Host Dr. Flowers, Co-Host Robin French and VIP Guest, Ruth Ann Rigby discuss finding your purpose and passion as well as Ruth Ann’s upcoming projects. Ruth Ann shares her personal journey with recovery and how she has chosen to make it her life mission to give back.
—
Listen to the podcast here
Purpose, Passion And Making A Difference With Ruth Ann Rigby [Episode 32]
Robin, how are you?
I’m good, especially now. We have a fun guest.
I am so excited. Ruth Ann Rigby, one of my dearest friends and mentors in our field, is with us. Ruth Ann, welcome. I’m so glad you are here.
I’m so glad it finally happened.
We have been talking about this since last fall. We had a reschedule or two.
We are on Episode 32. I was going to say, you were probably, in my mind, going to be guest number two, but we are happy that you’re number 32.
We are, but we would much rather you were here in person. Maybe next time.
I wish I was there in Houston.
You two are going to be together soon, at a wedding.
We are going to a wedding in Austin. I’m super excited. We’ll talk about that in a little bit.
I wanted to read a little bio about you. I’m sure that everyone reading knows you, but for the few moms and dads out there who don’t, I have a little bio to read, and then we can have some good conversation. Ruth Ann Rigby is a prominent figure in the addiction recovery and mental health spaces. She has worked with some of the leading treatment providers in the United States and was recognized by a resolution from Mississippi Governor Phil Bryant.
As of her sky-high ethical and professional standards, she was nationally recognized with the Silver Shoe Award at the 2019 Admissions and Marketing Symposium. In 2008, Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour appointed Rigby to serve on the state’s Drug Court Advisory Board. Rigby has served as a board member on numerous community organizations, church and leadership committees, and behavioral health associations.
In her free time, Rigby serves on the advisory board for the Center for Hope and Healing at the Broadmoor Baptist Church, where she is on call to work with any family that crosses her path. She is dedicated to fighting for those caught in addiction and ending the cycle of dependency. Her leadership in action has been proven over and over again by her tireless energy and passion to change and save a person’s life. Ruth Ann, along with her husband, retired Colonel Joseph Rigby, are co-founders of the 501(c)(3) non-profit organization, First Responders of Mississippi. They created this organization to help first responders in their greatest time of need with assistance, wellness, and hope. Her purpose and passion are helping those who cannot help themselves. Welcome. That’s awesome.
That’s pretty amazing.
I’m so excited to be here.
Giving Back
Thank you, Ruth Ann. I have known you for so long and so many of these things. Some of these I didn’t know that Robin read but where does your sense of giving back, and where does your sense of service come from?
My sense of service comes from being a person in long-term recovery, and I got to pick up my 24-year chip. That was my very first in-person meeting in a year. I have been vaccinated. I felt it was okay to go back. That’s where my sense of purpose and my sense of service come from because it’s ingrained in my recovery DNA. Somebody moved heaven and earth for me to get the help that I needed, and it’s only right for me to do the same thing.
Pre-COVID we saw each other all over the United States at conferences and get-togethers in Austin, Arkansas, and everywhere else and everywhere Ruth Ann is, A) There’s a crowd, but B) There’s also a laughing crowd, a fun crowd, and sometimes a crying crowd, and she is always helping other people in whatever way she can. It is amazing. We talk about that sense of service and giving back. There are a lot of people in our field who give their time, but Ruth Ann gives her life. She gives her life every day to this, and it has been an honor to watch that. Thank you for what you do, and congrats on 24 years.
I live in Jackson, Mississippi, and I’m at my office when I’m not traveling. I have not traveled much. I’m at the Center for Hope and Healing at Broadmoor Baptist Church where I work when I’m not traveling. I’m the Chief Development Officer at BRC Healthcare in Austin, Texas. I stay pretty busy.
BRC Healthcare
Marsha Stone, you, and BRC Healthcare are three of my favorite things in life but I want you to have the opportunity to tell the world about BRC Healthcare.
