What I Do Next
by Jim Gruba, Executive Director

The HDC Board of Directors is in the process of selecting the next CEO following my decision to step down from that position. I say “step down” rather than retire, because I will continue to work full time at HDC supervising several programs, including the Crisis Response Team, and providing some direct service to clients. I will be 65 in October, and while I’m not ready to retire, I’ve decided it’s time to make life a bit simpler. I’ve loved being the CEO with all the opportunity to shape and be part of an evolving and ever improving mental health system.

I came to HDC in 1979, working half time in the “Independence Station” day treatment program, at a time when HDC was a tenth the size it is today. I had the opportunity to be in on the early days of the “Community Support Program”, developing services for clients in the community where they lived. With those services came the opportunity to develop housing, employment, and other basic needs for persons with the most serious mental illness.

I often tell new staff that what I’ve always liked about HDC, and hope it will be true for them as well, is that HDC is a place where something new can be tried, something new can be built, and what we do is exciting and rewarding because we can see how it makes peoples’ lives better.

At the same time I don’t want anyone coming in the door to think this work is easy. The statistics that say persons with serious mental illness die 25 years earlier than the general population becomes very real to us and we realize what a terrible price mental illness can have.

On the flip side, stick around a while and we get the pleasure of seeing clients’ lives change and improve; people go to school, get jobs, have children-same stuff we all want. The work we do is very personal, very intense, very necessary, at times painful, and more of the time very rewarding. Maybe that’s why I’m not ready to give it up entirely, and want to keep working for at least a few more years.

As a baseball fan I like the analogy that I think I can still contribute to the team, but it’s time to let somebody who can swing the bat a little quicker and run a little faster lead the team! Stay tuned to see who takes my place in the lineup. I think you’ll be pleased.

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