Paul McGarry is recognized by Continental Who's Who

ST. GEORGE, Utah, Jan. 12, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Paul McGarry is being recognized by Continental Who's Who as a Distinguished Healthcare Professional for his contributions to the mental healthcare field.              

Mr. McGarry entered the mental health field as a psychiatric aide at the Utah State Hospital while completing his undergraduate degree in psychology at Brigham Young University. He completed his BS in Psychology in August 1979 and in October, took a job at Copper Mountain Mental Health Day Treatment Center for troubled teens in Murray, Utah. He was asked by the Executive Director of Odyssey House, a drug treatment center in Salt Lake City, Utah, to accept the position of Director of Adolescent Admission and Public Relations at Odyssey Adolescent Facility.

Mr. McGarry worked towards a Master of Social Work at the University of Utah while serving at the Odyssey Adolescent Facility. Utah State created the Division of Youth Corrections, a premiere program to help keep teenagers out of jails in rural areas of the state, just as he completed his Master's Degree in June 1983. He was asked by the Northern Utah Regional Director of the Division of Youth Corrections to apply to work for the Observation and Assessment Program. According to Mr. McGarry, the Observation and Assessment Center started as a place where the Juvenile Court could place adolescents with questionable juvenile records to be evaluated, for up to 90 days. The juveniles were observed, educated, and treated for up to 90 days. They were then returned to the court with a recommendation for disposition/placement either by returning home to their family, a community-based placement (proctor home, group home, or foster placement for some minor offenders), or secure confinement (juvenile lockup).

According to Mr. McGarry, he was offered another position as one of the two program coordinators that compiled the various aspects of the report and made the final recommendations to the court. His job entailed providing therapy to youth and their families, attending court with the juvenile to support his recommendations, and to answer questions by the judges. While in this position, Mr. McGarry also instituted marathon therapy groups every six weeks so that every student had the benefit of attending at least one marathon session. During this period, he travelled around the Northern part of the state taking these adolescents to their court hearings and working with their families.

Mr. McGarry was presented with another opportunity when he accepted a position to administer a Department of Education Grant training college staff and teachers, and helping to support their substance abuse prevention program at Snow College in Ephraim, Utah. This was a one-year grant with no guarantee that it would last beyond the first year, so he and the college grant writer wrote many other grants in hopes of extending the program and the position. However, those grants were not funded and he applied for another position after the end of the grant period.

Mr. McGarry worked in this position for two years until he was asked by a friend to apply for a position in a Mental Health Unit at Central Utah Correctional Facility in Gunnison, Utah. After successfully qualifying for the rigorous physical requirements and background check to work as a mental health worker, Mr. McGarry was offered the position in May 1994.

He moved to another position in January 1999 as the mental health supervisor for a particular site. He was contacted shortly after accepting this position by the warden who wanted to provide sex offender, substance abuse, and mental health treatment under the same umbrella. This created The Behavioral Health Unit and Mr. McGarry was given the supervisory role of that unit and provided treatment for inmates in all three areas of therapy. This position lasted three years until the Correctional Administration for the state decided to place sex offender and substance abuse treatment under the programming portion of the prison system and returned mental health to the Prison Clinical Services (medical). His role then became to supervise mental health workers who did clinical supervision and training of college interns, practicum students, and graduate students in their clinical hours for the prison.

According to Mr. McGarry, this position afforded him many opportunities to serve correctional inmates and to help correctional staff deal with aggression, suicide, and out of control inmates. He was asked later by the correctional staff administrators to supervise the residential substance abuse program at CUCF, which he began in April 2006. It was in this role that he began to feel successful and to learn the intricacies of working closely with correctional housing, staff, and managing those assigned to work with him.

He began working for The Utah State Division of Children and Family Services in Cedar City, Utah as a Youth Service Worker. He was responsible for working with the local detention center, schools, and local law enforcement agencies to return runaway student home, to work with families of youth who are escalating in their delinquent behaviors, teach the families to de-escalate situations. and return them home. Mr. McGarry also supervised a youth advocate program, which included hiring and supervising young adults that were assigned to track, supervise, and provide mentoring to teens needing increased supervision in the community. He notes that they were successful in helping numerous youth return home and to come into compliance with family and community rules.

Contact: Katherine Green, 516-825-5634, [email protected]

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SOURCE Continental Who's Who