I’d love to talk about BRC. Our dear friend Marsha Stone, I met Marsha many years ago. When we meet Marsha, who happens to also be blonde, we call it Blonde Southern Belle Power. The Southern Belle Mafia. When I met Marsha, honestly, my life changed. She’s full of passion and purpose. She’s full of those things that I want for myself.
What she truly is, is a warrior for recovery. You admire people in your life and want what they have. When I met her, my life changed, and we became good friends. I can’t imagine doing what I do without Marsha, Drew, Kaitlin, Mandy, Tracy, and our team at BRC. I have never been with an organization that goes the distance like we do. I can talk about it from a personal matter. Many years ago, when my nephew was in trouble, I called Marsha and BRC. When my nephew was in trouble again, I called James.
You call the people you trust the most to help you in your greatest time of need, and Marsha certainly has been that for me. As a referral source, I started seeing changes in the clients and patients that I was referring to and the families I referred to BRC. It was extraordinary. I had never seen a change like that in other places where I had referred patients. There’s an experience in life where your feet are on the ground, and you can have a spiritual awakening, and BRC is one of those organizations that I had recommended. My feet hit the ground there. That’s where we get the purpose of serving in helping as many people as we possibly can to get the right level of care. Not everyone is going to go to BRC. We do what’s best for the family and the client, and that’s probably the hardest part. We want to give families options.
Call the people you trust the most to help you in your greatest time of need.
A word that comes to my mind as you were talking about Marsha and I was listening to you talk about calling Marsha in times of need is authenticity. Surrounding ourselves with people who are authentic, like ourselves, and authentic like we want to be. My niece is an example. I called Marsha because I heard authenticity and passion. My niece had been to 19 or 20 treatment centers. Hard mess. She had not been sober for more than maybe 90 days 1 time since she was 16 years old. She called me while in San Antonio, and I thought, “Let me call Marsha.” Marsha took her on a scholarship without asking and said, “Get her here now. I started working with her. 28 or 30 days later, Marsha called me and said, “She’s not going anywhere.” I asked, “What do you mean?” “She’s already got a 30-day scholarship. She’s not ready to go anywhere.” Six months later, she was still there.
A few years went by and my niece is healthy one day at a time. She’s in recovery. BRC hung the moon. Marsha hung the moon. You hung the moon. It saved her life. I don’t think she had another relapse left in her. I don’t. I like that we call each other. When I need something, I call Marsha and ask. When Marsha needs something, she can call and ask. Ruth Ann, it’s nice, and we have other friends in the field who are very close to us, so we can do that. That’s one of the amazing things about the recovery community is you have a network of people who are authentic, who you trust, and who want to give back, and that we can help each other.
One of the ways that we are able to do that like what we did with your niece is to the Mark Houston Foundation. The Mark Houston Foundation which Marsha started in honor of Mark Houston. We have families that donated to the Mark Houston Foundation to help other families who necessarily don’t have the funds to be able to come to treatment. We serve many people through our foundation.
If someone wants to donate to the Mark Houston Foundation, how do they do that?
They can go to our website and make a donation through the website under the Mark Houston Foundation.
Staying Healthy
You mentioned in your notes how important it is for us to be able to work professionally while staying well in all areas of our lives personally, emotionally, and spiritually. Do you want to talk more about that and give some advice?
It’s very important for people who work in this field to stay healthy. If you’re in recovery, you need to work a healthy program continuing to go to meetings. Continuing to sponsor and be of service. Part of keeping what we have is giving it away through service, but it’s also about continuing to do your work with a therapist or at a retreat center because what we do is very grueling. We’re on call 24/7. It’s overwhelming.
Great people. The a great support system that I have in my life, and James is certainly one of those. They have shown me the way to be responsible to myself, and for me to be responsible to myself and to be able to be responsible to others. I have to do the next right thing and take care of myself. I give my support system and my support system is a small group of people that I trust, and they can call me out when I need to be called out if my behavior is changing.
