Saturday May 21, 2022
By Becca Most
Ali Aden talks about services that will be provided at Bridge Health Healing Center Thursday, May 19, 20222, in St. Cloud. Dave Schwarz/[email protected]
The new Bridge Healing Center will be open to the public June 10, offering individual and family counseling to families in St. Cloud and effectively bridging a gap for many who would otherwise drive for hours to find culturally-competent care.
Although the office isn't open yet, the intention is in the details.
Colorful wall paintings with positive messages made by local artist Anisa Hagi-Mohamed depict Somali elders, women and children. Phrases like "Khatar Baa Tahay!" or in English, "You are Outstanding!" adorn the walls.
Therapists at the Bridge Healing Center will speak Somali, Spanish, Arabic, as well as English, Chief Executive Officer Ali Aden said. In the future, Aden wants to connect with psychology students in the area who need experience and provide training for new clinicians who want to work with diverse populations.
"The goal is to hire diverse staff so everyone could see themselves represented and they will be welcome to talk to any counselors," he said.
At the end of the year the center will offer addiction treatment services, too. Mental health stigma often prevents people from seeking the help they need, and with overdose deaths on the rise in Central Minnesota it's more important than ever to have resources like this available, Aden said.
'We're hoping to bridge that gap'
Aden and his wife Lul Nur moved to St. Cloud in February from the Twin Cities to found the center. Both are mental health and addiction counselors.
Nur has worked in both school and hospital settings, but said one of her main interests is trauma and family care. As someone who grew up in Egypt and moved to Pennsylvania when her family resettled in the United States, Nur said she knows what it's like to struggle to fit into her own culture, which means she can relate to her clients, especially young immigrant kids.
"There's a high stigma around mental health and substance use, so there's that piece," Nur said. "We're hoping to bridge that gap and make them really feel okay to seek services."
Nur said she does a lot of education with families about what mental illness can look like and how it can manifest in ways like anxiety or depression.
"I want to provide an environment where that fear is no longer there. That fear of stigma, like, 'What if all the people talk about me?' to normalize mental health," Nur said. "To normalize the diagnoses that they're afraid of. Like, depression is a normal diagnosis. It becomes a problem if it gets in the way of what you're doing daily. Anxiety is normal. They don't have that education, you know?"
Program Manager Lul Nur is pictured at Bridge Health Healing Center Thursday, May 19, 20222, in St. Cloud. Dave Schwarz/[email protected]
Accessible services in St. Cloud
In St. Cloud there are only a few people trained in culturally-specific addiction and mental health services, "but none on the large scale that will address community needs," Aden said.
While working at an addiction center in the Twin Cities, Aden remembers clients who drove from St. Cloud to stay in the there for months or constantly commuted back and forth because there weren't any services for them here or physicians they felt comfortable seeing and communicating with in their own language.
"So we saw an opportunity and we decided to do something about it," he said. "That's why we moved to St. Cloud."
Part of their goal is to engage families in the process of addiction treatment and mental health struggles, Aden said. Having this center in St. Cloud near that support network allows people to visit their loved ones and talk with them, rather than feel isolated if they travel to the Twin Cities or elsewhere for treatment.
"This is really exciting news for our community as a whole," said Hani Jacobson, a CentraCare community health and wellness nurse. "Mental health carries a lot of stigma across cultures … but when you add barriers of language and culture and all the other socioeconomic factors, social determinants of health … it really makes it difficult for people to seek help."
Chief Executive Officer Ali Aden is pictured at Bridge Health Healing Center Thursday, May 19, 20222, in St. Cloud. Dave Schwarz/[email protected]