November 3, 2005

Stepping in

New Almaden Valley Counseling Service executive director
finds career-defining opportunity—and big shoes to fill

By Kymberli W. Brady
Staff Writer

He’s young, single, loves surfing and yoga, hangs out with homeless people and musicians, and lives on top of the Border’s Bookstore in Santa Cruz.

Matt Osment is the new executive director at the Almaden Valley Counseling Service.

That’s not exactly what you’d expect to find on the resumé of the new executive director at Almaden Valley Counseling Service, but Matt Osment also has an impressive history in the mental health field.

Although he’s only 39 years old, he says he has pretty much seen it all. More importantly, he’s got his finger on the pulse of the agency’s mission and the importance of the role that Rocki Kramer perfected over the past 25 years.

Osment brings with him a professional career lined with positions as lead mental health counselor for both a group home in Cerritos and at Bayview-Southwood Psychiatric Hospital in San Diego, followed by a five-year run as director of the Benny McKeown Center in San Jose and a term as chairman of the Alcohol and Drug Contractors Association of Santa Clara County.

He currently serves on the board of directors for the Silicon Valley Council of Non-Profits. The timely decision to shift from therapist to administrator and move up the nonprofit ladder couldn’t have come at a better time.

“I was looking to keep moving onward and upward,” he says. “I really wanted to get out of the drug and alcohol field and back into my initial love—mental health. That brought me here as executive director.”

Born and raised in a small Michigan town, Osment graduated from the University of Michigan and moved to California in 1989 to pursue a vocation that he says was fueled by the suicide of a close college friend.

“I was aware that drugs were probably involved, but also that depression was a factor,” he says. “So I started to get interested in mental health.”

Admittedly, the five years spent in the locked intensive care unit at Bayview-Southwood Psychiatric Hospital in San Diego was the most challenging of his career. Whether assisting the elderly, restraining patients or caring for those locked in isolation, he says he learned a lot about the human psyche while managing “raw” people in various psychotic stages.

“I grew up really fast there,” he says. “It was a lot of reality just in your face everyday. But I learned a lot about people and how to somewhat manipulate their behavior—to keep them under control and use different techniques in order to get them to comply and go along with the rules. That’s kind of stuck with me—to be able to sense the best way to get things out of clients.”

His toughest client was Rupert, a 30-something schizophrenic with a penchant for causing enough trouble to get locked up in isolation. Of the former university research institute employee, Osment says, “It’s interesting. You can’t judge a book by its cover.” He credits Rupert with providing him with the understanding that we are all human inside—even the intimidating ones.

“We all share that common bond inside,” said Osment. “Rupert was someone who for a time resided in that dark, fearful corner of my mind—after going around in circles with him for a few years, we eventually were on regular talking terms, where all that stuff was left in the past. It was just a matter of getting through his mask of intimidation.”

Along the way, Osment came to the realization that an effective administrator can be as important to a patient’s mental health as is the actual therapist that they sit with and decided to get his Masters degree in public administration.

“I had originally planned to be a licensed therapist, to see people one on one or in small groups,” he says. “Then I started to realize how much more productive we could be if that interaction was through administrative policies.”

Don’t take it home with you
With a notoriously high burnout rate in the mental health and social services field, the ability to keep things in perspective is paramount and Osment says one has to be able to turn out the light and lock the door at the end of the day instead of taking it home with them. He likes the fact that his professional and personal lives are separated by “these big Santa Cruz Mountains” in between.

“I have this entirely different personal life on the other side of the mountain,” he says. “While I gratefully care for the people of the Almaden Valley, I go to Santa Cruz to relax, go surfing, catch a concert, or do yoga and be myself—I also like going to the coffee houses and listening to the authors speak.”

Looking ahead
So what are Osment’s plans for the agency? Well, he admits that before he arrived, he had a plethora of thoughts on expanding the agency, moving its name further out into the community and taking a larger stake in the bigger San Jose picture. Now, he likes what he sees and for now, is back to the baby steps that were responsible for the success of the grass roots agency.

“Rocki Kramer was amazing at what she did for this agency,” he says. “At this point, I can only hope to carry on what she started by slipping into her shoes and keeping the momentum going. But eventually, I do hope that we can grow. Everything we do is a function of the mission statement—to provide counseling services to as many people as possible. That’s the goal.

His decision to rethink things a bit is also based in part on the fact that AVCS is almost entirely supported by the community and three community supported fundraisers. “If they were not behind us, helping us with fund-raisers, giving us donations, having the school contracts for the counselors, we would not be here at all,” said Osment. “If any of our three major fund-raisers [the Almaden Times Classic Race, the Snowball Fashion Show and the Homes Tours] fails in a given year, the whole agency will be in serious trouble. So any sort of expanding that we do has to have the support behind it as well. We’re doing plenty of fundraisers for this size agency, but we could probably add more.”

Osment says he’s never seen anything like the support the AVCS receives from the Almaden Valley community. “It just goes to show you that the need is here,” he says.

Over the years the Almaden Valley Counseling Service has grown to cater to all ages but it does have an emphasis on treating youth.

“Kid structure: that’s something that’s deep inside me—the knowledge of what can happen to someone in their teen years,” says Osment. “Those are make it or break it years. The ages between 15 to 20 are really defining years that can send you down one path or another. I don’t necessarily place a lot of emphasis on that in my overall philosophy, but I do know how crucial it is. I like working with kids, teenagers and adults.”

Alternate revenue streams
In addition to hiring and firing employees, Osment’s role will include public relations, visiting the schools and managing contracts, meeting with administrators, and most importantly, making sure AVCS’s clinical standards are upheld.

Personally, he says he plans to put a lot of energy toward developing a more aggressive, more dynamic grant strategy in an effort to build an annual and dependable source of funds that will help facilitate growth.

More importantly, he knows Rocki Kramer left behind some big shoes to fill and he wants to let the community know that he’s up to the task.

“Professionally, becoming the executive director of AVCS is my biggest success,” said Osment. “It represents the pinnacle of what I’ve been working towards ever since I made the decision in the late 1980s to pursue the mental health field. I’ve never strayed from that goal.”