I will give you an example. I lost my mother several years ago. I try not to keep up with dates. Sometimes they can get cloudy, but when I lost my mother, my friends circled up around me, and they said, “You’ve got to go get some help before the end of the year.” I was like, “I don’t have time. I’m too busy. I got to take a call.” I’m proud to say that I went to Onsite and did the Living Centered program, and it changed my life in so many different ways. It helped catapult me to where I needed to be. It helped me personally and professionally. There are many other organizations that are similar with intensives that you can spend 1, 2, or 3 weeks doing the work that you need to do. Our friend Judy Crane, does amazing work with intensives. We have amazing friends who do amazing things that allow us to continue to get the help we need and to remain healthy.
Find amazing friends to do amazing things with so you can always get the help you need and remain healthy.
That’s one of the things you said that also resonated with me because you and I have both lost colleagues to addiction. Some of those colleagues worked in the addiction field, were in recovery, relapsed, and unfortunately died. It’s so important to say that working in the addiction field is not your recovery. It is not your sponsor.
We have a responsibility to newcomers in our industry to be mentors. I can’t speak for James, but I call people out on their behavior. If I see them doing something wrong, I’m calling them out on it. It doesn’t matter to me. I’m also protective of young people working in this industry. That goes for men and women because sometimes there are people who are unhealthy and prey upon young men and young women. I’m not going to tolerate it. As a group of caring individuals, we have to be able to address that behavior on the front end so that we are not dealing with something on the back end that causes someone to relapse because of something that’s happened to them. It’s very important to maintain being healthy.
First Responders In Mississippi
You work a great program, you have your sponsor, and you have your network. Another thing that you do is the service part. You and your husband founded 501(c)(3) the First Responders of Mississippi. Tell us more about that.
My husband is a retired colonel from the highway patrol. He retired with a total of 32 years of service in law enforcement. He had a critical incident happen in our state. We saw a huge need for first responders. I was already on a task force for first responders. If something happened, we would ensure they got to the right level of care, whether it was a briefing, an evaluation, or things of that nature.
After this critical incident, where there was a loss of life and three other people were shot, we saw a need. I have to say, Jody and Colonel Tuggle and a couple of other people. In 24 hours we raised over $50,000 to simply get them out of the state to Florida and have a place where they could start the healing process. Through that initiative, First Responders of Mississippi was born. We are also the overseers of the Mississippi Opioid and Heroin Summit, which we founded in 2012. If there’s any money left over from the summit and we haven’t had the summit since 2019. First Responders of Mississippi is the beneficiary of any money that’s left over from the summit.
COVID-19
That’s great, and I love that summit. It’s so important. You didn’t have it in 2020. You had it in 2019. Tell us about your year with COVID. What happened to you, how did you navigate that, and how did it affect your human condition? When do you see yourself putting the next opioid summit back on?
It was very hard for us as healthcare providers and first responders. I can remember Jody, keep in mind, he’s a retired colonel saying, “I wrote the policies and procedures on a pandemic if it ever came to Mississippi.” If we think back and we’ve done this often, he started accumulating things in October of 2019. I can remember in January, that’s when we first started hearing more and more about it. He said, ‘We need to go to Sam’s right now and load up.”
I probably need to say, My name is Ruth Ann, and I’m a germaphobe. I say that with a lot of love and concern because we had to do all the things that we had to do. What we did was we saw first responders who did not have the supplies they needed. They did not have KN95 masks and face shields. They did not have the supplies they needed to do what they needed to do. Through some people we know, we were able to secure KN95 masks through a partnership with the Attorney General, the state of Mississippi, the Department of Public Safety, and The Mississippi Bureau of Narcotics. We were able to secure quite a few masks, and we helped distribute those. We also became a distributor for other people who had received masks so we could ensure that the first responders were able to get them.
