Kathy Golding, A Treasured Part of the Pacifica Family

After an incredible 15 years with Pacifica Treatment Centre, our very own Kathy Golding is retiring. While we are sad to see her go, we are immensely proud of all of her contributions and achievements as a member of the Pacifica team. Just because she is moving on from Pacifica, doesn’t mean she won’t continue to brighten the lives of those around her – as we know, she is a genuine soul whose nature is selflessly caring.

Kathy inspires us to continue to be strong and fight for the health and wellbeing of our community members, and strive to maintain the level of care that she provided for them. We had the opportunity to sit down and speak with Kathy about her time at Pacifica and wanted to share that conversation here with our community.

What brought you to Pacifica?

The Client Care role at Pacifica is broadly defined as ensuring the safety and security of the clients. A friend on the Board at Pacifica told me she had heard that the centre was hiring so I applied for the job.

My hiring at Pacifica coincided with a good deal of change at the centre, with a second Executive Director taking over within a year, a new Senior Program Manager, and a subsequent decision to accommodate a full-bed mandate. The program had earlier been a 28-day intensive – finite stay only – often leaving numerous beds empty until the next month’s admissions.

First Aid and CPR is a required prerequisite in this role. Daytime duties include a focus on client physical health and safety, including monitoring and overseeing medications, and directing clients to a physician when necessary. Even a requirement for a simple Band-Aid goes through the Client Care team – and that, along with a kind word, can sometimes go a long way to someone feeling emotionally stronger for the moment! Sometimes safety and healing come in small guises.

 

The Team Operates 24 Hours a day and 7 Days a Week, 365 Days a Year.

 

Part of the Client Care team’s mandate is to support and encourage our clients in an informal capacity. We direct them to their individual Counsellors and groups for therapy and therapeutic process whenever possible. However, because Client Care operates 24/7, there are plenty of hours when formal counselling is not available, and it is the Client Care team who provides active listening, encouragement, and some soothing of worries and concerns.

 

We serve a culturally diverse, co-ed community, and the Client Care role requires experience working with people in constructive, supportive, and helpful ways, and healthy boundaries. Patience also helps, along with personal health and wellness.

 

As we expanded the curriculum and fine-tuned the program we developed an additional program & focus called Stabilization and Transition (“STU”) to give us the ability to serve clients before and after the 28-day intensive, a bit of a “wraparound!” I was the Group Facilitator for STU until 2016.

Concurrently as Group Facilitator for 9 years I also served as a Volunteer Coordinator for 8 years. Many of our volunteers were alumni, returning to give back to a place they felt belonging and kinship to, and gratitude for.

During my final years with Pacifica, I returned to the Client Care team. Feels like a full circle. After many transitions, Ron Lirette is at the helm as CEO and has an exciting vision for PTC.

 

What Encouraged You To Stay With Pacifica For So Long?

Well, I had not planned to stay 15 years! Helping people, it turns out, is my jam! What has kept me here is the clients! Serving an organization that provides a place for people to come and find health, hope, and healing for themselves is a strong incentive to support.

 

I often tell clients that they are making the world a better place by striving to improve themselves through recovery and healing.

 

I tell them that recovery creates a ripple effect, often in families and friendships and workplaces too, and that, with support and persistence, they can leave substance misuse behind them and find new pathways to healthy lives they design for themselves. And I have seen many such “miracles of mental health” – a quote from Alcoholics Anonymous – so I know it to be true.

Do You Have One Story That Stands Out In Your Mind?

There is no one story in particular that I would choose to call my most memorable. In a decade and a half, there have been COUNTLESS rich and meaningful moments with clients sharing their fears and thoughts and hopes and small new awarenesses and quiet sharings. I have felt honoured and privileged to be taken into their trust. I have continued to learn from their learnings too. It’s a very special environment.

Observing the subtle changes in our clients as they prepare to graduate: standing taller and straighter, with new-found energy, and seeing their bright eyes and grateful, positive spirits as they head home is pretty compelling stuff! Noticing how many learn to use strategies like mindfulness and breathwork to self-regulate is satisfying and encouraging. I have a box full of thank you notes from clients who took the time over the years to reach out to me in writing – and I just want to thank all of them right back.

 

We are all in this world together, and we likely all face tough times over a lifetime.

 

For some, it can feel more difficult than for others. We, all of us, need to listen and be listened to, respectfully. That’s my belief. For me, that’s the simple recipe for connection and a satisfying day!

COVID-19 has most certainly illuminated that truism (that humans need one another). And, to be very honest, this past year and a half was stressful indeed. Pacifica’s staff were able to keep the doors open throughout, under circumstances that felt very challenging and truly exhausting some days. As staff at Pacifica, we pulled together and stayed committed to our organization and the clients we serve. We are fortunate to have many dedicated staff members here, and some of my most memorable moments have come through those relationships too. I will leave my goodbyes (or hasta la vistas) for staff in a less public forum.

I hope that Pacifica’s focus on our in-house primary programs will stay front and center into the future. There are still many, many people suffering and needing help and support.

 

In 15 years, there has been some change in the public’s understanding of substance misuse and mental health issues, but there is still much misconception out there and still a great deal of stigma in the public eye in regards to these health issues.

 

A treasured quotation from the Big Book of Alcoholics Anonymous comes to mind at this time of personal change for me. It’s from chapter 11, called A Vision For You, it says:

 

‘We shall be with you in the Fellowship of the Spirit and you will surely meet some of us as you trudge the Road of Happy Destiny!’

Thank you Pacifica

With gratitude and love.

Kathy Golding