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The 2007 Mental Health Conference
A Consumers Viewpoint
The conference began as they
often do with a budget report. In the period from 2006-2007 they stated that there were board members that had responsibility
for most of the actions of the board as a whole. There were also 6 full time and 8 part time salaried employees.
It was not surprising to me that there were a vast number of volunteer hours logged.
In all there were 40,000 volunteer hours recorded.The total budget for NAMI last year was $679,000 mostly in expanding programs.
Educational advocacy and mentoring got 3,200 referals.
There were 1191 people taught
through NAMI National Bridges courses. Also there were 1,600 parent-teachers who taught a miriad of classes. In
addition NAMI now teaches some chapters in spanish.
Some of the items brought up at
this time were discussed in more depth in the breakout sessions. I.E. items such as NAMI Utah Artists program,
consumer council, suicide prevention council,
dual-diagnosis, prevention of maladies in secondary schools, to name
only a few.
The fact that the state of Utah received the prestigeous "Outstanding
State Organization", award was very impressive. Other awards distributed were "The Exemplary Psychiarist", award to
Dr. Gray, "Outstanding Family Members", award to Jay & Dawn Fox, "Outstanding Consumer", to Jean Mcbride, "Outstanding
Volunteer", Rose Combine who was responsible for 2.7 million in donations appropriated, The last one I have down is
the "Outstanding Provider", Valley Mental Health.
Utah is a very caring State. The community allows
a lot of interaction of the consumer and the family members in the mix of the Mental Health System. Currently there
are many new drugs for the better treatment of the mental health condition, and more coming all the time, along with improved
treatment.
At the current time there is a great need for a positive access to the
Mental Health System for those on the outside looking in. Too many times the Un-Under insured get left out in the cold
as far as Mental Health
issues are concerned.
There is still the persistent and probably, unfortunate,
ever present "STIGMA", associated with this dread disease. Hopefully NAMI and organizations like it can effect change
in this aspect.
The criminal Justice system often caries the load of caring
for the Cronically Mentally Ill when the Mental Health Systems have to let the clients go. Not only that but the families also are carying
on a 24 hour vigil for their families. Sometimes these families loose track of their loved ones.
Suicide is an ever present danger among the Mentally ill. damaging many families as well as taking the lives of the
individuals.
There has been a gathering of public officials and NAMI members, along
with their family. There is also a constant need for community support, as well as in house support.
There is also a difficulty with the Medicaid Part A and other Medicaid associated problems. This change has effected
a great number of people.
There is a lot of focus on families and peer support in
the NAMI system. This is what the NAMI organization is all about. There is also a definate call to action for
NAMI and PAAG, "Problems Anonynous Action Group", to assist these consumers and family. The ultimate goal is to
improve the lot of all the mentaly ill and the family members, through a community approach. The fact is that NAMI has
that as their main objective.
The next subject was Janina Chilton she was in the process
of doing a history of the State Hospital in Provo. The hospital has had a miriad of problems to deal with that were as varied as moral
through such subjects as epilepsy, with everything in a broad spectrum. Some of the problems probably have nothing to
do with mental illness.
Janina claims that the Railroad brought many of the mentally
ill in their joining of the rails. I guess she was talking about the addition of the transient population coming in
from all over the nation.
She is making a full study of the State Hospital,
its past, the people that were involved, as well as the clients, as much as she can with the limitations of HIPA.
She indicated that one of the early doctors in the hospital happened to be Brigham Young's nephew, Seymour Young along with so many other interesting
facts.
The two newspapers in Salt Lake City, The Tribune, and The Deseret News printed totally contradictory
stories at times. They both were a far stretch from the truth.
George
Woods worked for the hospital which was then called the "Assylum for the Mentally Insane". The name was changed to the
insane assylum in the 1880's, and renamed the Provo State Hospital, and eventually got the kinder and gentler name of "State Hospital", in its
final shortened and cleaned up version.
During the early years, people could be incarcerated
for not just being cruel, but being Unnecessarily, cruel. This was a further stigmatization of the cruel edict, which
encompassed many people that should not have been included.
There were also
several architectural changes to the site, not only for the eye appeal, but often for structurally sound reasons. Among
these changes were the Hardy Building being torn down. In 1881 the White Building was torn down. To enhance the
beauty of the site, the Lucy Beth Rampton building was built in 1994 in honor of the past first lady of Utah.
One statement that truly hit home with me was that a single incident by a single individual, in her eyes did not warrant being
"dumped", (my interpretation), in the State Hospital. It may be necessary with repeated incidences, but like she stated
one incident should not make the case for an individual.
The work incentive program
was very therapeutic to the individual. It gave them an outlet rather than staring at the four walls. It also
gave them something to keep their minds occupied.
The hospital tries to practice the
path of least restraint where it is possible. Janina stated that what bothered her most while she was on staff at the
hospital was the incarceration of the patients with epilepsy, and some of the milder forms of sexual deviations that she felt
were not necessarily Mental
Health issues.
One of the most interesting slides and conversations she brought
up was the " Drivers License for Recovered Insane Individuals", which I thought of as quite provocative.