Thank you for doing that.
Jody contacted a company out of Texas that started making face shields. They heard our story. We bought some face shields, but then they sent us some face shields.
You are such a leader around the country, but within the state of Mississippi itself, You are a well-known leader, a well-known woman in recovery, and you’ve had your two vaccines. Tell people around the country your own experience of why you believe because I want you to put this on your Facebook. I want you to be a role model. Why is it important to be vaccinated, Ruth Ann Rigby?
It’s the right thing to do. Being a person in long-term recovery teaches me to be responsible, and I’m responsible. I’m going to do whatever it takes. Previously I had a lot of medical issues, but I was not going to let fear feed me and stop me from doing what I needed to do. When we were born way back when and we won’t say what year our parents got us vaccinated. Nobody could have ever seen what we were hit with.
I thank God that we do have a vaccine. We have three different types of vaccines, and it’s important to get vaccinated. I can tell you personally and I’m probably going to cry. We lost a lot of friends that we knew to COVID. I fight hard, and you and I are both advocates. It’s the right thing to do. I’m very proud that Mississippi announced that we have opened it up for everybody sixteen and older to get a vaccine. That’s something that Governor Reeves, Dr. Thomas Dobbs at the Department of Health, and Dr. Paul Byers have worked endless hours to ensure was taken care of. To have that experience of registering to go and get your vaccine.
I was lucky enough to be able to get mine locally, but my husband had to go two hours from here. Again, recovery teaches us to go to any lengths. If we have to drive 2 hours, we have to drive 2 hours but having that experience with him of going to Greenwood, Mississippi, and seeing our military doing an amazing job of coordinating from start to finish, along with the Department of Health and the nurses. It’s a huge undertaking that, honestly, these people are sacrificing. It made me proud to be a Mississippian. It made me proud to be an American. If you feel comfortable, you need to go get a vaccine.
People said, “We have not gone anywhere. We have done everything that we were supposed to do,” and things of that nature. We had friends get sick, and I was like, “What are we going to do?” We are the healthy ones. We have hazmat suits, face shields, masks, and gloves. This is how we go. This is how we roll. Nobody knows who we are. It’s great. You have a Halloween costume all day long.
We get to do that but we took care of our friends during the month of December who couldn’t take care of themselves. We have lost dear friends to COVID. We have had friends lose their parents and it’s such an unknown thing. It’s like an addiction. This is how I view it. COVID is like an addiction. It is cunning, baffling, and powerful. If you don’t cast an order, some things are going to happen. By getting vaccinated, you get your house in order.
COVID-19 was like an addiction. It is an unknown thing that is cunning, baffling, and powerful.
Thank you for doing that because it’s so important. We are both blessed to have had both of our vaccines because we are on the front line see patients every day and work with the community and I feel the same way. If you are comfortable and if I can help make you more comfortable and answer my limited knowledge on COVID questions or the vaccine questions, I’m happy to do it. Do you have a question?
No, I was going to say, where’d you go? Methodist?
Yeah.
They were a well-oiled machine, too.
It was like
Upcoming Project
You have some upcoming projects. Let’s highlight those because we are running out of time here, but I want to get those in there for you.
I love to talk about those things. We have a great partnership with First Responders of Mississippi here locally and one takeaway from me is to get involved in your community. Know what’s available in your community. We have a great partnership with the Boys & Girls Club of Central Mississippi, First Responders. We do a toy drive every year for them.
This past December 2020, it took on a different layer. With COVID, we were able to help first responder families. Not just Boys & Girls families, but first responder families. I can tell you, as a wife of a first responder, it’s very hard for a first responder to ask for help, no matter what it is and they will be the last ones to ask for help. We had some Secret Santas that made sure that we knew there were some first responder families that were struggling, and we were able to help them and that’s about giving back. We are just proud of that partnership, but people have got to get involved in their community.
