At our church we have a wonderful advocate for Mental Health Care, Edith, a retired psychiatric nurse. She has shown me, and many other folks, how, through proper guidance by a devout advocate, one can improve the mental health of someone suffering through a mental illness crisis.
I was naive enough to think mental illness was a never-ending downward spiral with little hope, other than medication at best.
Edith knew that with loving care & knowledge of the social system, she could intervene in a desperate woman's life & walk along beside this hopeless person till D. overcame the crisis & began to function on her own again. D.'s story is a success because she 'demanded' help & caring friends responded. Without an advocate(s), D. could not have climbed out of her despair.
Our church family has a number of young people dealing with serious mental health situations. What can we offer them? Where can they go to receive professional help?
N.C.'s Mental System is in a crisis itself, and every N.C. citizen should be alarmed enough to be livid that the state's Mental Health programs have almost disappeared & funds may be cut. Dorthea Dix, the largest mental hospital in the state, is being closed very soon.
We need to insist that the experts look at those states who have quality, successful, programs & model them here!
And it can't be soon enough!!!
All families are affected in one way or the other by mental illness, whether it be depression, threatened suicide, anxiety, bi-polar issues, autism, anger issues, anorexia, & the list goes on & on! Countless mental struggles affect families & communities, & schools & churches & the workplace.
How can we turn a deaf ear!
Roseland
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