Janina in her statements of the current mental health movement, mentioned prominently one of the first presidents of NAMI state, being Delores
Ottley, and one of the other groups being U-CAN-DU, the state wide consumer movement in the late 1980's to mid 1990's,
The rest of the conference was talking about the different aspects of the mental health system from various points of view
as they related to NAMI. They mentioned the fact that at most places the treatment of the combined diagnosis or as Weber County Mental Health
calls it the dual diagnosis treatment is often left out.
Not so with Weber County
and their SDS "Skills Development Services", or as it is now named, ART,"Adult Recovery Team", unit. They have a lot
of dual diagnosis classes.
There was also a class on the secondary education system
that I went to. It was very informative, dealing with students in the secondary schools that had fell through the cracks.
Many of them had hit so hard that they even commited suicide.
Another session
was on Psychological and Neuropsychological individuals in the State Hospital. It reviewed both adolesent and adult
groups on various psychoses, and compared the number of adult clients and also the same diagnoses as were the adolesent clients.
One of the sessions that I missed and came in on the tail end of was the class on CIT, or police officers trying to discover
the problems the mentally ill deal with so they can better equip their police force to deal in a humane way with the mentally
ill population. I actually saw this system at work on a first hand basis. When the CIT program was in Weber County Mental Health, I participated
on a panel of consumers. They asked us some questions to find out some basic, non intrusive facts about our illnesses,
and wanted to know from a consumer point of view how we thought the police officers should treat certain cases as they related
to the mentally ill in their own environment.
I also attended a class on the Consumer
Art Movement. I love to look at art and try to understand the motivation that the handicapped artists portray.
I think art is the ultimate expression of emotions, and there are many forms of art, not only the painting, but also the literary
arts, and the art of public speaking.
I am sorry, but I have gone a lot longer than
I intended, but this conference meant so much to me. Thanks for all the individuals who put it on, to the state organization,
to Liz Felt, to all the panel people, to the Weber affiliate for sending me and others at the conference. I especially
want to thank everyone for all the information gleaned off the event.
Your soul and your body
In the tape on relaxation, put out by NAMI, I have the feeling the recording is about the fact that your body is the
benefactor of the soul. In this tape the soul is talked about as if it was your "best Friend", while you are here on
earth.
It seems to say that if you rely on your soul to be your guiding force, you will find many of the
pieces of a fragmented past, which many of us have had as a result of a mental fault.
I also think that if you think you are free from any mental faults you may be lying, or
not be aware of the fact that all of us are far from totally free from faults. Although some of us have more apparent
faults, no one in 2007 years has been free of human faults.
The tape goes on to guide you through a thought process to get you through your major and minor
faults in life. It attempts to pick up the pieces and go on, not without them, but with the realization that they will
always be there in your past, but you can control how you choose to remember them, or deal with them and put them where they
belong in the past.
Finally my all time favorite motto: YESTERDAY IS BUT A MEMORY, TOMORROW IS YET TO COME,
SO LIVE IN THE HERE AND NOW. If it takes living day by day, or moment by moment to get you by, so be it. Just
take care of number 1, yourself. If that means getting help to cope, by all means get get that help. Just don't
linger in the depths of despair. There is always help!!!!
Nirvana
What is Nirvana, one person's percieved Nirvana can be another person's drudgrey.
One of my favorite things to do is to read and write. I love to compose and read the English language
My perfect Nirvana
here on earth would be no conflicts, peace among all, and a feeling of total comradarie among people who should care and feel
like caring for one another.
My Mother and I went to Reno, around Shasta Lake in California, all through the Sierra Nevada mountain range encircling the lake, damn, and Shasta village near Redding.
Talk
about Nirvana, this is as close as I will ever come, before seeing my maker. I was in a beautiful setting, with a mother who
does, and at that time did everything to make sure I had a good vacation. So let's hear about other peoples ideas and experiences
of Nirvana.
The One, The Only, who is s/he
Who or what is the almighty.
That has been the controvorsey over
the centuries. Was Jesus sent to earth to proclaim the gospel, and
remain
pure as a human being at the same time. I think, probably so.
I also believe
he is the only incarnate son of God, is seated at
the right hand of God. The Holy Spirit sees over the earth until
the
lord will come back in his glory and reclaim the living and the dead.
That raises the
question of the trinity, God the three in one.
That has been engrained in me and I won't change that ideal
if/until the
lord makes it known to me in the hereafter.
Where does that leave the non-believers?
Would they end up as
servants, or outcasts to the risen lord and His Father, after failing to
keep their mind holy and
not being contemplative in the spirit.
There is definately a big difference in our
religion, and the
majority religion of in this area, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter
Day Saints.
My heart goes out to them but they often feel as if they are the
TRUE church and the one and only.
When I get there I have visions of feeling the presence of all of
my previous family. since I do not have a
spouse or kids, so my
positive thoughts are of being with my family who have gone before.
In these confirmation classes it will be interesting to go to a
Synagogue, a Mosque, and many people will be able to seek
a meditative
guide. Who knows, no religion has "the", true religion.
Religion, Such
a broad subject. To most fully appreciate it You
need to live life to the fullest but naturally in moderation.
The different religions promote their own litergy, dogma. They may
feel uninhibited to
some, but most endorse a meditation time with the
lord.
Some even suggest ending
up with a simple 6-10 minute prayer, or
just meditate and thank God for all one accomplished that day, or that
week.
The most important thing I feel is to pray that others find the
peace of the lord, and above all you have peace in
your own mind.
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