I was at an event. I don’t know about the overdose deaths that you are having in Houston, but Mississippi is an epidemic here. We have been in meetings via Zoom and things like that. You have to know the resources in your community. Those of us in the industry know all those resources, but there are people who come from all walks of life, and you have to be familiar with your Department of Mental Health. You have to be familiar with your Department of Substance Abuse Services.
Remember, every state has opioid and heroin money, and they are still distributing the opioid and heroin money for people to be able to get the help that they need, no matter what their ability is to pay. I encourage everyone, wherever you are now, whether it’s Texas, Mississippi, Alabama, Arizona, or wherever you are from, you need to get to know your people at the Department of Mental Health so you can work together because it’s going to take all of us to make a difference.
Get to know the people at the Department of Mental Health so you can work together. It will take all of us to make a difference.
On the radio on NPR, driving to work, they announced that it’s about time that the Sackler family, who founded Purdue Pharma and OxyContin, finally agreed to give $5 billion of their money from their family trust and that’s a lot of money. I think they should give more than $5 billion, but at least from their sack of money, they gave $5 billion, and that’s going to come to us. It’s going to come to Mississippi or Texas. It is going to help us with prevention and treatment.
The attorney generals, no matter what state you are from, a lot of them got on board to be sure that happened. I encourage you to know the people where you live and in your catchment area because it sure makes life a lot easier. People ask me all the time, “How do you know so many people?” You get involved in your community.
I was unloading an eighteen-wheeler of water because we were hit with the water crisis we hadn’t had water in a month in Jackson since the ice storm. Get active in your community. BRC is notorious for getting active in our community, in Austin with the homeless and everything like that. We partner with AustinMed, and in December we do that big event with the coat giveaway. There are so many ways to be of service.
You being in Mississippi, remember your friend, the neurosurgeon? That was Dr. Lee. Did they know each other?
They know each other.
It is a small town. You were asking me what events were coming up, and we are going to have the Opioid and Heroin Summit. We are still trying to figure out when we are going to have it. We are trying to navigate that now. We want to be able to do our hybrid, where some people can come in person, and some people can do it via Zoom or other ways of technology but we are doing that and just trying to figure it out.
I’m also the Co-founder of the Southeastern Eating Disorder Conference, and our leadership team there. It’s a very boutique conference that we created, and Robin Mooney has been a part of that for many years. We have postponed that to 2022 because it’s the right thing to do and that’s what we do as responsible people who work in healthcare. We make the right decision.
Episode Wrap-up
You are an amazing leader and a great example and someone that we all look up to. Thank you for everything that you do. If I can do more for you or any of your organizations, if you need me as a speaker or to come unload an eighteen-wheeler with you, you can always call me, and I will be there.
If anyone needs to or wants to reach you, how do they reach you at BRC or follow up with you?
They can call our 800 number, and that number is 866-905-4550 or they can email me at RRigby@BRCRecovery.com.
BRC Recovery saves lives. It is one of the best things going in the United States as far as recovery and mental health treatment. Thank you, Ruth Ann, for representing Marsha, who’s a wonderful friend of mine, they do great work. You all do.
Thank you so much. I’ve never been with an organization that offers a full continuum of care from start to finish. It’s amazing to see the miracles that come out but it’s also amazing, the families that we help, that go to other places too.
Dr. Flowers, if someone wants to reach you, how do they follow up with you?
The same thing. Go to JFlowersHealth.com, and our phone number is on there, 713-783-6655 but go to the website, and there’s a contact form on there. Ruth Ann, I can’t wait to see you in person and give you a big hug so we can do that again. I love you so much. Thank you.
Thank you so much, Robin, for your patience and tolerance in coordinating this and seeing the healthcare and First Responders of Mississippi. Thank you for having me.
I will see you shortly in Austin.
I look forward to meeting you in person one day. Bye.
