MACON, Ga. — River Edge Behavioral Health just broke ground on a new facility in the Pleasant Hill neighborhood in Macon.
The center will focus on providing support and community inclusion for adults facing mental health challenges, intellectual disabilities, and psychiatric disorders.
The plans took four years to find and open a new location for outpatient care.
Tamika Woods works for River Edge as a care extender and peer mentor. She says she is ready for people to have a place where they can belong.
“I’m very excited. I was very excited to be a part of the process to be able to put in our input on what we wanted and what we did not want,” she said. “We wanted the building to be accessible to everything.”
Woods says she was a client at River Edge starting at 22 year old and is now 34, working for them for a couple of years.
She says she too wanted a place to belong and she found it at River Edge.
“I’m a person first and that's how I want people to see their selves. I want them to see their selves first before they look at their disability, because you're a person before your disability,” she said.
Woods says she helps clients each day by teaching them how to ask for help and how to see themselves as a person.
She says she never would imagine how much she's accomplished today.
“No, but it was a dream of mine to be able to get a job and it works for me and it don't affect my check,” Woods says.
Woods says she will have her own office and will be able to help even more people.
She says she is excited for the gym, music room, and to help others.