Maureen Dunleavy, the regional vice president for the Guidance Care Center, joined Good Morning Keys on Keys Talk 96.9/102.5FM this morning to talk about the organization.
The Guidance Care Center has been in the Keys for 53 years this year.
Dunleavy said, “We have three locations, so Key West, Marathon, Key Largo, and then we co-locate a lot of our services. We’ve got a substance abuse treatment program at the jail. We co-locate all our children’s services with the school district, and then we do other services, like transportation for those who are disadvantaged. So we have the entire continuum of care, everything from prevention to an assisted living facility for those with severe mental illness in Marathon and then, as we’ve talked about before, mental health is managed. So one of the things that is really important with the new year is oftentimes we hear things about resolution, we’re going to set all these goals, and I’m going to do this, and then it gets to January 2, and I haven’t done it, so I’ve already failed. We kind of need to change our thoughts about that, that it really is more about managing and doing. Maybe some things that you want to do more of, do less of, getting out of your comfort zone, all kinds of things that can really help with the stressors that may show up in 2026 for you.”
With all the talk about resolutions, it’s important to be gentle with yourself.
Dunleavy said, “The problem with that is, if you set yourself up to say, I’m going to do this, and that’s your goal, then the minute you miss a day, you’re done. So I want to challenge everyone to think about mental health. We all have it. It’s managed. And so instead to think about just doing more or less of different things. So there’s a lot of different ways to do that. So in our in our group, we kind of think about, what do we want to do more? What do we want to do less of, what do we want to continue to do? So in that circumstance there, if you miss a day, you don’t follow through a couple days, you’re still on track, because you’re not saying it’s all or nothing. You’re saying, I’m going to do more of this. I’m going to do less of this. I’m going to continue to do this in my life. I want to give a shout out to my husband Kevin, because his more was fishing, and I caught my first cuda with my fishing license last week, so that was very exciting. So that is on our more list for this fiscal year. And of course, getting outside and being in nature is one of the things we’ve talked about that’s really good for your mental health.”
Choosing a word for 2026 can be a good way to start a new year.
Dunleavy explained, “I always pick a word for the year just for my staff to think about going in to 2026 to kind of guide us on what do we want to focus on in this new year? And people can pick a word for themselves to say this year, I’m going to focus on more gratitude, or I’m going to focus on peace, or whatever it is. Our Guidance Care Center word for 2026 is resilience. So we are going to help our community be more resilient. We’ve had a lot of changes. I know there’s a lot of concern about health insurance, and remember Guidance Care Center helps individuals, whether you can pay for it or not. So we’re going to be able to continue to help our community be resilient, regardless of what shows up in 2026 and then I think also, as an agency, and personally, we have a lot of changes in 2025 so we had changes in administration, changes in funding, programming, or retired, people left the Keys. We have new people coming. And despite all that Guidance Care Center is going on and will always go on. So I think that’s really an important concept to think about resiliency. So when things get hard, which, of course, it’s not all or nothing, sometimes things are better, sometimes they’re worse, sometimes they’re stressful, sometimes they’re not, so think about that. We’re going to be resilient regardless of what shows up.”
Despite the difficulties in 2025, the Guidance Care Center has not changed.
Dunleavy said, “Nothing has has changed in regards to what we offer, or our sliding fee scale or providing services regardless of ability to pay. We are here for the community. We still have our mobile crisis response team. That is 24/7, so if people are unsure about what’s needed or how we can help, they can walk into any of our sites Monday through Friday, 8am to 5pm or they can call that 24 hour mobile crisis response hotline. That’s the 305-434-7660, and then as soon as the script starts, you press eight, and you’re connected to a live person. Springtime starts to be a time where things can be anxious. You can be anxious or have crisis because of so many things. I want to focus on all that right now, because it’s January 2. But it’s important to know that if you start to feel like or someone you love starts to feel like that they need detox, or they need to be able to prevent harm to self or others, that that is what we’re here for. We don’t want to lose one more life in this community, and so we are available to help get people connected.”
Transportation services are also provided.
Dunleavy said, “With that service, which we’ve done for 30 plus years, this is not a new service, this is something that we expanded to meet the need of our community. Disadvantage means that you’re over the age of 60, or you don’t have the income or insurance, or you have a disability, whether it’s a physical disability or a mental health disability, and so you are unable to transport yourself to whatever you need, whether it’s medical employment, shopping. I think what’s really important too, is to know that, you have to apply to become eligible, then we get you on the schedule. You can have a regular subscription. So if you always go to the doctor every, Thursday to get chemo, that you can be regularly on the schedule, but what it’s not is, like, it’s not an on demand service like Uber or Lyft, and so I think that’s really important to put out there so that people are not discouraged if there is a delay in getting them on the schedule, because if they haven’t applied, once you apply, especially for something like your 60 or over, that’s not going to change. We have proof of your ID to show your birthday, you don’t have to have to reapply every year. Of course, if it’s related to income or disability, those things can change over time, so the expectation is every year you’ll reapply to be able to utilize the transportation. And if you have other means, then, of course, like you have insurance that transports, then we want you to utilize those services, because the goal is to fill in the gaps, not to duplicate what’s already out there. Remember that guidance Care Center is here 24/7. Don’t be afraid to reach out for help. We don’t want to lose one more life in this community. And if you’re unsure about what might be helpful for you or for someone else, there’s no harm in walking in or contacting us to see how we can help. We want to be able to connect people to services as possible. Again, that number is 305-434-7660, the crisis number is eight. Of course, you can listen to the whole script and choose which program or location you need to contact. Or you can walk into our any of our sites between eight and five, Monday through Friday.’
For more information, click here: https://guidancecarecenter.org