“Hey Amy – got any books I can borrow for the roadtrip?,” I asked my roommate, popping my head through her bedroom door.

“Come in – and yeah, I do,” she replied, leaning over her bed to rummage through her bookshelf. I watched her run her finger across titles, skimming her personal library. Stopping on a bright blue paperback, she pulled it out and tossed it to me. In my hands landed a copy of James Frey’s A Million Little Pieces.

And nearly four weeks later, I place the book down, finishing up the last pages of Frey’s memoir just outside of Wisconsin. I contemplated what I just read – the book, in short, was a memoir of a drug addict’s stint in a drug rehabilitation center, touching on the emotional turmoil that one goes through when fighting a battle against drugs. An incredibly stirring book, I reflected A Million Little Pieces with some of the DeafNation crew, wondering what a Deaf person’s options were.

“Is there even a drug rehab center in the US for the deaf?,” I asked, looking around for an answer.

“I think there is, actually….,” Erica affirmed, adding that it was in Minneapolis, Minnesota: the Minnesota Chemical Dependency Program for Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing Individuals (MCDPDHHI).

And there we met with Jason Valentine, a counselor at MCDPDHHI. “I had no idea what I wanted to do after I graduated,” chuckled Valentine, who obtained his bachelor’s degree in psychology from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. “You can’t really do much with an undergraduate degree in psychology,” adding on that he would have needed more schooling to get a job in his field. Not interested in the former option, Valentine then debated between joining the workforce and culinary school. After a series of events – and a job working with people with behavioral problems – he decided to go back to the University, receiving his masters in social work. After a stint in Monmouth, Oregon, where he worked at a rehabilitation center for the deaf and hard-of-hearing, he landed a job back at his old stomping grounds – Minneapolis.

Valentine, who started at MCDPDHHI just this past June, “loves [his] job…every day is something different…a new challenge.” Going on to explain some of his responsibilities at the center, as well as what the center offers, MCDPDHII and Valentine:
• Hosts workshops on anger, fear, depression, hurt and shame issues;
• Discusses issues caused as a result of substance abuse (such as family and friend fallouts);
• Discusses and assists in strategizing relapse prevention and survival skills;
• One-on-one meetings between counselor and patient;
• Work with patients on their Twelve-Step programs;
• Trained staff with fluency in ASL and sensitivity to the Deaf culture;
• Adjusted materials, videos, equipment, etc. within the Twelve-Step to fit Deaf patients’ needs;
• And much, much more (http://mncddeaf.org/pages/program.htm)

Know someone that needs help? You can go to http://www.mncddeaf.org for more information, call toll-free at 1-800-282-3323 v/tty, or e-mail the center at deafhoh1@fairview.org.