Hoping to find direction and stability, Chris McFarland joined the U.S. Army in 1986 as a homeless 17-year-old high school dropout. After leaving the military, he spent more than a decade cycling through homelessness, substance use and incarceration, serving time in prison from 1997 to 2000.
Today, McFarland is a certified alcohol and drug counselor and qualified mental health professional with the Benton County Health Department’s Behavioral Health Division, working on the Assertive Community Treatment team to help clients facing many of the same challenges he once experienced.
“I’ve lived the chaos that many of our clients are living,” McFarland said through a news release issued by Benton County. “I know what it’s like to be stigmatized, discarded and forgotten.”…