Hope House has been in service for almost 14
years! Hard to believe, I know, but we have grown so much. Awkwardly, most of
our growth has led to “reactive” policies and procedures being put into place,
sometimes to be discontinued almost as quickly as they are formed. Not the
organized and thoughtful program we would prefer. Not that it has been all
bad---I often say that new volunteers and even new clients often have the best
ideas of how we should do something when we are stuck in an old rut. But in our
growth, we have come to the point where we really need to start planning and
acting strategically and “proactively”.
So what brings this subject up? Well, I just
had our second fire drill (which went quite well), we are working on a safety
manual, and our staff meetings tend towards concerns about mentally ill
patients and the increasing stress level of some of our clients. Some of us are
going to be taking a class in Mental Health First Aid so that we may better
serve those of our clients who suffer from all sorts of mental health issues. This
brings me to the second subject of this blog post: lack of available mental
health care.
So now I will vent. Starting with the
Community Mental Health Act in the Kennedy administration, and continuing into
the 80’s with President Reagan’s turning over the responsibility to the states
with block grants, mental health care for those most affected has been gutted. Local
communities are often unequipped to deal with the stress of those suffering
mental illness and homelessness in their area. Many of our clients, both in the
Street Outreach and in Hope House, are clinically mentally ill, with several
suffering severe schizophrenia.
So what happens to you if you are severely
mentally ill, and you have no family or you have burned your bridges with your
family over the years? Well, our government says you have the constitutional
right to choose to be mentally ill and
homeless, not take your meds., not understand reality, be preyed upon by
others, self-medicate with illegal drugs and sit shivering in the woods in the
winter because you don’t trust anyone in the strange world you live in. My
question is—if you are mentally ill, do you have the wherewithal to make the
decision to not take medication, seek treatment and wander the streets?
An example: Anna, a beautiful 40 year old
schizophrenic woman, homeless, believes everyone is raping her, cutting her
baby’s head off (we don’t think she even has a baby), stealing her fortune….on and
on. She speaks loudly, often profanely and says horrific things that have brought
her to be a persona non grata on the bus, at the Rainbow Center, at the
Mission. We still see her at Hope House, we work with her, but she breaks our
heart. Where is she sleeping in winter? Where does she think she is?
Another example: Billy, a slight, quiet man in
his 30’s, who is also schizophrenic. I say he is quiet, but he is usually mumbling
to himself and to the clothing and the walls, etc. Occasionally he has a bad
day and gets quite loud in his talking, but will quiet down if it is pointed
out to him. Billy is a nice man who would be so much better off with his
medication, but who will remind him to take it? Who will help keep him safe?
My heart breaks for these wonderful and
unfortunate people, and I ask myself, why am I so blessed? And why is it so
hard for this world to share the blessings with all her citizens?
