” And then I go to school. So, you know, working full time, house full of kids and doing school.
But, you know, I don't I don't ever wake up a day and be like, “I don't want to go to work.”
Keith Flamer:
So so when you come to work, what is your typical day?
Jamaica Bartz:
One of the first things I do when I get here in the morning is I start assessing the lobby. There's going to be individuals in there that are trying to seek services.
From there the day kind of just takes its own life. While that's happening, you got another client coming through, knocking on the door, saying that their roommate is hallucinating and trying to chase the dog out the back door.
This is real-life stuff I'm saying right now that's actually happened, you know? And then, you know, people are maybe coming in and out of the office because, you know, admissions comes in, they need to know where this is at, where this intake is. The doctor's coming over for some medication changes for that person who's chasing their dog out the back door.
You know, this is all going on and it’s just like, whoa, this… this is a lot. And there's going to be days like that. And you know, it's not for everybody.
Keith Flamer:
So is it hard to find employees and is it hard to keep them?
Jamaica Bartz:
Well, say for instance… one time, you know, someone came to us, they were referred by a friend, and they have some medical background, and we hired them. We loved them in the interview. You know, they're hard working and they seem excited to start. And then they get here and they get their first day and it's just too much. It's an overload. That happens a lot.
Tom Jackson:
We're here today with Jamaica Bartz, the Chief Operating Officer of Waterfront Recovery Services. First of all, what is detox? What does that mean? And then what happens during that period of time for the facility and the individuals.
Jamaica Bartz:
You don't just start in treatment. Sometimes people are able to get sober or clean on their own, but mostly not. Mostly they need to come here and get off the substances that they have been dependent on. our doctor and our nurse practitioner will adjust medications according to how the withdrawal is going and help them get through, you know, the physiological dependance of the substance before the hard work comes in.
Tom Jackson:
And they could be here multiple days, of course, going through this?
Jamaica Bartz:
Minimum of three, which is a rare occurrence. And when they are here for about three days, mostly it's either because they're leaving against medical advice or sometimes it might just be meth. And I don't say just meth lightly, but it might be meth and they can get through those couple of days, sleep it off, and then feel like they can move on.
Mostly someone's going to be in detox for an opioid or alcohol withdrawal anywhere from 5 to 7 days, depending on the medication taper that they're on.
Benzodiazepines can take upwards of 14 days.
Keith Flamer:
To to detox?
Jamaica Bartz:
To detox. Yes. Because we do use a medication that requires a taper, and it's a slower taper.
Keith Flamer:
What you're saying to us is that detox is one phase of the recovery process, but it's not the hardest part of the recovery process.
Jamaica Bartz:
100%.
Keith Flamer:
Can you talk to us a little bit more about that?
Jamaica Bartz:
Well, it's hard and it's unpleasant to detox your body from these substances. Then after you get past that, we got to start getting to the root of, “Why are you using, what is keeping you in this addiction?” And sometimes it's really hard to look at yourself or to relive something. A high percentage of clients come through here with a lot of childhood trauma. It's not for the faint of heart to do this work, because you are going to hear some very traumatizing things that people have went through. But at the same time, working through some of those things and connecting them to the right sources to continue to work through those things is so very important.
Tom Jackson:
That seems like a very good place to end. But I do have to end with this one question. Walking around the facility, the walls were filled with inspirational quotes, and I'm guessing you have one or more favorites yourself.
Jamaica Bartz:
One of my favorites and it works across the board for everything, not just addiction is. People like to say the sky's the limit, but I say the sky is limitless. There's no ceiling to what you can do if you just put the work in and are motivated and and can dream it right. Like, who would think that I'd be sitting here right now?
Tom Jackson:
Jamaica Bartz, thank you.
Jamaica Bartz:
Welcome. Thank you for having me.
